isis here in the u.s. we will talk with mickey mccarter about the federal air marshals service that the president is proposing -- about the cut in the federal air marshals service. that is on tomorrow's washington journal. on this president day weekend, our facebook question. who do you think is our nation's at most influential first lady? go to our facebook page and weigh in with your comments. enjoy the rest of the day and we will see you back here on monday. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> next "newsmakers" which michigan congressman fred upton. then acting office of management and budget director jeffrey zients. >> we are talking with fred upton, a republican and chairman of the house energy committee. two rick -- two reporters. michael lillis and sean lengell. michael, you can go first.

>> a long tough week and a drag out fight over the payroll tax extension. this has been perceived and written about as a political victory for president obama and the democrats. this is an issue that he wanted to get done, part of his jobs agenda. as one of the authors of the final package, what do you think the republicans got out of this deal? how can you go back to your district and say this is good for the country? >> you remember the date that we had. the president did not act for a one-year extension on the payroll tax. we pay for the whole thing. the senate only did two months and they left town. at the end of the day, the vote we had on friday, a majority of republicans votes for it in the house.

it passed better than 2 to 1. for a little while, it looks like lucy with the football. here we go again with the super committee. there were people who were saying will there be unemployment. doctors will be cut by 30% in terms of reimbursement for whatever service. you had the payroll tax, is not extended, was going to be a tax hike on every working american and average about $1,000 a person. it could have been more. if you look at this debate that we had the chairman of the conference, a another guy from mexican -- things -- and another guy from michigan, the decision was made that we will take the

payroll tax off of the table. we are going to pass this just by itself and deal with the other items. we passed it just by itself. you did cover the republic -- covered the public hearings that we had with the conference committee. in all four of those that we had, every democrat that was there said we want all of this to happen. from their side, they did not want to pay for any of it, none of it. we insisted as we go to conference, we get one bill passed and the other bill passes the house and senate. the house bill's all look better. you have to work the differences -- the house bills all look bad. you have to work out the differences. >> you do not see it as a political liability when you go back home.

>> no. more than half of the republicans voted for it in the house. is not just a victory for the president. it is from sitting down and ironing the differences out. every member on the house republican and democrat side signed the conference report and thought it was a good idea to go forward. >> your leadership, speaker boehner, has been pushing this tax cuts paid for with spending cuts elsewhere. >> it is from the house bill. you cannot get it done. there was something that i worked on. the chairman from oregon chairs the commission -- telecommunications committee. there was a piece on spectrum that could create as many as

300,000 jobs if this plays out. a new spectrum for our communication devices, whether it be ipad or iphones. it is a major step in the right direction. the debate on the house floor was a truly bipartisan. >> how would you explain to the public -- they might see this as caving to democratic demands. >> in my state michigan, until just the last month or so, we had 38 consecutive months of double-digit unemployment. we have really been in a recession. we have been harder hit than any -- we could make the case that we have been harder hit than any other state. if you let those tax cuts expire, it would be a tax increase on every working american. in the time of recession, that

is not the thing we should do. that is why it had bipartisan support as we moved it through the house in terms of the final passage. looking back at the house bill that was passed in december, 95% of the republicans who voted for its, paid for it all. -- for it, would have paid for it all. we ran into stiff resistance. we reduced the number of weeks and allowed states to have standards like drug screening and things like that. we thought that was important. we included a package that was better than 2 to 1. i know that we are taping this on friday, but it airs on

sunday. that friday, it was 2 to 1. >> republicans passed a bill that paid for the entire payroll tax extension. democrats point out that you did not insist the tax extension for the wealthy being paid for. how do you justify that difference? >> a couple of things. when we paid for the whole thing in december, we pay for it with a three-year freeze on all government salaries except for the military. non-military. the president made it clear that that was not going to be in the final package. the budget he sent up early this week calls for a pay hike for federal employees. we had to make different adjustments, as we did. this is related to the pensions

of all new federal employees. they will contribute more and get less when they retire. there are new federal workers that are there. the idea that we would have a permanent tax increase for a temporary tax extension was never going to fly. during some of the hearings that we had, the point was made that if that had been attempted in the senate -- the point was made that that had been attempted in the senate. it failed every time. it was out of the scope of conference. the chairman of the conference said, we will look at the house provision and the senate provisions. we will work out the differences between the two. we are not taking in new items that are outside the scope of the conference. >> because of the temporary tax

cut, you have to pay for it. it is a permanent tax cut, you don't. the first major thing you did with obama's blessing was to pass and $850 billion package. >> his former omb director said he had not supported people tax cut being extended. president obama signed it and it was passed with a good bipartisan support. as it relates to your specific question, the senate rejected that. it was not part of the senate bill. the idea we will add it back in was never going to fly. >> treasuries secretary geithner came out and said that he is fine with the extension for another 10 months, but no more.

