searches on google and yahoo!. today i'm going to demonstrate this form of censorship not only continues but in many cases is worse. let me start, if i can do this. . . what you're looking at here on th n l google.com search for the word tiananmen. you'll find pictures of the famous tiananmen square protest in 1989. especially the iconic photo of a demonstrator standing in front of several tanks. now what you see is google.cn, google's china search engine, and a search for the same word.

tiananmen. here you will find only beautiful postcard images of tiananmen square. let me be clear. i am not singling out google. yahoo! and bing, microsoft's search engine also censor the internet china and the leading chinese search engine censors even more content than these america companies. i want to commend google again for announcing that they plan to stop censoring their chinese search engine. i look forward to an update today on their efforts. and our first hearing we discussed the global network initiative, or gni, which was then being negotiated. the gni is a voluntary code of conduct that requires technology companies to take reasonable measures to present human rights. following the hearing, senator tom coburn, my ranking republican, and i encouraged google, microsoft and yahoo! to complete the gni negotiations and the code launched in october of 2008. i want to commend these three

companies for their companies for their extraordinary promoting internet freedom. since then i've asked several dozen other companies to consider joining the gni. without objection, the companies written responses will be entered into the hearing record. it also made available on my website. i'm disappointed that a year and a half after the gni started no new companies have joined. base on the responses that i have received, only three companies, at&t, mack afee and skype have been committed to parting in a dialogue about joining the gni. one company, web sense, indic e indicated they're join the gni if the moneyship fee is waived. many told me it's not relative to their company's business. the last two years demonstrated that simply not true. the explosive growth of social networking services like twitter

and facebook has helped human rights activists organize and publicize human rights violations in iran and other places in the world. however, repressive governments can use these same tools to monitor and crack down on advocates. i invited facebook and twitter to testify today. they refused. last year, the chinese government announced they would require all computers sold in china to include software called green dam, which censors political consent and records user activity. thanks to the opposition from the u.s. government and companies, the chinese government eventually backed down. this incident highlighted the human rights challenges faced by computer manufacturers. i invited hewlett-packard and apple to testify about these challenges today, and they also refused. filtering software produced by american companies has allegedly been used to censor the internet

in several countries with repressive governments. i invited mcafee, which produces filtering software to testify today. mcafee initially agreed but on friday informed us they were pulling out. bottom line is this. with a few notable exceptions, the technology industry seems unwilling to regulate itself and unwilling even to engage in a dialogue with congress about the serious human rights challenges that the industry faces. in the face of this resistant, i've decided it's time to take a more active position and our hearing two years ago i indicated that congress could step in, if the industry failed, to take concrete action to protect internet freedom. today i'm announcing i will introduce legislation that would require internet companies to take reasonable steps to protect human rights or face civil or criminal liability. i look forward to working with my republican colleague, senator coburn, and my other colleagues to enact this legislation into

law. i recognize that the technology industry faces difficult challenges when they deal with repressive governments, but we have a responsibility in the united states and congress shares in that responsibility to ensure that american companies are not complicit in violating freedom of expression, a fundamental human right enshrined in our first amendment of our constitution and the universal declaration of human rights. i recognize my co-chairman. >> narrator: coburn. >> due to being a little under the weather, i'll ask my opening statement be placed in the record. >> do you have any? >> no. i look forward to the hearing. thank you for calling it. >> our first witness, the u.s. government has an important role to play in promoting global internet freedom and ensuring companies do not facilitate government repression. i look forward to hearing about the administration's plans to

advance freedom of expression around the world. our witnesses will each be given five minutes for an opening statement. their complete written statements made part ever the record and posted online. i'll ask if the witnesses would please stand and raise their right hands to be sworn. do you affirm that the testimony you are about to give before the committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? let the record reflect both witnesses answered in the affirmative. our first witness, michael pozner, is the assistant secretary of state for democracy human rights and labor. our government's top human rights official. mr. pozner was previously founding executive director and president of human rights first, which he headed for 30 years. has expectese in corporate, social responsibility and played a key role in founding the global network initiative. mr. posner has a bachelor degree and law degree at berkeley. first testified before the subcommittee last year when he held a hearing on the implementation of human rights

