you had mentioned skimming vessels. does that include [unintelligible] can you give a basic assessment of [unintelligible] >> that does include vessels of opportunity in that they are pulling skimming equipment that we would track. you can actually do it by pulling absorbent boom. you can tell nets with liners. there are -- there is a variety of means for removing oil. we are tracking it by whether or not they operate in-shore or near-shore or off-shore. we will be two main tracking devices on all of the so that we can keep track of inventory. there will probably be some choices --scamminscamming

skimming choices. i think we made significant progress. this was a huge challenge for us. we had a number of folks show up, in roldan the system. this was a source of income to offset the the loss of their income. i made the analogy several times. it was like a militia showing up at concord before the revolution. they showed passion, commitment, and resources. but some of them had a musket and others had a machine gun. we're putting tactical voice communications and tracking devices so we know where they

are at and we can communicate with them. we also have aerial surveillance so that we can tell them where the oil is that. that requires a significant amount of training, education, and a need to have a better coordinated way of managing airspace over the goal. we did that incarnation with the air force -- in coordination with the air force. there is a flight restriction over the well head itself. there is a command-and-control structure. we know where they are at and divert them to where they need to go. it started off slow and is gaining momentum. this is something that we have never done before in the context of a large spill. but it is something that we will have to learn in the future because communities will want to be involved in this sort of thing. >> is the will and integrity

test -- if the well integrity test does not work [unintelligible] >> we would bring the helix producer one online first and then the q 4000. that could give us up to 30,000 psi a day -- 30,000 barrels a day capacity. then we would most likely bring the discovery enterprise again with a containment cap. it will be incremental. the sequence will be the helix producer on line, the q 4000 online, the two freestanding

risers, and the two freestanding rings. >> can you identify the names of the vessels involved in [unintelligible] >> there are a number of combinations on how this will be put together. you can run other lines through the manifolds and the containment devices that have been put on the seafloor. in general, the q 4000 will be replaced. you will have the helix producer and the other one that will be producing through the freestanding riser pipes. the freestanding production will

be done by the discover horizon enterprise. the clear leader will be the fourth vessel. >> at this time, we will take the final question from the phone. >> this question is from brian walsh of "time magazine." >> you have any idea how much longer it will be to get to the 35,000 barrel a day range? >> we want to get a better florida estimate. i had a conversation with the head of the u.s. geological survey. we both believe that whatever information we get out of this

will lead us to a more refined estimate on flow rate. even to the extent that we have low pressure, if we can extend readings over time, it will give us more than which we have now. we have been trying to estimate the massive oil on the surface of the coast based on aerial surveillance. we have been using a high- resolution video through the sections. information where there was acoustical sensing used to assess the density. the problem has been the makeup of the float itself because there is seventh, natural gas in the oil itself. there are perhaps from time to

time, so there is a way that we had the kind of plan that out. those are in the elegant weis, some of the best ways we had to estimate the flow rate. thank you. thank you to those here. >> the national commission investigating the gulf coast oil spill heard from local elected officials today in new orleans. representatives from the louisiana shrimp a seceded talked about challenges that local communities still face. this is an hour and a half.

>> let me make and and and an announcement -- let me make an announcement. we may be submitting for the questions if there are areas that are not export today, and similarly, if you would like to contact us with any questions you might have, we're going to provide you with a point of contact to do so. we see what is happening today, not as one event, but an ongoing discussion, as we try to learn from the people who are most impacted by this tragedy and be able to make better judgments, because of the information that you will be providing us. we wish to extend our thanks.

mr. cooper, you had to call this estate. i appreciate your persistence in that you are here today. we look forward to hearing your comments. we should have heard from you yesterday. if you do not mind, we will start with mr. cooper, and then we'll go to the panel of mayors. >> i thank you all for letting us come here. first, i want to speak about investment opportunity. >> could you please speaking into the microphone. >> the program was first designed to give fishermen to go to work. in the process it got out of hand. everybody jumped on hand.

for one guy to sit at home and the other by the two make money and pay his bills, we started having big problems. i'm going to meet with bp today. we have a loaw in this state, ad i requested yesterday that names be provided to bp, to go through a database that they have and make sure that we touch the right people that needs to be touched. everybody wants to get a hold of this bandwagon. we have guys run motorboats, and this is not what it was designed

for. we're creating a big problem, because i am the representative of my area, and i am catching heat because they called me to go to work. it created a problem because as one of my fisherman told me, they cut the head of the snake off, which was me. i took it very seriously when he told me this. we are not just the industry. we are a community. we do not want to lose. hopefully, bp will listen to what we will ask them to do. we need to make sure that we get the ones that need to be here. if they need my help or the theciation's help, association can step in. three years of documentation showed that we are truly

commercial fisherman. everybody wanted a piece of this money. after that is the reason why we did 50% of your income. we have a database of names that we can go to to show them who is really a commercial fisherman. i hope b.p. steps up and does what is your right, because i will screen land, -- scream loud. if we have too many fishermen, let's break it down to 14 days and 14 days. i have been working since may 5, and i cannot think it is right. i have told them to do we think is right. after for -- every fisherman that is out there right now,

given up, and i am going to scream louder until something happens, because everybody needs their little part to go to work. i want to talk about our industry. we have a couple of sectors in our industry. one starts with the harvesters. then we have docks. the processors in return process it and distribute it. the processors are very versatile. a lot of them work with imported shrimp. i do not want to be pointing fingers. the ones that are doing it, they can make money. the ones that are not doing it are having problems. they have not received any money to help them get going. if any part of this link is broken, our industry is going to

die. we do not want that. we need to make sure that every every process that shows how our lives, needs to be taken care of. this third-party money, we have a big issue on this. we had that with katrina. some of the money is sitting back that the fishermen have not received. we are concerned on that issue. there is a lot of issues involving third-party moneys. when the federal money is given to the state -- five years at the fact in katrina, some of these fishermen have not received their money. this cannot happen now. i can tell all of you all and i will tell the world that this cannot happen. we cannot wait a year. right now the $5,000 that

they've been giving our fisherman has stopped. i have no problem with producing records. we have to make sure that the money keeps coming to these fisherman. after katrina, we went over our heads. i am 50 years old. i had to start from scratch again. how many people can you ask people to get up and start from scratch again? we're going to do it again. it may take time. we need to make sure that we have the help when it is needed. that is my goal right now. we have to make sure these people get provided for. it has to be done. the ones that are not working, we have to make sure that they get the money to pay their bills cricket -- their bills. we have seen things in the state that we have never seen in our live spirit my father possible

light. he is 74 years old and he is still fishing. my son-in-law is a fisherman. wildlife and fisheries opens and closes seasons in hours. we always had 48 hours. we always had time to get out to do what we have to do. they have written people up for violations, and you have to go to their website in order to see where the closures all are. they have a map that shows that. when our fishermen out there, they're not accessing the internet, they do not have the maps. they call me. how can i get the word out? i cannot get everybody out there. these tickets violations need to

be addressed, and i will get with wildlife and fisheries today, and i will address it with them. they need to do something about this, come in, give them a warning, get them out of the area. we do not want to keep writing these guys when they had no money to go to court to pay these tickets. they are hard pressed to pay their bills now. this has to be stopped. it has to be addressed. no problem. do not write them up and have been the the court and pay a fine. we are going to need more long- term -- what is going on right now, we may never overcome. we as an organization and fighting imports for over seven years, eight years takoma 10

years. our prices have been going, we are barely surviving. this year we had a couple of pieces of legislation passed, and then this happened. we fought hard. to try to get our prices up. this was the year. the set. we have prices we had not seen in years. the smallest shrimp that we caught was a $35. -- was $1.35 prickin5. this year it was up to $4 a pound. for them to distinguish what we made last year and the year before last, it is going to be a hard road to follow. this would have endeared help the docks, just our year to come

back. now we do not know what is going to happen. we do not know what is on tappan next year, this year. we are seasonal. with it to seasons we're losing right now, this winter time is on to be very hard for our industry to survive. if we cannot get help, we are going to forget about our industry. it is disturbing for this happen when you have done this all your life. my father is still fishing. thank you. >> can i say a few words? >> just a few. we are blind schedule. >> we are a hearing, and i have

been to a lot of them, and maybe i could classify this as a hearing and a doing. they listen to us very well. they just did not do anything that we say. this did not happen overnight. there are years and years of build up to an incident this -- what happened. what happened in washington? what happened to these agencies we just heard from? it is letting the fox role than that -- it is letting the fox role the henhouse. i hope we learn from this. i hope we can move forward and make oversight that works. the only person that lost their jobs over this was the head of mms, but i think this is not just -- there is always bad

people in the world. it is good people that should look -- killers and murderers and bank robbers, we put them in jail. we have walls and place. we have oversight. it got this bad says a lot about what we have been doing in washington and dealing with government, in that we let ules.rations make their role we the people who voted for change -- you can take this back to the administration -- president obama is in washington because we wanted change. it is business as usual. it is time for this administration and the government in particular the start listening to people. we demand a change. we do not want this kind of government anymore. i am a third-generation

fisherman. that is all my family has ever known. we have been in this louisiana since before it was a country. i like to refer to myself as an acadian american. this is not just a -- this is culture and heritage. for our government to let this happen -- there is always bad people, and it is up to you guys in washington to protect us. that is why we put you there. a lot of these agencies and the secretaries coming down here, and i talked to some of the people, and they think they can walk on water. guess what -- public servants, that is what i like to see, and we are public, and if you could

think you can walk on water -- when joe biden came down, he talked one of his staffers, but because one of my friends was with his sick wife, i was not allowed to speak to him, because i am acting president. i'm not going to sit in the audience and listen to him. thank you for your time. >> would you give me your name, sir. >> my name is clint guidry. anybody is welcome to my card. >> you are the president of the leaves me -- of the louisiana shrimp association? >> only the acting president. in the good. thank you very much.

