father, mr. robert land or on friday. i understand your father served with honor in the second world war as an was one of the five cars that participated in the clearly his public service was passed on to a second generation. at this point, i would like to introduce the invited first panel. the hon. joseph, reclamation and enforcement. the assistant secretary to the army corps of engineers.

unfortunately no one from the obama administration could attend our hearing today. it is disappointing that they declined our invitations to speak and answer questions on an important issue that directly impacts the jobs and livelihood of many americans. even if they are extremely busy, which i would understand, they could send someone in their place. since they have no time to answer questions, we will now call for were the second panel mr. ross eisenberg of the national association and ms. maria gunnoe.

your written testimony will appear in the record so i would ask that you keep your testimony under committee rule for-a. our microphones are not automatic. you have to push the button to start. i will also explain how the timing light works. you may begin. thank you for being here. i want to thank you it the committee for the opportunity. i am a senator from west virginia.

so disturbing regarding the law that in 1998, we had a real tussle about went down cold. as a commissioner, you said the budget. we lost 400 quality jobs. if you do that particular area, our severance was about $400,000 per quarter.

we get down to 72,001 quarter. now, when 20% of your budget is derived from coal tax, it is pretty tough. now in the 14th year we are still not mining coal. there are still when her 32 jobs today in question that would be the service mind. when we talk about the devastation of surface mining, let's look at the plus side. we're in a challenge. we have no flat land. with some of the parcels that we extracted, we now have a jail, an industrial park, an airport, a shopping mall, and other things that give us a little diversification and the ability to be just called. logan has done a pretty good job.

we set up the master land usage program. what that meant was that we could put in language where we could take people out of a flooded area. we did put them up on a surface mine. we took it all out and started over. millions of your dollars come into our area. army corps. the troops. cleaning up our area. if those people had been on some of those surface mined areas that we had, that would not have happened. if you think you cannot get killed, go back to buffalo creek. 124 people. today we're talking about the ability to produce energy that keeps america safe. gives us the ability to compete with other markets financially.

when you cannot get a permit, guess what happens? a lot of people do not understand. a few years from now, it will be supply and demand. they're going to have the supply and we're going to have the demand. we're 20 years away from alternative energy and fuel to where we do not need cold. that is the problem. we're going to sit back and watch the rest of the world flourish economically. they'll laugh at what we do. we're sitting here, putting our own self out of business. we know how to do environmentally sound. i want to do, too. i am an environmentalist. i want to do the right way. you fight it. put a community on it. what people do not realize is it would be 3%. i am telling you. we could make it on 97% in the mountains. second, i share one of the most

instrumental groups of america. we occupy that trail system in the same mountains that we mine coal on a daily basis. if it is so dozen -- so devastating, with had visitors from all 50 states and foreign countries. we are trying to diversify. the way we do it, we can do both. so do not be duped. come down to west virginia and see how we tend to it. see what we do. do not put the onus back on us to where we cannot compete. let me take you to some post- mined land that has been redone. the beauty of it. i had a 60 minutes crew in a helicopter. they asked me, where is the reclaim area? i told them to have been over for 12 minutes. there would not believe what i told them. it is better on post-mined land

than it is on the land before. with that, to offer the opportunity. let's be sensible and put america back to work. thank you very much. >> thank you for your testimony. you may begin. >> thank you, sir. thank you, chairman. i am karen harbert. it is the nation's largest business federation. first, let's be clear what this discussion is not about. it is not about mountain top mining. it is not about whether kohl should or should not be part of our energy mix. it is about the rule of law and whether or not america is a safe place for long-term investment. it is about the regulatory process. it is about whether america is open for business. that is why this hearing is so important. one of our great strengths as a country is that we hold the law sacrifice.

