♪ >> the most frustrating aspect, i guess of recovery has been that it has been quite slow. as a result here we are almost three years from the beginning of the expansion and the unemployment rate is still over 8%. >> at his quarterly news conference ben bernanke speak about the u.s. economy and the pace of the recovery. he did say that the central bank stands ready to add to stimulus if necessary, even after leaving its policies unchanged today and upgrading its view that the economy will continue to improve in the year ahead. welcome to hour two of "washington today" here on c-span radio. i'm steve scully. thanks for being with us. on capitol hill the house passing a bill that would impose tough limits on government currents and how much agencies can spend. lawmakers passing the bill by a voice vote in the house of representatives. this following revelations that the general services

administration had officials in western states going on taxpayer financed junkets to las vegas and hawaii. the provision does add to a bill that anyone can search on federal spending. john boehner announced the house will vote on friday a republican bill that prevents interest rates on student loans from doubling this summer. the president talking about it today in iowa. part of a two day, three state tour in which he was focusing on this issue. and on the other side of capitol hill at the u.s. supreme court the arizona immigration law with oral arguments, we'll have more on this story as well coming up at this hour. a marine corps has been discharged, a sergeant who called the president an enemy on facebook and vowed not to follow the commander-in-chief's orders, the marine corps announcing today that sergeant gary stein will be given an other than honorable discharge for violating policy limiting speech of service members meaning he'll

lose most of his veterans benefits. a couple of political notes from the gingrich campaign he's suspending his year long presidential campaign and on tuesday he is expected to endorse mitt romney. last night in manchester, new hampshire the republican presidential candidate mitt romney turning the page and turning his attention to the general the election contest with the president. let's begin with our lead story and that's the comments of the fed chairman ben bernanke as he spoke to reporters on capitol hill and coming up in just a couple of minutes we'll share with you news from great britain on the pace of its recovery. but the fed chairman saying he's frustrated that the economy is recovering but not at the pace he expected. policymakers are holding off any additional steps to boost the economy. this amid signs that the two year expansion is gaining some strength. still the jobless rate is not declining fast enough to satisfy ben bern and central bankers. also renewed concern about what's happening with the european debt crisis. we'll begin from the news

conference with the state by the fed chairman on the forecast moving ahead specifically the jobless rate and inflation. labor market conditions have improved in recent months with the unemployment rate having fallen nearly a percentage point since august. however at 8.2% the unemployment rate remains elevated. looking ahead the committee anticipates the unemployment rate will decline gradually over the next several years reflecting the moderate pace of economic growth. specifically participants projection to the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of this year have a central tendency of 7.8 to 8.0%, declining to 6.7 to 7.4% in the fourth quarter of 2014. for comparison participants estimates of the normal rate of unemployment has a tendency of 5.2 to 6.0%. inflation has picked up somewhat mainly reflecting higher gasoline prices. however as has between case in recent swing in oil price the

committee expects that effect to be only temporary. moreover survey measures of financial market indicators continue to show stability in longer term inflation expectations. we anticipate that inflation will subsequently run at or below the committee's longer run goal of 2%. in particular, participants projection of inflation have a central tendency of 1.9 to 2.0% for 2012 and 1.7 to 2.0% in 2013. >> bernanke speaking to reporters earlier today. msnbc and cnbc reporting on today's news conference. in a statement by the fed chairman the news conference coming after the open market committee today repeating its promise to leave interest rates at hold on the current rate which is essentially rock bottom and stay at this rate through at least late 2014. the fed gave little guidance on whether it might take additional steps to boost the growth of

this economic recovery that some are calling sluggish and of course a lot of eyes on what's happening in europe with the debt crisis where new concerns in great britain that that country may be facing a double dip recession. here's more from the news conference as the fed chairman took questions. >> trying to make a living on parsing these statements noted on the section in strains in global financial markets the committee said this time around strain on global markets poses down side risks but in january the committee said the strains were easing. what are we to read into this apparent strange. strain tightening and what is your assessment with the debt crisis. are authorities adequately addressing that crisis. >> it's a fact the all description of what's happening in the environment. in january the financial markets had calmed considerably reflecting a number of steps taken in europe including

notably the two large long term refinancing operation by the european central bank which helped finance europe's banks for up to three years. in recent weeks we've seen more market stress arising from concerns about the fiscal positions of spain and italy, and you know we've seen more volatility in our own markets related to that. we're simply taking note of the improvement we saw late last year and early this year in the european financial markets and our own financial markets has been reversed recently. nothing more intended than that. as you know, i had the opportunity over the weekend to speak with many of my european and other international colleagues because we had the g-20 and the imf meetings here in washington so we had plenty of opportunities to discuss the european situation. i think it's true that the europeans have made substantial progress overall. i include not only the two ltr

