authoritative action we can take. honestly, persons that have posted it, i would hope that at of their patriotic sense of duty to their fellow countrymen, they would take it down. but i have no authority to direct them and ordered them to take it down. >> there is nothing in current regulation that provides you a mechanism to compel the removal of this. >> in no. >> i yield back. .

rossides, can you tell the committee when their posting went up and when t.s.a. found out about it? >> yes, sir, it went up in march 2009. it was part of a solisitation for the program. it came to my attention and senior leadership's attention on sunday december 6 in the early evening. >> so this particular item was in the public do main from march

until december? >> yes, sir. >> well, i guess one of my concerns is you said you took swift, decisive and comprehensive action, that's after you found out? >> correct. >> so before that, it was in wherever? can you explain to the committee the protocols for putting items on the web? >> yes, sir. it's at least through the acquisition process. there are two approaches when we post actions. one is to when we have any kind of sensitive action, one is to post it to the secure site of the g.s.a. site which means that it is password protected or otherwise secured. the other is solisitations to get posted to the fed bizops.

this particular solicitation got posted on the unsecured side and was not properly redakotaed. there are other ways that we also will give potential venders the opportunity to look at information and procurement actions. we might have a physical reading room where we invite the venders in and they can look at that in a reading room. >> thank you. was this a private contract? who did this posting? >> the -- -- that is within the scope of the i.g.'s review right now. i can't really comment because of the i.g.'s due diligence on determining exactly who did what postings. there was a contractor under work for the s.s.i. office at the time, a contract company

under contract to the s.s.i. office. >> why would we have a contractor in the s.s.i. office? >> contractors, small contracts like that often just provide clericle support and sometimes research support and sometimes technical support. they are not people that are making the decisions on the -- the technical aspects of the job in terms of -- >> are they required to have clearances? >> yes, sir, they are. >> did all of these employees questioned here have clearances? >> that i cannot answer specifically but during the scope of the review we know exactly what clearances everybody did have. >> i would hope that part of your review would have looked at

whether or not these clearances were in effect m >> the five people put on administrative leave do have clearanceses. >> these are not the people that had access to what we were talking about. >> exactly, sir. they will determine if it was confined to just these five or if, in fact, there were more people responsible for this error. >> for the committee's point of information, how did we find out about this -- how did t.s.a. find out about this posting? >> i found out from a blogger notifying our blog team. we have a t.s.a. blog team and a blogger who frequently blogs on t.s.a.'s blog they called and sent an email to one of our bloggers and pointed it out. that set off a chain of events

of my being notified of it. >> the software used to do the redakotaing, is that a t.s.a.-approved software? did that chief information officer understand that it could be unredakotaed? -- unredacted? >> what software, what version of the software and what version was on the various computers that actually touched this document. >> so we don't know? >> i do not know yet. >> i would take that you talked to the chief information officer? >> yes, and they are goingñi through and looking at all of the versions of the software on t.s.a. computers nuped going through that inventory now with the goal being that we will ultimately have the same software on all computers and

everybody will be trained to that software. >> is that a software presently being used by t.s.a. that can't be unredakotaed? >> >> have we made that software available to everyone doing posted on the web to t.s.a.? >> yes, sir, we have. we are making sure that everybody using that software is properly trained and knows again, how to properly use that software. and if i can add, had this software been properly used it would have worked on this document so we're making sure that everybody who deals with s.s.i. information. >> wait a minute, you just told me you don't know which software. >> the software in use, that our c.i.o. uses and authorizes. if it was used correctly it

would have worked. >> but you don't know which software was used. >> exactly. >> i yield back my chair. >> i recognize mr. austria. >> thank you. carelessness to make such mistake as posting information on a website. i'm very concerned about that and concerned of the fact that t.s.a. posted that on standard operating procedures and the federal government may have inadvertently helped those who we don't want to see this information terrorists, others, do their homework for them, so to speak and i'm very concerned about that. let me if i may i have a number

of questions. i'm going to get right to my questions. thank you for your testimony today. let me first of all ask you kind of following up on the chairman's questions on redax. how often does the t.s.a. post standard procedure on the internet and what is the purpose of that? >> sir thmbings the first time that we had ever posted a standard operating procedure for a procurement solicitation and it was done specifically for the procurement for companies to compete for privatizing airports in the state of montana. >> let me follow up on that answer because my next question would be why would t.s.a. post any of its standard operating procedures whether it be sensitive or not, i understand some of this document may have been -- the entire document may

not have been security sensitive but there were parts that the general public, we didn't want to see. why would you post anything? why would you give anyone the opportunity to learn anything about the t.s.a.'s aviation procedures? >> in the course of that particular solicitation any venders will have to be able to prove that they can provide the security procedures at those airports and so they needed to know what kind of requirements we would have at checkpoints for them to be able to demonstrate their qualification to be a qualified vender to be considered for this contract. beyond that, one of the questions that the i.g. is asking, why -- why did we take the steps that we did and their reviewing that decision in terms of why was it posted. >> let me follow up on this question again. but what is the purpose of posting this? why does t.s.a. post this on the internet?

>> the purpose was for a procurement action. it is not something that we post routinely. it was for a specific procurement action that this particular one was posted. >> will t.s.a. continue to use the internet for to post redacted security information or have you changed the way you're doing business? >> we have immediately -- i have immediately directed the office to not post any s.o.p.'s like this and we will review with the general services administration is suring that if we do have to -- ensuring that if we ever have to post it again that would con sane any s.s.i. information we will verify that that is in a secure environment on their secure website. we're also looking at other measures, physically inviting potential venders in to look at material opposed to doing any

postings at all. >> i appreciate that answer. let me follow up a little bit on what the chairman was talking about as far as redakotaing the sensitive documents. -- redakotaing the sensitive documents. can you tell me what the normal process and procedures are for redakotaing s in terms of how did this actually happen and then now, what our c.i.o. is also doing is

making sure that the same software for redacting is on all computers so that the training is consistent from office to office to office. >> ok. and one last question i have. i know my time is up. madam rossides. based on what happened here, do you believe that our aviation security is being compromised so that we can because -- or weakened because of this incident? >> no, sir, not. >> thank you, madam chairman. >> thank you. we recognize mr. cleaver for five minutes. >> ms. rossides, thank you. to follow, the answer to that question would have been what you just said no matter what. right? >> yes, sir, i believe that our system is very strong.

>> no, but i mean even if it weren't that would have been the answer. >> i don't understand. >> you wouldn't have said here, you know, to the cameras that are -- that our system has been compromised. >> glabble the system is very strong and was not compromised as a result of this, sir. >> ok. i understand why you won't answer the question which is why i asked the question but that was somewhat of an answer. has there been a see i'm not sure you can answer my question. >> perhaps we can get piano into the closed session i can answer and give you more examples as to

why i'm confident of our systems. >> well, generally, whether it is science or theology or anthropology or epidemiology, we all build on what was and so it seems to me that any new versions were built on older versions. am i right about that? >> yes, sir. ok. so if i am correct, then there obviously is information that is out there that is in the latest it ration. >> that's true. but the bulk of that information is not s.s.i. information. it's checklists. it is routine standard procedures.

>> the s.s.i. material was posted on the fob.com on march 3 but it was not discovered by t.s.a. until december 6. what was the -- what happened in the -- in between time? >> good point. the procurement solicitation was up on the fed bizops website. a contractor was selected for that procurement and then the normal routine is once a contract is awarded the g.s.a.

keeps the procurement award posted on the fed bisops and announces who won the contract. >> the questions that i have based on what you're saying, i'm not sure i want to answer -- i don't think you'll answer it in front of everybody in the first place and so i don't want to ask it because then i get frustrated because you can't answer its and on top of that, i appreciate you not answering it. if that sounds clear. >> well, if we have the opportunity to go into the executive session perhaps i can give you some answers that won't frustrate you. >> you understand? >> yes, sir, i do. >> madam chair, thank you. >> i thank gentleman. the gentle lady is correct, if we are prepared to go into an

executive session, and continue for a period of time, i want to ask the administrator on her circumstances here, we see the number of members but we do want to pose that question to you. what is your time circumstance, please? >> probably i've got to be out of here by about 4:15. >> 4:15? >> yes. >> let me now recognize and we'll contemplate what our next step is. let me recognize mr. lundgren for five minutes. he is a member of the committee. if he wants to yield. we graciously accepting it but we're going to members first. mr. hines is recognize. >> thank you, madam chair. a couple of quick questions. first i share my colleague's concern obviously with this disclosure of sensitive information.

of course, no organization doesn't make mistakes. the measure of an organization is how well you learn from your mistakes and it sounds like you have taken a fairly aggressive approach to that. here is a slightly off the wall question but one that i think is important. we know that through a couple of different mechanisms this information is now in the public domain. are you or is anybody looking to see who has subsequently downloaded it? >> i believe that is part of what the i.g. is looking at. we do know -- we have in our c.i.o. has done an initial review of who did download it and has it on their websites, the nongovernment websites. we do know that. >> thank you. i'm just intrigued by the possibility that you might cross check a liss of end users who

downloaded it. when get classified information on this committee, each page is usually marked with some degree of classification. each paragraph. do you follow a similar protocol on a hard copy? would s.s.i. always be indicated as such? >> if appropriately marked the s.s.i. document would be appropriately marked and the pages would have a header and a footer on them saying it was s.s.i. information? >> was that in fact appropriately marked as such? >> no, sir t. not and that was the problem. >> do you a sense for what your overall rate of compliance was respect to marking appropriately your documents? >> well, sir, we do a number of

self-assessments as part of our s.s.i. programs. we do those routinely and also have a very extensive review by g.a.o. at the end of 2007 who actually gave a good grade to t.s.a. for how we do our program offices and address the s.s.i. >> thank you. i yield back the rest of my time. >> i thank gentleman from connecticut and would like to recognize mr. bill raucus. >> a few minutes before the vote but before we go into executive session i'm struggling a little bit with the underlying premise by refusing to give a document

to this committee because you're concerned about a public disclosure, that's what i guess troubles me the most. the implication is that the subcommittee is not taking the documents that seriously. i think we all know that was not case. for the record i'm glad that the inspector general was doing his investigation. that is not particularly vell rant to our requests. we are a a separate branch of government responsible for overseeing the t.s.a.'s activities. so i feel like i've been left with no choice. i feel like we have given administration the chance to provide this document and our staff has been able to look at this for a few hours but you know, i'm somewhat reluctant along with ranking members and

i'll be introducing a resolution of inquirey demanding that the secretary provide the house of representatives with this document. i think it is only appropriate and i would rather not -- not ask for this resolution but failing that, i just wanted that issue on the record. >> finished his remarks. let me ask you if you have a definitive date on whether you could submit a dates on the completion of the report? >> no, sir. i do not know when it will be finished. i know they have this on an expedited track. i don't have a specific date. >> do you have a close proximate date? >> all i know is that when they first began the engagement and took it over from our office of