treaty it's. we're glad he's with us again. our following witness is daniel whitesner. policy development in the commerce department's national telecommunications and information administration and i think he's going to win a prize for the longest title having appeared before the committee. mr. whitesner is one of the nation's lead be experts on policy prior joins. part of the artificial laboratories decentralized information group and policy director of the world wide web connoisseur shum technology and society activities. mr. whitesner was also co-founder and deputy director of the center for democracy and technolo technology, electronic frontier foundation. your resume has to be loaded with titles. terrific. mr. whitesner has a bachelor's degree and law degree from buffalo law school. we thank you as well for joining us. mr. posner, would you like to make an opening statement? >> thank you. i want to thank you, senator

durbin, senator coburn, for inviting me to testify and for your long-standing interest in this subject. i followed this issue quite closely and the subcommittee's involvement since your part one hearing in 2008. and it's great that you're pursuing this. when you first addressed internet freedom, the primary concern of those testifying were content filtering on the internet and harassment and arrest of digital activists. these problems persist today as secretary clinton highlighted in her january 21st speech on internet freedom, the state department continues to protest the arrest detention and harassment of bloggers in iran, in china, in egypt, vietnam and elsewhere and countries that seek to fit filter accessed information are only becoming more skilled at doing so. these problems persist. but the threats to internet freedom are expanding beyond restricting access to content. as again secretary clinton

described repressive regimes are co-opting the media tools to crush, descend and deny human rights. the rapid increase in use of mobile phones creates new platforms for connecting people and providing information, it creates new threats to free expression and the free flow of information. we have a major set of challenges. state departments since 2006 has had an internet freedom task force, which has been relaunched as the net freedom task force chaired by two of our undersecretaries. and it is going to oversee the state department's efforts on these issues. i want to just quickly site three aspects of what we're doing. first, advancing internet freedom through programming. our effort is to provide unfettered information to communication. beginning in 2008 the bureau of

democracy human rights and labor, which has implement $15ds million in programming to support internet freedom i spell out some of the details in my testimony. we're also working with aid, with the middle east partnership initiative on a range of specific initiatives aimed at providing training to journalists, civil society activists, political parties on the use these new technologies. the second thing that we're doing more broadly is monitoring and analyzing. next week we'll release the annual human rights report of the state department on human rights practices and country reports. one of the things we're going to do in the coming year is review the reporting process and improve and expand on internet freedom reporting, which is an essential piece of what we need to be doing. we're going to make the reports more accessible to people around the world who have limited access to the internet and we're going to increase the capacity

of our embassy officers to monitor and respond when there are threats to internet freedom. and that's really the third aspect of what we're doing. responding. it's unfortunately too often the case that those who were involved in human rights and other advocacy are themselves targeted because of their advocacy and those who are using the internet and social networking sites are being attacked precisely because they're communicating effectively. last, for example -- last fall when a popular social networking site was blocked in vietnam, we raised the issues with officials in hanoi and in washington. when bloggers in countries such as china and vietnam and egypt and iran are threatened, we speak out publicly on their behalf. this is an important part of what we can and need to be doing. i want to just say at last comment, and it relates to what

you spoke about senator durbin in your opening. this is about issue where the government has a role but the private sector also has a role. as you noted, i was involved before coming into government in the creation of the global network initiative, which is a multistakeholder initiative that brings together companies, ngos, academic experts and social investing firms. i think it's really critical that we and you work to figure out ways for companies to step up and take responsibility here. we can't do it alone, and companies acting alone can't make a difference. there needs to be a collective response, and i'm personally very committed as are others in the state department, to trying to find ways to work collectively with the private sector to make a difference in this area. thank you very much. >> chairman durbin, ranking member coburn, members of the subcommittee, thank you for this invitation to testimony on behalf of the department of