commerce as would not would grind to a halt. there would be no way to accurately calculate risk associated with the regulatory agency that could simply change its mind at will. they support environmental safeguards and recognize the clear, transparent cover regulatory system. we also believe the government must honor the decisions it makes. a federal judge has clearly demonstrated that the epa did not. to give a sense of scale and magnitude put at risk by the epa's actions, it should be noted that the army corps engineers distribute reports annually. the estimate that it covers about $220 billion of annual investments conditioned on those

permits. it is not just a matter of mining your energy projects. it covers a significant component of our economy, including residential commercial buildings. roads, and other renewable projects. in fact, a study estimates that for every $1 billion we generate 18,000 jobs. the had the opportunity and legal opportunity to do so. attempting to withdraw all but permit retroactively would not only cause immediate economic loss to the mine owner, the state of west virginia, and the workers, but it would really

create a substantial negative and killing impact as a whole. it is permits become subject to arbitrary treatment, the results will be significantly reduced capital investment, fewer jobs, off and more infrastructure to the extent that government increases risk, the united states becomes less attractive. according to the global competitive reports. when a government action attempts to provoke a permit issued by another agency, this sends a message to the entire

business community that it cannot count of the government permit. they are asking for transparent and in during regulation upon which they make decisions and investments. they require a process that makes sense and has a clear time frame. without confidence, capital go elsewhere. in this case, the system worked. there is a striking rebuke to the epa overreach. it is unreasonable to sew a lack of uncertainty into a system which was intended to provide finality. at the onset of this case, the

epa sought to silence its critics by objecting to the filing of our brief. now the court has ruled against the epa but it continues. it is troubling to waste the taxpayers' dollars. it is transparently bad for the economy and inconsistent with the principles of law. business can and should explain industry. we need to know the rules of the road and the regulators have an obligation to provide a clear and transparent process to follow. congress and the judicial system must confirm that the epa uses only the authority it has and not the authority it wishes it has -- nothing less than the integrity of the archive -- of our economy is at stake. >> f. thank you for your testimony. -- thank you for your testimony. mr. eisenberg, you may begin. >> thank you. good morning. my name is ross eisenberg.

i am vice president of the national association of manufacturers. i am pleased to discuss with the retroactive veto of that permit did and had on manufacturers. in order to drive our recovery, they need predictability from the regulatory process. they must understand the rules of the road so they can make responsible, informed investment decisions. this lack of predictability is precisely the problem with this case we are discussing today. it is the main reason that other organizations found it necessary to enter this litigation against epa. this bruce mind veto was, at its core, a $250 million decision by the epa that crated a $220 billion problem. the stock above the $250 million. they plan to commit more than to honor $50 million and new, well- paying jobs into west virginia.

obviously, this project matters and you heard that from the state senator. now about that problem, as was noted, the corps estimates that under section 4 04, more than to under $20 billion of investment was issued on these permits. this includes pipelines, construction, renewable energy, agriculture, and any other sectors. but for as long as the clean water act has been in existence, the exclusive framework for which might be modified is in the army corps is regulation. the epa introduced this underlying thread for their permit. they would have made it significantly more difficult for project developers to rely on an essential for hundred for permit. product developers -- 404 permit.

epa's retroactive devito brought significant uncertainty that would inevitably -- retroactive veto brought significant uncertainty. that has a small part manufacturer is concerned. that seemed to be testing boundaries of the clean water act. for instance, there on the verge of issuing final guidelines under the clean water act. manufacturers are concerned that the guidance is legislative in nature. moreover, by doing this dramatic policy shift through guidance rather than through regulations or the regulatory process, manufacturers still that the epa is circumventing the safeguard

in the regulatory process such as economic impact statements and impacts to small businesses. in addition, there on the verge of taking another action. this time, they appeared to propose a mine in alaska. the epa has taken a position where it can say no to this process before the permit has been filed. i want to be clear. it clearly wants more. the epa is causing a great deal of uncertainty that goes beyond the project it regulates.

