chairman to attend the session and we were very pleased that they did. senator chambliss and i worked very closely together. and we have expanded that group now to will you the four of us. we will be working together to try to produce changes in the senate authorization bill which has not been completed. the house is complete -- has completed their bill but we have not. and so we will work with the house membership on language that can be acceptable to both sides, to codify a certain process which we hope will be more efficient in the retar den leaking and also being able to stop it and also being able to evolve more tools to control and where it cannot be controlled,

to be able to take additional actions. this -- obviously, because of the timing, we will have -- it will have to be done in the next month or so i would think. so we will be working together in that direction. so i now would like to ask senator chambliss, my distinguished -- distinguished vice chairman to make some comments. >> thanks. let me just say that thanks to the leadership of chairman feinstein as well as chairman rogers. the four of us worked very closely on any number of issues. there is no more important issue that we have to work than this issue. i think that it goes without saying that all of us are extremely upset about the pact that not only have leaks occurred but there has been just a cascade of leaks coming out of the intelligence community. over the last several weeks and

months. and it is our clear intention to put a stop to this in the best way that we can. leaks are part of the nature of this town. we understand that. but the fact of the matter is that when you have the kind of leaks that have been coming out in the last few weeks, it put lives in danger and it infringes upon the ability of the intelligence community to do their job. suffice it to say, in our meeting with general clapper, we knew before we engaged in this morning he was extremely upset about this issue. he is as well as every member of the leadership team in the intelligence community. and we have a pledge from them to continue to work with them on all of our issues but particularly on this issue as we move forward to try to make sure they have all the tools to work with internally on the issue of trying to make sure we put a stop to this kind of leakage.

i would like to call on chairman rogers. >> thank you very much. thank you very much, senators. we have worked on some things in bipartisan ways and i want to thank senator feinstein, sacks ton chambliss, through that process we think we have done a lot of important things for our national security. working in a spirit of bipartisanship. to have all four of us come forward today and talk about the severity of the leaks, i hope sends a very clear messages about how dangerous this has become. it is not just an isolated incident and that's what has brought us together. it seems to be a pattern that's brogue worse and more frequent. the severity of the leaks are serious. i had on meeting just yesterday with a series officers from the agency and other agencies who do important work around the world on very difficult assignments. to the person, these are the line officers, folks that we asked to leave their families

and go to dangerous places to do really hard things. the frustration and their inability to get a handle on this, their inability to keep a secret, not just in this town in what it means here but what it means for their ability to conduct their work overseas. it is incredibly damaging. this has been a serious a problem as i have seen. just a few weeks ago launched an independent review of a very specific week. it turned into something a little bigger. i just want to tell you that -- through reviews with ic officers and review materials, public sources, there is a clear need for a formal investigation. committee has materials suggesting the agencies were directed to expand the scope of classified information they gave to the press. we know in some cases someone from a segment of the media was present in a classified sighting. recent lay group of intelligence officers i said before has

disclosed directly how many of the leaks over a period of years have made their jobs more difficult in their liaison relationships and their ability to interact with sources and assets around the world who are doing great things for their own countries and the united states as well. just today the cia informed it cannot respond to our requests for information regarding the leaks. a very troubling event indeed. the doj's national security division recused itself from at least one element of the investigation suggest something of the leaks could have come from the sources within the doj or the fbi. from publicly available comments it appears the sources of these leaks could be in a position to influence the investigations. the investigation must do this. we agree on this. we are still trying to work out where this may be the best place for this to happen. it must be complete. it must be empowered to examine any office or department of the

united states government. it must be free of influence from those who conducted or veed the progra reviewed the program. it must be fair and nonpartisan. two problems. one, get to the bottom of what's a growing and serious problem and the nature of these leaks. and second, we put together legislation quickly that moves to put -- give the tools to the intelligence community to prevent this from happening in the future and i look forward to the opportunity to work with all of the members here to make sure that happen. >> turn it over to the ranking member. >> good afternoon. first thing i want to acknowledge, the relationship that has developed between senator feinstein and senator chambliss and congressman mike rogers and myself. the states we deal with and issues, they are so important. we have to work together as a team, bipartisan. so we can come together and go to the administration and get issues resolved important to our national security. i have been on this committee