operations but also the greek debt deal, the work on the fiscal compact, and recently the setting up of a larger financial fire wall that can be used to avoid contagion should another country face serious financial distress. so progress has been made. but, obviously, judging by market conditions, there's still more work to be done and we're counting on our european colleagues to continue to follow through their commitments and to put very strong effort into addressing what remain significant problems and concerns in europe. >> the fed chairman ben bernanke responding to a question from peter barnes of the fox business channel on some of the statements that the fed chairman made in trying to pars the words on what it means for the fed, its future policy and potential that the fed may take additional action later this year to try to

help boost the economic recovery. meanwhile a lot of attention in great britain especially in part with news that britain's office of nationalist statistics indicating that the gross domestic product dropping for the second consecutive quarter from january through march, a drop in construction is blamed for tipping the scales in the first quarter pushing the british economy into a double dip recession. during the first three months in 2012 the economy shrunk to .2%. the pace of that recovery is non-existent. the labor party pouncing on this as he posed questions to the conservative party leader david cameron. >> mr. speaker, today we had the news that britain is back in recession. i'm sure the prime minister spent the last 24 hours thinking of an excuse as to why this has nothing to do with him. so what's his accuse this time?

>> these are very, very disappointing figures. i don't, i don't seek to excuse them. i don't seek to try and explain them away. and let me be absolutely clear. there is no complacency at all in this government in dealing with what is a very tough situation that frankly has just got tougher. i believe the truth is this. it is very difficult recovering from the deepest recession in living memory, accompanied as it was by a debt crisis, our banks had too much debt, our households had too much debt, our government has too much debt. we got rebalance our economy. we need a bigger private sector. nor imports, more investment. this is pain staking difficult work but we'll stick with our plans, stick with the low interest rates and do everything we can to boost growth competitiveness and jobs in our country.

>> mr. speaker, typical of this arrogant prime minister, he tries to blame it on others. the reality is this is a recession made by him and the chancellor on downing street. over the last 18 months since his catastrophic spending review our economy has shrunk and now this is a slower recovery from recession even than the 1930s and the reality is that its families and businesses who are paying the price for his arrogance and complacency. why doesn't he admit it? it's his catastrophic economic policy. his plan for austerity, cutting too far and too far that has landed us back in recession. >> there's not a single business organization or serious commentator or international body that thinks these problems emerged in the last 24 months. the debt crisis has been long in making. the failure to regulate our

banks has been long in making. the government overspending has been long in making. this is a tough and difficult situation that the economy is in. but the one thing we must not do is abandon public spending and deficit reduction plans because the solution to a debt crisis cannot be more debt. we must not put at risk the low interest rates that are absolutely essential to our recovery. that would be absolute folly and why there's no business organization, no international organization that suggests we follow that course. >> it's all bluster. his plan has failed. that's the reality. they were the people, mr. speaker, who said that britain was a safe heavy convenient. the chancellor said it on monday and we're back in recession. he was the person -- he was the person who said we were out of the debt and this is what has

happened and even his own back ventures are saying the complacent arrogant hush boys just don't get it. just some of what happened earlier today in london the british house of commons, the labor party leader going after the british prime minister again with news today you can read extensive stories on the bbc website and other publications on that country's double dip recession and watch the queen tire event. we air the prime minister's questions on c-span television 9:00 eastern, 6:00 for those of you in the west coast and here on c-span radio. here in washington on capitol hill before the u.s. supreme court the case of the arizona immigration law. meanwhile in arizona about 25 tea party supporters gather in the state capitol as they support the arizona immigration law. supporters of the measure making a point that they support legal immigration but not illegal

immigration. we talked about this in our last hour. some background on exactly what the court will be deciding. we expect a decision by the supreme court by mid to late june. jan brewer is the governor of washington. she was here in washington inside the courtroom, supporting the bill she signed into law and after the oral arguments which ran about 80 minutes, governor brewer spoke to reporters. >> i'm very, very encouraged of what we were all able to view today and hear. i thought that the hearing went very, very well. i feel very confident as i walked out of there that we will get a favorable ruling in late june. i'm very impressed with the fact that they gave us extra time, something that we all know is very unusual. that gave us a significance of how important this ruling will be. not only to the state of arizona

but certainly to the united states of america. i think the questions and the responses just as far as federal rights, arizona sovereignty that we do have a responsibility to do what we can. i feel that they gave and the comments were made that arizona has a right and i as governor, i felt, was somewhat assured that i had a right to protect the citizens of arizona. >> what is it you're protecting? there is a process in federal law that makes much of what is in arizona's law illegal. so what does this law do for arizona and why is arizona acting? >> i believe that the senate bill 1070 basically mirrors federal law. i think the question is, is that can law enforcement be part of

that? and we all know that law enforcement interacts on numerous occasions with the federal government in regards to lots of different laws, those pick of drug laws, robbery at banks, those laws. we interact. all we're asking is that they work collectively with us to enforce the laws. we believe in the rule of law, which brings to mind, i might say, part of the questioning was why was the federal government not wanting to enforce the law? i thought that was very striking. why don't they want to enforce the federal law? and do they want to selectively pick a portion of the law that they want to enforce? so it's very, very revealing today. i think that we will succeed and looking forward to june. thank you.