it is also ensuring that most of its decisions will be subject to litigation. the goal should not be to issue the most aggressive regulations. it should be to carry out the intent of congress and maintain the chemical and physical and biological integrity as set forth in the language of the clean water act. if they want additional regulatory authority, isn't that why we have congress? they should be here asking congress for that authority. manufactures the predictability. a proper system of checks and balances will insure that this will not happen again. thank you for allowing me to testify. i look forward to any questions you might have. >> f. thank you, mr. eisenberg. we will now hear from this gunnoe -- from ms. gunnoe. >> coal mining impacts are

killing people. thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak to you again today. i appreciate your obligations and responsibilities in protecting and serving all u.s. citizens. my hope is that you listen and hear the pleas for our lives. now on top removal permits are in the headwaters of the stream were the people of blair seem unimportant to most people in this room. but to me and the people of blair, the stream is a part of our homes. when mount top removal is permitted near your home, you will soon be forced to leave what is the birthplace of your family and your children's birthright as heirs to your family land. you are forced by destruction to leave the american dream that our forefathers prepared and fought for. why is it acceptable to

depopulate the committees and culture, pollute our water and air, and leave us to die in a post-mining wasteland? you should ask yourself, are we knowingly lining our pockets at the expense of the lives and livelihood and help of the people in avalanche at? the answer to this, in my opinion, is yes, you are. the spurs never won a permit is one of the first examples of the steps that the epa has taken to stop irresponsible mining practices that were ignored during the bush administration. people from all over apple action have lobbied the epa for these protections for the past 15 years. the coal industry was allowed to do as they pleased. then, in 2009, in the steps of the obama administration tried to fix the problems that the bush should ministration created

and then ignored. the coal industry has said that the epa and the obama administration are trying to shut down call. the coal industry is perpetuating a line that there is a war on coal and that the coal mining jobs are under attack. this is the same false crisis that is created by this industry each time that they do not get what they want. according to research reports, coal mining and jobs have increased a 7.4% since 2009 when the obama administration took office. the west virginia center of budget and policy looked at mining jobs of the last two decades. the coal mining jobs were higher in 2011 than any other time in the last 17 years. quoting the title of the article on climate progress, the war on

call is a lie invented by the coal industry. it is a multi million dollar misinformation campaign funded by big coal polluters to distract americans from the deadly of facts of kohl's pollution on public health. there is a war, believe this. oal. war is not on cal coal is not our king -- god is. call is only the dictator of some -- coal is only the dictator of some. how will this affect our culture? we will die as a culture as we suffer with the inability to pass this mountain culture onto our children. not even our historic mountain cemeteries are left intact and

accessible. it is not as if this committee, congress, the coal industry, and the obama administration does not know what mountain top removal is doing to people. they not only know about it, but they are supporting it and allowing it by not ending it. after visiting the apple ashen -- appalachian communities, now on top removal should be immediately stopped until a full investigation can be undertaken. mountaintop removal cannot be silenced. the more people who are impacted, the more we cannot continue to stand up and protect all that makes us free. we will not back down. we know we are doing the right thing in ending this evil that has come in to destroy our very existence. for many years, we have lobbied to the epa to enforce laws that

are intended to protect us. the coal industry is anti-life. it is the only chance we have to survive. it is like the forced removal of the cherokee on the road of tears. silenced, forced removal of our people. >> ok. thank you. thank you all of you for your testimony here this morning. members of the community -- mayors of the committee may have additional questions. i asked to respond to these in writing. we will now begin questioning. members are limited to five minutes and their questions but we may have additional rounds. i now recognize myself for five minutes on the first set of

questions. senator kirkedoll, you describe the benefits more broadly. did i hear you right, that there is a $29 million direct payroll and a total $100 million direct and indirect payroll that is being lost by the non-operation of the spruce the coal mine? >> those were numbers are reflected back in 1998 when it was shut down. the loss of revenue that we had, we could not make it up. we never made it up. we made cuts. the $29 million was direct payroll to the employees and the permit was no longer there for them to continue to operate and work. and systematically do the math on the people who bring the supplies, the tires, the trucks,

this and that, whenever they do. we have done a lot of estimated numbers for support vendors. >> how many jobs do you think that represents? how many jobs are we talking about? >> well, we looked at different statistics. some people say qualifying coal mining jobs, if the person works of no more hours and is about $65,000 to $75,000 a year, it is between five to seven additional jobs in the surrounding area of activity. so, 200 qualifying coal mining jobs to be up to 100,000 jobs with the activity of that revenue there to be split among different type needs and services. yes. >> with the money that would come to the county or the state, is the county or the