inspection they said they wanted to have it done in a matter of a couple of weeks. they that is righted that earlier right after they started on december 9. >> let me just say that i am very moved by the requests and intent to offer resolution of inquirey but i am aware that the chairman of the full committee has authority to move forward and it would seem, mr. dent, that you would raise that question with the chairman of the full committee and i think that would be the appropriate next step and not a resolution of inquirey. i might also say that part of our concern has been that in

disclosing the s.o.p., it is possible for leaks and of course it sounds maybe that it is ironic that i would use the term leaps because obviously we have had a breach but there have been many, many members of the house and the senate that have asked for this document and there is no doubt this is a high-profile document but our job is to ensure there are no further leaks and breaches. so i would ask that you ask the chairman of the committee as a first step but more importantly i would say that i would like ms. rose i'd to come back in the next -- rossides to come back in the next 24 hours and get a more definitive time. i know the answering today would be difficult but i would think the inspector general would be open to the enact that this is urgent. there is a suggestion of a resolution inquirey which i

think is premature but even so it shows the urgency of the matter and we need to this essence respond to that so i would suggest that the first response for mr. dent and his colleagues is a request to the chairman of the full committee, mr. thompson and then i would want to have the additional information for our subcommittee as to the time that you believe this might occur. >> yes, ma'am. i will do that. >> the i.g.'s report. >> the only thing i would ask -- i yield to the gentleman for a response. >> the only thing i would ask is should we be given a date certain to when we would receive this document i would withdraw the motion for resolution of inquirey. i feel that the -- many thousands of pages sensitive and secured information and i think

our committee has handled it well and i understand that and certainly will make a request to the chairman. hopefully, i would just like to keep this resolution out there for consideration and hopefully we can get a date certain. >> i think we have found some measure of reconciliation or a moment that we can reconsider. let me quickly -- i think there are one or two member s that aregoing to be here. i'm continuing the hearing because of the time constraints of ms. rossides, anyone considering going forward on the executive session may need to hurry back because -- let me just proceed. as some more members have gone forward. i will yield myself for a second round until we convene into the executive session.

do you believe that any actions that have been take twin individuals or put on leave were some of these individuals contract employees? >> madam chairwoman? at the time in march of march of 2009, one of the individuals was a contractor. but he is now a t.s.a. employee and he is one of the five t.s.a. employees that is on administrative leave. >> do you believe that any actions by these employees was intentional? >> i would have to wait for the i.g. report but my honest assessment is no. i think this was an accident. >> your honest assessment is no but you don't know? >> i don't know for sure until the i.g. give us us the report. >> one of the employees was a contractor and you are

representing to this committee that that individual is now employed but are you also representing that that individual went through the normal security checks? >> yes. if he was hired as a t.s.a. employee, he would have had a background check. >> what do we learn from the actual of this occurring in march of 2009 and this was exposed in the last three weeks? what do we learn from that and as we answer that question, can you comprehend the disappointment that we have in that issue? >> yes, ma'am, i think there is a number of things we learned from this and our learnings from this are that we definitely need better processes in place and tighter controls on how we handle sensitive information and

in the -- in the size of t.s.a. as large of an organization as it is where this information is shared across an organization, we're going to have to make sure that we have designated personnel who are properly managing this information and treating it in the manner in which it should be. we need to make sure that our personnel are trained and really, truly understand if there is a lesson that the entire t.s.a. organization has learned in this, it shows that you know, the accident or the mistake of one or a few can tremendously impact our yeblet the american public so we're taking it very, very seriously. i think that our frontline officers and our inspectors and our t.s.o.'s are very much aware of their responsibility now because a document like this has been put out there. i think there will be a number of lessons that we have learned

and that there are technology solutions that will come from the report about the right technology to use and the right versions to use when redacting information. >> let me say this. i will recess this committee and keeping in mind your schedule we will return quickly but my intent is to write legislation first of all with a great deal of respect for the reliance of this government, overall, not just the department of homeland security on contract employees from blackwater employees to a number of others. it is clear that there needs to be standards utilized for the hiring, retaining and utilizing of contract employees. it will be my thought, it will be my legislative initiative to insist that contract employees not be used to handle sensitive security information, period. and then we are looking to craft

legislation that puts a firewall around a certain technology, because as i was listening to the chairman, if this is unique technology that ultimately will prevent redacting from showing up again on a website, then i don't want random individuals having access to that because then you can be exploited. so i will introduce legislation in the early part of the year to establish that criteria and we will also have to find a pathway of informing the members of this house and senate and i will imagine the white house on issues of breach of security. with that, this hearing remains in recess. we may start back in -- with a brief open session but we will then go into the executive session. thank you. this hearing is now recessed.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> members returned later for an executive session that was closed to news coverage.

>> in a few moments, several speeches from delegates to the u.n. climate change conference in denmark. in about 40 mince, vermont senator bernie sanders affirms his opposition to ben bernanke serving a second term as head of the federal reserve. after that, house debate on a bill that supporters say would create new jobs and help those keep the jobs they have now. when that is over, house speaker nancy pelosi talks about what the members accomplished this year. on "washington journal" tomorrow morning, we'll discuss health care and climate change with democratic senator jeff bingaman. jared bernstein will focus on

so-called green jobs. we'll talk about defense spending with jack kingston of georgia and john bresnahan looks at the senate debate on health care and other issues. a couple of live events to tell you about tomorrow. the senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee looks at our economic future, including spending, debt and deficits. witnesses include former federal reserve chairman aidan greenspan at 10:00 a.m. alan greenspan at 10:00 a.m. eastern. >> still in time for the holidays, american icons on

d.v.d. c-span's three original documentaries on the iconic homes of the three branches of the american government. the special three-disk collection is only $24.95. visit c-span.org/store. >> the united nations climate change conference in denmark today heard from heads of state and from delegates representing developing countries. president obama will address the conference on friday when participants hope to reach a climate change agreement. this part of today's conference is 40 minutes. >> so once again, i still think, i still hope, that the future presence of so many heads of states of government in copenhagen will pave the way for

a successful outcome, never before has so many world leaders gathered to discuss the topic of such global importance as climate change. for all of those complexities and challenges that accompany any discussion on global climate change, your presence here makes one very clear and simple point. we are, indeed, one planet. we share the same fate and we are all in this together. >> i will now invite our first speaker to address the

conference. it gives me great pleasure to welcome mr. nafie ali nafie, assistant president of sudan who'll speak on behalf of the group of 77 and china. you the floor, mr. nafie. >> mr. chairman , heads of states and governments, he is excellency the prime minter of denmark, the head of delegations, good morning.

su dan -- statement on behalf of the global 77 and china. let me congratulate you on your election as president of the conference in denmark. the convention of climate change dash meeting of parties to the kyoto protocol. let me also on behalf of the group of 77 and express our thanks and appreciation for the hospitality and for the hosting of this historical event in the beautiful city of copenhagen. mr. chairman , two years ago in bali, all parties agreed to adopt the results of the -- as

this situation of the conference. of all parties as a meeting to have parties to the kyoto protocol. and there are set up negotiation process. in this regard, the group has been working -- mandate of the -- which is specifically -- the second review. aligned with the second -- must inscribe ambitious quantified admission. reduction targets for developed countries beyond 2012 and will

prove more efficient and effective set of rules in order to able developed countries, parties, to take the lead as significantly contribute to the minimizeation of impact of climate change. however, we have seen that developed country party to the kyoto protocol seek to dismantle the protocol itself in favor of a single undertaking aligned comprehensive but which is a reality much weaker and will effectively undermine the convention and the kyoto protocol 3678 to this end, we have been, we have seen continual delays in our work

sbemp find by the g.k.g. has not met a single deadline to reach the conclusions or individual emission reduction which will agreed to this the a year ago. these efforts are intended to undermine the convention itself in particular its foundation as principles of equality common but differentiated the spobalts of respective capabilities. mr. chairman , let us -- and china the convention to visit

with kyoto protes call and all the -- we have taken and -- as a comprehensive undertaking to have international community to address the global challenge of climate change. in this regard, the group wishes to stress the need to -- the two-track outcome that the kyoto protocol is an essential instrument which -- a means to an able developed country, parties to the protocol, their commitment and the -- of the convention to reduce emissions. mr. chairman , for the sake of the we go well-being of our planet and its people, the global 77 and china insist that

a second commitment -- and the kyoto protocol must be established beyond 201012. reduction commitments among all developed countries. we will oppose -- an agreement in copenhagen which in any way rulls in kyoto protocol being -- the second commitment previewedened that the kyoto protocol is a minimum requirement for the group. agreement in copenhagen would not be possible. mr. president, and bali agreed to launch a comprehensive process to enable the full effective and sustained implementation of the convention

through long-term cooperative action now up to and beyond 2012. in order to reach an agreed outcome and adopt a decision at the 15th session of the conference of parties. mr. chairman , we have now reached the 15th session and the global 77 and china is ready to fulfill this mandate. however, the groups' intensive efforts to engage constructively in this process was seriou$ay hampered by a complicated, multilayered process of consultations imposed on us at the beginning of this second week of this session. mr. chairman , while we try to

understand this exercise, which we suppose was meant to generate to arrive at the meaningful conclusion at this conference we feel that there is lack of transparency in the way that -- were being made to hold these high level consultations and i dentification, left much to be desired. many of the 77 delegations and china, many of the have limited capacities and will not be -- of meetings, all of which are of great importance to the group. despite this development, the group continued to engage in the groups and informal groups.

we need some prob progress in view of the groups. this process remains uncertain in the life of these linkages. we could reach an outcome of all the elements of the party action plan. and we continue to engage constructively in the negotiations in order to reach an -- outcome for this session. the following countries have the most to lose if there are no concrete results of our discussions. particularly in the kyoto protocol. particularly if the kyoto

protocol is undermined or dismantled. therefore at the most -- that we do arrive at the successful outcome at -- 15. mr. chairman, the global 77 and china considers our -- and founded from the principles, provisions of the convention in particular the principles of equality common with the -- and respective capabilities, our shared vision must reflect the historical and the current possibility of the world countries for human-endeuced climate change. the resulting climate -- to the developing countries and establish the conditions needed

for a fair and just sharing of the atmosphering resources. mr. chairman , our shared vision including a long-term global goal for emission reductions is to enhance the full effective and sustained implementation of the convention, henceforth in a balanced and comprehensive manner by addressing -- development and financing and capacity building in an integrated way. it is not -- it must ensure that there is an inclusive equitable outcome that supports the right to development and to survival of developing countries.