>> you are welcome. >> ms. charlotte randolph. i should have said that president and two mayros are here. >> thank you for your service. thank you for being here in new orleans. it is convenient to us. i want to begin by offering my condolences to the families of those who were killed in this tragic incident. they represent friends and family where people work on these rigs, and its impacts on a daily basis. yes, i and the president of a parish. of aam the president parish. it is populated by 95,000 people. on may 8, will first appeared on the shores of our parish when

the deep water rise and blew out. when we talk about the shores of our parish, i want to assure that we do not have a beautiful white beaches and bluewater. we are a working and energy coast. we have endured 65 days of relentless effort to protect that viable wetland. birds do not fly, fish do not swim, and fishermen cannot make a living. then came the moratorium on deepwater drilling. this added insult to injury. nine of the top-10 tax payers in the parish are located at the port, which services all 33 rigs singled out in the original moratorium. we are at the epicenter of the suspension. this bill has decimated the fishing industry. the moratorium will end of life as we know it in our parish.

up to 44 cents sign of our tax base can be lost by 2012 as a result of the drilling ban. you have heard testimony from the rate owners yesterday that stated they intend to leave the gulf and pursue opportunities elsewhere in the world. some employees have been offered transfers to the cases in other states. families are making decisions as to whether the husband and father or the wife and mother will live elsewhere while the rest of the family stays behind to finish schooling. these are the lucky ones. the rest will be terminated. according to the department of interior's own assessment, up to 120,000 jobs could be lost in the coming years. 120,000 jobs could be lost in the coming years. the port has already reduced its rent to its tenants by 30%.

in april, 2010, the unemployment rate was 4.4%. this was the lowest in the nation. by november 30, at the end of the suspension, the number of unemployed will increase dramatically. in this country, a whole lot of money has been borrowed to create jobs to stimulate the economy, but the people in the parish and those associated with the oil and gas industry and its support services are not expendable americans. we fuel this country. that was made 28, and the team will ride july 26.

president said in early may that no permanent -- no permits for drilling will go through until the review is complete. that was the first intense scrutiny of the industry. some of those commissioners disagree with the moratorium decision, yet it was established anyway. the president for another commission upon which you sit and you haven't asked to study this for least six months. we will die a slow death. commissioner, am i pronouncing that correctly? you have been quoting to say that we should halt all oil and gas exploration. based on the rationale behind the new suspension on tree -- on

deepwater drilling issued yesterday, i am asking you to join with me in challenging the president, the secretary, and the federal government to protect all call states from another spill as completely as possible. stop all will tanker traffic in the gulf of mexico. are we considering all the risks, or are we just been pointing one industry? statistics indicate and oil tanker as a fourth time -- as four times greater chance of spilling its cargo than and will we blow it out. the president said he cannot risk another spill while all of these resources have been deployed in the gulf. tankers from around the world,

carrying up to 3 million barrels of oil, traversed the gulf all the way to the port of houston daily. louisiana offshore oil port is 18 miles off our coast. the offload 1 million barrels of oil a day. i am not advocating that we i am also not advocating that we stop all drilling in this country. we have weathered storms. we have weathered good times and bad times with the oil industry because it is so cyclical. the fishing industry has had its ups and downs. we have survived because we are ready to take on one ever comes next. we cannot do with something we

cannot control. we cannot do with somebody -- with something that somebody is going to take away from us without our input and the consideration of the economic injury it will cost to us. thank you. >> how badly did i butcher your name? >> you did pretty well. it is 100 miles to get from here to grand island. i was born and raised on the island. i am very frustrated knowing that another week from now, it will be 90 days i have been fighting the battle. most of the time, i get the runaround.

it is hurricane season and trying to watch families pay their bills is really frustrating. we're like the soldiers in the front line. we have thought many times. i could go anywhere in the world and fight a hurricane. i told that to the president. i met with the president three times. we asked to put booms out. we were told that blooms would be put out. they put several miles of booms out. we have complied major passes from the gulf of mexico -- five major passes from the gulf of mexico which produce about $4

billion worth of seafood. it is also about $2 billion worth of recreational fishing. 2 million acres of oysters in southeast louisiana were these five passes are wide open for the oil to, a. between the elected officials and elected officials of grand isle and neighboring perishes, we put a plan together to, i may end -- to put in barges. we have tanker trucks on top with a vacuum pumps to set up the oil. we have a total of about the six barges across these passes. in the meantime, it was a hurricane season. it's hurricane season now. tropical storm alex, thank god it went to the west of us.

all the booms are straight out. they were just straight out. after 40 mile an hour winds, we had to take the barges out of the passes because we are on the front line of these passes with ground swells come in and pushing the oil through. we had a plan. we went to the corps. we had two major engineer groups that cam in and got together with elected officials and we got a plan to put rocks across the passes. we went to the corps of engineers. we did everything right. we applied for the permits unemergency. and all of a sudden we get 95 pages of response from different agencies, some agencies i never heard of, coalitions from different areas. but the major agencies work for the federalovernment. they fight us every day to save our land and we want to do the right thing. the media and wildlife and

fisheries, tropical storm, we took them for a tour and being a commercial fishermen and raised as a fishermen, my grandfather, mother, father, all of us fishermen, brought tears to my eyes seeinoil about the size of a pancake coming through. and knowing there's nothing i can do. 250 shrimp boats catching their slim am. the oyster fishermen from grand isle, knowing that the fisher men, crab fishermen, we can't stop the oil coming in to the passes. born and raised as a cajun, working with my counselmen,

elected officials, showing the media where we have rocks to safe us, the oil was pounding against the rocks and inside the rocks was water and there was no oil. so to answer 95 pages, we had our engineers working day and night. we submitted three days later. and we got denied. we started working again. called the white house. and we made sure that we continue working with the corps. tomorrow we are going to meet with the corporation. i'm asking the board to give us a chance and block these passes by 70%. b.p. gave us their credit card and it's paid for. it's sitting in the river. we have $16 million worth of barges paid for. let us try something to protect these passes and i guarantee you we will save five parishes,

lafourche par itch, orleans par itch, jefferson parish. four weeks ago, they said it wasn't going to hit t lake. where is it? we have a plan. all our lives have been changed. residents, fishermen, tourists, business. the shrimp docks, the ma inast, $5,000, they can't even pay their electricity bil i'm trying to keep the largest shrimp dock, four million pounds of shrimp, trying to keep them open. you know what i'm doing? i'm begging b.p. to try to buy fuel with them. i got to go after them every day. not only, the barges that were tied, we paid rent for the barges and now his dock is

empty. the marina is empty. the bottom line is, b.p. is taking too long to come in and pay these people. the residents, business people and there are too many chiefs. you got to go through some of them to get these vessels to work. it's very frustrating. i'm going to go on and on, we saved 475 birds off of grand isle in the estuary and found 126 of them dead. the moratorium, please, help us, we need toeep on drilling. it kills us. the tourism, seafood is all shut down in my community. please help us. thank you so much. >> thank you, mr. mayor. mr. holloway. >> good morning commissioners. thank you for inviting me here today.

have been mayor of biloxi for 17 years. we have been through everything, hurricanes, recessions, depressions, tropical storms, everything and we survived it all. the common issue is we all had a beginning, middle and end. we can deal with that. but we have trouble dealing with is something that will not end. it's a new oil spill every day, every single day, day in and day out. and the mississippi gulf coast, we are more fortunate than most. my heart goes out to the folks of louisiana, fishing and seafood is their entire way of life. it took two months for the oil to get to us. we haven't seen the amount of oil that has been seen in louisiana or even alabama or florida. but the impact on segment of our economy has been just as

devastating. with the closing of all state waters in mississippi, our seafood industry and charter boat fishing industries have been december mated. imagine that for a moment. no state waters in mississippi are open for commercial or recreational fhing. we have a fleet of about 60 charter boats on the mississippi gulf coast. the university of southern mississippi last month issued an economic impact report on the spill. the word used to describe the revenue picture for charter boats was freefall. look at it this way. it's as if you are a taxi cab driver and every street in the city was closed. how can you make a living? you can't. it's the same for shrimpers. let me give you eanch idea of the hit on shrimping. we had 233 shrimp boats in the mississippi waters.

this year, shrimp season opened a few days earlier at the beginning of june to get a little jump ahead of the oil. we had 67 boats on oning day. two days after the shrimp season opened, the first closure of mississippi waters occurred. a small area closed at first, but it mushroomed until a month later on july 2 when all gulf waters of the mississippi gulf coast were closed to recreational and commercial fishing. just before the waters closed, we were down to 40 shrimp boats. this created a domino effect. we have 10 seafood processing plants and unloading docks. let me tell you how they're doing. last year in june, one of them had a payroll of a quarter million dollars. this june, that payroll sk to $40,000. and july is going to be worst

because shrimping has been closed since the beginning of the month. wurn of our plts had sales of $120,000. this year it was $190 million that is a drop in sales in one month one plant. that's the story on the fishing and seafood industry, freefall. in biloxi, tourism is our niche. we get about four million visitors a year, whi is about half of what we s before trina. we have 13,000 hotel rooms on the mississippi gulf coast. 30% of the 17,000 w had before katrina. our numbers have been on pace with last year, but our revenue is in the non-casino hotels is down 50%, which is about $26

million. let me say something about 2009. it was a terrible year nationally. it was the worst year since 2004 for hotels. we are in a recession. business was terrible. in fact, this year, our tourism folks expected to make the money to pay back that theyorrowed. to make it through last year. when you hear that occupies answery is down and revenue is off that means our small hotels are lowering their rates to get people in their rooms. perception is our biggest problem right now. we have a total of 62 miles of beaches that are open to the public. we have seafood restaurants that are serving fresh seafood. you can fish in our bays and bayous. we are open for business. the problem is people see the national news and they think

every place from texas to florida is in ankle deep in oil. the effects of this catastrophe are going to linger for who knows how long. it's going to take time and money to change the perception. leaders of the hotel industry sayhat will not all of our hotels are going to make it through this crisis. some of the small ones may become casualties. they were on the verge of coming through katrina andeathering recession. this should have been the breakthrough year. now they don't know if they have the financial wherewithal to make it through this. i don't have all the answers, but i do have some advice and suggestions based on what i have seen and heard. i think there needs to be more local control, local control. let me give you some specifics. we have a string of barrier islands 12 miles off the mississippi coast and a few islands closer in.

i would like to have that boom placed around those islands to protect them. they could have and should have been our first line of defense. we suggested booms, but they didn't happen in all cases and when it did, it was the 18-inch boom and not the 42-inch boom. we asked for skimmers for weeks and weeks. and we didn't get them. when the oil came in, we didn't have them. in the 13th hour, our governor had to make arrangements to lease or buys skimmers. when you see the pelicans, you have to call alabama to report it. i would think local control works better. one thing i will say about b.p. is this, they have followed through on things they told us so far. i don't have all the answers, as i said, and i'm not here to complain. i know my residents are anxious.