close to ten years. one of the most serious breaches that have i seen. it puts us at risk and puts lives at risk and hurts our ability our allies to have them work with us and get information. it hurts us in recruiting assets to give us intelligence information that will allow it to protect our citizens and to work through issues that are so important to the whole issue of peace throughout the world and have you protect our citizens throughout the world. we know how serious this is. we have to deal with it and will deal with it and started today coming together both the house and the senate and intelligence committee to decide where we will go. the issue has to be solutions. what are those solutions? first thing bee have to do is change the culture of anybody who works in the intelligence community to educate them and let them know how serious these leaks are and the ramifications which means we need to put together a policy that we people know what the policy is, if you violate that policy you will be

held accountable. that's important. sure. we would love to find out who did the leak here and how it occurred. how important and dangerous it is, whether that happens or not, tough cases, we need to use this as an exam tomorrow change those policies. that's where we are now. it has to be a partnership between the administration and between our -- senate and house. we are going to work forward and move forward on this case, leak case. and we feel very strongly that we will -- have to do this to protect our national security. >> would you address your -- questions to a specific person?

>> this is not finger pointing at maybe. what we are trying to do is say we we have a problem and want to stop that problem. we are not finger pointing. and the house will do its own investigation. we are doing a bill. we are going to put changes in the bill. but dana, this has to stop. when people say that they don't want to work with the united states because they can't trust us to keep a secret, that's serious. when allies become concerned, when an asset's life is in jeopardy or the asset's family's life is in jeopardy that's a problem. the point of intelligence is to be able to know what might happen to protect this country. we can't do that if the intelligence is no longer kept with strict scrutiny within the number of people that need to

have it. one of the problems is that we are learning is so many people know that it becomes very hard to make a prosecution. so what -- representative ruppersberger was say being the culture is correct. about limiting the numbers of people that know given things. sing correct. we have ideas and discussed them today. you will certainly know where we have points of agreement. >> i'm not going to pre-judge what the fbi is charged with responsibility of doing. and we are going to meet with director mueller this afternoon. we know that an investigation has already begun.

and it is going to be done very thoroughly. and, you know, we have been through this before. and the -- in the bush administration. and -- wherever the responsibility falls out, that's where it is going to be. and if it is in the administration, fine. if it is not in the administration, fine. this is not meant to be a political exercise. this is too critical to the future of the intelligence community of the united states. and it is our intention just to get to the bottom of the these leaks. as we move forward to make sure we put measures in place that not only make it more difficult for future leaks to occur but the consequences of those future leaks be dealt with immediately and strongly. >> senator feinstein, obviously because you are discussing legislation, you have come to the decision that current legislation or current statutes are not strong enough. already divulging classified

information, investigation going on. what is it you are looking to doing legislatively to change this -- >> yeah. i just can't go into it right now. this morning was actually the first time i had a chance to outline some of my thoughts to the committee. and we need to discuss it. it is important the house and senate are closely together. we will never get it done if we don't. first people that will know or the three people here and we need to go through that process. >> senator feinstein -- would you support a special prosecutor looking into these intelligence leaks? >> i understand that. i have had the discussions with chairman rogers about that. i have asked for a little more time to look at it. special prosecutor, of course, does not bring to one's attention, it changes that need

to be made. yesterday we had hearing with the inspectors general of the various agencies. and one of the things that i am looking at is the possibility of giving these igs, inspectors general, more authority. it is clear the security aspects of the exist iing agencies havet really done the job and we need to find out why. so i'm delaying that decision. special prosecutor can take years. we don't have years. we need to legislate and get solutions before us very quickly. >> senator fine sfeinstein, wou review the charge it is politically motivated? >> we are not politically motivated. we said in there -- in the -- i will tell you one thing we need. wherever the chips fall, they fall. but we want a fair

investigation. we want to be able to see that we have the processes in place to deal with this. i do not believe that we do at the present time. >> senator feinstein -- if -- do you believe that there should be more insight into what the administration is actually doing? i mean if the administration conducted -- that could con stay an act of war. do you believe congress should be -- on the oversight on this? >> well, i'm not going to respond to that question. it was -- it was asked in a way that we are going to do our due diligence and we are going to get this situation looked at carefully and hopefully changed. >> senator feinstein, would you favor changes in some guideline for the fbi? questioning journalists in these investigations? normally they do not do. >> that's certainly a possibility of looking in

that -- in that direction. we haven't discussed it. but it certainly is a possibility. >> senator feinstein, would you discuss the most recent leak on the underwear bomb plot and specifically the use of the covert agents in that case? >> no. i'm not going to discuss it. i will say that leaks jeopardize american lives. >> senator feinstein, do you have any indication that leaks are coming from capitol hill, including possibly from lawmakers themselves? can you roll that out? >> i have no knowledge at this time. >> -- all of you and -- can you tell us more about that investigation the fbi is doing? whether that's enough? that's enough. you think that's broad enough now to get into -- >> i'm not -- i'm not going to comment on the scope of the