state able to make water quality improvements? >> here is the thing in logan. we have -- i was the commissioner for 30 years. we had less than 20% of the people who had water. it was a coal-mining area. we formed a psd that was very aggressive and a request for funding. when i left in 2010, we were way past 90% of the people in our counties. we have potable water. we do have a policy about extreme restoration. you simply cannot get in a stream and more with federal regulations. i do not care what you have and the tour -- in the stream. the guy just recently had flooding where the water will flow down there. you have to freeze and a breeze

lodged in on the connectors of your bridges from one side of the waterway to the other. you get in that stream, and muddy the water, you kill a crosshead, you're going to jail. so what we had to do is a commission was make applications of what they called the soul conservation agency in charleston. they would come in. s send engineers and study how to bring the stream back to better rocked. we were ok with that. we worked with it. some of the interpretations of strings is what the problem is now. they tried it is not a stream. >> thank you. miss harbert, excuse me. to people working in regulatory agencies have a clear enough understanding, in your opinion,

of the problems caused in our economy by increasing uncertainty? >> in our opinion, absolutely not. the reverberation of decisions like this are not just in one county or one state. there are across the country. they're affecting industries unrelated to mining and unrelated to energy. it is building and transportation. it is roads and bridges. these decisions should not be taken so lightly. we have to understand that these are billions of dollars at -- at stake. sometime down the road somebody might change their mind and revoke their permit. >> is this the result of driving american jobs overseas with this kind of uncertainty? >> it most definitely has a chilling affect investment. we have to wanted and attracted -- be inviting, rather than saying capital investors, take your money elsewhere. because you're going to have that kind of certainty somewhere

else. these decisions of more like hugo chavez then george washington. what we want to be as a country? someplace that we want investment? where it is comfortable and happy here? or do want to scare to other markets? >> ok, thank you. i now recognize the other members. >> let me begin with a comment that this will slide show earlier just confirms, in my mind, that the officials at the environmental protection agency had important, better things to do with their time this morning and to engage in political peter. mr. chairman, you knew days ago there were not coming. he did not have to print cards to establish a little skit here. to ask for the officials were. this just, as i say, confirms that they have much more important things to be doing this morning.

ms. gunnoe, we have, i think, a chart available that is a map of the area. the red in the center, i guess, is a mountain top area in question. all of the other gray areas are permitted areas. so, it is not as if this is the only opportunity in the tri- state region. ms. gunnoe, according to the epa, there are 257 past and present service mining permits that occupy 13% of the entire land area. as you can see, the miserly

blanket the region. do you think that level of mining that is already occurring in this area means that there is more to be done to protect the strains that would be affected by the spruce mind? >> i do. the streams in that area are already above epa standards on selenium. we know that through recent water testing that has been done. i need to say that when you look at this mountain, recognizing that the dark and grey areas are peaks that have been permitted or proposed. the people living in the lower- lying and valleys, when you blow off a mountain, basically what happens is the people in the valley get flooded. fema then comes in and helps to clean up the flooded communities.

there is many reasons to not allow this permits. the spruce up watershed has an astronomical amount of mining in it already. it has heavily impacted those communities. those jobs will never benefit the committee of bear. the committee of blair will be depopulated because of the job. >> thank you. mr. eisenberg. we have heard that this has some affect on the people locally. she talked about it. but you talk about the need for this coal. let me ask comment you know what happens to the coal from logan county? how much of the is sent to other countries? >> of the top of my head, i do not know the answer. >> well, i can help you. 1/3.

so, a question we have to ask ourselves is what are we doing to ourselves? do we want a country -- and you described a country that you're asking whether we would want to live in. i think, yes, you're getting right at the heart of this question. do we want a country that is at despoiled and contaminated so that we can send of the coal to china, and to india, and yes, to venezuela. there is not much time, but ms. gunnoe, let me ask you quickly,

if you think it sounds like the epa should be using the new science as it comes forward to make the best decisions for protecting the streams? >> absolutely. they should be. i need to say that we, the citizens, have lobbied the epa for these protections. these protections, our lives depend on them. they are doing what they need to do to protect the lives of citizens in our community. >> ok. thank you. the representative from pennsylvania. >> i am very disappointed in the obama administration. even with a notice, refusing to come. i happen to believe we live in a constitutional republic. it is not a dictatorship. the legislative body has an