they are worried about the day-to-day impact on their lafse and they are worried about the long-term impact on how this is going to change our way of life. i don't think a moratorium on drilling is the way to go. but i know we must have safeguards in place so this never happens again. accidents are going to happen, but our response should be not an accident. there needs to be a stronger and better plan and one that can be triggered immediately and the response needs to be driven locally. thank you for inviting me. >> thank you very much, mr. mayor. several of you mentioned that b.p. $5,000 payment plan. how accessible and responsive has that plan been and you indicated, mr. mayor, that you thought it might be inadequate

to meet some of the current needs. how would you alter the b.p. plan? >> well, in the lasweek, it got a little better. what we're asking for is maybe to get some individuals from b.p. to talk to these business people like to sit down with them and with their wifes and husbands and look at their returns and same thing for fishermen. i just find it's very frustrating to see in my office coming in and showing me they have an electricity bill for $5,200 and got a check for $5,000 and at the same time have families to feed and continue to pay their mortgages at the bank. to be honest with you, it did get a little better to some business people. but for the representatives to go one-on-one and with my residents it wouldn't take long for them t sit with the

individuals. just call by name and make an appointment. boost that up a little bit, because it's not moving fast enough. we need some help in that. >> president randolph, you talked about the impact of the moratorium. yesterday, the secretary issued a second moratorium and we heard this morning that instead of affecting 33 rigs that may affect now 21. have you had an opportunity to review the new moratorium and have any comments as to how it's likely to affect your community? >> sir, since the initial moratorium was issued, we have received mixed messages. there has been confusion about this moratorium, about who it impacts. we have experienced -- and i know the gentleman said earlier it was not a defacto moratorium

but the control is within the department of interior as to the issueance of permits. time will only tell, sir. the support services industry is totally relying upon this deepwater drilling. and as the rigs leave and we heard that eight of them are leaving already, the support services will no longer have a structure to support. as was said earlier, it's like 33 little manufacturing plants and it affects all the people associated with it. and not just in lafourche parish. the gears for some of these rigs are made in ohio and there are workers on these rigs who come here bi-weekly in shifts from just about every state in the ion. it's a lrative job.

it's a job that people feel for the most part feel safe doing. and there are many people involved in this. this new suspension with only 21, i'm still concerned. >> my final question, could you give an assessment of how much this has affected the financial status of your parish and your two cities. >> well, i have had some figures of how it's affecting our city and the shrimping business and charter boat business, but something that hasn't been mentioned that is beginning to have an effect d it's having a greater effect maybe on uisiana more than mississippi, but we have some health issues that's coming -- mental health. people are getting down,

discouraged. they are losing their livelihoods d their work. and i know that there is some concern about that that i don't think is getting enough attention at this time. the economy is rocking a little bit. we have a tourist town and seafood town. both of those are hurting us. >> i was speaking specifically to the city itself. in a recent tour we took over the weekend in florida, a number of local officials were concerned about the impact this was having on the budgets. many of the communies had already spent their emergency reserves and the hurricane season is just beginning and they were worried as to -- how they would finance the cost should they have an emergency

such as that later in the year. >> that's going to pile it on. because our budget was in bad shape from the recession and yow -- we have been very concerned about our budget. this is coming on top of it. >> and again, we wept through the last five years -- we went through five major hurricanes. this was our year to the money. we had the best shrimp season and also with the tourism. that's the best our island ever looked and in any one of the communities. but the bottom line, talking to our business people and the fishermen in our area, we took about a 75% loss in our registers. and we are trying to keep our beach clean every day to try to encourage the people to come down. but like the mayor said, the whole gulf, you put the

television on and you think there is so much oil all over the beaches and we try to clean it up. i get on the radio and television, bring your families, investment is up to -- and i'm telling these people to stop at your nearest store and buy a swimming and enjoy yourselves at grand isle. i had a phone call last night, yesterday evening, it's very disturbing is, you know, i got a council meeting back in grand isle tonight and it's going to be rough. people like you said, they don't know where to turn. they come to my office and david, if we don't get no help, we are coming to raise hell at the council meeting tonight. we need to get more money in here. we don't know what to do. the wars are closed. le me tell you, it's just like

you guys going back home, you get up in the morning and go to your office. picture your office gone for 90 days or a taxi cab driver with all the streets closed. we make our living in the water. everything we do is out of the waters. our tourists come in. minute gas goes up a penny before it started falling down, a family man is not going to florida, no offense to florida, he has a little pay check, going to take those kids and come down south and enjoy our beaches. no income at all, nobody's moving. everybody's scared to come on our beaches. and it's very -- it works on you. you try -- all i tell our people, we're goingo take it one day at a time. stay strong. pray a lot. god's going to take care of us.

like the mayor said and charlotte, the fishermen are fighting, we all fight for our recreational fishermen, charter boat captains, they borrowed money after katrina to put their businesses back together. i'm not going to encourage someone to get a loan fl s.b.a. b.p. has been doing good things. they are working with the community. we took a tennis court, we took a tennis court and built a volleyball and the kids get to play tonight just like you go home with your kids and grand kids, let's go to the movies. guess where our movies are at, a screen in a parking lot every thursday night. so, to answer you, sir, we aren't go to give up. but by taking away everything

from us from the waters, i don't know what's going to happen to us. i'm hoping and hoping that we can -- we get some help some kind of way and come across, $5,000 is nothing. and to come in and nickel and dime our people is not the way to do it. and it's hurricane season. all our nurnses are d, flood nurnses, banks are calling every one of our residents to renew. there's just know money. no money. and fighting agencies to try and protect your people when half the agencies never even looked atur areas and ner seen the oil coming in. so i want to get on the boards and throw rocks. our people want to do it, go in the passes. let us show our plan. the government doesn't have a plan. and b.p. pick up the tab on it. let's stop the oil from coming

in so you guys don't have to ask the federal government. we never asked a nickel from the federal vernment to block these passes, not a nickel. and it's very frustrating. and going bac i have 24 messages as i'm speaking now, people, individuals have my telephone number and don't know what to do, don't know how to pay their bills. it's 90 days. tropical storm is going to hit us and what's going to happen is, the ground swells get bigger and bigger. the little booms are out, they break the anchors out. he'll tell you that. nobody has a plan. meaning the government. let us tray our plan. we are born and raised here. let us try something. we got b.p. to come in and give an additional $5 million in case the rocks don't work, to pull them out. this is crazy.

we could save five parishes so the oil doesn't get in the drinking water. are we going to step back and wait? i predicted that five weeks ago it was going to come this way. you know, it's hard. and our budget -- we are underneath right now. i got a lady from north carolina who sent us $81 off of her social security. $81. i got a gentleman and his wife from ohio sent us $42 off their social security check to help us to help utilities and pay people. if we can start on the front line to prevent anybody else rkts let us try something and help us and we can better our

communities. we don't want food stamps. none of our people want to be food stamps. we are hard-working people. but we make our living off the waters. we depend on tourism to pay our bank notes. you have to four months to make it. four months to make it and turn to the oil field. you get off the shrimp boat and go to the oil rig. by stopping drilling, it doesn't make sense. you took everything away from us -- not you, took everything away from us to make a living. and we don't fema to come in and give us a check. we don't want to live off the government or b.p. just help us, help us get through thed red tape. as far as the agencies fighting, give us a chance, get us on the barge and watch us throw the rocks in. watch the oil come and stay right there in that area. as far as the passes, we aren't

going to block them all the way. remember 1930, cooper bell was all one island. today, the opening is 7,100 feet wide. we just want to bring it back and close it to 1,200 feet. we did the studies and models but to have little coalitions here fighting us and have 95 pages when we try to save our lives, something's wrong. i have a lot of respect for the president. i have talked to him three times and he told me he was going to put this commission together, but we need to fast. we ask you to help us move fast so we can make a few dollars to help pay some of our bills. that's all we're asking for. thank you. >> mr. ranlph. >> sir, we are preparing our budget at this point in time. the uncertainty is such that the

simplest job to the most complex issue in our budget is being scrutinized as to its necessity. i would like to echo so much of what david said. i had seven minutes so my choice was to focus on the moratorium, because in our parish, it is the retriever wriding issue. but the fishermen are experiencing the same thing and we are so close we should be one rish. when he is talking about the people in grand isle, he is talking about people in lafourche, too. these families are facing uncertainty in the fishing industry, oil and gas industry. where do we turn? what do we do? we received $33 million after gustav and ike to reinforce our

pump stations, build levys, to assess our infrastructure. do we bgerthmake @bcture. do we build budgetary constraints -- we can handle. we can address the services in ways that we will continue to provide the basic services. but the loss of income through property taxes, which fuels our economy, will be detrimental over the next couple years. businesses will leave and follow whatever portion of that they address.

so we will lose the property taxes. it is a domino effect. when we lose the houses, lose the businesses, we lose the houses. when we lose the houses, we lose the taxpayers. whether it is fishing or a moratorium, are uncertain future is very difficult -- our uncertain future is very difficult. >> i have a question about advisories. i saw advisories that did not make any sense about each warnings on a very sunny saturday afternoon where the beach looked terrific and the water equally clear. to actually sets them, -- who actually sets them and this is related to the point you made about the closing of waters to fisheries. who makes that decision and is

that decision made because of fear of anticipated contamination or is it made after there is some evidence of contamination in the fish or in the waters? how is that done? >> no one gives a protection -- joaa gives a pro ection. when this trajectory comes up, they take it from there and they can close it within hours and we never had that before. so that is a problem. noaa and then goes to the state. we make it clear, we don't want to be -- we are going to be out of the waters. we need to hear. we are strongly against that. we want to make sure when we get into the port to sell it's good. and we don't want that to backlash. we already have enough problems. we want to make sure everything

is straight. by doing that, you are creating bigger problems. even though they say tomorrow, they stop it today. get out of the area, no problem. and they are willing to do that. so it starts with noaa and goes to the state. >> the shrimping could be permitted in places where it's forbidden? >> sure. it can be any time. i have been here, a bunch of stuff, we want to work for b.p. people have to understand, we are between a rock and a hard place. if we get called to go get the job and we don't accept it, we may be on the bottom of the list. now, i'm going fishing today, doesn't mean i'm going fishing tomorrow. so i'm putting myself in a situation where i can't make money tomorrow i don't know if i will be able tomorrow. by going to work for b.p., yes,

i know i'm going to get a pay check. the perception out here is we don't want to go fishing. we want to go fishing. we do. this is my life. i never had a job in my life. i want to be back out tre in the waters. by getting out there, we are protecting our best interest. they have me as a supervisor, i'm running 18 boats around and we try to protect some areas. i was in it a couple months ago, right now we are on the west side towards the mayor's area from back side west of the river going towards grand isle and some areas have it and some don't. we are trying to protect it now beuse nothing got in there. we i are laying boom every day. i thank b.p. we have a leader working with us, my boss, that actually made