commerce and the national telecommunications and information administration. i'll work on shortening titles. on the global challenges facing the internet industry, as an advocate of economic growth innovation and exports, the department of commerce's goal is to is a sort a global open internet as a platform for the free flow of information of goods and services. the department of commerce is committed to our role as partnered with u.s. companies large and small as they grapple with the challenges of operating in countries that reject openness, transparency and the free flow of information. the great innovative energy of the internet is due to the fact that even the smallest u.s. internet start-ups can be reached by users all over the world. with this strength we must also recognize the u.s. companies can become the target of arbitrary foreign laws even if they have no offices in that country. today we'll summarize the challenges we see facing u.s. companies, discuss the importance of transparency.the internet and the update you on the commerce department's activities to support a

commercial robe bufrt and transparent internet. let me highlight three major threats that we see very briefly. first, u.s. company, often pressured to blog or filter internet consent on communications absent evidence of illegality based on rules unclear, unwritten and lack due process or transparency. second, some governments would require that internet service providers to assist in electronic surveillance without due process or adequate judicial supervision putting these companies in untenable situations they shouldn't have to face. u.s. companies, third, risk being the victims of hacking attempts sponsored by overseas criminals, foreign governments or loose knit groups of both working together. in this area, era of globally integrated computing platforms, security threats in one country can put the entire global enterprise at risk. worse, securities become a pretext often for forced compliance with government imposed technically deficient

standards, disadvantaging u.s. companies which support global standards and putting the entire internet at risk. unfair treatment of internet users and providers threatens the internet's fundamental modus ap ran dye, transbarreny. rapid innovation of the internet and applications that run on it. despite recent attention to vulnerabilities in the internet inf infrastructure, we must not lose sight that enables us to communicate through a common platform. transbarrensy at the heart of the internet's suction. looking forward the commerce department will continue its sectionful tradition of developing government industries civil society partnerships supporting internet development. we've been heartened by the global initiatives ongoing efforts. the government must be a full partner in this effort we believe standing up for individuals and businesses when the free flow of information and human rights are threatened.

ensuring that the internet is open for innovation and social progress is a vital priority for the department. in the early months of the new administration we assembled a @ ü@ @ @ @ "# @ @ @ @ @ @ a@ @ @r work began with developing a new internet privacy and cyber security framework. the test per -- the taskforce has contained many meetings. we have that a consideration of global trade barriers along with online copyright enforcement and internet governance. in the coming months, outreach

will continue and issue notices of inquiry. based on this feedback, the task force will focus resources on this. from my own experience, the internet was created and has grown to global scale because of a unique combination of cooperation and transparency. academic and commercial research came together to create the underlying index -- internet technology. information on the internet are serious. we should look to solve them as much as possible with the unique cooperative transparent spirit that gave us the internet in the first place. i thank you again for the opportunity to be here and for your long-standing attention to this important issue and look forward to your questions. >> thanks a lot. we asked facebook to come, and they replied by saying, we have no business operations in china, or for that matter in most of the countries of the world. went ton say, as a young start-up, our resources and influence are limited.

we do not have the resources to devote to gni membership. but here are the facts. facebook has over 400 million users, which makes it the second most viewed website in the world. about 70% of facebook users are outside the united states. facebook has over 1,000 employee, hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues and is worth billions of dollars. that is hardly a mom and pop flation can't afford to be part of gni, and facebook acknowledges that it engages in censor ship. in their letter, i quote, when consequent shared from a particular jurisdiction violates that jushg dictions local laws or customs facebook may take down that content. mr. posner, it's my understanding facebook recently asked the state department for help when blocked in jeet knap and you responded by raising the ish a you with the vietnamese government. is has right? >> yeah. we have responded a number of

companies have come to us, facebook is one of them, and we are obviously trying to promote internet freedom. so we're trying to be cooperative with all. >> facebook expects our government to help in resolving efforts to censor their service, seems reasonable they accept some responsibility themselves for addressing human rights issues. mr. posner, does facebook face human rights challenges such as censorship that gni would address? >> yeah. you know, again, i don't want to single out one particular company, but i think it's fair to say that companies like facebook and twitter are certainly susceptible to a lot of the pressures that we've seen others face. technology's changing. the world is changing. government are getting much more aggressive from trying to regulate and control content. i think it's a -- >> i don't want to single out one company either. let me single out another one. let's take twitter. in a letter to me twitter expressed confidence they were having a positive impact on human rights. i believe that. they said, i quote, twit sir a