it recognizes for present and future generations of all countries and people and that social and economic development and are the fairest and overriding priorities of the countries. mr. chairman , the global 77 and china calls for a comprehensive policy. guidance on adaptation effective in a -- additional scrailed up the long-term finance to enable the developing countries to address as well as long-term adaptations. mr. chairman , we are also

concerned by the way it has been dealt with in copenhagen. this creates a lack of balance at the heart of the negotiation process. we cannot have a copenhagen outcome without complete and sufficient -- to have mitigation and that particular program. we want a positive result in all aspects -- an entire set of issues. we want a process that appropriately coffers all the building blocks. we cannot support a selective approach. mr. chairman, as we indicated to

you at the -- as we indicated at the opening of this session, the global 77 and china, different process, we all established or maintained over the past two years, we believe that this approach allows -- of all issues under the pilot action plan and enables all parties to participate and bring in their interests and concerns regarding the expected agreed outcome of copenhagen. it is no doubt that such approach is the only way to lead us to a party driven fair and agreed outcome. mr. chairman, we understand it is a great sense of -- and a

mounting pressure to reach an agreed upon outcome at copenhagen. i would like to assure you that all the parties that our group and all the parties and all the parties at our group is highly committed to make this happy. however we do have serious concerns regarding the organization of the work at this level of the session and how the results of the ongoing work and that the groups will be will be considered an incorporated in the outcome of this conference. mr. chairman, the g-7 7 and china needs to assist you in your role as president to attend a party open process that the -- of all the developing countries to participate fully in the

outcome of this conference. i thank you. [applause] >> i would like to thank his excellency and we indeed have to speak to all the rules agreed in this process which include a time limit for interventions, five minutes so i hope you will respect that and it gives me great pleasure to welcome to the conference his intensey prime minister of the federal democratic republic of ethiopia who'll speak on behalf of the african group. mr. meles zenawi, you have the floor. >> mr. prime minister, your

intensey secretary general of the united nations, exenlsies, ladies and gentlemen. allow me to support the people of denmark for the warm reception we have enjoyed since our arrival. i would like to take this opportunity to thank our overworked and usually underappreciated experts and ministers who have -- hard work and kept the -- global treaty on climate change alive. ladies and gentlemen, global warming is happening. the rise of catastrophic climate change is very real. the risk of catastrophic climate change is very real. the science is as clear as it could ever be as to what the

cause of that change are. it is no exaggeration to say that this is our best and perhaps our last chance to save our planet from destructive and -- change. this is a test as to whether we as a global community are able to rise over our parochial interests to protect our common destiny in a way the climate negotiations are about a lot more than merely addressing climate change issues. there are test cases as to how humanity is likely to -- the challenge of the 21st century. as globalization transforms the world of -- how we manage global public good such as the

environment without a world government is likely to become a defining issue of our new century. if through foresight, dialogue and compromise, we skied in addressing the threat of -- succeed in addressing the threat of climate change it would be reasonable to assume that we can -- challenge of our new century through collective efforts. if we fail to rise above the current challenge of climate change, we will then have proved that global economic progress is based on a fundamentally dysfunctional global political system. sooner or later, the economic -- will have built -- will have to come -- we have built will come crashing down. it is therefore true that in more ways than one, what is at stake here is a feature of --

the future of our species. africa is keenly aware of the significance of climate change negotiations and n the copenhagen summit. that is why for the first time since they the establishment of the organization of the african union, africa has decided to speak with one voice and to field a single negotiating team mandated on behalf of all the member states of the african union. that is why all the delegations of african countries participating in the summit are here to support -- a common negotiating rather than negotiate on behalf of their individual countries. ethiopia is deeply honored to have been chosen to be the spokesman on climate change. i'm immensely proud to be able to speak today not on behalf of

my country, ethiopia but on behalf of africa as a whole. ladies and gentlemen, every one of us knows that africa has contributed virtually nothing to global warming but has been hit first and hardest. the fragility of our ecosystem that is meant that for africans, the damage of climate change is not something that could happen in the future. it is already here with us. across the africa is indeed paying with the misery and death of its people for the wealth created in developed countries through carbon development. that of course is fundamentally unjust. but we are not here as victims nursing our wounds of injustice of the past.

africa is a continent of the future. it is destined to be a of the 21st century. we are therefore here not as victims of the past but as stake holders of the future.

on the pending legislation.

the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. obey: madam speaker, i think people understand what this legislation is. it is an effort to redirect some $75 billion from tarp funds that in the past have been directed to help wall street, instead direct them to main street to try to help americans who are struggling to hang onto their jobs, their houses and their health care. i think the need for it is obvious. i urge passage and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin reserves. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. lewis: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, chairman obey calls this legislation the jobs for main street act. i call it economic insanity.

truly this is one of those rare occasions when i hardly, hardly know where to begin. it's because of legislation like this and the manner in which it was produced that the public has lost faith in this congress -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is correct. the gentleman will suspend. the house is not in order. members will take their conversations off the floor. members will take their seats. mr. lewis: madam speaker, i certainly want to -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lewis: madam speaker, i certainly want everyone paying attention to every word and i appreciate my colleague caring for that. it's because of legislation like this and the manner in which it was produced that the public has lost faith in this congress and why confidence in washington is at an all-time low. this legislation repeats the failures of the so-called recovery act by pouring another $150 billion into programs

included in the original stimulus package that have so far failed to produce real results or real jobs. secondly, this legislation adds an additional $150 billion to a budget deficit that has already tripled in the last year. the democrat majority claims that this spending is offset with funds from tarp, the tarp program, but under present law these dollars are already dedicated to reducing our debt. the public should not be fooled. every dollar will come out of the treasury and taxpayers will be footing the bill. further, this legislation is a virtual mystery to almost every single member of the house. i think we got the basic material at 11:00 last night, i

think. its contents were at least just shy of midnight last night for most and there's no way for anyone to have read or understood it completely. how much thought or member input really went into it? i dare say very, very little. ironically it was chairman obey who said on december 11, 2006, and i quote, we will work to restore an accountable, above board, transparent process for funding decisions and put an end to the abuses that have harmed the credibility of the congress. this is a demonstration project of just how serious mr. obey was about that. let me take just a moment to outline the transparent process by which this legislation comes before us today. chairman obey instructed his majority staff not to share any

details or information with the minority staff about the bill. chairman obey's staff sent the bill to the rules committee at 11:00 last night. it has had no hearings, no markup and is prevented from being amended on the house floor today. mr. speaker, marshall law in the house of representatives is hardly change that we can believe in. yet another irony in today's debate is that the democrat majority has suddenly found religion by championing so-called pay-go rules. this is occurring at the very same time they are proposing to spend another $150 billion and even as they have voted it to increase the debt limit. we passed the debt limit, spend another $150 billion. not long ago small business in america was the backbone and the life blood of our national

economy. today higher taxes and excessive government regulations have small business in a strangle hold and that's even before congress puts its stamp of approval on government-run health care. with all this reliance on uncle sam why don't we just put everyone in the united states on the federal government payroll and call it a day? in essence, that's what this fatally flawed process attempts to do. according to transportation weekly, even if you -- "transportation weekly," even if you only count title 1 as an appropriations bill it would still be the third largest f.y. 2010 discretionary appropriations bill, bigger than agriculture, bigger than commerce justice, energy and water, financial services, homeland security, environment, the legislative branch and state

foreign operations. and imagine what ranking member david obey's reaction would have been had a g.o.p. majority moveá party of no, no more busing the spending cap and calling it emergency spending. our country's economy will never

recover as long as congress continues making the same mistakes over and over again. spending by this house majority is unconstrained and unsustainable. billions and billions and billions spent on the continued expansion of government will only exacerbate our financial troubles and bring little or no relief to those without a job. through this legislation, congress is demonstrating once again that it is both unwilling and incapable of restraining its appetite to spend. this is nothing short of a christmas shopping spree with money financed borrowed from the chinese. i appeal to the blue dogs to take a stand on this legislation. if you are serious about making a statement, this is your chance. are the blue dogs serious about deficit reduction?

if so, then vote no. mr. speaker, simply put, this is an awful bill produced through a dreadful process. i strongly urge a no vote. and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. obey: madam speaker, i thank the gentleman for his support. could i now recognize the distinguished the gentleman from minnesota, mr. oberstar for four minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for four minutes. mr. oberstar: i thank my good friend from across the waters in wisconsin, mr. obey. and applaud him for his extraordinary persistence and leadership in bringing to us this jobs for main street act. he has been consistent and persistent and forceful and vocal and very laser-beam

oriented on creating jobs. in this jobs for main street, $39 billion are allocated to additional transportation and infrastructure investment to create and sustain family wage construction jobs at the same time rebuilding the nation's highways and bridges and wastewater treatment systems. we extend in this provision the highway and highway safety and transit programs through september 30, 2010. $27.5 billion, $8.4 billion for transit, $800 million for amtrak, $500 million for airports where an extraordinary success was achieved with nearly all the airport projects either completed or under contract on the job, improving our airport

capacity and $1 billion for the clean water state revolving loan funds to improve wastewater treatment facilities and build new ones where they don't exist today. $750 million for the corps of engineers and $100 million for ship construction to help our maritime interests. we have a highly successful record on that portion of the stimulus that comes from the committee on transportation and infrastructure from which both mr. obey and the distinguished republican leader are graduates. 220,000 direct jobs on over 8,000 projects. 630,000 direct jobs and jobs in the supply chain supplying asphalt, cement, pipe, concrete and culverts for this program.