fishermen the rule. supervisors. it gave me enough authority to move around and put boom where i see fit. i know the waters. i know the currents and that's one thing i can give to him and this is the only task force that allowed the fhermen to step up. this is one of the things we have been screaming for the whole time. get us, let us tell you where we need it. we may be wrong, but we know the currents, the water, wind, clouds. how fast you have to get away, how fast they are going to get to you. we can save lives and save our waters. give us a little bit of say-so what happens and we can do a lot. just like the mayor said, they don't have a plan. let us do the best. if we're wrong, oh well. we have nothing to lose because it's coming anyway. at least gives us a chance. by noaa doing this, main thing,

we may not have a job tomorrow. they have to stop saying our fishermen don't want to go fishing. it hurts me deeply because they don't know what we going through. when you do this all your life and out there all the time and then to say i don't want to go fishing. come on now. it's not right. and i heard it quite a number of mes. >> haven't heard that one. thank you. >> don. >> first of all, let me just say president of this region for many years, i know all of your communities well. and i'm very pleased not only through the testimony, but also through e visits that all of our commissioners made this last weekend, we gained first-hand impression of, first of all, the financial difficulties and real pain that the citizens are going through, but also this real

complex, delicate interdependence on our fisheries, on our tourism and on oil and gas and how this is affecting all of those in important ways. yesterday, we heard from the admiral from the coast guard and we had a discussion with him about their preparedness and plans and actions and what they have learned. one of the things that he told us echo -- echoed that mr. holloway said, if we look at this after the fact and how our plans developed, what they lacked is a real role for local governments. and he has heard that from across the gulf coast region. we also heard from him and actually got sole similar affirmation on our visits that

the commission made that particularly where the coast guard and working with b.p. has been here, been in the parishes and local governments for a while, that they are getting better, the relationships are getting better. on thether hand, some of our commissioners from some of the areas more recently impacted said they are still learning. give us some advice that may be built on what mayor holloway said, what we learn in this from the parishes and the cities with working in a preparation mode so we are better prepared to deal with these events in the future. any of the three of you. . .

make it that tactical. but also include the people that know the territory. right. took so long to get that done. all we -- you know, we met with president obama. we said, send me one guy, one woman and just make some decisions on the ground with

us. we hado go to sheave port, louisiana. i had to drive an hour and a half away and listen to 30 people make decisions of where we were going to do this. we had to get a 48-inch bomb, 18-inch bomb. -- boom. we had so many chiefs. we had to buy stuff maybe up to a minimum of a few thousand dollars and they alternated them seven and seven. it was like fema. i am not criticizing fema during katrina. we showed you the whole town and all of a sudden they sent francis in. it looked like what was happening with b.p. and they had to start over again with it. one of the things i forgot earlier, bringing about the stuff was, you get mom and dads not making money. what we did is got with b.p. and asked to hire the kids from 14-year-old to 17-year-old boys and girls.

we bring them to the shop, put them on a bus and it's litter control and they got their first paycheck last friday -- no, wednesday, i'm sorry. and they were so excited because they couldn't go in their living room and saw their mom and dad frustrated, fighting. they were afraid to ask for $5 to buy ice cream or go to the store. all their values taken away. what happens is they make their own money and you can see talking with the parents now things got little better inside the house, that the kids are making their own money. and we make sure we feed them breakfast. they take two hours off for lunch. but that's one of the things i wanted to tell you. every day we add more and more kids, and b.p. is picking up the tab. but the bottom line, to answer your question, it didet a little better but it's still kind of a few more chiefs and a vessel of opportunities that we're all working out. and the coast guard has been working closely with us, learning the territory, not leaving us. so it is getting better in that

situation. >> i think i have to give a lot of credit to our governor who stepped in and brought our people down on the coast, the director and some of our staff. d.m.r., the department of marine resoues, is loced right there in biloxi, as their staff there. b.p., to start with, had people coming in and they were rotating them out, about like fema and mema does, get them in here for a week and gone, we have no contact. they hired some local engineers that is stationed on the gulf coast there that work with the local people. i think at's made a difference. it's more stable. you know where you with go to get answers. you know who to go to to ask questions. i think that's been one of the stabling thing that's happened in the biloxi area.

>> i want to assure you as a former mayor and as a person from alaska where it took 20 years for our fibbermen to get paid. how much i can relate to your comments here this morning. i want to offer a suggestion to you that we learned as a result of the exxon valdez tanker spill that regional citizens advisory commiees can be a powerful force in assuring on an ongoing basis the kind of watchdog role of both industry and for that matter federal and other agencies that can be important partners with keeping your communities safe in the future. i know that this doesn't specifically address the immediate concerns you have, but when we're thinking about the future and things that you might want to consider, a system of regional citizens

advisory councils, along the lines what's happened with the prince william sound regional advisory councils, i really urge this region to seriously consider. take a look at what has happened in alaska and model it. i realize you have more communities, more states, more jurisdictions that you have to integrate, but there's something there that i think will be useful to you. because it provides in an ongoing basis, not only an opportunity to create a forum to ask tough questions but also integrate planning and to engage local people in a way that helps them feel part of the solution, not just sort of helpless bystanders. sco i urge you to look at that. i know that some folks have proposed that in congress to create something along those lines for this region. obviously for local leaders like you to be engaged in shaping that and supporting it might help make that happen.

the second piece, i don't know, advice from alaska is that a fairly comprehensive mental health and behavioral health outreach plan was developed and is available as a tool that also could beseful to you. it's sort of a citizens' guide and a community leaders' guide to how you can deal with spom of the stress associated with a catastrophic event like this. and if you want me to give me your business cards before you leave i'd give you copies of that. it will be tailored to your needs in your region. but, again, it could be very useful so to the extent we don't have to reinvent the wheel, we can take advantage of what has happened elsewhere and hopefully that can help. thanks again for being here today. >>hank you. >> are there oer questions? yes, mr. garcia.

>> just to follow-up on what commissioner ulmer was referring to, mayor, you had mentioned the need for mental health counseling. have you made a request to eier b.p. or to the state government f assistance in that counseling? and the same question to the other elected officials. >> we have to the state, yes. we have to the state health department. >> not to b.p.? >> i haven't, not to b.p. the state may have. >> yes, b.p. brought a couple, three or four men in maybe the last two weeks and they are visiting some of the communities -- i mean, somef the residents in the area. >> we are working with b.p. but our state department of health and human services -- >> exce me. madam president, could you speak into the microphone. >> we are working with b.p. but

they are also being requested to fund the state's department of health and human services' request for many health services so they will have it on a consistent basis, yes. >> and none of you mentioned this -- perhaps it's not a problem -- but when senator graham and i were snoring in the pan hauntle of florida, several officials mentioned to us their frustration about getting their local citizens hired to do work in connection with the cleanup. and that workers from outside of their counties, from their communities were being bught in to do work that could be performed by local residents. is that still an issue here, was it an issue? >> we had to baby-sit it every day, being honest with you, we had to watch was going on and

go to command post so you don't get contractors from all over the united states coming in. for instance, hopefully today they are going to hire the local tractors, some of the tractors on the island, backhoes to work on the beach. we met with b.p. last week and told them it's not going to work bringing 18 wheaters and tractors to rake our beach when we have people here that can go to work. so you have to stay on top of it, remind them because what happens is as b.p. in some areas they want to help you but they have some new comers in and they call in buddies to bring in other buddies to bring in equipment. that's kind of like frustration of the vessel of opportunities. you might see four, five vessels in there, fishermen stand by the dock saying, mr. mayor or parish president, why are you letting them come through? with all the issues we have, we can't baby-sit everything, but the fishermen get frustrated because joe from b.p. knows his buddy in wyoming, making that

phone call and bring equipment in. so we walk the beach, we monir the beach. i got a fire chief that's all he does is stay in meetings to represent me to let me know what's going on. if we don't stay on top of it, itill happen. that's what we testified in washington. we are there witnessing it, yes, sir, but we have to monitor it. in fact, we ran two or three contractors out and said it ain't going to happen. you know, our envonment has been changed because the subcontractors coming in and renting homes in the residential area and the residents are upset so last friday night i told b.p. they had to move them out because it's a residential area and they had 40 men and women staying in one home. and it's a whole different atmosphere. we used to live with our windows dow our keys in our car. we all knew each other. if the kids run across the street and play, it changed all

our lives. now people are scared. so it's all -- you know, we have -- we don't get a chance to -- i don't know where i am at in grand aisle we needed to get ready for -- grand isle we needed to get ready for the tourism. everything is oil. you go to bed with oil and wake up for oil. you don't know what contractors are coming in. so he's right what you're witnessing. and we have men and women that monitor that and our fishermen watch that. i had six or seven tractors come up and say i can't believe you made that happen. we don't know until we can go and scream and say, what are you doing? so everything's a fight. it's all about the mighty god. they want to come and make their quick buck. if the just listening to us we

can save everybody money. we can put b.p. across the table and say, look at the money you're spending here. it's crazy the price that you're paying. and i think they're understanding that now. but we got to baby-sit them and we got to watch them. and they want to work with us. they're starting to work with us. so it is frustrating to seeing that you got 18 wheelors of tractors coming in your town and all of a sudden your local people have tractors that are tied up. so we have to try and watch everything. it's not easy. >> we now have a flotel, we have tents, we have various means of housing people that pretty much appeared out of nowhere without any warning and then all of a sudden new people started arriving and said, what are they here for? and they said, to clean the beach. it is a daily monitoring effort to ensure that first, our

residents aren't being shortchanged and that they can supply the goods necessary. and secondarily, some of the people being brought in are not runaways from the law. let's be honest about it. and some of them have been arrested. initially we didn't have a check system. now we do. and certainly weake certain that the people who are n among us are just like us. >> you're correct on that. i bet you one thing that you're talking about, too, a vessel of opportunity is one of the hardest things we had to keep up with of people coming from all over the southeast coming, bringing boats with three people running around the gulf with just doing -- i couldn't see them doing anything. just riding around, getting a suntan. and the same thing with people working on the beaches. they bring them in with

greyhound buses or charter buses and put them in a certain place and move them from up and down the -- nine miles of beach that we have in biloxi. i'm sure the same thing going on the west of me. but the vessels of opportunity is one of the waste of money that i've seen. >> are there additional questions? >> i think mr. -- >> i'm sorry, mr. cooper. i apologize. >> b.p. just ok'd and isoing to pay for a community outreach. we are going to open up an office, and one of the b.p.'s got us -- he's retired. he came to her and now we are going to have a community outreach so we can start hiring our local people to come in and go to work. so they are moving forward on that issue.