investigation. that's a determination that the fbi has to make. that's a whole other issue that's out of our realm. purpose of having director mueller in today is we do this on a -- fairly regular basis. but obviously when something like this happens, then it is important that we have director clapper in as we did this morning. that we have director mueller in and if there are other heads of agencies involved that we need to have in for discussion they have always been willing to come in and dialogue with us. so we are going to have a sitdown and informal way with director mueller this afternoon to be brought up to speed on where the investigation is. >> do you feel like the pendulum has swung? >> i beg your pardon, what is the question? >> do you feel like it has come tow far since the 9/11 said there was too much secrecy the flood gate has been open?

>> i certainly don't think you can say that today. >> do you think this might be politically motivated, could this go to the white house? >> well -- i don't think that we ought to make that determination. i outlined some of the challenges they had. you have the doj, the -- national security division has recused themselves from certain aspects of an investigation. the fbi was in receipt of some of the information along the way on a particular case that was released. at some point you have to ask yourself a question and again, in our preliminary review we were just told this morning that the cia was going to withhold information at least at this time. leads you to believe that if we are going make this nonpartisan if we are going to make it fair, and complete, which means it has to follow the leads of which they have, you are going to have to have at least some sort of an outside look. because of the nature of the -- at least in the public sources,

the -- media leaks, clearly shows that someone who may have been in the -- in the chain to influence an investigation may, in fact, be a part of the investigation. given that, it would only lead one to a conclusion that you should probably have someone outside of the normal track of investigation on the particular leak case. >> first thing i do not believe this is politically motivated. issue was talking about whether or not this was used politically. this is an event that happened and very serious. this is about the united states of america. leadership is judged on how you deal with a problem. that is are a a serious problem. we need both the house and the senate intelligence committees to work with us. not only to deal with the actual leak that occurred now but to deal with what we are going to do to change it to make sure we change the culture of leaks generally. to make sure that it is a message that does not get out in the field. and the issue of -- was raised about where we were with respect

to the -- your question over there? your question? what was your question? no, no, right there, that you raised. >> the 9/11 commission have -- there was too much secrecy. >> that's a very important issue. you know, if you look at what happened before 9/11, it was stove piped. we didn't share information. it cost us dearly. so what we have to do -- when we look at the solutions and make sure that we put processes and procedures in place so that everyone involved in if intelligence community knows what the procedures are because we still cannot close down intelligence. we have to share and it get it to the right person. it has to be pursuant to a process and procedure that only those that need to know are going to know and that's part of what we are going to do and look at in this process. >> does it concern you conversations in the situation room are being described in the newspaper? and the president is reacting to them. that's a question for awful you. does that concern you conversations inside the white

house are described in the paper? is there anything classified? >> we got the information and looked at the leaks. that's what we will look at now and investigate. we have to make a determination. there are a lot of reasons why things occur. can you not make a predetermination when you're valuating and looking into process and also how these leaks occurred. we will have to answer that as we move forward in the process. >> next question. >> last question. >> i agree with my ranking member. that's the whole point of having a complete, fair and impartial investigation. it should take you where you go and one of our challenges here amongst us is that even the dni has -- only a small jurisdiction or smaller jurisdiction of investigative authority. doj obviously recusing themselves from aspects of it so you can see where it gets messy. our goal here is to determine what's the best course for a fair, impartial and complete investigation. >> next question. >> last question.

i am -- those are -- i'm not going to answer that question here. you don't believe that it is an appropriate question right now. i respect your asking it. but that is not what this press conference is about. >> witness kif you deal with cl activity and if it is covert activity, which it has a special place, it is all classified. very few people have access to it technically. you know, if you notice, i don't believe that leaks are coming out of either one of these committees. they are coming from elsewhere and as -- the chairman of the

house committee was saying, so many people now have information which didn't exist that way. stove pipes are down. information is shared more broadly. well, if this is critical, tactical, covert information, it put lives in risk. puts our allies at risk. this is what we are concerned about. >> let me just answer that as well. when it comes to clandestine, any clandestine activity, real or unreal, perceived in the media sometimes. the scrutiny that covert action gets in the seriousness of it on both committees is incredibly serious. we have regular covert action discussions, reviews, we make sure it is come plint with the law. and we have that ability to make sure it is come plint with the law. so -- i wouldn't go into any notion it has to be any particular action on the front page of the paper in order to get scrutiny. both of these committees in a bipartisan way take any covert

or clandestine activity by the united states is serious -- as serious we take any issue. we have staff dedicated to those programs. we have members who spend quite a bit of time in constant review of operations and make sure it is come plint with the law as we move forward. i would hope the public would have some understanding. that's the whole purpose of these committees so you can have those kinds of tough scrutiny in a classified set. that's a huge responsibility. i don't know any member of either the house or senate that doesn't take that responsibility very seriously. >> thank you very much. thank you.