oversight function as part of checks and balances. to blatantly refused i think raises questions of what they hiding? senator kirkedoll, what with the potential be to expand and resources? i know the economies and not good for the federal government's or states, but to expand resources permitting of mines that were then, after the fact, and vetoed by the epa? sorry? >> by the impacts on the state's permitting. >> i can study the economic impact. the jobs, number one. i worked underground. i am not a novice to the coal industry. we recall the red heads back then. jobs are tough to get, but we

got some. now it takes $2 to $3 million to qualify for a permit. to get companies to come in now and spent $2 or $3 million not even knowing if it is approved, it could still be pulled, that is was throwing everybody off the curve of the road. if you approve something, you approve it. there is a role and a law that we all have to abide by. as he said, these people have better things to do. i think they should be here. we're talking about people's lives. income. that is the reason i'm here. i care about people having the ability to wake up on monday morning. the next generation is not going to be working. if you choose to help somebody

that cannot afford an electric bill, your electric bill but -- you're gonna pay an energy tax. they're making conversation about shipping the coal. that is exactly right. we should be using our own call, our own steel, our own workers. that is what people this country need and want and think we ought to have. why we exporting it? because of the rules and regulations that we have. we are missing the boat on every opportunity. that is why we're having these hearings this morning. i believe we can mined coal environmentally sound. i now want waters to be run were they are not usable. we're not talking about streams.

i want to see the strings were talking about. they are dried ditches. the only have water when it rains. on 28 degree slopes, how much did you have a mountain? come look. i will take you on a tour before and after. we can do things better. we need to do things better. send people from d.c. down to these regions. come see for yourself. you will find out. we can do it both ways gentlemen. ladies. let's do it inside the borders

of america. >> just real quickly, because i do not have that much time left. what impact has the legislation had on mining in your region? >> we talk of how many people's work comes to logan. with that massive layoffs. my county has not had as many as we employ a lot of people. the owner of said prop. is getting to where we talk to people, and i always did as a commissioner. their research going to illinois and wyoming. they're going to leave this region. it is a question now. the young people buy homes and spend money? if you can pull this, you can pull any permit.

last september, this subcommittee did go to charleston. the acting governor was there. the u.s. senator was there. other witnesses testified as well. it was a very good hearing. we did see some reclamation and reclaimed land. did you see the golf course? >> we did not see the golf course. i would now like to recognize the ranking member of the full committee. >> the reason that coal has been on a massive decline in recent years has less to do with president obama than with the inability of the coal industry to innovate and its inability to

compete. there are more than 500 power generation units operating in this country. a 500. how many of those are more than 50 years old? more than 200 of them. how many of them are at least 60 years of about 500? 74. we actually have 10 units that are at least 70 years old. here is a picture bill in 1925. it is an 87-year-old plant. thomas edison was alive when this was built and television had just been invented. air travel was in its infancy.

it was built and is still operating today. we have improved and all the other technologies. we figured out how to the same thing but for less money. all with greater speed and reliability. the american way. clean replaces 30. high-tech replaces low-tech. our country benefits when this happens. the 87-year-old power plant is switching to natural gas beginning in 2014. this is a growing trend in the power sector. natural gas is cheaper. it burns cleaner. you are less likely to get as much or have a baby with birth defects. if you live near a plant that burns it, you're feeling better. you know there are more dangerous elements coming out of coal that out of natural gas.

you can get natural gas without blowing the tops off of mountains and destroying the environment. right now, 36% of america's electricity is generated by coal. 36% today. six years ago, kohl was producing half of america's electricity. it is gone in six years from 50% down to 36% of electricity. at the same time, electricity from natural gas has gone from 18% to 27%. wind has gone from producing virtually none of our power to 3% of our power in the last six years. a newer, cheaper, cleaner technologies are being called. the free market is being called. adam smith is spinning in his