triumph of humanity not  technology. helped activists organize and publicize human rights violation but they also face human rights challenges. for example, reports the iranian government is tracking down opposition activities, of those who use twitter. however in their letter to me twitter declined to join the gni saying i quote it is our initial sense that gni's draft policies processes and fees are better suited to bigger companies who have actual operations in sensitive regions, end of quote. mr. posner, does twitter face human rights challenges that the gni could address? >> yes, they do. and you know, i think one of the things that makes the gni to me an important part of the solution here is that companies are going to learn from each other. there's not one company that's going to have a monopoly on creativity or thoughts about how to deal with this. they need to work collectively, and that's part of what this initiative is designed to do.

>> in our next panel, an iranian blogger, a witness today, says, and i quote in this testimony, it was not the iranian government who shut down my website. it was the domain and host provider in the united states that did it. end of quote. testimony by rebecca mckinnon, another witness on our second panel indicates that the u.s. web hosting companies denied service to political opposition groups in zimbabwe and syria. wrap can be done to ensure u.s. sanctions and export controls do not prevent the u.s. companies from providing internet technology and services like website hosting to human rights and democracy activists living under repressive governments? >> as you know, mr. chairman, the jurisdiction for export controls is shared between the commerce department. we enforce our export administration regulations and other rules that the state department as well as the

treasury department. as the services such as twitter and others that you mentioned that don't employ any encryption software on the user end, as far as we understand, those services are freely available around the world with, from the perspective of u.s. regulations. obviously, as you note, other countries may block access to those service, but the commerce department's export administration regulations do not prevent anyone in the world from using a service like twitter. that is because it's a service that's based on the web. it doesn't require the installation of software. it's also the case that under commerce department regulations, publicly available, downloadable software with inkrepgs can be used widely. >> let me ask about another issue that's related. some commentators expressed concern about the appearance that the state department is too close to some american internet companies. for example, last week twitter's ceo jack dorsey was the member

of an deutsche state department delegation to russia. top state department officials used twitter to post details about their personal lives. technology expert says and i quote, the kind of message it sends to the rest of the world that google, facebook and twitter are now extensions of the u.s. state department may simply endanger the lives of those who use such services in our third world countries. it's hardly surprising the iranian government begun to rescrew all twitter users with suspicion. mr. posner, are you concerned about the perception that the state department is too close to fis like twit around facebook and how can we combat the impress these company, just an arm of our government? >> i think we have to be able to work in multiple ways as a government. the fact that there are these social networking sites or internet sites that deploy or allow information to be disseminated quickly means that they're a tool for all governments and for private

citizens. we shouldn't reject that. but at the same time, i think we have to be clear that there's a separation between government and these private companies. they don't -- they're not part of the government, and there are certain obligations we have to hold their feet to the fire to be acting responsibly as companies. we need to be really operating in multiple tracks here, not deny ourselves the ability to use the excellent tools that they provide, but at the same time keeping the lines clear of who we are and who the companies are and holding them accountable for their own actions. >> senator coburn? >> thank you. mr. posner, you talk about the three things you all are doing in terms of programming, monitoring and analyzing and then responding. and you spoke specifically about responding to two or three different instances, vietnam i think was one you mentioned. what's been the affect of that response? >> this is a long-term and tough subject for us to claim

immediate results. it's not going to happen that way. governments are testing the limits, and we're pushing back. i think in the long run we're going to succeed, because i think efforts by governments to control people's ideas are not going to succeed. people are going to find creative ways to circumvent whatever restrictions governments put up. but i think we just have to be resolute in saying we are absolutely dedicated to as secretary clinton said to a free, open internet, and communications environment. without restrictions, and we're going to keep pushing for that, and when governments push back, we're going to be there to say, this is counter to the american values and american foreign policy. >> so there's definitely going to be a consistency to your message and a constancy to your message? >> if we're not consistent we're not going to succeed. yes. >> okay. mr. witsner, you mentioned the gni in your testimony. given your unique perspective of