$10 billion paid in payroll checks, $179 million in unemployment insurance compensation checks avoided. and $230 million in taxes paid to the federal government by those on these jobs and more to come. the results, 28,000 miles of highway pavement improved, widened, expanded under way right now. that's what we have achieved to this day and we have more to come. 1,200 bridges restored, repaired and replaced and with this addition in the jobs for main street act, we will have 56,000 miles of pavement rebuilt in the coming year and that will be 10,000 miles more than the entire interstate highway system

just in this one bill. that is an investment in america. and i assure my colleagues that this committee on transportation and infrastructure will continue its vigorous oversight, accountability and transparency. every member has received this report from our committee, 14 categories of progress for each state under these key programs. you can track how many funds are associated projects are completed, how many are under way, total job hours create and sustained and total payroll created and sustained for every state, every month. we're making this clear that we are investing in america and we will continue to do this under the jobs for main street program. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentleman has expired. who seeks recognition? the gentleman from california is

recognized. mr. lewis: i recognize the gentleman from georgia, let's see, jack kingston, i think it is, for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. kingston: i thank the gentleman for yielding. madam speaker in january, the president rushed through a massive stimulus bill, $787 billion that was supposed to be targeted for shovel-ready projects and had to do this to keep unemployment from going to 8%. now it's at 10% and rather than go back into the stimulus program and do major surgery, we are adding another spending bill from a different account. the stimulus bill to begin with only had about 27% in public works-type projects. most of it went to plug up political projects of congress and to create 31 brand new federal government programs. and even then, 12% of the money is all that has left town. most of it is still in

washington, d.c. an example, a smart grid program, none of the funds have been spent. $2.2 billion alternative fuel program, none of those have been spent. $4 billion energy innovative technology program,. there is an $8 billion high-speed rail project with zero funds been spent and funds for the cops program and no funds have left for washington, d.c. before we spend additional money, wouldn't it make sense to figure out what the logjam is. you go to the web site and you see the jobs created in the 99th district of virgin islands. there are no such districts. or go to augusta, georgia and look at the housing projects, 317 jobs were created. it was a bonus for the existing

employees or again from the administration's website, 937 million was spent on $10,000 projects in which no jobs were created. the stimulus program is not working. we need to revamp it. another reason why we don't have jobs under this administration is because of the cap and trade policy. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. kingston: could i have an additional minute? mr. lewis: mr. kingston would like another 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 30 seconds. mr. kingston: cap and trade proposal, incidentally, i don't recommend al gore's point to anybody, but it's going to launch jobs overseas and we need to look at it and it needs to be based on real numbers, not funny numbers. 8% tax on businesses with new

rules and regulations and the banking bill which is going to crunch credit all over america and i yield back. this is not the right thing to do at the last minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. obey: i yield three minutes to mr. miller, chairman of the education and labor committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized for three minutes. mr. miller: i thank the gentleman for yielding and for all of his work on this legislation. today, the congress has the opportunity to continue the effort to rebuild the american economy. we have made significant progress since january when more than 600,000 people were losing their jobs. last month, 11,000. dramatic improvement. in november a year ago, it was over 700,000 people were losing their jobs. i don't know what the figure has to be before the republicans decide they ought to help americans keep their jobs, find new jobs and get a job so they

can support their families. the fact is, the recovery act, which they want to continue to lampoon and every day, more and more fiscal analysts in this country are telling us that the recovery act is the reason that we have moved from a negative g.d.p. to a positive g.d.p. and the reason we have created more than 1.6 million jobs. those aren't our words but words of the people in the private sector talking about this market. what are they warning us about now? not just tra dirk jobs. and this comes from private analysts, whether or not local government, there is up to $300 billion under water because of the economy, recession and loss of receipts in revenues, whether or not they can create a wave of unemployment that will swamp the good news that is taking place and we hope will get better, but it can overwhelm the positive

job numbers that we're starting to see and create that. it also means that once again we can see -- and with this legislation, prevent that wave of layoffs in teachers and fire people and police and first responders, because we know that's about keeping our communities healthy and safe and to make sure that our kids do not become the victims of this economy because of the layoffs, the shorter school days, the larger classes that are taking place, the shorter school years. the states are struggling with this. we know that for the private sector, if you look around what's taking place, the leaders in the private sector decided in this kind of economy, this is when you want to invest in your future and that's what we are doing. we are investing in the future of our children, young people going to college, creating additional spots to get into community colleges and have job training, have teachers and decent class sizes.

that's what this legislation is about. trying to hold on to job opportunities for the american family and make sure that children do not lose a year of educational opportunity and do not slide back from the progress we're seeing all across this country as the test scores are getting better and proficiency is getting better among fourth graders and eighth gaders. this recession can wreck it all. we have seen all across the country, texas lay off 15% of its teachers. dearborn, michigan laid off teachers. you can stop that from happening. you can stop that from happening by voting for this legislation. this is about our future and this is about a jobs program that is paid for. this is about taking the money that was dedicated toward working on wall street and making sure it works for main street. this is your opportunity so you can go home and say you did everything you could to try to

maintain the positive delecks that the economy is starting to indicate. we're not there yet. but again, if you listen to the analysts, it can be overwhelmed by the loss of jobs and the wave of unemployment that could take place at state and local government. and our children's educational opportunity can be overwhelmed. mr. oberstar laid out the infrastructure piece that is so important in terms of the investment not only in jobs but the investment in the future of this country, highways and transit. this is about human capital and about whether or not we can retain first responders, retain teachers and retain the growth in economic proficiency and achievement that our children are getting in school today and we don't lose that. and all of a sudden it's gone. we shouldn't let that happen and vote against that happening today and vote for a jobs bill that works on main street.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired.@@ promise of its shovel ready

spend would go prevent unemployment from exceeding 8%. while the nation's official unemployment is about 10%, the real unemployment and underemployment now exceeds 17%. yet the majority suggests we double down on spending borrowed dollars in many of the same areas touched by the first stimulus. for example, only 7% of the $2 billion in the stimulus bill for the army corps of engineers, civil construction has been spent. yet this bill adds another $750 million. only 8% of the $1.billion for the stimulus for the bureau of reclamation water projects has been spent. this legislation includes another $100 million. the stimulus contains $4 billion for energy innovation loans, just 10% has been spent since january. let's make sure to approve another billion dollars. of the $36 billion the department of energy's been given, about $955 million has

been spent and only 17.5 billion has been obligated. if this wasn't bad enough, where's the funding coming from? it's coming from the tarp program. troubled assets relief program. that money when it's paid back is supposed to go down to reduce the deficit. here we are spending. i rise to oppose this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from california reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. obey: i yield one minute to the distinguished gentleman from georgia. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for one minute. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i appreciate you giving me a minute to speak on this. this is the single most important issue facing the american people. jobs. you talk about troubled assets, what greater troubled assets do we have than jobs and homes? these are the troubled assets that the american people want us to respond to. throughout the breadth of this country, small towns, country

towns from michigan, ohio, throughout wherever it is, people are concerned about jobs. the misery index is high. the depression index is high. do you know what a job means? here we've got $75 billion, what better place to put it than in small businesses? into the heart and soul of the american economy at the middle and at the bottom where people will spend it. ladies and gentlemen of this congress, this is christmastime. next week is christmas. what better christmas gift can we give to the american people than this jobs bill that will put our people back to work, that will build our homes, that will help our families, that will give them hope when they need it. they deserve this christmas present this day. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. lewis: madam speaker, it's my honor to recognize the ranking member of the health and human services subcommittee, the gentleman from kansas, mr.

tiahrt, for three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kansas is recognized for three minutes. mr. tiahrt: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the gentleman from california. 10 months ago we stood here and told you the stimulus bill would not help the economy recover. we told you it would not work because the $787 billion--- plus interest would only grow the size of government. you can't grow the economy from the government down you have to grow from the ground up. now we have a news account of how the money was spent, mostly on government workers writing more government regulations. then there was the news about the pay raises for head start teachers and the buyouts for university professors and unemployment is double digits. it's 10%. so today on floort we have the son of a stimulus bill. it's another $154 billion of failed economic policies that will only prolong the economic pain. this bill includes another $750 million for green jobs on top of the previous bill's $750 million. so far no green jobs have been

created. the son of stimulus adds another $23 billion to state and local governments on top of the $53 billion in the stimulus bill. you can't isolate state and local governments from the recession. if you do, they will do nothing to help with the recovery. history tells us what works. when we have the opportunity in america, new ideas come into the marketplace and the economy will grow. when the economy grows, the federal revenue grows without raises taxes. here's how you create opportunity. stop spending. stop borrowing. you can't grow the government -- you can't grow the economy from the government down. freeze regulations. audit every one of them. and only keep the ones where the benefit exceeds the cost. keep taxes low. when you do, people save. they invest. they spend. all of that's good for the economy. lower health care costs. not by taking over with the government but by addressing defensive medicine, by

addressing tort reform, and by incorporating free market principles then become energy independent. that alone would solve your unemployment problem. now it's true that providing opportunity for the economy to grow does not pay back the government unions for all they have done for you in the last election. government unions should be pleased with this bill. but the american taxpayer should not. they should be angry. for those that are unemployed workers, we are sorry because this bill will not do anything for the unploiment -- unemployment rate. it's a failed economic policy that only pays back those who invested in the last election for the majority party. madam speaker, i would ask my colleagues to vote no on this legislation and instead do something that will help the economy recover by providing opportunity for the unemployed workers. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. obey: madam speaker, i yield myself two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized.

mr. obey: madam speaker, when president bush left office, we were losing over 700,000 jobs a month. we passed the economic recovery package, and we have gotten that down to about 11,000 jobs a month. that's not enough, that's progress. i am somewhat bemused, however, by all of the comments about our friends on the minority side of the aisle denouncing the recovery package and saying that it didn't work. not a single one of them voted for it on this house floor. but if you check newspaper accounts around the country, you will see, for instance, that the minority leader in a june 15 press statement said that he was, quote, pleased that federal officials stepped in and ordered ohio to use all of its construction dollars for shovel ready projects that will create much needed jobs. the minority whip vowed to, quote, shed partisan politics to

help the economy and he met with transportation officials about how his home state of virginia could apply for stimulus grants to build a rail line. the minority chief deputy whip in his own press release outlined -- he outlined praised a courthouse in his district receiving funds from the recovery package to build a new courthouse. he said, i applaud funding for the bakersfield federal courthouse. my colleague from-er-republican colleague from new jersey, mr. lance, announced by press release that his district received $13 million from the rye covery act for local flood control projects. this is outstanding news, he said. and even sent a letter to president obama asking for speedy release of those recovery funds. another of our colleagues from michigan on that side of the aisle, issued a press release saying he was pleased to announce that his international airport would receive $12.7

million from funds received from the recovery act. another of our colleagues on the minority side from illinois said -- i yield myself another minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. obey: said there is no question these grants will be of assistance in creating jobs. i can go on and on and on. citing member after member who denounce the bill on the house floor and then went home to their districts and issued grandiose press releases expressing their support for the results of the recovery package. i have a little difficulty following that ping-pong ball when it's bouncing on both sides of the table. i have a little difficulty following the folks on that side of the aisle when they decide to fall off both sides of the same horse. i wish you would make up your mind. which do we believe? your statements you make at home or the statements and votes you cast on this house floor?