it is a problem for busing people in. we have more people busing in than we have in our community. our community is so disrupted that it's unbelievable. we have over -- right at 6,000 people that have come into our community. we are only about 4,000, 5,000 people in our community so we have more people coming into our community than what we live in. we have a safe place. we don't -- we don't deal with all this crime and what's going on but now we have people walking the streets all hours of the night and day. we have to lock our doors. there's one thing i want to talk about. i kept hearing the e.p.a. and noaa talking about it's a tradeoff, it's a tradeoff. to us as fishermen, and it's not just myself, it's all of us, the tradeoff will be our industry. you say this stuff. our fish with bottom feeders and the shrimp are bottom

feeders. the only tradeoff is our industry. we've been fighting tooth to nail from the veryeginning. we are totally against it. leit come where we can see it. we putting booms out and skimmers out there that get to these. a testimony while ago, they see it. the salt and boom beads it up and erodes it right off of it. for them to say we haven't seen it, we have boats out there that have seen it. it doesn't soak up. it's alln a ball and it rolls right off of it. the only tradeoff is our industry and our waters. if it's -- how can we let them do it here? is it safe to use it here if it ain't there? what's the difference? it's us and -- they in control? this has to stop. we can't fight something we

can't see. we don't know the long-term effects for our stwater fieries. just like the lady that said in alaska. it may be 15, 20 years from now. qu spraying it. quit -- we have people saying they've seen planes. i am not going to get into that. i'll leave it alone. the only tradeoff is our fisheries and that's the way i feel. thank you. >> yes, i'd just like to say one more thing. i don't know if you guys picked up on this. you guys are having a plan and we have to build a plan. because of the way this has been controlled and the people who are in charge ofhis, we had no plan. i was with this main pluerman's parish at a meeting and there was nobody there. we couldn't even get a b.p. man. the state had no plan, the federal government had no plan. we have put ourselves in position where we're dependent

on all company plans. i mean, this is ridiculous. i love the community part because we know, we know our land. we know our passes and we know our peoplend we should have a big input into a plan because there was no plan. we are having to wing it down here, we're having to build our own plans. because the federal government is not supportg us, we're having more issues. not only the rocks -- not only the rocks, but let me give you a good example of what it does. i live beyond hurricane protection. all the things he talks about is barrier islands. when we get a surge with oil on top of it, i had 16 inches of water for hurricane ike and 16 inches of water for hurricane rita in my house. what's it going to look like? i am 30 miles from the gulf. by not allowing us to go ahead and do what we know what is rit and what will work, this is -- it is amazing to me that

you can -- people up in washington wouldn't give us more support than that. i mean, this is ridiculous. >> any our question? frances. >> quick question. thank you all. you've given us a firsthand view of how challenging it is to serve your own communities. and in that light, have you been able to staff up in your cities and towns to have additional capacity to assist your citizens? has that -- is that something b.p. would compensate you for, basically bringing additional help to address the issues that you've race -- raised with us today? >> actually, b.p. is doing a lot of its sffing itself. they're staffing the claims offices. they're running vessels of opportunity. but we are attributing many of the overtime hours and staffing

to b.p. right now because it is -- it is a 24/7 job. >> it sounds like it. >> so, yes, thepportunities are there to increase as we need. >> thank you. >> i have total like 56 employees. i think i lost nine of them so far working for b.p. they can make so much money a day driving a boat and they take a leave of absence and just write me a letter. mountain meantime, it brings down the local stuff for me to big the ditches and clean the streets -- in the meantime, it brings down the local stuff for me to dig ditches and clean the streets. i am down to two girls. we're not -- just looking at those girls saying, go make some good money because we're not making money here.

it's very -- we are not going to stop nobody from making money, better money. my employees are scared. they know that they can probably tomorrow -- b.p. will tell them they don't need them anymore. and i tell them the doors are open, you can come back. they're very scared. like the fisherman said, they want to go to work, they want to go shrimping but the shrimping season, it's open today but closed tomorrow. it's the same thing with the employees. they're scared. they want to make sure it's ok. b.p. say, we don't need you tomorrow. they hired five fisherman last week and made a mistake. they needed speed boats instead of trail boats. fishermen are so excited. when i go back today and tonight and tomorrow, i'll go back at the command center and get these fishermen back on.

the secretary said they're devastated. talk about charter boat captains and also some fishermen had some wrong boats. they were all pumped up. wife was excited, got him a job. two days later b.p. said, we're sorry, we picked the wrong boats. terry, to answer you, that's all we do is baby-sit and try to satisfy our constituents every day. you got 2,500 salesmen that can stop t leak, come clean your beaches, come from all over the world. i got one girl in my office, that's all she does is sorry, mayor, we don't have time to see you. i'm sure she can tell you. the mayor, oh, we got the best plan in the world. we send him to shreport. i think they get 8,000 calls a day. it's very frustrating. anything you can think of, we

have to fight and baby-sit. and watch what's going on. it might take us two or three days to catch what's going on but we have to go back and fight to straighten it up. you know, that's not taking care of basic service. you know, meaning if the old lady calls you at 10:30 in the morning and the garbage man failed to pick up the garbage, they're fussing at us. that's basic service that we don't have time to lookt. it's just oil, oil, oil. it's a fight. >> madam president, gentlemen, thank you for your very informative information. as we said with the previous panels, we hope this will be the beginning of the dialogue. as we have additional questions, we hope we can get back in touch with you. and if you have any questions of us, we'll give you pint of

-- a point of contact and we would like to stay in touch. thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> on c-span tonight, senate leaders talk about financial regulations and federal spending. carl rudman and jack reed -- carl levin and jack reed talk

about afghanistan. here is what we are covering on c-span 2 tomorrow -- at 9:30 a.m. eastern time, community leaders will hear from religious leaders. later, the head of the council of economic advisers, christina romer, discusses the economic outlook at a meeting of the joint economic committee. live coverage begins at 2:00 p.m., eastern. >> c-span, our public affairs content is available on television, radio, and on line and you can connect with us on twitter, facebook, and youtube. sign up for e-mails at c- span.org. >> senate minority leader mitch mcconnell talked briefly with reporters today about the

federal budget and a recess appointment of the head of the new medicare and medicaid programs. we will also hear from judd gregg about the new director of the office of management and budget. >> good afternoon, everyone. i have asked the republican members of the senate appropriations committee to join us today and would like to indicate to you that we have made a decision. 100% of the republicans on the senate appropriations committee to recommend an alternate, top- flight for spending this year -- top line for spending this year for the discretionary spending budget. as most of you probably know, we have increased discretionary spending 17% since the president came to office. if you look at just the domestic to rest -- discretionary

spending, we have increased 24%. if you add in the stimulus, we have increased 84%. the american people are saying, you are spending too much, running up to zero many debts, and we expect you to do something about it -- running up too many dead. we will recommend a smaller pie, a smaller discretionary spending budget to our friends in the majority and hope they will join us. the line we have selected is one that has been supported on multiple votes in the senate on a bipartisan basis. amendments offered by senator sessions and to senator mccaskill on several different occasions have attracted 100% of the republican conference and from 16-18 it democratic voters. so, this sessions-mccaskill

freeze that we will be offering has already been supported on the floor of the senate by 100% of republicans and from 16-18 democrats. so with that, let me turn to our leader on the appropriations committee. >> thank you very much, leader. we are pleased today to announce that we have unanimity of support for a budget number that reflects a decision that the senate has already made an express itself through recorded votes. and we hope that we can stick to it and not turn our back on the budget resolution. it is the parameter or spending the senate has agreed to. be proficient committee will support that number. we all senators will join us -- the appropriations committee will support that number.

>> i think the appointment of dr. burr with, the recess appointment, is outrageous. what was different about the decision was there was a conscious decision not to send him up during the health care debate because he had a long record of advocating health care rationing, saying he was in love with the national health service and england -- of a lot of things the administration would be denying that would be in the health care bill. once the health care bill was passed, they delayed sending him up further. and there was never a hearing. so, this nominee was in effect, a stealth nominee, delayed until after the health care bill was assigned. no hearing, the committee

action, and it set up while the senate was not in session to be in charge of spending $800 billion pairs of this was not your routine recess appointment. the typical recess appointment has come out of committee, got snarled up on the floor of the senate for one reason or another because members have a problem at home or that sort of thing, the kind of routine snarls we get into a confirmation. but this is very different. i think there is a genuine anger among republican senators that they were -- the whole senate was basically ignored. it is not just me saying it. you have chairman baucus of the finance committee saying it was the wrong thing to do. -- chairman bachus of the finance committee saying it was the wrong thing to do. certainly was not the appropriate action. if i were going to do it, i would not announce it here today.

>> [inaudible] >> i am not going to quote secretary gates, but i can tell you that the principal thing that he emphasized -- we already knew, which was that we need to get this supplemental appropriations bill for the troops passed. she wanted us to pass it before the memorial day recess and the senate did pass it before the memorial day recess. the democrats in the house have added a lot of add-ons and sent it back to us again. secretary gates is not involved in the politics but he wants funding for the troops. he told us clearly today that it has to be done by the end of this month or he will not be able to pay the troops because the house is going out at the end of july and will not be back until mid september. this is a true emergency. we need to figure a way to get the funding for the troops in

the field and we need to do it as soon as possible. >> what is your reaction to the nomination of -- jack -- to the omb? your reaction? >> i cannot speak for all of my colleagues but i have worked with jack on a number of issues. i find to be thoughtful, smart, and capable. he is a dedicated public servant. he is taking out a job, however, where the numbers do not match up. this administration is running up massive spending and massive debt, and is really the job of the omb director to say, the emperor has no close. that is the situation today. -- the emperor has not clothes. is administration does not have a policy. the failure to pass the budget is an inexcusable act by the majority party.

republican members of the appropriations committee have stood up and said, today, we are going to assert that spending should stop, excess spending should stop, and we picked a number which is a reasonable number. it is a freeze number. and we will stand behind it. it is time the other party stood up to its responsibilities on this issue and control spending. that is jack's job and i wish him the best. >> one other. you expressed -- [inaudible] >> well, i think, again, from my point of view, i think what happened on financial regulation is the bill stayed on the far left and, therefore, was not in the end appealing to most of my members. now there are some republicans who are going to support the financial regulation bill, but

the vast majority of our members felt that it was not a step in the right direction, that perpetuated too big to fail, supported by goldman sachs and opposed by community banks. there were a number of flaws that i think most of my members felt or disappointing and will leave most of my members to oppose it. thakns, everybody -- thanks, everybody. >> soon after, the senate majority leader harry reid also talked to reporters about the financial regulations bill and a climate change bill. this is five minutes.