>> what about the comments made by the justices, what do the comments mean by the government? [ inaudible ] will there be massive incarceration of arizona? >> i would assume that there would be incarcerations if in fact they had broken the law, you know, on the first offense. i don't know if it's massive. they even discredit the fact, some of the federal administration discredits the facts that there are that many illegals in arizona. >> that leads to the question as to illegal immigrants in arizona, the bill you signed is a form of attrition. [ inaudible ] whats your comments to the possibilities?

>> they are breaking law, there's that possibility, i would assume. >> the governor of arizona, jan brewer, republican, supporting a law, senate bill 1070 which is now the law of the land in her state and part of the debate here in washington. that was the scene outside the supreme court during and after oral arguments. now it is important to point out that whatever happens this will stretch beyond arizona's borders, a number of states including alabama and south carolina are looking at following arizona's foot steps to crack their own immigration enforcement measures. the argument being put forth by the obama administration and our solicitor general which opposes the arizona law arguing essentially that the country can't sustain a patch work of separate immigration laws. the solicitor general arguing on behalf of the government saying the executive branch does have the power to enforce immigration policy. however, arizona argues that the

current system is broken and that the state is paying an unfair price for the failure of the federal government. that in essence how the arguments came down today. both sides of the aisle weighing in. the aylu spoke to reporters in opposition to the arizona law. here's what she had to say. >> there are three telling things about today's argument. first right out of the box, several justices expressed serious concerns about the civil liberties impacts of sb 1070. as a result, as a result of those serious civil liberties impacts the state of arizona has had to narrow its position substantially. and is now defending sb 1070 merely as a provision for notification of the federal government. but that's not actually what sb 1070 does and i think that's clear from the face of the statute as well as from everything that we heard today. it became clear through the course of today's argument that the justices are concerned about

a system of mass incarceration that's going to catch u.s. citizens and immigrants who are lawfully in the united states. it became clear today that during the argument that there is no federal system that would readily clear united states citizens who are stopped during a traffic violation. and will be held at the side of the road for an hour or more while they are asked to prove their right to be in their own country and i think that the court will ultimately realize that and strike down this law. cecellia wong. >> good afternoon. i'm the executive director of the national immigration law center, also amicus with the aclu. we're also the co-lead counsel in the class action lawsuit that we filed against arizona's sb 1070 which in addition to raising the preelmtion claims

we're also arguing that sb 1070 violates the first and fourth amendment claims equal protaengs due process claims. these claims were not before the supreme court today, however it was very clear that the justices were concerned about the impact this would have on u.s. citizens, whether, in fact, there were any government databases with the inaccuracies that exist today would not be able to clear a u.s. citizen up and they would be detained. the justices also were very concerned about the impact this would have on the citizen from new mexico whose driving using a new mexicoian driver's license and trifrg through arizona. what does it mean to a person who is brown go out jogging in arizona without an i.d. and whether that person would be stopped and detained. we're very confident that the decision that ultimately will come out from the supreme court will hopefully be a narrowly focused decision and will allow

us to go back to court and continue filing and litigating our case and eventually the sb 1070 will be struck down as unconstitutional based on all of our other constitutional claims because it is an unamerican statute. it is a case, a statute that's resulting today in racial profiling. thank you. >> just some of the debate over the arizona immigration law as it spilled from inside the chamber of the u.s. supreme court to outside the state house. a note the oral arguments slated to last an hour but continued another 20 minutes to 80 minutes at the discretion of the chief justice john roberts. every friday here on c-span radio when the court is in session we're able to release the audio from these cases and this friday at 4:00 eastern a chance for you to listen to what happened inside the supreme court as the arizona immigration case was debated between the solicitor general, representists of the state of arizona and questions by justices on the

u.s. supreme court. well on capitol hill janet napolitano who is the secretary of homeland security calling the secret service scandal in her words inexcusable but there are conflicting images of the secret service and a lot of new questions about the military's handling of this prostitution scandal in colombia as new questions emerged on capitol hill today. senators challenging the homeland security to reconcile the image of agents who protect the president's life with dozens of officers and suspensions indicated in this affair. another two secret service agents let go or resigned yesterday. tough questions today from senator lindsey graham, republican of centimeter to the homeland security secretary. >> my experience with the secret service is very similar to what senator leahy said. basically it's the time i traveled with senator mccain during the last presidential the election and i'm very impressed by the people, very hard-working, a lot of time away from families and long hours. so just as any time you have