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin reserves. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. lewis: i thank my speaker for yielding. i would yield two minutes to the gentlelady from missouri who is the ranking member on the financial services committee, jo ann emerson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from missouri is recognized for two minutes. mrs. emerson: thank you, mr. chairman. madam speaker, i want to say a couple of things first. number one, i don't know if the american people realize that since 2007 this congress has increased spending on nondefense, nondeference discretionary spending, including the stimulus in that, by 85%. 85%. and in so doing we still have 30% unemployment in the construction trades in the state of missouri and there is no excuse for that.

this bill does very little to help that. very, very little. as a matter of fact some of the stimulus money that went to create new jobs in my congressional district actually our job training people were told that anybody who is in job training can't get a new job. that's disengine with us at best. it's not fair to that person who has been counted as a job when they don't have one and one is not there waiting for them when they graduate. but i really want to talk today about my concerns with the use of tarp funds to offset additional government spending. when we debated this legislation, we were told the funds were going to be repaid and that in the long term the federal government could make money on the tarp program. but here today we are debating whether to use tarp funds which the administration really had no plans to spend as an offset for yet more government spending.

and this is a gimmick extraordinary. -- extraordinaire. we just debate add bill to increase the debt limit to $12.4 trillion and using this budget gimmick as an offset is for $75 billion in new spending is not going to reduce the debt one bit. every economist in america says if we don't reduce our debt in this country, then our economy will go away. and it is going to ensure, this bill does, that our government debt is going to continue to grow, increasing our dependence on china, on other foreign investors, and increasing the financial burden on our children and grandchildren. yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. obey: could i inquire how much time is left on both sides? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin controls 17 1/2 minutes. and the gentleman from california controls 14 minutes.

mr. obey: i yield three minutes to the distinguished chairman of the ways and means committee, mr. rangel. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for three minutes. mr. rangel: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the gentleman is recognized. mr. rangel: chairman obey, let me thank you for not just saying what we've got to do about jobs, but bringing this all together and doing something about it. one of our great president's, jack kennedy, once said that sometimes your party just asks too much of you. and i know that's what my republican friends must be feeling today because there is no question in my mind that they have just as much compassion in their heart for those jobless people as we do. they know as we do that those who have lost their homes, lost their dignity, and lost their job didn't do it by being democrats or being be republicans. and i recognize that when you go

in a room and make a decision to say no, you kind of stuck with it. so we are not naive enough to believe that i can change your mind about what you already decided. but i do hope that when you go back to your home districts and you recognize what is happening to people who are jobless, many of whom are -- whom are hopeless, many of whom have lost their skills, and many and i hope soon it will not continue have lost what it's like to believe that in this great country there is no limit to how far that you can go. so maybe next year will be different. maybe the guys in the street will be following you around. as we find people grabbing members of the congress saying, hey, my dad needs a job. congressman, congresswoman can you help? we are trying to help. it's a big crisis. and a lot of blame to go around.

but collectively someone thought that tarp would work. well, it had some successes. one thing is concern,%a)@ @ @ @ 5 in the ways and means

committee where we have jurisdiction over cobra, this is another step to -- worse still if there are stick people in your family and you don't have health insurance but the federal government says, can we give you a hand with your responsibility to pay for health care? and that's what we've done our committee. we've taken unemployment benefits. you know, you can get enough checks for the -- the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentleman has expired. the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. rangel: thank you, mr. chairman. it's not just to make certain we have a place for our kids to learn, to become the leaders of tomorrow. but also that people can get bricks and mortar and rebuild those schools and renovate those schools and that's what we're doing. we've been able to make certain that at least the ways and means committee can join in

with the other committees under the leadership of our great speaker and dave obey to be able to say, this is not all we want to do, this is all we can do. maybe over the holidays you might get back to your leadership and say, we've been faithful, but we found out that many in our districts have lost jobs, lost their home, lost their health insurance and really lost hope. just say no is not going to work. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin reserves. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. lewis: madam speaker, i recognize the ranking member of the ways and means committee for two minutes, mr. camp. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for two minutes. mr. camp: i thank the gentleman for yielding. albert einstein once said, "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." even though their stimulus bill hasn't created a single job and

has resulted in 10% unemployment, house democrats have brought to the floor a stimulus 2 bill that continues to expand numerous provisions of their failed stimulus 1 bill. and here's a graphic depiction of this insanity. how does spending more on the bureau of reclamation create more jobs? how does transit capital assistance now create jobs now than it didn't before? and how did loan guarantees create jobs now when they didn't before? this is a son of stimulus bill. let's stop the insanity. vote no. and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: who seeks recognition? the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. obey: i yield three minutes to the gentleman from massachusetts, the chairman of the banking committee, mr. frank. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts for three minutes. mr. frank: madam speaker, the

assertion that the economic recovery bill, the stimulus bill, has created no jobs is i must say one of the least intellectually unsupportable statements i have heafered on the house floor and i have -- i have heard on the house floor and i have been here for a long time. here's where we are. the fact is that the obama recovery from the bush recession has been going more slowly than any of us would like, but it is undeniable. by every statistic it is going for. now, if you listen to my republican colleagues, you learn that the third worse day in american history was january 21, 2009, the worse is pearl harbor and then we had the mass murders of september 11, 2001. what was the worse day, january 21, 2009, because according to this debate, guess what happened on january 21, 2009?

the federal budget, which was apparently in surplus, all of a sudden plunged into deficit. unemployment suddenly appeared. the war in afghanistan, by the way, was going wonder flee until january 2 -- wonderfully until january 21, 2009. no, it all started on january 21, 2009. and not only that -- i am quoting my partner here -- it was the worst outbreaks in disease, mass amnesia seized the republican party on january 21, 2009. they forgot that it started under the bush administration in january, 2007, where they had control of the congress and white house for the longest period of time. they forgot that trying to pay for two wars with tax cuts was a bad idea and one that surprised in a deficit.

so what we are now doing is trying to undo that. and adults understand that you cannot go from a terrible decline to rapid increase without passing through a transitional period. we are passing through it by every economic statistic. now i agree, the situation is worse than we thought and getting better more slowly than we hoped but it's clearly getting better. again, if you listen to my republican colleagues, the world began on january 21, 2009. i know some thought it started 4,000 years ago. i don't believe they all started when barack obama became president. we do try here to help. i was astounded to hear the gentleman from michigan say it hasn't created one job. madam speaker, tell that to the cops and firefighters in my districts who were rehired because of this. tell that to the people now working to clean up a superfund site in my district which was funded by this bill. this denial of reality to avade

responsibility for the dilemma -- evade responsibility for the dilemma we are in is breathtaking. i thank the gentleman from wisconsin -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. frank: for a wonderful bill. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentleman has expired. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. lewis: madam speaker, it's my privilege to introduce chairman franks, a -- chairman frank, a chairman from the committee, mr. hensarling from texas, two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for two minutes. mr. hensarling: i thank the gentleman for yielding. now, repeating failure over and over might be amusing if it wasn't for the fact that so many of our countrymen are suffering. i heard the distinguished chairman of the financial services committee share with us a history lesson. but i also might add, if we look at press reports, clearly democrats have trouble counting

jobs in america. what we do know that the department of labor says that we still have double-digit unemployment under this president and this democratic congress. what we know is that the department of labor says since the first stimulus bill was passed to add an extra $1 trillion of spending and debt for future generations to pick up that 3.6 million of our fellow countrymen have lost their jobs. the history lesson that i hope my friends on the other side of the aisle would learn is that you cannot spend your way into more jobs. you cannot borrow your way into more jobs. and you cannot bail out your way into more jobs. and, madam speaker, the legislation they bring before us does exactly that. it's more the same. it is son of stimulus. spend another $150 billion of taxpayer money. how many more jobs have to be

lost? it wasn't an hour ago that this body just voted for $290 billion more of debt ceiling. borrowing the money from the chinese, sending the bill to our children and grandchildren. how many more jobs has to be lost? bailout funds, bailout funds for the states, bailout funds for the municipalities. how many more bailouts, how many more jobs has to be lost? take away your $1 trillion takeover of health care, take away your national energy tax, take away your perpetual wall street bill and jobs will come back to america. those are the policies that we need, madam speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentleman has expired. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. obey: i yield two minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from connecticut, ms. delauro. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentlewoman from connecticut is recognized for two minutes. ms. delauro: madam speaker, i rise in support of this jobs bill. we have seen 23 straight months of job losses. what does this mean? it means that families are under huge stress. it means there are hungry children in the united states of america. it means a lost generation of american workers. we owe a response to those families, contending with joblessness and the financial havoc it wreaks on their lives. it is not only the moral thing to do. it is our obligation as legislators and as citizens. i urge my colleagues to support this bill. it redirects $75 billion of tarp funds, money that was spent on wall street, and it moves it toward key

infrastructure investment which will provide jobs now. it provides a foundation for long-term prosperity. it helps to stabilize our public sector work force. it supports teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public servants. and as important, it cuts taxes for 16 million struggling families by making the child tax credit available to working families with children. they lost their jobs, they lost their health benefits, their workhours were cut short and, yes, their child tax credit was decreased. refundable tax credits are the most fiscally stimulative policy that we can put into place. don't listen to me. listen to economists. and it puts money into the hands of families who are living to date paycheck to

paycheck. let's put that tarp money to work where it always belonged, in the hands of the american people. i urge my colleagues to support this bill. we need to get america back to work, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. lewis: madam speaker, it's my privilege to call upon the republican whip, the gentleman from virginia, mr. cantor. the speaker pro tempore: for how much time? mr. lewis: two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia is recognized for two minutes. mr. cantor: i thank the gentleman from california. madam speaker, winston churchill once said that all men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes. today, it is apparent that congress has not learned anything. the bill on the floor today is just another round of spending that doubles down the failure of last february's so-called stimulus plan while ballooning

the deficit. the first stimulus plan and bill failed to hold down unemployment. but it successfully increased our reliance on borrowed money. worse, allow the money designated for infrastructure, those shovel ready projects we all heard about, hasn't even gotten out of washington yet. why is it still here if it was designed to create jobs? sadly, pouring billions into the very same programs will meet a similar dismal fate. just as bad, this legislation continues to fall hopelessly short of providing real relief to small businesses so they can resume hiring, investing and expanding. now is not the time to spend an additional $150 billion we don't have. it's time to come together to

ease the burden on small businesses and to start giving them a sense of certainty so they can go about the business of creating jobs and prosperity. madam speaker, i urge a no vote on this so-called jobs bill, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. obey: i yield one minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from texas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from texas is recognized for one minute. ms. jackson lee: i ask to address the house and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered, the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. jackson lee: only the lack of clarity and poor eyesight can call this the so-called jobs bill because as we looked over the last year, the

american recovery and reinvestment act helps save 3.5 million jobs. they named chairman bernanke as the person of the year,@@@@@@@℠g

that. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. lewis: madam speaker, by way of inquiry of my chairman, mr. chairman -- by way of inquiry of my chairman, aside, mr. chairman, from the unprecedented and secretive process by which this bill was put together and is being brought to the floor, the rule before us contains a most unusual provision to allow the chairman to submit a report explaining the legislation. it would be very helpful to all members before we vote on over $154 billion in spending to actually have the benefit of the chairman's explanation. i, for one, have not only not seen this report, i didn't even know he was writing one. therefore i ask the chairman, is

there a copy of this report and will you make it available now so that members will have a chance to see it before we vote on this bill? mr. obey: i find it very interesting that the gentleman has not raised this point with respect to the defense appropriations bill, but let me simply say that the explanatory statement for this bill is very short. it is on our website. it was posted there this morning. mr. lewis: the chairman certainly might have given us the courtesy of communicating that that was his intention ahead of time. and it's very clearly stated within the report that we would -- the members would have it available to them. obviously the chairman has chosen to ignore that side of the responsibility. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california reserves. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. obey: could i inquire how much time is remaining on both size? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin controls 7 1/2 minutes.