>> whilst reform and unemployment systems are two approaches to the same problem -- wall street reform and unemployment systems are two approaches to the same problem -- and that is jobs. greed on wall street caused the problems we are having with our financial problems around the country. it triggered the recession. it is was suffocated the job market and robbed trillions of dollars of peoples savings, trillions. by cleaning up wall street, we will make sure big bankers can never gamble away our future again. we will make sure that there is not a next time. we also have to help those who are still hurting from the last time. that is where unemployment assistant does. we have helped families and help our economy recover. it works very simply. for every dollar we spend in unemployment benefits, we did back in the economy $1.61. i guess we could think of it this way -- wall street before

is preventive care. unemployment insurance is emergency care. our economy needs both. so these are the two sides of the same coin. for too long, wall street reform and unemployment assistance have had something else in common -- a minority of senators standing in the way. we will still -- soon finish wall street reform. i am grateful if you brave republicans are doing the right thing for our country, but it is still disappointing that you can count on one hand the number of republicans willing to fix the system that caused the recession. >> [inaudible] >> excuse me. we have been working on an energy bill for some time. during this break, i spent quite a bit of time with my staff and others, the senators, talking

about what we need to do with energy. since i have been back, i have had quite a few conversations. i will meet this afternoon with secretary chu, secretary salazar, carol browner, of course -- sorry, carol. i met with strategic senators, committee chairs, and i have a rough draft of what we will do. no one has asked this question, but we will have a stage iv title for the bill. one will deal with the oil spill situation. the other will deal with a clean energy, consumer savings, and job creation. and at third will reduce consumption. the fourth title is broader and working with the finance committee on that. at this stage, we have not completed it. we are looking at a way of

making sure that when we talk about pollution, we are focused just on the utility section. >> what about --? >> i have given you what we will do. >> to you mean greenhouse gas emissions from the utility sector -- do you mean greenhouse gas emissions from the utility sector? >> there has been a lot of work done with them long before i got into the picture. we need to figure out a way, any savings we can make, will return to the consumer. i hope to be able to do it week after next. there is no bill. i hope to have a bill introduced week after next. >> [inaudible] are you willing to put a cap on utility? >> those words are not in my vocabulary. we are going to work on pollution. yes, the back.

>> we take final action on the financial reform package? >> thursday morning. hope to have a vote on it thursday morning. and, of course, i am hopeful and confident we will get cloture on that. and i hope the republicans will not take the 30 hours. if we do, we will have to come back and finish it on saturday, but we will finish the bill. >> when you say pollution, what does that mean? >> what does pollution mean? it means there is bad stuff in the air. >> [inaudible] -- all lawsuits against -- ? >> yes, you have a question? any other questions? that? well, small business, we are doing our best to work through

that. we are not getting a lot of help from my republican friends. we told them they should be amendments offered. we are waiting on the bill. you can go back and look for congresses from a long time in the past. anytime you get around -- you cannot put a tax bill on the floor, because it is too subject to mischief. if the republicans are serious about doing a small business jobs bill, we are ready to do business. the bill we put on the floor is a pretty good bill. >> for a snapshot of washington

and the congress, the c-span congressional directory, a reference guide to every member of the house and senate, the cabinet, supreme court justices, and state governors at your fingertips. order online at c- span.org/store. c-span is now available in over 100 million homes, bringing you a link to public affairs, history, and nonfiction books as a public service created by america's cable companies. >> senators carl levin and jack reed recently returned from a trip to afghanistan and pakistan. senator carl levin, chairman of the armed services committee. they held this news briefing on capitol hill. this is 40 minutes. >> senator jack reed and i visited pakistan and afghanistan for three days last week and returned home yesterday. we met with key leaders, including the prime minister,

and key provincial governors, and with the general who is the commander of their 11th corps, which is the pakistan army corps, which has done a significant fighting in the swat valley,. in afghanistan, we met with general petraeus and ambassador eikenberry, with president karzai, with the defense secretary, and with the new chief of staff of the afghan army, with the minister of the interior, mr. kan, we also went to kandahar and met with the commanding general, general carter. he is a british general but he is the isaf commander.

we met with the governor of kandahar province and the mayor of kandahar city. then our last major meeting was with the corps commander of the 205th afghan corps. i will come back to him. i was last in afghanistan last january. and i noticed signs of progress since then. first, let me tell you what i think our mission is. i believe our goal is to help afghanistan prevent a takeover again of afghanistan by the taliban, who provide safety, solace, and support to the al qaeda terrorist group, which is global tax, already, including

9/11. that should be our goal. i believe our mission should be to strengthen the afghan security forces so that they can take on that tell the taliban. the army is well-respected by the people of afghanistan and the taliban is feared by the people of afghanistan but detested by the people of afghanistan. and so the building blocks of an afghan policy and mission are that you have an army and that is respected and an opponent that is detested by the afghan people. and so, for me, whether or not we have progress or not will depend on whether or not we have successfully taken some steps to build up the afghan army, particularly, with other security forces in afghanistan as well. the evidence we have made

progress, in terms of putting the army in a position where they can be the principal provider of security for the afghan people, some of those steps have been at the following. first, the afghan army has grown in size. they have more than met their recruiting goals. and they will meet the october, the september recruiting goal early. i am sure that announcement will be made in kabul at the kabul conference later on this month. so the recruiting is up and on target. secondly, the ratio of u.s. and other coalition troops to the afghan troops is improving. when i was there in january, you had two or three marines forever afghan soldier. the ratio is now about one two one. by the way, they have a doctrine that there needs to be two, at least two afghans for each

british soldier. the reason being that we want the afghans to take responsibility. we want the afghan people to see their army protecting them, rather than to give the taliban a propaganda targets that foreign troops are in afghanistan and the taliban uses that to argue that foreign troops are there to dominate. we are obviously not there to dominate. we are there to support and assist. the way they can be demonstrated is that the afghan security forces grow in numbers and strength, and that the ratio of coalition forces to afghan forces continues to move towards a higher proportion of afghan forces. in addition to those, that evidence that i consider evidence of progress towards our mission, strengthening the afghan forces, there is a much greater level of partnering that

is taking place in the field between afghan forces and coalition forces. and one very important, i believe, dramatic event is going to occur at the end of july and beginning of august, when there significant operation right outside of kandahar city in kandahar province in an area which is in the heart of taliban country. the planning is completed -- the orders have been signed. it is going to be a major effort to clear that area of taliban control. is now controlled by the taliban. taliban.oeme to the this will be afghan-led.

i cannot emphasize enough the importance of that fact. the announcement of this was made at last, a week ago monday. it was made at the headquarters of the afghan army, the 205th corps. and u.s. and other coalition commanders were present when the afghan commander, general zazai, made this announcement of the operation -- clear taliban from the heart of taliban land, hold that area with afghan forces, including police, including a group that is called -- an effort an effort aimed at putting a more reliable and less corrupt local police presence in place, and so, you will have this operation with this campaign.

at the end of july and the beginning of august, we will have afghan and coalition forces, led by the afghans. and this will not be lost on the people of afghanistan or on the taliban. we have the presence of foreign soldiers there, looking as if they are dominating or we are dominating rather than the people of afghanistan controlling their own destiny. there are a lot of problems and challenges that are still ahead. and we see signs of progress since january and i do not want to overstate that matter, i would like to talk about what i have seen, and also the issues with the continued domination of many areas by warlords and power

brokers, by the corrupt security contractors who were supposed to provide security, who were often working with the taliban. and we will be issuing a report to the armed services committee, for these contractors -- and hopefully this month, but if not this month it would be in august. and we will get this approved, also, in terms of declassifying this with the defense department. this is a corrupt presence of many contractors that are paid with american tax payer dollars, and they are working with the power brokers that are also contested by the people of afghanistan. this is the continuing threat to the success of the mission in afghanistan. there are problems with the

national governors and we would be happy to talk about this as well. the number of hurdles -- the number of hurdles -- this is not going to be an ec mission. the next couple be taken out in the fall. this may actually create some real momentum and understanding about the overall goal in afghanistan, and the taliban -- they are on the defense, and this is basically with the afghan forces and the coalition. >> thank you very much. it was a pleasure and privilege to travel with them, and i was there, recently, last september. i am wanting to stress something that is very clear, but -- these are regional issues. we were focused on afghanistan,

but this issue, this is related issues in pakistan and india, bordering the northern states, and these other regional issues and the ultimate strategic goal is to deny operational safety for the terrorists who continue to attack the united states. that has brought us to this area. and this is continuing to be significant for this mission. in that regard, we were meeting with the prime minister, to meet with the corps commanders, and we say very clearly that despite the success in engaging the insurgent element within pakistan, one year ago -- they ask both of us whether or not they would enter the tribal areas, and they had extensive,

continuous operations to go after the terrorists. we would say -- they have been doing this. pellett continues to be a source of instability in afghanistan, there of the cross border terrorist groups copper with the afghan taliban, and also, the network that is located to the east, between these provinces in afghanistan. these elements continued to cross the border, to put damage on the forces of afghanistan and america and the government has to control these groups within their own country. and they have to recognize that any attack in the united states that may be traced back to

pakistan or the tribal areas -- they will face very serious consequences. and those things are worth stating, again and again. and with regard to the effort in afghanistan, we have seen some progress. we have regained the initiative in critical parts of the country. this does not mean that we have no difficult days still ahead. we have very serious fighting still ahead. the we have reversed this situation that was looking like an inevitable destabilization of the government and this appears to have been reversed. some of this is the result of the improvements that we have seen in the national security forces. one of them is the afghan civil

police, these are para-military forces. we saw them at a roadblock -- in canada are -- in khandahar. they are taking the fight to the taliban. and the afghan national army. one of the most significant developments, i think this represents their full maturity. this operation has been planned and undertaken with the afghanistan army -- and they're wanting to hold this territory, to facilitate the building phase. this is an encouraging development. something that began about six months ago, or one year ago that we may not have anticipated. and these forces are very critical. the national police of afghanistan continued to be dysfunctional.