the diversity of all the companies that make up the industry, that offer internet based goods and services around the world, do you see gni as a framework that will fit every one of those companies? or -- is there the case that maybe this doesn't fit some of them? >> from the perspective of the efforts that we imagine at the congress department, our main interest is to be a partner with the gni. it seems unlikely that every single internet company in the united states would join. we certainly hope more do. these organizations have to figure out how to create the proper kind of fit between their mission and those who they hope to serve. that's not an easy challenge, as you know. but we think it's important. from the commerce department perspecti perspective, we hear from companies large and small across a dmub of sectors of the internet economy. certainly small start-ups may not be able to fully participate in the gni, but we think first of all they will benefit from

the efforts of an organization like that, and we look, we are looking carefully at how we can make the trade assistance resources we have available on the ground and in over 60 countries around the world available to those u.s. companies who for whatever reason don't fit as well. >> but you do feel that ultimately they all will have some benefit directly or indirectly? >> i think that if the gni can suck sooetd at its efforts to bring greater transparency and a set of commonly accepted best practices that would benefit the internet as whole. >> what kind of guidance does your department give to u.s. companies offering the internet based goods and services, internet restricted countries to overcome the challenges that you outlined in your testimony? >> you know, i wouldn't say there's a single answer to that question, but as i noted, the commerce department resources working along with state department resources in many countries work on a case-by-case basis to work through barriers

that, or misunderstandings that companies face. when those barriers are seen to be too hard to resolve, in individual cases we can escalate those to discussions with the governments and often to government discussion at whatever level can be helpful in a way that the company may not be able to muster all by itself. this is especially true for smaller companies, for companies that don't have the international profile that, of some of the cases we've seen in the news. so, again, we think that they will have an essential role to play in helping u.s. companies that way. >> are there instances success if you've been able to accomplish that? >> well, very often these are efforts that -- that require cooperation across the executive branch. i point to interactions involving the recent green dam

filtering requirement proposed by the chinese government, as that issue was raised to various parts of the u.s. government including the commerce department, the international trade administration, the ustr, state department and others, we were able to have a dialogue with the chinese government that we think produced results. >> okay. the department of commerce seems to be on the forefront of some of the issues we're discovering, discussing today, bus on the other i was startled to hear efforts to target internet policy changes seemed to have only just begun. is the interagency internet policy task force the first such initiative undertaken by the department? >> the department of commerce's efforts in internet policy go back to more or less the beginning of the commercial internet in the mid'90s. early work was done in the department of commerce in laying out a framework for global electronic commerce in laying out privacy rules and approaches appropriate for the united states. i'm proud to say there's a long-standing tradition at the

commerce department far pre-dating our work and we intend to continue that. >> how long before notice of inquiry runs in the federal register to solicit additional outside. s? >> we are hoping to do this in the next couple of months. >> why can't it be done immediately? >> well, we've been engaging )@d >> when does the task force anticipate making formal recommendations to the secretary of and commerce. >> we expect by the end of the year we will have recommendations. we will contribute based on what we learned in an informal way to

the commerce department efforts and administrattmñwide efforts. we view this as an ongoing effort. >> you have this tremendous knowledge and experience --h8ñ l or u.s.ge and experience --h8ñ l companies to operate in ways that support ahq÷iç global, open free flow of intermission, goods, and services even with countries that do not share those values and how we get there? >> i hesitate to say anything is always possible. that the spread of a rec nation openness is good for everyone. >> powerful tool. >> yes. >> okay. thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. posner, congress has reserved tens of millions of dollars for funding at the censorship initiatives, just last december your bureau called for a $5 million of this funding. however, as bipartisan group of

senators has pointed out, the application required a significant "in country presence requiring the groups developing anti-censorship software, for example, to actually physically be present in an authoritarian country." i'm no i.t. expert, but the impression i get that software is pretty portable. i also get the impression that it's hard to live in an authoritarian country, or as an anti-censorship programmer in a country like -- i don't know, say iran. why do we have this requirement and is it necessary? >> senator, i think there's been some misunderstanding of that requirement, and i will say we've gotten a range of very exciting proposals from more than 20 different entities.