and the gentleman from california controls eight minutes. mr. obey: i yield one minute to the distinguished gentleman from pennsylvania. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for one minute. mr. fattah: thank you, madam speaker. i rise in support of this legislation. the republican minority has been fairly consistent when we focused on health care, he said, well, 85% of the people in this country have health care. so let's not turn things upside-down, let's not sacrifice too much to try to deal with the tens of millions who don't have it. 85% have it. on the jobs front 90% of the people in the country have jobs. so i can see the lack of empathy for the 10% who don't, and they don't see a need for us to act. but as we come to this holiday season, as we look and see many of our citizens who not only have not a job at this moment,

mainly because of policies enacted this unwarranted war in iraq, and fiscal policies that have had a double-digit national debt in the trillions before barack obama was sworn into office, they don't really see the need to try to put americans back to work. i want to thank the chairman for offering this legislation which is bifurcated both if he cussed on jobs but -- focused on jobs but also helping people in a difficult moment. that's what i think america ought to be about. i rise in support of this legislation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. who seeks recognition? the gentleman from wisconsin. mr. obey: how many speakers do you have remaining? mr. lewis: we have no speakers remaining. mr. obey: i am the last speaker, since i have the right to close, i suggest you use your time. then we'll use ours. mr. lewis: how much of your time

you intend to take? mr. obey: the remainder of the time. mr. lewis: 10 minutes? mr. obey: no, we don't have 10 minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin controls 6 1/2 minutes. the gentleman from california, eight minutes. mr. lewis: i think it would be important for the members to know, madam speaker, that up to this point only about 15% of the first piece of this package has been spent. so stimulus one is a long ways away from being spent. and i think we all know that the agencies are awash in money coming through the pipeline and they wonder where it's going to go from here. it's significant to know that as we spend the people's money in this process with very, very little information available to our members, the majority is choosing to push another $150 billion down that pipeline regardless of what has been

spent already. it seems to me that one of the lessons to be learned here is that the american people are much smarter than we give them credit for. they know that just throwing money at every perceived problem out there is the way to solve such a problem. in the meantime, i will listen with interest to my chairman's closing remarks. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman reserves? the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized. mr. obey: madam speaker, we have heard three times at least now our friends on the minority side indicate that only 12% of the original stimulus funding has, quote, left the treasury. that's a very slippery way to put it. because the fact is that what left the treasury means is that after funds are obligated to those who will actually spend it

and after the bills have been paid by those recipients, then the money has indeed left the treasury. the real term to focus on is what has been obligated. the fact is that for the programs in this bill, 70% of the funds previously appropriated to those programs have already been obligated. so much for that argument. example. the minority press release states, no funds out of the $1 billion provided for cops has left the treasury. the fact is all of that funding has been awarded. the minority press release states, only $235 million out of the $6.4 billion for e.p.a. water, wastewater grants has left the treasury. the fact is 99% of that funding has already been provided to the states. so much for that strawman.

let me, madam speaker, simply make this observation. we have before us a bill that determines to redirect $75 billion which had initially been directed to help wall street and we want to instead redirect that money to help main street. so we provide $27 billion, for instance, for highway infrastructure projects to put people back in construction. you are either for it or you're against it. we provided enough funding in this legislation to assist more than $670 communities address their growing backlog of water and sewer repairs and put people to work in the process. you are either for it or against it. we provided $27 billion to try -- from wall street to main street to try to stabilize public service jobs. we are trying to preserve

$250,000 teaching jobs over the next two years, for instance. you are either for doing that or you are against it. we are trying to use $500 million to preserve thousands of -- the jobs of thousands of firefighters all across the country. you are either going to help or you're not. well, we are trying to provide $250,000 disadvantaged youth with summer -- 250,000 disadvantaged youth with summer employment opportunities. you are either going to help them or you're not. we are trying to pro250,000 students with additional college work study funds so they can stay in school. you are either going to help those students or you're not. we are trying to provide funding for approximately 150,000 individuals in high growth and emergency -- emerging industry sectors where we know that our job growth possibilities. you are either going to help support that or not. we are trying to provide

unemployment insurance for six months rather than two months, extension that was in the previous bill today. you are either going to help those people or not. you are going to provide -- we are trying to provide $23 billion to extent the higher federal match for payments to doctors. or we are not. so basically it's about time to decide where you're coming from. an article in "the new york times" today describe what happens when you lose your job. it pointed out that more than half of the nation's unemployed workers have had to borrow money from friends or relatives since losing their jobs. they have had to cut back on doctor visits that save article indicates a quarter of those polled have said they lost their home or threatened with foreclosure. they also noted that half of the adults surveyed admitted to feeling embarrassed or ashamed as a result of being out of work

and nearly have of the respondents said they no longer had health insurance. the question is, are you going to help those people or not? we can argue what our economic philosophy is until the cows come home as they say in my area, but it seems to me that the question simply is, we've got a problem. what are you going to do about it? and with that i yield to the speaker to conclude my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from california is recognized. mr. lewis: i certainly would not object, but i asked the chairman about additional speakers and clearly i would never, ever detract from our speaker, but in the meantime, a little straightforward discussion would be helpful. mr. obey: if the gentleman would simply -- if the gentleman would yield. he doesn't have the time i'm simply take the time to say that if i had known the speaker had been able to come to the floor i

would have -- i certainly would have told the gentleman. i simply didn't know. i trust that he believes me. mr. lewis: i certainly do. the speaker pro tempore: the speaker is recognized. the speaker:: thank you very much, madam speaker. i thank the distinguished chairman for yielding. for his unyielding work on behalf of america's working families. and in this case today for the creation of jobs. to grow our economy and to help those who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. i am grateful to the distinguished ranking member, mr. lewis, for his courtesy. yes, my apology. i did not -- i didn't realize the debate would go to this point. i did want to take the opportunity to talk about jobs to our colleagues and to this congress in general. just to put it in perspective, one year ago in january the job loss was 740,000 jobs for that

one month alone. this -- fast forward to now and the job loss for november is 11,000 jobs. 74010 months ago, 11,000 jobs this month. we don't want to lose any jobs. but we are on the road to recovery and we are there because this congress made some very important and difficult decisions to take us there. we are on the road to recovery because of the leadership of president barack obama who stood on the steps of the capitol in his inauguration and asked for swift, bold action now. so that we could take the country in a new direction and create jobs and grow our economy. one week and one day from the president's inaugural address, this house of representatives passed the recovery act.

we were able to do so because we were ready. we had been ready with job creation packages, but we couldn't have the resources until we had a new president to make the investments that took us from 740,000 jobs in january lost in the first month of this year, the president and i remind inaugurated on january 20, toward the end of that month, and then 11,000 jobs. i also want to call to our colleagues' attention that you go b if you go back to the first quarter of 2009, the gdp rate of growth was--- this was -6.4%. the result of failed economic policies of the previous administration. as of november 24, 2009, the gdp

has a positive 0.28% and growing, this is a change of 9.2%. this is from -6.4%, all the way to positive 6.8%. we will grow the economy in the stock market, for the first of 2009 where we are at 7000, with over 10,000. this is an increase of 6000 points in the stock market. the economists tell us that some of this change is related to the recovery package that we passed in january, and the budget that we passed 100 days after the

inauguration. this talk about how we could create jobs, and lower taxes for the middle-class. s. over 95% of the american people got a tax cut. and how we could reduce the deficit. all of that, job creation and reducing the deficit. the terms of changing in that budget was in health care, in climate change and energy, to create new innovation. it begins in the classroom. andi sention to our competitive -- and essential to our competitiveness with that innovation is to reduce the cost of health care. to families, to businesses, to our budget and through our economy. to make us competitive and keep

us number one in the world economy. all of this was passed by the house of representatives. energy, climate change, education and health care. and then finally, this past week, we passed the regulatory reform legislation. mr. frank is here, our chairman. the work of many people in this congress. we passed regulatory reform to hold wall street accountable, to say the party is over, to say we are creating jobs for main street, not just wealth for wall street. we respect the creation of wealth and what it means to an economy and how it relates to the creation of jobs. but we cannot have the creation of -- well, at the exploitation of the american worker. we did pass this regulatory reform without one republican vote to hold wall street

accountable, without one republican vote. so here we are today after this plan that started on the steps of the capitol, the inauguration of our new president, what we had tried to do before we had a democratic administration but what we had been working for. so we were ready. we were ready. and now, today we are going to pass this legislation which does two things. it creates jobs and saves jobs by investments in the infrastructure of america. it doesn't do everything we would want, but what we do in this is paid for and building the infrastructure of america. and what it invests in, also, is to help states and cities and localities to keep their fiscal soundness so they don't have to lay off teachers and firefighters and police officers and people who deal --

who meet the health needs of the people in our community. and this is important not only for public safety, that's self-evident. it's not only important because we don't want to lose our teachers. it's about the education of our children and how seriously that can be undermined with the layoff and uncertainty in local and state budgets. but on top of all of that, while we're concerned about what this does to working families and how important it is for people to have their jobs, they are also consumers. and to the extent that we -- they lose their jobs, our economy loses consumers. when our economy loses consumers, we're in big trouble, economic trouble. we cannot let that happen. and so today we have before us that package for job creation and job retention which is fiscally sound and which is

paid for by using tarp funds. the unused tarp funds, which were subject of great debate of which i do believe saved us, pulled us from the brink of the financial crisis we were in as our recovery package later pulled us from the brink of economic disaster. in addition to that, we have some safety net provisions about the extension of unemployment insurance, of cobra to meet the health needs of those who are unemployed which will all expire at the end of december and other issues that relate to the well-being of america's working families. to address the concerns of the unemployed but in addition to that to create jobs in a fiscally sound way. fiscal responsibility is very important to us. it is our responsibility to our children, -- it is our

responsibility to our children not to increase the deficit. and that's this bill does not add one dime to the deficit. it decreases the deficit. i see chairman rangel shaking his head. it's an important part of paying for that legislation, as mr. miller and mr. waxman were so much a part of that health care bill. so here we are today with an opportunity to modestly and in a pay-for way address the issues of jobs. it's a four letter word. let's use that four-letter word every why we go, jobs, jobs, jobs -- everywhere we go, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. i urge my colleagues while some of your districts and states may be doing better than other parts of the country, this is the time for us to recognize that we are a national economy and that the -- what happens in one state has an impact on other national recovery.

i thank chairman obey for his great leadership in putting this package together, and i urge our colleagues to act on behalf of america's working families and the creation of jobs in a fiscally sound way, to honor our responsibility of public safety by protecting our first responders and our responsibility to our children to make sure that their education does not have a gap because we have a budget gap. and understanding the role that consumers play in our economy. i hope we will have a strong yes vote on this legislation, and with that, mr. chairman, i commend you again and yield back the balance of my time. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. all time for debate has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin rise? mr. obey: pursuant to clause 7 of rule 20, i move to the call of the house.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair notes the absence of a quorum in accordance with clause 7-c of rule 20 and chooses to entertain a motion for a call of the house pursuant to clause 7-b of rule 20. without objection, a call of the house is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. -- members will record their presence by >> the house voted to extend health insurance, prevent public sector employees from being laid off, and to increase the infrastructure projects. they have finished their legislative business for the year. as they were finishing their business, nancy pelosi spoke about what they have accomplished. >> of good -- good evening.