military discipline problems you don't want to paint with a broad brush the 99% and let's start with that baseline. >> i concur. >> but just like in the military, and other situation systems obviously filled in and obviously there's a system failure here. the likelihood that this was the first and only time that such behavior occurred, do you think that's great or not so great? >> well, i think part of our investigation is confirming that this was an aberration or not. but i agree with you, senator, the secret service does a marvelous job. i've worked closely with them. >> the only reason i suggest we may need to look harder we're lucky to find out about this. there was an argument between one of the agents and i guess a

prostitute for lack of a better word about money we would never have known about this. so the point is, i think you've got a good order and discipline problem. do you believe that agents were confused that their conduct was wrong? >> they should not have been. >> no, i don't think it's a lack of training. i don't think anybody -- >> i think the conduct was unacceptable. it was unprofessional. >> right. >> as i said in my statement i think that the people who are most disappointed are the other men and women of the secret service. >> i couldn't agree more. human beings being human beings and sometimes organizations can get loose. being a military lawyer for 30 years one of the first things we would advise new commanders, a new squadron commander is you got a bunch of young people in the military for the first time, away from home. go to the barrack when is they least expect you to go. show up at 3:00 in the morning with the first sergeant and word

will get out pretty quick you got to watch what you're doing in the barracks because you never know when the commander will show up. is there any similar program where supervisor from the home duty station would go out and visit people in the field on a random basis? >> you know, i'm not aware of that which is not to say there isn't one. i don't know the answer. that's one of the reasons that we're continuing our work and want to continue to brief the committee. >> i could suggest you may want to look at a program very similar to what the military does where people from the command, the central body would show up on an unannounced basis throughout the world and just let people know that somebody back home is watching might do some good in the future. is there any exit interviews done for people who are leaving the organization when you ask them does anything bother you, have you seen anything during your time that bothers you? because we do that in the military, trying to find out how the knit actually works with people leaving. >> right. senator, i know there are exit

interviews done. whether that specific question is asked or something like it, again i'm not, i don't know the answer but i can find the answer out for you. >> i would just suggest that maybe we look at changing the system a bit so that people who are away from home never really believe they are away from home that somebody is always watching. >> senator, we are looking at this from the aspect of as i said earlier one was the president's security impinged, two discipline forring the agents involved and three what do we need to do to tight jeni standards that need to be tightened. so i'll take your suggestions very seriously. >> i think this is a bipartisan, mr. sullivan i've never met the man but everybody who knows him stems have nothing but good things to say about him. i want to get this behind us and not have the problem emerge again. >> before the senate judiciary committee questions to the homeland security secretary janet napolitano by senator

lindsey graham republican of south carolina. one other note abc news reporting senator john mccain is calling a briefing today on the secret service prostitution scandal a waste of time. not the hearing that you heard just a moment ago but a briefing conducted by pentagon officials to members of congress. senator mccain who is the ranking republican calling today's update on capitol hill which was delivered by vice admiral who is the director of the joint chief a very disappointing briefing and a waste of time noted that there was not a lot of concrete information about the scandal in which not only secret service agents were involved but also members of the u.s. military personnel. you can read more on this story by logging on to abc news.com. this is "washington today" on c-span radio. >> in some other news on wall street the dow gained 89, nasdaq was up 68, s&p up 18. state of air report, more than 40% of the public lives in

regions with unhealthy levels of air pollution. that works out to be 127 million people. but the report notes many cities are making progress in reducing pollution levels. report saying 22 of the 25 cities with the most ozone pollution improved their air quality over the past year's report. military judge refusing to dismissal charges against army cold indemnify denise lynn denied the motion in the court martial of private first class bradley manning and the ruling means the hearing will continue. it is scheduled to run through tomorrow. former defense secretary robert gates is going into business with two other top officials from the george w. bush administration. he'll be joining an international consulting firm headed by condoleezza rice and steven hadley. and the philippines

condemning a local d.c. council member, marion barry for marks critic of a local hospital hiring filipino nurses. barry said at a council hearing that many hospitals hir immigrants who are nurses particularly from the philippines. he said instead nursing schools in the district should train local residents to work in the industry and address nursing shortages. d.c. has preferential hiring practices for local residents. back with more "washington today". ♪ >> always agree on the little things and then you hold on the big one. hell i've done this so often in conversations with people. i'm say i'll concede that but don't give them the big one. >> president richard nixon in 19a