what we're trying to do is create opportunities for people operating in tough, repressive places like iran. to get access to information. when we talk about presence, we're not talking about having servers on the scene or complicated technical equipment. what we're trying to do is find entities, a range of different groups, who are looking as we are creatively at how to use internet. how to use telephone applications to better communicate with their own societies. so we have -- the field is wide open, and we have a range of different applicants for that money. many of whom are not physically located in the countries that were -- >> the -- in the proposals it says the bulk of project activities must take place in

country, and last between one and three years. >> yeah, but when we say that, what we're talking about is, for example -- let's take the example of iran. what we're interested in doing is providing the kind of training, assistance protection to people, iranians, who are with their own society trying to open up free flow of information and access to information. we're working with a range of groups that are not themselves based in iran, or in china, or in any of these countries. but we're trying to create opportunities for people inside their own countries, their own societies, to communicate more effectively. that's the purpose of that language. >> okay. i'm not sure i totally follow, but let's go somewhere else. the "washington post" specifically criticized the e department for not giving a cent to a group called the global internet freedom

consortium, and mr. chairman, without objection, i'd like to add a copy of that editorial for the record. according to the "wall street journal" these are the guys who develop the software that allowed protesters in iran to communicate during and after the government crackdown. can you speak to the post editorial? why hasn't this group received any funding? >> first of all, the group you mention is one of the 20-some that applied for funding in december, and those applications, or those, that money is now being disbursed or we're reviewing all of the applications. so we'll make a decision in the next few months, and they were open. the competition was open and we encouraged them to apply and they did, which is a good sign. our approach has been that there is not one magic answer to how

to circumvent these restrictions nap there needs to be a range of tools, a range of different approaches. we sort of view ourselves as someone like the venture capital firms in the silicon valley trying a lot of different things. >> this particularly successful and not one that is receiving funding where. >> there are different views about how successful any one of these has been, and we're looking at that, but you know, we're absolutely open to there being a candidate for funding and looking at it very seriously. >> thank you. mr. weitzner, the free trade agreements are negotiated by the united states trade representative, not your department, but i still want to ask you this question. over time our frewer trade agreements have come to include robust projections for workers and for the environment. weren't of our latest fta, a

korean fta includes a provision protecting "the free flow of information and facilitating trade" but it only covers international information flows, not intracountry censorship. and also isn't mandatory. will this administration support a simple mandatory ban on political censorship on the internet in future trade agreements? >> that's a question i'm not prepared to speak to right here but will certainly take it back and consider it. i think as we look at the free trade agreements we have that are being amended and the new ones that are being negotiated, it's certainly appropriate to consider the range of issues that affect the open internet. it's clearly in the interests of promoting free trade to have an open internet and we'll be happy to come back with you and talk in more detail about your suggestion. >> okay. and you've mentioned that you, part of your portfolio is trade

and intellectual properties. i just wanted to ask. we're talking about free flow of information and internet freedom here, but i wanted to also talk for a second that as long as we're considering putting this kind of restrictions in our trade agreements, that will restrict censorship, what are we doing on intellectual property and can we put these together to prevent the countries like china from ripping off our, our intellectual property, our movies, et set virgincetera? >> as you know, a number of agreements have protection provisions in them and there are negotiations ongoing. in other venues to advance that to oth

>> the proposed constitutional amendment to rein in government spending will happen. "washington journal" begins live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c- span. p today, a memorial service in the capitol rotunda for congressman john murtha who died last month. among those scheduled to speak is vice president joe biden, defense secretary robert gates, and house speaker nancy pelosi.

our live coverage begins at 11:00 a.m. eastern time here on c-span. as "washington post" to national correspondent, tr reid will talk about his global views on international issues including the united states of europe and confucius lived next door. join our three-hour conversation and your phone calls live sunday at noon eastern on books tv. texas-el primary elections in the governor's race yesterday, the incumbent won. here is the concession speech followed by governor harry's victory speech.