we recognize this and there is compensation being made with the more robust presence -- and we are working very hard to train the afghan national police, and i think that we will be successful there, also. then there is another area that we will need to emphasize. this is the general capacity of the government of afghanistan. they have low levels of physical capital, literacy rates are very high -- and this is very different from iraq, where you have a fairly well-educated middle class, that has participated in this -- and we're still facing some critical issues of government capacity by the government of afghanistan. and one of the consequences of this is that we will have to recognize -- the sub-national

development. we met with the governor of the province and these gentlemen -- these are very much motivated to work with us, to deliver these services and the security that people need. and if we're able to reinforce local levels, this would be very affective in complimenting this strategy. in conclusion, we have a difficult fight that is still ahead of us, with encouraging signs that the people of afghanistan are engaged, in terms of the attitude. but the next few months, we will see difficult fighting. my feeling is that we can make fundamental progress in the next several months, and that the strategy that the president announced that west point continues to be valid, and hopefully, we will be

successful with continued support. >> i was just wanting to reinforce a couple of his comments. the last one was about the governor and mayor of this area. these are people who openly take on the people who are out there to kill them, and to kill their society. they are very vocal in their opposition, to the taliban, and the nearby provincial governor was recently assassinated. but these leaders are very courageously taking the rhetorical and the political fight to the enemy, and they deserve credit for doing this. one other thing has to do with pakistan, and the groups that were mentioned. if you used pakistan as the safe

haven, and the staging area for the attacks into afghanistan, i will give the government some credit, for what they did in the swat valley and other places, taking on some terrorists, individuals and groups. but what they have not done is take on the two groups that attack into afghanistan. the group said they have taken on of the individuals that attack pakistan targets. they also say that they recognize that there is a threat to them, when their country is used as the launching pad -- platform for terrorist attacks. but they have not acted on this, when it comes to this network -- which is in -- the headquarters of which are well known, they have not done that relative to the area where --

the taliban of afghanistan have their headquarters in pakistan. they are not taking on those major threats. with the success of the afghan policy or security and peace in afghanistan. i believe that we should make it clear to the people of pakistan that by adding them to the list, that the state department will keep of the foreign terrorist groups, that we require that country's that have those groups operating inside of those countries, they have the responsibility under american law to take action against those groups, or else, certain steps are available to the government, relative to support the pakistan government. there is no excuse for those groups not to be on the foreign terrorist list, that is long

overdue. and both of these networks should be added to that list, to reflect the importance, and the seriousness of this. and we give this to their presence in pakistan. and this is not affected by pakistan, even though the locations are known, and the headquarters are known to the government of pakistan. i think that -- >> so you say that the united states may strike within pakistan, and basically attack those terrorist groups? >> there have been attacks against certain targets in pakistan that are threatening to the united states. they have been -- there have been drawn attacks, and i do not see why these headquarters should not be on the list of potential targets.

the state department list of foreign terrorist groups. >> and this is for the foreign state department? >> and if you get on the list, is there going to be a cut of that will affect the support for them? >> we did not get this until this was the specific, because this is not for us to decide. we are urging for them to put them on the list, where there will be certain options that will be available. we spoke about the importance of taking on this network, and how serious -- and how serious of a matter that this is for us. we spent a lot of time with their prime minister, particularly, on this subject.

>> if you are talking about zero more -- after all this time -- >> how are they not on this terrorist list? >> we will try to find out. >> this is probably pakistan, with some problems with this politically, at home. i did not think of any other reason they are not on the list. but this is long overdue and i was surprised to find out that they were not on the list. >> when you talk about the difficult fighting this month, what exactly is the role of the united states? are we going to have combat soldiers there? other u.s. soldiers at risk? >> there are multiple operations that will take place. one of them will be leading the operation, and will have

american participation and support. and there are the american operations around this area, and this is difficult terrain, that is not just physically difficult but this is patrolled for several years and they have prepared defenses. and we will see some very serious fighting. we are very confident that we will be successful, but this does not eliminate the chance of cattle -- casualties, that we're likely to see in the next several months. this often goes without saying, the extraordinary skills of the soldiers and the marines, and we had the chance to go out to the road blocks for the first time the other week, with the 82nd airborne division. and these are superb professionals, working very

closely with the nationals of afghanistan, with a very good relationship, and very positive for the troop levels. and so, we are very ready for these fights but these are going to be very difficult. >> as a matter of fact, every unit in afghanistan is now partnered with another unit and there are operations that have already been held at the lower level with lower numbers, that have been led by afghanistan. what is important is that this is going to be a much larger operation, in the heart of the taliban land. and this is going to be a very significant move, and this will -- the meeting will not be lost on the taliban or the afghan people. and i think that the taliban -- the worst nightmare of the taliban in afghanistan is for

the afghan army to be in the lead, and have a major operation against them. this will be knocking them out, and this will affect their propaganda, that this is a foreign occupation army. and this will be seen for what did this. we are there -- we are there to help them control their own destiny and security. >> and we also speak in terms of the american forces and this is the coalition. we were able to meet with the leader of the british army in khandahar. and we are operating together with the people of afghanistan, by the coalition effort and there is the renewed -- to renew the effectiveness of the coalition. >> there is a real difference between this and -- do you know

what will be different from what happened in march, and what confidence to you have from what you saw? this is in the recent trip -- >> this is a mixed picture in marsa and i expect that this will be a mixed picture. this is not going to be a clear picture. it will be clear, because they will be in the lead, and we will see this already. this has been productive of a lot of information, that is going to the coalition. this is part of the coalition of the supporters. we expect that these will be in larger numbers, growing significantly, when you have the force of afghanistan that are there. it is important to understand

that this is not an army against the army. this is guerrilla warfare that is being addressed -- and this means that the picture is not going to be black and white. this will be a mixed picture, in the areas that we're going into. >> i am just wondering if you can talk about this operation. the way that you describe this is somewhat different. there will be a larger force in this area, that is 80% controlled by the taliban? that group there for some time. your understanding of the sequence -- as the stance -- what does this mean for you, that the afghans are here?

>> let me take the last question, first. this is done by the general and his staff, and they have issued the plans for the component elements of the task force, including the coalition forces and the coalition commanders. they are bracing back with their interpretation of the planning guidance, and the specific plans, so this is a situation in which -- not just superficially, but in substance, the leadership is following a plan, with the implementation and will effectively, along with the coalition forces, they will be there on the ground. this is the response for the first part. what is developing is that this is a different kind of operation. this was dominated by the

taliban and there was no credible government presence for years. and this was basically a forced entry by the marine corps to go in. and the second phase has been going slower than people expected. and this will go back to the issue of the lack of capacity, and there is a functioning government in khandahar. we were there, we met the governor and the mayor. he was complaining about his tax collections, and putting pressure on people to pay their taxes. this is much different in terms of the capacity. this is not robust capacity. but there is the capacity that is there. this has been somewhat similar to what we did in iraq. first of all, we have the lines

of communication -- and we will prevent the taliban elements from entering the city. and as we shut off these cities, we are moving in with the police in afghanistan, and we need the checkpoints in the neighborhoods. we have the police activity, and this will contribute to the increased stability, and they hope that this will go up to do all of these things. this is going on with this -- within the city of canada are. --re going into the streets and this is where the operations will be focused. this is designed to destroy the taliban and that is to lay down.

this is proceeding on top of this. contrary to some of these discussions -- we have learned a lot, but we're on the same schedule that we have had for several months. >> the understanding that you have is that -- this is something new. and this has been drawn up -- this is real progress. >> and this operation, which is led by the u.s. troops, is going to be concurrent with that? >> i think that we will let the commanders on the ground figure out the time. they are moving forward on these lines. there is a great deal of

congratulations for his consistent efforts to get more forces -- and his letters, the response -- he was being very responsive to get the forces down there. and you have seen an increase with the afghan forces on the ground. and this is enabling the contemplation of this effort, and when the efforts go in to these areas, they will be going in with a sizable contingency of afghani forces than was the case six months ago. >> these precise details will be determined on the ground at the time. we have the headquarters meeting in the presence of the coalition commanders.

this was a plan that was agreed upon, for this campaign, and the specific determinations that this is going to be led by the people of afghanistan and this will be at least july and early august. this will be a major campaign plan. the general time was announced, publicly. >> and there is one more question. >> can you talk about general petraeus? has he taken command? >> he has taken command and he is well-respected. this has been a smooth transition. this had not been as smooth if there had not been a general petraeus that was ready to take command, given what happened with gen. mccrystal. it was good that he was willing to take command and this worked

out well, and out from the lunch with president karzai, we were asking him if things were going well, and he told us things were going very well and there was a lot of respect for the general. one issue that was focused on, in terms of law logical people inside the villages, are whether they were in place or not in place. he has concerns about this, and -- there are no other risks over this policy. this policy that was proposed that the general believes makes a lot of sense. he wants to make certain that he has the control of these

forces, these regular police inside the villages. this is kept in the ministry of the interior. that is what the plan will be. to answer your question, there is a seamless transition, and this is not over policy at all, and this is well-accepted in afghanistan. >> the general does a superb professional, and this is obvious when you are on the ground, but he also has great skills beyond the operational detail. this is somebody who is a hard worker, and he is putting together a team, and we attended the dinner with the president, with the ambassador and general petraeus. putting them together is both

central to general petraeus and the new plan. we're very fortunate for this extraordinary command team in afghanistan. the operational commander, and the coalition allies were very impressed with the british officer. we have professionals in the coalition, and they are also -- there are the very brave civilian leaders. the commander's going back to the units -- and there is the recognition that this has to be a civil, military effort. i sensed that the transition is remarkably smooth, and they are focused on getting the job done. and this is a big focus. >> >> do you see this happening

from what you saw on the ground just now? do you see this going ahead as planned? >> this has real energy and urgency into the leadership of afghanistan. and they may reiterate something that they have said before. >> the american general in charge of training the afghan troops, they reiterated something they had seen before. this decision to begin the reduction -- and give reduction by july 2011, the decision to begin the reduction has been working very well in terms of focusing the afghan leaders on their responsibility to take the principal role, and the security

of their own country. and general caldwell has reiterated that this decision, on the part of barack obama to begin reductions in july 2011 was forcing action on the afghan leaders, but they felt a greater sense of urgency, and he has attributed the increase in recruitment on the part of the afghans to the energy extended to this goal. and this is attributed to the decision of president obama. and we see this in july 2011. this is counter-intuitive, to see the decision of the american president, they were setting a date to begin the reductions and

they have the impact on recruitment. what did the young men in afghanistan know about this decision? the impact was on the leaders of afghanistan, focused on their responsibility, to take responsibility for their own security. and i feel that this is an important date. it is important to not be a lot of wavering in that date. and they will lose the impact that they have. the urgency that they have imparted to the leaders of afghanistan. and the pace is not at all involved.