i know things depend on unemployment and all of that. do you think we will have this battle again in november? >> we have a lot of things at the end of the year that have to be addressed. that is one of them. we have a sequestration that automatically kicks in because of the debt ceiling vote from last august. i read today that we are going to bump the debt ceiling again before the end of the year. we are going to have the election. democrats have not passed a budget in the senate for more than 1000 days. it looks like we will have a continuing resolution. someone made the point earlier that the lame duck will have more activity than the actual session.

the question it begs is this. for the major -- the bush tax cuts and the bush-obama tax cuts because he signed the extension into law -- it begs that we need tax reform on a base plate. it was on -- on a big plate. it was talked about at the super committee. six-six were divided between republican and democrat. one of the silver linings i saw happening was the leadership i saw led by dave camp. he is the chairman of the maze -- ways and means committee. neither max baucus or orrin hatch -- you see they will be coming together unneeded tax

return -- tax reform. maybe the provisions that expire will provide the umphf to get to the finish line. yes, they expired december 31. for most americans, the impact does not hit until april 15 of 2014 because the tax hike takes in a january 13 -- january 2013. you do not pay the tax until the end of the year. that allows you time to say hey what is it we like to do. i would like to see its simplified and a whole number of different things. we talked about -- i would like to see it simplified and a whole number of different things. we can talk about general electric and how they did not pay income taxes. one of my biggest employers in my district was in my office not too long ago. he said, we are at 35% in our

corporate tax rate. where are we going? let's look at the deductions. we can add jobs. you can see that in the platform of any one of our republican nominees. we need tax reform. this is the impetus we need to get this done. you get the administration pretty hard over solyndra -- >> you get the administration pretty hard over solyndra. when that was floated a couple of years ago, there was not much criticism from your committee. doesn't congress have responsibility for the failure of this program? >> remember that the republicans have only had the house for barely a year. it was exactly a year this

weekend when we began our investigation of solyndra. we have been trying to get the answers to the questions from the get go. formerly, we had to subpoena the documents. -- formally, we had to subpoena the documents. we wrote a tough letter asking for more information that we think is being withheld from us. even being able to interview career folks at the office of management and budget who = =-- that had been denied. on thursday, the administration agreed for us to conduct some interviews with people who are in the know. we will see how those discussions go. we have asked for more documentation and documents from the white house. we are hoping they are able to

respond. we will see. it has been terrible but it has been a whole year. things went clearly off of the track. the investigations subcommittee the one i once shared, they are entrusted with looking for fraud and abuse wherever they can find it. i had the firestone tire issue. let's find out what went wrong. we need to come back and 68 -- and fix it. as taxpayers we lost $500 million. under the law the taxpayers should come first under bankruptcy. that was changed. who changed its? -- changed it? who were the ones who encourage

them to change it? they announced they were going belly up in august of 2010. even then, they were in the queue for another band-aid in the millions of dollars to keep them afloat. when it was finally denied two days later they said game up. we cannot make it. how did we get into this mess? we need of the answers to find out precisely how it happened. hopefully, we will get some answers at the end of this week. we need to make legislation so that it will not happen again. >> there have been news reports that in 2009 you ask the obama demonstration to look at michigan solar energy. what is the difference between that solar firm and what you ask for a way back then? >> this was not in my district,

by the way. my delegation sent a letter asking them to consider a loan to be considered. at the end, they do not get it. these are often routine requests that different delegations make. it was denied. case closed. solyndra is totally different. people within the administration said this is not ready for prime time. that started from the bush administration. they stopped from allowing it to both forward. one week for two after president obama was in office, laws were changed. all of this is considerably different from what is a delegation letter from an agency. >> corporations have been

critical of you for that loan guarantee. they are saying, fred upton has a long record of distorting and energy subsidies. what do you say to that? >> the club for growth is where they are. it is a free country. a can that different candidates. we will signal what will happen. >> you believe in the loan guarantee program? >> it was not in my district. we asked the department of industry to consider this as an application weigh in on the merits. with solyndra, it is at a different issue. it is like pulling teeth to get answers from the administration. $500 million that they did not

apologize for losing. they did not lose any other money on that other letter. it was never approved. >> what is the situation you may look at to address the solyndra situation? what is it born in the loan guarantee program? -- thorn in the loan guarantee program? >> the country has -- the company has to be in line behind someone else. >> you have a tough time getting your legislation through the senate. what is your plan to get that pipeline approved? >> couple of things. we did a telecom meeting this last week. when you do this, you can ask folks on the phone -- you connect to folks on the phone

and you are available for q&a. i can ask questions and let people indicate a preference. i went through the keystone merits and demerits. how many people do does -- how many people does he still support? 87%. we have watched citizens in a bipartisan effort. we have millions of miles of pipeline. we can connect the united states with can that. this is something the state department has been studied for more than three years. secretary clinton indicated in october of 2010 that she was inclined to support progress. in august of this year, she said we will have a decision before the end of the year. then we have this big protest down at the white house. environmental groups say, mr.