>> we have fought together, a wonderful team, we have brought together a great team. we have fought valiantly for our principles but we did not win. i have called governor perry and congratulated him on his victory. i want you to know from the bottom of my heart that all of you who came from some many parts of our great state to support me and vote for me and to volunteer for me, i could not have done it without the incredible grass-roots effort that we have been able to do in this campaign. you hosted event, you drove me around, you flew me around, and

came to see me on the campaign trail. i want to especially thank president george and barbara bush. [applause] it took so much courage and principle for them to come in behind me because they knew me and i love them. vice-president dick cheney is another one. [applause] and former secretary of state, jimmy baker and henry kissinger. [applause] iso appreciate their willingness to stand up for someone they knew. i want to thank my campaign chairman, jim francis, who is here tonight. our co-chairs. my finance chairman.

and all the great campaign staff that worked so hard on my behalf. i will always appreciate your courageous support and tireless efforts. i want to single out the farm bureau. i tell you -- if you are ever in the trenches -- [applause] we, in texas, know how important agriculture is in our state. i have worked with the farm bureau throughout my career in the senate and in this campaign and there are no more wonderful, loyal, down-to-earth, good people who will stand on principle no matter the consequences and i love you guys, thank you. [applause] it has been a long road and we have come together to make sure that texas remains what it is today, the greatest state in

america. [applause] i will work with governor perry and our fellow republicans to keep texas strong and prosperous for the future. we all must do that. i also congratulateçy medina. she ran a spirited campaign. we had a big turnout in our republican primary(v todayl&9.e competition attracted voters to our party. it will leave hard feelings but i ask my supporters tonight all three texas to join me and unite behind governor perry. that is what will be best for all of us and for texas. [applause] our party must come together. we

must put aside our differences, we must embrace the new people who have come into our party today, and worked to elect republican leaders who will lead our state and our nation out of this recession with conservative principles of limited government and fiscal restraint. i thank all of you for working and supporting me for your loyalty. my husband who stood be caught -- the sudden and missed many of as because he was helping so much with our home and their children. we must unite. we must win texas for republicans and their conservative principles in november. ray and i have both serve texas. we love texas. i will always do everything i can in whatever capacity to protect texas, ours values, our principles,

thank you all fk':hñ bottom of my heart. thank you. [applause] thank you very much. thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. [applause] sx6l÷vd[cheers and applause] n0/>> thank you very much. í:tthere are many people who are the reason i get to stand here

tonight. there is nobody more importance and nobody that had more to do with that, that beautiful blonde girl÷yv that i talked to marry . [applause] óyou cannot do things like this without someone like her. we have been blessed to have two fabulous children in griffin and sydney. . i want to thank my mom and dad for being here tonight. they taught me some great values. they told me the same kind of texas at the value that have made this states a great. -- state so great. i want to thank all of you for being here tonight to celebrate a very important moment in our party us history.

-- party's history. i took a call from senator hutchison a little while ago and she gave -- extended her congratulations and i am greatly ofy she offered the support to wasfy in the upcoming campaign and to unite the party. [applause] i thank her for the campaign she had won. i gratefully accepted her offer to work with our and to unite the party to move forward and i look forward to workin with her. and her supporters over the next eight months as we go forward. [applause] there are some folks who have watched this campaign with great interest in 2008.

there are folks who were watching the national campaign in 2008 and they started to celebrate at what they considered to be the end of the republican party and the final nail in the coffin of american conservatism]boos] there were a string of victoris that have come along lately. there was a victory in new jersey. there is a victory in virginia. there is a victory in massachusetts. [applause] and now there has been a victory in texas. [applause] i think the message is pretty clear -- conservatism has never been stronger than it is today. [applause] we are taking our country back.