this is the end of the day where we finished the work on this session of congress in a very positive way. we finished the year with the president of the united states asking us to take action right now, to create jobs and turn the economy around, jobs for the 21st century and health care for all americans. the policy that would take us in a new direction. we have accomplished all of this and we have opened the recovery package and the passage of climate change in health care, to make main street the center of jobs in this country.

i am very excited about what happened today. we ended on the note of job creation. this was in a fiscally sound way. i want to congratulate all of the present members of congress, and steny hoyer for his leadership. we count the numbers of mr. lawson. mr. miller, slaughtered, i do not know that she has joined us. but the other members were part of bringing together this important end of the session. i just want to say that when we began this year, it is important to say that when we began this year, the first month of the year, the economy lost 740,000 jobs. because of the recovery package and the leadership of obama, in the last month, the economy

lost 11,000 jobs. 741 year ago, 11,000 last month. we do not want to lose any of them. but now we are on the path of a gain. it is important to say that during that same time, the stock market went up over 3000 points. from the day obama took office, where the market was about 7000, and now this is over 10,000. the economists say that much of these changes come from the recovery package and the actions of congress. it is important to know what has happened to the gdp. we have stimulated the economy to grow. in the first quarter of this year, as a result of the failed

economic policies, we were down -6.4%. the gdp growth was -6.4%. we are up 2.8. a swing of 9.2%. we are very proud of this. there is much more that needs to be done. we will measure the success by the progress that has been made by the american working families. until we have health care for all americans, as the right, not a privilege, and jobs for the 21st century to enable people to succeed, which is what the

legislation will do when this is signed by the president. we are pleased with the progress that we are making here, as reflected in the lives of the american people. i want to talk about the leadership of this congress, the first that we have had with a democratic president, with my partner, steny hoyer, the house democratic leader. [applause] >> thank you very much. we came to congress in january, confronted with the worst economy in 75 years. we had already made some tough votes at the request of president bush, to stabilize the economy. i am proud of the speaker, and the leadership and the members. we made very tough decisions to

drop the course of this session, to respond to the economic crisis and to stabilize the economy, with 740,000 jobs lost, 11,000 last month of the bush administration. 11,000 jobs lost last year. that is progress, but not success. success will be measured by growth in jobs, with more people having the ability to support themselves and their families. we have also confronted the challenge of energy independence. and global warming. we have addressed the issue of millions of americans, 50 million americans without health care. these were tough issues to confront.

but in the course of the campaign, obama said that we would address them. the congressional candidates said that we would address these. and we're ending on a continuing effort to create jobs, and invest in growing the economy. this was a good day and this has been a good session. there is more work to be done and we will do this. thank you very much. >> and now the man who cast the votes, and has been largely responsible for the victories for the american people. we are very proud of the democratic whip of south carolina. >> thank you very much. distinguished leaders, this year

began with a moment for the ages. the swearing in of the first african-american president of the united states. a milestone in which all americans can take pride. obama took office alongside some other auspicious historical milestones. the worst economic crisis since the great depression. what a difference one year has made. this congress and the president had considerable obstacles and we have taken iman, one at time. the recovery act that has saved 1.6 million jobs -- this fall,

we saw the gdp go from a decline of 6.4, in his rose 2.8%. that is the biggest economic turnaround in 29 years. the house passed a clean energy bill, without creating additional debt, that will create millions of jobs and reduce the dependence on foreign oil and reduce the cause of climate change. we have seen in the month of october, an increase of 10% in the sales of existing houses. an increase of 6% in the sales of new houses. and we are on the brink of sending the president landmark legislation that will provide

quality, affordable health care to all americans. we're very proud of these accomplishments, and getting the country on the right track. i just want to say to the speaker. i live in a house with four women. but let me tell you, i have never seen a woman like this woman. in the vote that we just took, i was looking at her with out on my face, and she gave me that steely look, and she said, we will call the vote. thank you so much. [applause] with that, i want to yield the microphone to my good friend,

the leader of this caucus. >> let me echo the sentiments of steny hoyer and james. we are fortunate to be led by such a capable leader. i know that every member of the leadership agrees with that, the members are so grateful for her work. she never asks from anyone what she does not to herself. at this time, for this country, with the historic president, it is great that we have a historic teacher who talks on behalf of the people of this country. it is an honor to serve with her and continued to roll up -- roll up our sleeves to get the job done.

we are restless. we know that there is much more to be done. but we have the appetite for it, and we have someone with the will and the dedication, the grace, and the ability to accomplish that, and that is why we follow her lead. merry christmas. happy hanukkah, to everyone. >> merry christmas. >> the person loaded with so much talent, he wears many hats. the chair of the democratic congressional campaign committee. he knows the policy so well and he understands the politics, and promotes people for this. >> thank you. from the first days of this year, this congress was working

with the new president, barack obama, focused on getting the economy turned around. and that continues to be the focus throughout the year. we said yes to go in on the path to economic recovery. things are stabilizing and we will keep working until we turned the corner. we made many tough decisions. being in congress is about making choices. we were focusing on turning the economy around, but to a person, the republicans were voting against this. they have been saying yes to a number of special interests in this town. last week, there was a vote here on wall street and holding them accountable. democrats were in favor, and

they said we will not allow betting on wall street to leave the taxpayers holding the bag. the republicans, once again, voted with the special interests. we had another big but -- another big vote on higher education. we said we'll make certain that the scholarship funding, and the loans go directly to the students. we will take up the big banks. once again, the republicans voted with the big banks, which meant less money for students if they had gotten their way. energy policy. the speaker will go to copenhagen and said that we have to invest in clean energy. democrats voted in favor, and republicans voted with the big oil companies.

and finally, on health care reform, we have been working to make certain that we no longer allow american citizens to be held hostage to the bad decisions by insurance companies, and we want to prohibit people being kept out of insurance coverage for pre- existing conditions. when you look at the republican alternative, this was written by the insurance companies. they are against getting the economy moving in the right direction, but they have been in favor of all the special interests that ran this town in the previous eight years. we said no to the special interests. i want to thank these people for keeping us very focused on the public interest. and not doing the bidding of the special interests.

thank you. it is my pleasure to turnover to the man at the center of so many of these accomplishments. >> thank you, very much. we are encouraged by the positive signs that we see in the economy. we were warned every day, that unemployment can continue to drag the economy down. the persistence of the unemployment and the joblessness in this country. we took another step, to try to attack unemployment in this country and provide jobs, with a recovery act -- and we were successful in creating jobs in construction and helping local government. every day, we see commentators tell you that the construction jobs -- if these are not

restored and local governments cannot weather the storm, we will not get the kind of -- the kind of growth that we need to restore those jobs. this legislation by the democratic caucus was put together and this is an effort to do that. we believe that this can be successful. we believe in the success that we can have. none of this has been easy. but this has been wildly successful. i believe this is one of the great reasons why the speaker was the third runner-up in person of the year. >> let me just say this. he is the leader of the policy committee and the education and labor committee. the maestro, this week, as we

have gone forward with the job legislation -- legislation has been the chairman of the appropriations committee. to see him in action is to see a master at work, especially when he is dealing in the united states senate. he knows that he has the idealism, the ideas, and the integrity, and a memory and the temperament -- though i would not go that far. we are in the business of hyperbole. i would not go that far. he is a great leader. >> i had a friend in the wisconsin legislature, and at moments like this, he would say, it is getting a little deeper in here. i want to thank you to the harry truman -- i want to say thank

you to the harry truman of the democratic party. we would not have this without her and we would not have passed this without her. and every issue that is known to the country over the last year, we would not have even been in the ballgame. she is one of the most incredibly, determined to people i have ever known. i thank god that she has the determination to lead this caucus, which can sometimes be very difficult problem. i am not a touchy-shellee person. i think that -- that is my staff that is laughing here. that is terrible. [laughter] we all have to ask why we came here. why did we want this job in the first place.

i think there was a famous religious leader who said this when he said this. do all the good that you can, by all the means that you can, in all the ways that you can and all the places that you can, to all the people that you can, as long as ever you can. that is the job of every single member of congress. i am happy that today, we have, in my view, 217 people have met that responsibility. having a job is central to a dignified life. the work ethic -- the work ethic is central to america. when we do not do everything possible to see to this that every willing person in america has a decent and dignified job, we are failing to do the duty to

live up to the religious values that this country is supposed t. i am happy that we had enough people who met this duty. >> we have the leader of the steering community -- the steering committee. she has been a champion for america's children, the seniors and the working families, for every issue from food safety to child tax credits, job security and the national defence. when you are in battle, you want her on your side. [applause] >> it is an honor to be here with my colleagues. this is unbelievable, a successful outcome. we are truly honored to serve.

she is driven by a set of values, and they say to her, do the right thing. she coupled that with a spine of steel, which is reflected in those areas are reflected in the legislation that is passed in this body. no more reflecting the central core of values and doing the right thing, this is not more demonstrated than the votes today. the colleagues have mentioned the year, and i echo what has happened in the house of representatives. extraordinary legislation in terms of people's lives. but to take today, there was a recognition and a drive to say

that if people -- the people of this great nation -- we know that you are on your knees and that you have lost your job and you cannot feed your children. you lost that tax credit that gave it the ability to take care of your children. we know about your loss. we walk on your shoes. you can count on us and rely on us, we will represent you. to pass legislation that can do something, not to give you everything that you need, but to give you the help when the challenges are so overwhelming, and the challenges for people in this country are so overwhelming

today that this speaker and this house voted to say that we understand, we are there, and we are coming back, we're coming back in january and you can count on us, because we believe that it is our moral responsibility to make certain that you and your family and your children -- and when people cannot feed their children -- they need our help. that is what is happening today. this speaker and his democratic caucus says that we understand. thank you for your work. [applause] >> all the things that my colleagues mentioned, i subscribe to. we are very proud of the members for their courage and

dedication. it is important to say that the message -- the package is fiscally sound. we're talking about unemployment for people who have lost their jobs. this brings a bigger return to the economy. this is creating further jobs. not only are the meeting the needs of the unemployed, their job creators. we have to make certain that the teachers are not laid off. all of this is very important. this is about the services that they provide. this is about jobs and create consumers, and they are the lifeblood of the economy. we have a major investment in infrastructure. we have a major investment in

treating good-paying jobs in america. it goes back to what the president said. we will measure the success by the progress made by america's working families. >> >> every bill is heavy lifting. every bill is a heavy left. a few members were not present, and we had to reach out to other people. there were a couple of absences this evening. the issue, we had to, for reasons beyond our control. we have the bill following this. when the members realized that the reason that we were doing this is because this bill was

paid for by troubled asset relief program money, and that this money would simply go away by december 21. it was clear that the focus on jobs needed to be addressed. the funding for this and the fiscal soundness -- we believe the creation of jobs reduces the deficit. we want to make certain that the initiatives are paid for. >> i am excited i will go to copenhagen. until we had all of the work done, we were never certain about that. the issue of climate change and energy security has been the major issue that i have had. i established a select committee, to take us to a place

that recognized that this is a national security issue. we will reduce the dependence on foreign oil, and a health issue to reduce the emissions in the air, to invest in innovation, and to be number one in technological innovation. this is a moral issue if you believe that this plan is the creation of god, then we have a moral responsibility to preserve this and give this to future generations intact. i am happy with the success that we have had, even when president bush was president, we gave a bill that he would put into law. many of the initiatives would not be paid for without barack obama, who believed that this was important, and that investing in science and innovation made this possible. when i go to copenhagen, the

role that i will play will be with the president of finland, the president of liberia, and many others, presented -- presenting to women, the role of women in addressing the climate crisis. and the role that women play as consumers and producers of food, with some emphasis on agriculture and how we have to respect the issues that relate to agriculture as we go forward. we will be there to applaud the presentation of president barack obama, who will make us all very proud, in presenting the priority of addressing the climate crisis. this will be a real change for those who denied what was happening, and the impact that they had in this.