>> next week, a group of foreign ministers are going to be in kabul and richard holbrook previewed the meeting, and talked about general david betray its. this is his first state department briefing since the resignation of gen. mccrystal in afghanistan. this is 40 minutes. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> as we do from time to time, holbrook has traveled to the region, and we have a review of his meetings, to give you a feeling of where we are, in terms of the policies, and actions in pakistan, and

afghanistan. and we have -- we also know that the secretary is getting ready to travel and he will have more to say about the particulars of the travel letter this week. and this is clearly a major element of her travel, which will be participation in the conference in kabul. this is about richard's travel over the last few weeks, where he was in pakistan, to talk to the pakistan officials, about the groups that we have -- for the strategic dialogue. he was in afghanistan, working on the policy issues that will be part of this conference. and he has his own travel ambitions coming up -- in the next week or two. we will bring him back in to give you a feeling of where we

are in terms of this strategy. >> he did not mean to ask that. he meant afghanistan and pakistan. do you have any water? it is good to be back with all of you. i will be leaving again tomorrow, for germany, and pakistan, afghanistan, india, and london on the way back. this is back from another trip and -- i was wanting to talk a little bit about pakistan. germany, i will meet with the coordinator for the international special representatives.

they coordinate internationally and they do a wonderful job. this is a very important organization that has grown from 015 months ago, to around 35 counterparts. this is extraordinary because there is no formal mandate, and yet, this is functional and this is meeting regularly, and we will be meeting again in italy, in the fall. we met in of would dhabi in january, and this group has proven to be indispensable as a vehicle for coordinating civilian programs. the not have the formality of nato, which is a legal treaty organization, with the military command structure, but this fills in a gap in the policy

structure and we are very thankful to the germans for coordinating this, and many of you understand many of the details about this. there are seven countries that are members and we hope that this number is going to increase dramatically. there is also egypt and turkey, and jordan, uae, kazakhstan and malaysia. i draw attention to the fact that some money islamic countries are here, against the line of the celebration -- of these civilizations. that is put out i will be happy to talk on the subject, that has received no coverage in the united states. the last meeting was focused on

kabul.nference in campbel this will be my 14th visit to pakistan ever since i took this job, and my second in less than a month. and we are focused on the intense follow-up to the strategic dialogue that took place in washington -- and we have 13 working groups that were set up. and the foreign minister was asking that all of these groups come here, to discuss activities. and the groups are -- all 13 of them have now met and let me give you the names of the groups. agriculture. communications and public diplomacy.

defense, economics and finance. and i will give you the chair as if you want, later. education and energy, law enforcement and counter terrorism, market access, science and technology, security strategic stability and non- proliferation. water, and those of the 13 groups. -- and those are the 13 groups. when i was there 2 1/2 weeks ago -- i met with the foreign minister and the representative -- and this process is continuing its pace. and this is the critical operational detail.

and in addition, we have continuing discussions in islamabad with the government, and their dialogue with afghanistan. this is very important, and i believe that this beginning to show signs of some degree of building some degree of mutual confidence. nothing is more important for the resolution of the war in afghanistan. and the common understanding between afghanistan and pakistan, and the strategic purpose. this is very important and this is a long, arduous, complicated process because of the complicated history between these countries, going back to the day that pakistan became an independent state. this is the long-standing goal of this administration, from the

early part of this administration, to be identified by this critical issue and we are continuing to work on this. in afghanistan -- we will attend this conference -- i will attend this conference along with secretary clinton, and this will be -- i will stay on a little bit after her and work on some other issues, involving the read-integration program. and then, i will stop on the way out to continue discussions with the british. and with that, i will take the questions. >> what is this conference about?

is this about the money given to afghanistan? and this week in islamabad, there was a meeting there after a very long time. how helpful is this -- >> on the second part of the question -- anything that reduces the tensions -- for confidence and understanding between pakistan and afghanistan -- we are not directly involved in these talks. i had a good discussion this morning with the ambassador -- who came in during my invitation. with regard to the first party -- this is not a pledging conference.

this was at the invitation of president karzai. this was the largest gathering since the 1970's. and the afghan government -- if they have told us that they will present their commitment -- for the security governance and the development, and they will put heavy emphasis on the programs on read-integration. this is -- i cannot give you the exact number of foreign ministers because i do not know. but we know that the u.s. secretary general, is going to be there, and i am side about this, --

>> how the think about the read- integration -- up integration -- reintergration? >> president karzai did sign the decree, setting this up. i think that he was setting this up on july 1, or june 30. two weeks ago. the japanese and the british were leading the international effort to assemble funding. roughly in the neighborhood of $180 million and growing. and this will go into three different baskets, and the british have one basket. -- because of the accounting

procedures. the government itself is going to have a trust fund. the money is starting to come in. and this will be a major focus of the conference. and the minister in charge of this issue -- he was in london and he was in abu dhabi and madrid. this is the key person on the program. the department of defense has reserved $100 million of reserve funds, with congressional approval for this project. and all of you who know the general know how important that this budget is to him. they have talked about this many times. as a key ingredient of a successful campaign in afghanistan. and this, to me, we talked about this a very long time.

this was the subject -- this is the launch date. this was the announcement of the program. and this has been assembled and this is ready to go. >> and you have said that the united states, in theory, this would be on a case by case basis. is there a meeting of the minds with afghanistan and the united nations about how to list the taliban? >> this list -- i would like to give a background on this, because there is so much history and misunderstanding. the security council resolution was passed in 1999, it is that old. and did predates 9/11. and this was designed because of the taliban noncompliance with the u.n. security council resolutions.

and names were just put in, particularly after 9/11, and there were about 197 people under very specified international sanctions, because -- they could not travel or have bank accounts, or so on. and president karzai believed that this should be changed, dramatically. and he said so, publicly. the position of the united states under the previous administration was to be against any change in this list. we have examined this policy, starting late last year. there were five names on the list that the government had asked to be taken off. and this was done just before the conference in london in late january.

to get this list that -- this will take security council approval with five permanent members who must do this, and they must agree. so the u.n. process -- last week i went up to new york to talk to the austrian contingent of the united states that were in charge of this process. and the different un officials and the commission to the united nations. and we went through this discussion. the president would like to have names taken off of the list. and we have agreed to do that on a case by case basis. we will not support a blanket with the ending of this list. there are people on this where dangerous threats to the united states. and there active in movements that threaten to kill members of the coalition.

there are people on this who are dead, and it seems that we should take them off. there are people on this to have reconciled, people who run from the national assembly, or are in the national assembly, where people live openly in kabul or overseas. this is not the one-time-only event, as it has been reported in the last few days. this is an ongoing process. and the united states is not in charge of this. we are working on this along with them. >> this is not just the u.n. security council. and there is certain -- certainly another power to take the names off of the list. >> this is the security council -- do you have anyone in mind?

alaska? >> the russians. they have a legitimate role in this process. >> the have approved of the last five. in january, they had a very legitimate role. i was talking to senior russian officials in the last several weeks on several occasions, and they have said that they would take this on the case by case basis. and this will now come down to each -- to every name. and this is not unfair to conclude this the in the past, they were the slowest. it is not active to say that they are doing this now because the process is going on. >> do you make the distinction as you did in london between reintegration?

are you still against reconciliation? >> you were making this distinction about this being one thing -- and you are not so supportive of this issue. >> i do not believe that this is what i said in london. you may have a better memory that i do. what the position is on reintegration, the position on reconciliation should be equally clear. we support the afghan-led reconciliation. i do not believe -- in london, the press was that of the story, and nobody knew about this, this was the press in london. certain other people were saying

all kinds of things were going on, which was not. if you read these articles in the british press in particular, during london, you will conclude that something major was happening. this was six months ago. and there have been no follow-up stories because these stories were not true. they were put out there by individuals with their own agendas. i did not say i was against this in london. but this is a lot less than meets the eye, if you read the papers. the last six months show that this is accurate. once again, the president and the secretary of state have the red lines on this issue -- and i'll be happy to repeat them. i think all of you know this. and we support the afghan-led reconciliation. we are not in direct contact

with the taliban. and there may be other direct contact going on, individuals contacting each other, other things that did not involve the united states. and this is our position. we are not against taking the distinction that the general use to talk about. and this is not all reconcilable -- reconcilable were irreconcilable -- or irreconcilable. they're always ready to reconcile in groups, and as individuals. >> let me ask you -- about if this will make a difference, with the change in the command at the highest level, from gen. mccrystal to general petraeus?

and you have said that you have the ambassador who is here. what role will he play in the conference? >> the conference in kabul will be a great showing of support for the government of afghanistan. and let me take the third question and go back. in regards to the indians, you have to address the ambassador who is here, and those who represent india and how this will be done. the larger question is that india has a very real role in the region. and they can play the important role in resolving these issues, going down and looking forward into the middle of this. in regard to the change of command -- we have set a lot on

this already and i do not need to add much. i was there with all the general in the article appeared, and he called me to apologize, personally. i was not personally upset by what was said, worse things have been said about me. >> should you have -- don't you have to be accredited? and -- the president made the only possible decision under the circumstances, to reaffirm civilian control over military. we all admire this general, and i was working very closely with them. we have a seamless transition period this was seen the list for general petraeus, who was my counterpart -- we have a

seamless transition period, and this was for general petraeus. and i met with his designated successor yesterday. we will be meeting as soon as i get back from this trip, and i look forward to working with him. david betray his is one of the most extraordinary people to ever wear a uniform that i have ever known. and i have known a lot of these people going all the way back to vietnam. and he is extraordinary. i am happy that i am working with him so closely. we remain in touch and he does a good job. in terms of the effect on what the pentagon and the military would call the battle rhythm, there is no effect except the intensification of his emphasis on civilian and military coordination.

we have always agreed -- we have always believed in civilian- military coordination. we have had numerous videoconferences, and we flew into afghanistan in april for a conference of civilian military, involving 300 people, including the leadership of the afghan government. we have held this in pakistan and afghanistan several times and we have plans to continue this process in the fall. these plans will be continued with a slight change in personnel. and that will continue to participate in this. my job is unaffected except in terms of a different counterpart here, or a different counterparts there. part of what i will say -- i am happy that you asked this question, is that general

petraeus has been here -- this is the 12th? he has been on the job about 10 days. and he has just started out 100 m.p.h. and we have had meetings and -- this is all focusing on the civilian-military coordination, which, in my view, is in a very good shape. >> is this conference going to bring peace and stability into afghanistan? and will the bill for the people of afghanistan, -- >> there is no single conference that will be ending the war. this is a difficult process. >> the alignment seems to be the watchword for this. tell us about the goals for

bringing this in. i know that the president is hoping for 50% or more. i am wondering what kind of monitoring are we looking at for the afghan government, to make certain that there is a lot of leakage. >> we have the flow of funding to the afghan government, from this situation -- on the first point, the conference and this issue are not directly related. and this goal is a goal that we set into place the week that i took this job. one of the first things that i did -- i said the accounting at 8.8% of all of the american aid going through the government. this was not making any sense. we were we getting the government that we were trying

to strengthen. this is one of the large number of things that we have changed, that we inherited. it takes some time to make a change and we talk about the goal of 50%. the secretary of state and myself, we are trying to strengthen the ability of the government to strengthen their relationship for the government. we have the contracts with -- the contract in partners, and the other contractors. some of this cannot be done. a large contract is more difficult to do, but you can take a contract -- the focus in afghanistan and pakistan was done through contracts, with companies, usually in washington. washington. an