one boat at a time, won election at time. this election was about hard work and texans sending a compelling message to washington -- quit spending all the money. [applause] stop trying to take over our lives and their businesses. [applause] the numbers indicate that a lot of people -- a lot of new people participated in this election process and i think that bodes well for our state because it means that people are awake, they are energized, they are aware of the power that they hold in their hand. because people are paying attention, washington cannot hide from the fact that congress hiked the national debt ceiling to $14.30 trillion. they cannot hide from the fact, they cannot conceal that the

budget that they are going forward with has more than 8 $5 trillion debt in it over the next five years but they cannot hide from that. voters are aware. voters are aware of washington's intent to enact laws and regulations that will cripple our energy industry and kill jobs all across this country but particularly in texas. they are trying to impose national education standards that will reduce the quality of our work force, negotiate a health care bill that would decrease our ability to have a good health care and cost billions of dollars for the people of this country. today, the votes of those inform citizens were tallied and there was a resounding message that has reverberated all the way from texas to washington, d.c. [applause]

texas voters said no to washington bureaucrats making decisions that state leaders and citizens should be making for themselves. they said no to legislation that would kill jobs and drive people out of our economy. they said no to a culture of reckless spending and policies that endangers our children's future. however, republican voters did not say no to everything. they said a resounding yes to leadership that controls spending, a fight for individual freedom, and the united states constitution. [applause]

from driftwood, texas to washington, d.c., we are sending you a message to night. stop messing with texas. [applause] stop messing with texas. [applause] that message resonates. it resonates across our state. i have seen the energy and enthusiasm all across this state during this campaign like i have never seen before in my life. whether you are a fiscal conservative, whether you're a social conservative, whether you are a tea party patriot [applause] or even if you are a disgruntled conservative democrat, we welcome you to help us and be here with us today. [applause] we are glad you are in the game

and making a difference. whether you voted for me or one of my very able opponents, i will work to unite the republican team to win in november by carrying the torch of limited government, on limited opportunity, and good jobs for texas. [applause] i have said many times during this campaign, there is a land of opportunity in america today and it is called texas. [applause] it is strong today. texas is strong today for a few simple reasons that reflect the conservative principles by the majority of texans.

we did not spend all the money last legislative session. that is a simple concept. we sustain the a predictable and a pair regulatory climate. we reform our legal system so that we do nand we have prayed d accountable school system that delivers a skilled work force. that is not fancy stuff but it is simple stuff and it works. [applause] the challenges we are facing are clear. we need to continue to tell the story of our successes in texas. we have to defend the conservative values that have made them possible and we have to remain attuned to the threat by federal government that continue to overreach, overspend, and try to overdraw our children's of bank account for the future. [applause]

it is clear -- the obama administration and its allies already have texas in their cross hairs. i can probably assure you that we will get all kinds of special attention in the future. but until washington gets its priorities into order and it retreats to the boundaries that are detailed in the 10th amendment's [applause] we will keep working in this state to state an economy here in texas, an economy that leading economic-say will be the last and the first out we will allow hard-working texans

like i have had a great opportunity to visit with all across the state. there is no better team of hard- working texans than the republican team i have been working with over the course of the campaign. [applause] thank you for being here tonight. [applause] there is no better place to call home than the lone star state. [applause] with our people, which are shared values, with our mutual love of liberty, we will keep texas strong with taxes and values and experienced leadership. i want to leave you with a quote from ronald reagan. [applause] "the common sense and common decency of ordinary men and women working out their own

lives in their own way, that is the heart of american conservatism to de." [applause] how right he is. that is common sense. that is common season -- decency that remains the heart of conservatism, not just in texas but in america. [applause] let's sustain it. with passion and energy. the same kind of passion and energy that brought the victory to west tonight. god bless you and through you, may god continue to bless the great state of texas. [applause]

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> this weekend, former republican presidential candidate mitt romney in his latest asserts that a strong america is essential for our well-being but the world. that is part of our book tv weekend on c-span 2. >> coming up on c-span, "washington journal washington journalij1" is live next three members of congress attend a memorial -- a memorial service for john murtha in the capital. in about 45