we have a bipartisan delegation and we will continue this as soon as we leave here. >> you indicated it would be relatively quick to conference and health care bill. but now that the senate has indicated that they would drop medicare financing, how soon can you have the final health care bill? >> what i have said is i believe it will be possible to do this in a timely fashion. i cannot speak to this until we see the senate bill. i think they will pass the legislation before christmas, and then we will put our heads together. >> without the public auction, how important is it for you to get the liberal members to support this? >> every vote has been very heavy.

anyone following this knows that. the magic number is to be the winner. perhaps the colleagues would like to talk about how they see how heavy a lift that this will be. we will have a great bill that will represent a real change, in terms of reforming the insurance industry, and ending discrimination because of pre- existing conditions. there is a strong exchange in which the cost of health care can go down for individuals and businesses, and coverage can be increased. i will subjected this to the same criteria of the bill in the making. affordability to the middle class, security for seniors, responsibility to the children, fiscally sound, reducing the

deficit, and to have accountability of insurance companies. i am certain that we will find common ground. >> a new poll came out today, showing that 55% of americans think we are going in the wrong direction, 44% against the health care bill. democrats had record-. why is our message not resonating with the american people? >> this is the year that we are doing all the work. we have the bill finished an accomplished and we can talk about what they do. when the process of legislating, and others have compared this to other processes, but we have a responsibility to the american people, and a plan for recovery.

this would be a blueprint for the future, with the corporate accountability, and we have finished the work. we will take the bill into the next session of congress. we feel very proud about what we have done. this is the work that we have been doing, and as the bills are finished and go to the desk of the president, we can give them to the american people. we have to have a product to consent this. we feel very responsible with the order that we have taken. not about doing the work and then taking the message to the american people. thank you all very much. have a merry christmas and all of the above. for some family, this is all of the above.

the leadership has worked as a team every day. and i think the members for their commitment to the american people. thank you, everyone. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> in a few moments, a hearing on documents for the tsa

security administration. then "washington journal." then we look at the future of the economy at 10:00. at 2:00, the senators are focusing on contract and in afghanistan, and they hear from the department of defense and state, and the center for economic development. >> a couple of life things to tell you about today. the senate homelands the kiddie -- the senate homeland security administration looks at the deficit. the guests include alan greenspan. this is 10:00 eastern here on c- span. at 2:00 eastern, they examine afghanistan contracts, and they hear from representatives of the department of defense and state, and the u.s. agency for

international development. >> "book tv" this weekend. tim carney says obama is a champion of big business. then greg mortensen on olall girl's schools. get the weekend schedule at book tv.org. >> now, a hearing on information security at the transportation security administration, including the airport screening operations. this is a little over one hour. >> the subcommittee will come to order. let me acknowledge mr. thompson

of mississippi. and the ranking member. he is from pennsylvania. let me welcome those of you who are here. let me take a moment of personal privilege. knowledge the family of mr. edward kelley, who, in this business, is considered family. many of us gathered after 9/11 in respective positions. we gathered as members of the committee on homeland security. many of us were there from the beginning. he comfortably retired, having served as part of the excellence of corporate america as they decided to render that for another day. and they expected the call to

become part of the men and women who served in the department of homeland security. we owe him a debt of gratitude for his service. it is a privilege to join my colleagues, and the full ranking committee, mr. king, to send a letter of sympathy and was additionally privilege to rise on the floor of the house to be able to give him the tribute to it that he deserved as an american hero. i would like to have the family stand at this time so that they will be acknowledged by all people. [applause] i believe that is mrs. kellyda's

sister and niece. we are here to find out more about the and " -- the exposure of the security information in airports. we will find out what transpired and laid the groundwork to make certain that this never happens again. remember, the title of this hearing has, the breach jeopardize national security, an examination of what has happened and why this has happened. the duty is to protect the homeland, and the way to do that is to determine what and why, and to say, never again. i recognize myself for the opening statement. we will show a movie that has been presented, previously, on network television.

>> this showed some of the most important government secrets. this was for airport screeners, showing official credentials, federal air marshals, cia officers, and members of congress. criminals or terrorists could use this. and is revealed travelers from a dozen countries, including cuba and north korea, and that they are always subjected to extra screening. the security playbook that was prepared in 2008 is said to be out of date. they added in a statement that the procedures in place remain strong. but they never meant for this information to be public. each page says, this record contains sensitive security information. this cannot be disclosed without the need to know.

they say this was improperly posted by the agency, with reaction. but bloggers were able to remove the blogging. >> some of the compromised -- the blocking. >> an allied officer may be cleared without undergoing screenings. for example, this is not required for wheelchairs and orthopedic shoes. they are investigating this because they take the failure seriously. with the known terrorist target being aviation, it is a little bit late to get serious. >> the only early christmas present that terrorists will get is the resolve of the men

and women of the department of homeland security, the president of the united states, and the men and women of the united states congress. we are here to make certain that going forward in this holiday season, we have the ability to cure quickly the unfortunate and vast mistakes that have been made. and i hope as we proceed, we will hear that steps are being taken to make certain of the safe travel of the families that will be visiting their families during what i hope will be a very happy holiday season. we're here to discuss the revelations from last week, that a manual with sensitive information was posted without the proper technical safeguards. sensitive information about airports and the screening policies were made available for

the world to see. we were alarmed by this development, as this was sending shock waves across capitol hill. we take oversight very seriously, and after all, this was constructed to help protect the american people from the kinds of things that happened on september 11, when things such as last week happen, it becomes clear that more must be done, and that we have to keep the eye on the ball. we also must make certain that the contractors are trained in question, and if necessary, they will be part of the inquisition. the security of america is very important. we will talk about how to avoid a similar lapse in the future to

make certain that those missteps, if they can be characterized, do not jeopardize the national security of the american people. let me be clear that although this is a serious breach in the management of sensitive information, i have been told that additional personnel has been put in place at airports across the country to make certain of the safety of the traveling public. the terrorists need to watch out. anyone wishing to exploit the situation should be aware that the united states will continue to use all the available resources to protect the flying public during this busy holiday season. the american people should know that this is safe to fly, along with the courtesy that we expect to be given by the officers, we expect for them to do their duty. last week, the chairman and i sent a letter, asking for a

repeal of this incident. i am happy to say that the secretary has responded, requesting that the inspector general takeover completely and provide recommendations regarding this incident. i look forward to an immediate response. i commend them for taking responsibility. i have been informed that five people are placed on -- have been placed on administrative leave. we also need to know that they are reviewing the process for the posting of sensitive security information and making a full inventory search of all the staff, around these issues, to make certain that this is not permitted beyond the five that were engaged in these unfortunate circumstances. the questions include, who is in the management, who is ultimately responsible for this? is there a manual for training the employees, and what is the

role of the contract employees, with the discrimination and the security? the training and the instincts, and their ability to follow the rules and safety precautions? is there sufficient training for these employees? i would also like to know how broadly the are solicited, and how far is the reach. one of the lessons that was made clear by this incident, is that any permanent and effective leadership. we have led the -- she has led the tsa during a very difficult year. let me be very clear. we understand the

constitutional dealing and we know that they are engaged in a positive and one-sighted approach, and we need action on the nomination immediately. i hope that all the stakeholders will call for a swift confirmation. homeland security can no longer afford a delay. i have already mentioned the passing of a family member, but once again, let me acknowledged that he managed the cargo training program and kept -- and he testified before this security -- before this committee last march. he was very -- he was there much -- he was there working on the homeland security efforts.

some say that he reformed the industry, and he made outstanding contributions to the security of america. on behalf of the subcommittee members, my condolences to his family and his colleagues. finally, i would like to say that the subcommittee understands the importance of the dedication of the employees. after the exposure and the other incidents, i think we can all agree that we can do better. that is why we are here and after a complete analysis of this incident, we will see how to make the employees perform better, and i am considering a fire wall over the distribution of the additional oversight, on the contractors and the utilization of them. without objection, the chair has

authorized that the subcommittee will result into executive session for extra testimony of necessary. hearing no objection, this is so ordered. the chair will recognize the ranking member, the member from pennsylvania, who joins us in his sympathies for mr. kelly. i also know that he has come, if not for his reasons. you are now recognized for your opening statement. >> i like to add my condolences and my sympathies. edward was a wonderful, public servant. he served this nation very well. i speak on behalf of the entire committee to express my condolences. from all of us, we have -- we have our condolences. i know the family has a strong

connection to pennsylvania and this is a very special place. i just wanted to thank you for holding this hearing today. and i agree that the disclosure of this sensitive security information is unfortunate and based on my review of this situation, the mistake has weekend the security of this nation. we have many layers and some of them have been exposed after having the standard operating procedure posted on a public web site, for the past nine months. i agree with the comments that were made that said, the air marshals probably shoulder considerable risks. the agency should not compound this rest with broad internal controls and dismiss it excuses.

-- dismisseive excuses. i would like this entered into the record. as terrible as the situation where this was exposed, we know this mistake was made and the document was accidentally released. and now they have the opportunity to learn from that mistake. the question is, will they learn anything? we are confident that they will. we know that people make mistakes, but over the course of the past week, we have come to this conclusion that this is not the failure of an individual, but rather the failure of the system. the review office failed to follow the process for redacting sensitive information. the supervisor failed to notice this and the office of acquisition did not review the documents before posting this on the general