president, you allow this to happen and we are not point to support you in the election. within a week or so, the president puts it off until after the election. >> do you think obama supports the plan on its merits? >> they should support this. this is 20,000 direct jobs. more than 100,000 indirect jobs. it is $1 million a day for oil crude that will be refined in this country. americans are not happy with these gas prices. we have heard a lot about it on my telecom meeting this last week. they made no bones about it. they will be producing nearly 4 million barrels a day in alberta, canada. and we will not take it here? they have time on the other side of the pacific. the prime minister was here last

week. they would love to have a long- term commitment to take the oil there. it is going to go. it is either going to come here and this place on accrued we are getting from venezuela and other places -- >> how are the republicans going to make it stick? >> we passed a bill last week with bipartisan support. it was included in the transportation bill the house passed last week. it is now part of that bill. this bill we authorizes the highway spending and all transportation. the senate does not know if it will be in the senate bill. we are hoping we can get this to be president's desk again. it is different from what he had before. we had this certified that it was not in the national interest. >> you mean the senate will pass

its? -- pass it? >> we design this in the same way the alaska pipeline was designed in the 1970's. the president signed a key piece of bread -- piece of legislation. if it meets those standards and the with changes it shall be approved by the regulatory commission within 30 days. it takes it off of the president's desk. maybe the president can say, i do not have a role here anymore. if it meets the standards, it is done. remember as it relates to the senate they were the ones that put it into the two month extension on the payroll tax. we had in our bill in the house.

senator reid added it to his bill. every senator voted for it. >> we are running out of time. we have a couple more questions. >> as far as job creation, some of the figures have been across the board. you mentioned 20,000. the u.s. chamber of commerce manchin 250,000. there are some critics that safety net gain would be basically zero because it would destroy a lot of jobs. >> what jobs are going to be destroyed? >> jobs on farms -- >> it is going to be very to -- varied. pipelines will be laid. 20,000 jobs is the right number.

in the philadelphia, they are closing refineries because they do not have the volume of crude they once had. in texas, they will be adding refinery jobs. this is a $7 billion construction project. it is here. in one of the president's saturday radio addresses said, i will do whatever it takes to get jobs. this is a jobs bill. most folks will agree that this is 20,000 direct jobs. there are 118,000. more than 100,000 indirect jobs in hotels and restaurants and the different things that come about. and is nearly 1 million barrels a day that we do not have to get from somewhere else. if gas prices go up, they will go up another 60 cents before memorial day.

some are predicting as much as $5 a gallon by the fourth of july. demand is down in the united states. as the economy worldwide begins to pick up, there is a greater thirst for this oil. if we just sent it to china, how does that help us? that is what canada will do if we say no. >> there was a big outcry over the obama administration's requirement that its lawyers cover contraception. do you think women should have access to free contraception as part of their health-care? >> obamacare is the big coal that allowed the administration to do this. that is government-run health care. we are going to be having secretary sebelius testified the first week we are back.

she is coming up march 1, the first week we are back. she knows she will get a lot of questions on this. for me and a lot of mothers, the speaker to the floor and said this is unconstitutional. how did this happen? what are the answers we have to get responded to as we look at legislation to reverse this grab that hhs has begun to pursue. we are not looking at it precisely. we are looking at it as religious freedom. it is stepping on the bounce -- bounds of notre dame hospital. catholic hospitals oppose the decision that has been made. look at it in that perspective and not necessarily the various things that might or might not

be covered. >> i have to leave it there. i want to ask you quickly as we wrap up. on friday, we heard about somebody on their way to the capital on a suicide mission. i am curious, as a member of congress was sort of notice were you given? what sort of intelligence you were given from the police? >> i thought you were going to ask about something else. we were notified. we all carry blackberries. we were informed about it after this individual was arrested. we were assured that nobody was ever in harm's way. thank goodness, the system worked. >> do you think you should have been notified ahead of time, before he was arrested? >>