>> you can find out more of the members of the house and intelligence committee, c-span ae 's directorate. pick up a copy for $12.95 plus shipping and handling. you can order online. president obama is on the west coast today for a combination of fund-raisers and official events. this afternoon he heads to nevada for a speech at the university of nevada, las vegas. the white house says the president will push congress to pass legislation to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling at the end of the month. we will have live coverage of the president's remarks starting at 3:50. in the meantime associated press reporting that last month mitt romney outraised president obama the first time in the campaign. it is a big jump for the month

of april where mr. romney gathered about $40 million from supporters. the annual radio television congressional correspondents dinner is tomorrow night and house speaker boehner and emmy-award winning comedian wayne brady are the featured speakers. live coverage starts tomorrow night at 9:00 eastern on c-span. >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. >> sunday night at 9:00 eastern and pacific, american history tv, mark the 25th anniversary of president ronald reagan's 1987 speech from the brandenburg gate in west germany. our series the contenders. 14 key political figures who ran for president and lost. but changed political history. this sunday at 7:30. james blaine. american history tv. this weekend on c-span 3. >> chairman ben bernanke said the federal reserve is prepared to take further steps to lift

the u.s. economy if it weakens but he did not signal any imminent action. in testimony before a congressional panel today, chairman bernanke said the european debt crisis poses significant risks to the u.s. financial markets and that t best way to prevent europe from dragging down the u.s. is for congress to take action. i will show you a portion of the q&a from today's hearing with chairman bernanke now. >> i continue to work with the bipartisan group of senators. there's something like 45 of us democrats, republicans, trying to come up with a comprehensive solution for the debt. we made some headway. and it would be a mix of spending cuts in revenue to get us to that $4 trillion figure in ten years in debt reduction. you made it clear you believe we need to do something significant to address these fiscal challenges. do i think a balanced approach would be about the best roy to do it with a mix of the spending cuts and the revenue. >> first of all, i congratulate you on the efforts. i think -- i'm glad to see

people are working hard to this. it is really not my place to advise congress on the particular mix of spending and tax changes. i hope you will understand that. but i am glad to see that there is a bipartisan effort involved in trying to address this important problem. >> i remember the last time we talked you did talk at the hearing. you talked about how if we -- if we failed to act again and went to the brink as happened last summer with the debt ceiling, that that clearly created problems with our economy and fiscal situation in this country. >> the debt ceiling is somewhat separate issue. it is a strange thing that congress can approve -- can approve the -- spend $5 and tax $3 and not approve the $2 issuance of debt which is applied by the two previous decisions. no other country that i know of has anything like the debt limit rule we have. and the brinksmanship last sum

over the debt limit had very significant adverse effects for financial markets and for our economy. it really knocked down consumer confidence quite noticeably. so -- that's somewhat separate issue. but i urge congress to come to agreement on that well in advance of the -- not push us to the 12th hour. but again, i think that trying to put our fiscal situation on a sustainable basis is perhaps one of the most important things that congress can be working on. >> i know, when you look at the fed's last action since late 2008, short-term interest rates have been held at 0e. fed pushed over $2 trillion in the u.s. treasury, mortgage and mortgage securities in an effort to support our economy. do the past actions inform you as you go forward and the current economic situation as you make your decisions? >> yes. obviously when we began these

nonstandard actions, we didn't have the benefit of very much experience except looking, say, at japan. but we now have more actual data, more experience, we have been able to okay the effects of the actions on financial market prices. we have some model based analysis of the effects on a broader economy. so there's still a lot of uncertainty about the effectiveness of these tools and channels through which they work. it is probably also the case that monetary policy is less effective than it would normally be because of various constraints object lending and so on. but all that said having had that experience, certainly made us better informed and better prepared to use these tools if necessary. >> okay. my state is doing better than a lot of the states on unplimt rate at 5.6%. there's still people hurting and one of the things that i have noticed when you look at the