grave as willis in to the republicans talk about the need to prop up the coal industry -- as we listen to the republicans talk about the need to prop up the coal industry. he is spinning so fast he would actually qualify as an energy source listening to republicans of bleating about the rise of natural gas as wind -- and wind as competition. especially with these plants that are 87 years old. here's the interesting thing. in the bill, that the house of passed in 2009, th we built and $60,000 for the coal industry. $60 billion between now and 2030 for them to be able to install

sequestration technology. now, the electric utility industry, they supported it. but the coal industry said, no. they said, we do not want the money. by the way, it was $200 billion. that is a lot of money. that is a lot of investment in new technology. they built into legislation so they could innovate. improve. the coal industry said, no. we're not going to move. that is with funding coming from the federal government. so that they could innovate. they said, no. over and over again to innovation. there are now 200 coal plants over the age of 50 that need to be renovated at the cost of billions of dollars. natural gas is cheaper. wind is on the move.

who wants to pay now and the private sector to rehabilitate dinosaur called units with cleaner, cheaper options available? now the free market says of the coal industry did not want that funding, then we look of the cost and to say that we're moving to natural gas. we're moving to win. you innovate or you die. just ask the auto industry. that is always happening to the coal industry. they refuse to innovate. their fees to except the funding that would make it possible. i just hope the record is clear out there and this gets reported as the real story that the coal industry refuses to move to help their own people compete. i yield back the balance of my time. >> i am glad to hear you do not like old coal plants. let's work and getting some new ones out there. [laughter] i would like to recognize the gentleman from michigan. >> thank you, mr. chairman.

i represent michigan's first district. with a lot of minerals in our district. nickel, copper, iron, gold. our like to ask mr. eisenberg, tell me. this regulation here where a permit is going to be revoked, to tell us about what is going to happen to the rest of minerals in my district? when my going to tell people were looking forward to a resurgence in mining? i would just like to have you explain a little more about that. >> you're talking about the case of an alaska? that is an interesting case. i urge the committee to look at that a little bit closer. the epa is using the exact same part of section 404. they said that it means they can

change is specification whenever. now they cannot, because the decision says he cannot do it retroactively. the epa has now taken the decision that they can do it preemptively, which means before it is done and before anything. that has a lot of folks very worried about it. a lot of the same companies and same industries that are impacted by the decision. right now, they have not done this. they are performing a assessment. they seem increasingly likely to do it. i noted in my testimony that in carmel groups are already asking for an assessment similar to the great lakes region. it's the same thing is what happened. you cannot do it. you're essentially -- a admitted this. your of vetoing the project.

>> do you think we will need less copper, nickel, iron, and the next 20 years in this country? >> absolutely not. we will need more of it. >> to you think we harvest our minerals in this country at a higher standard than the environmental impact? >> i am certain that we do. it just seems to me that keeping the jobs here in america and better environmental quality for the globe is our goal here. i think we should be harvesting our materials here at home in a better fashion than occurs in china are some of these other mines. miss harbert, d have any comment

on that analysis? >> if you look at the world's appetite for energy and the economic growth, we hope we will see it around the world. there's no doubt we will need more minerals and infrastructure. we, as a country, will have to decide if we will be complacent and import those things, or cultivate our own resources and have an advantage. we have a lot of resources in this country. we have the resources to take those to market and it advances every year. we have the opportunity to use oil and use gas really affectively in our country, but the epa is standing in the way. i would like to address the comment about natural-gas. there is a beyond the call campaign. now they lost a beyond-campaign. with a movement that is -- launched a beyond gas campaign.

we cannot let the epa stand in the way of getting the economy back on its feet. >> with harvest energy and wind energy, we're going to need minerals, it seems to me. >> absolutely. china has that and know. and >> do we have the ability to harvest as minerals needed in this technology? >> we certainly have a great deal of minerals. but to have a very prohibitive policy to be above access those minerals. if we want a vibrant domestic economy, all those are needed for all sources of energy. it allows us access to those resources. >> thank you very much. i yield back my time. >> the gentleman yields back.

i think it is my turn. so i will yield myself questions. i'm sure we were all entertained by the political leader of a ranking member and his comments. you know, it is shocking to me to hear comments about the coal industry in his perception, the inability to innovate and compete. i cannot know how we could possibly think the coal industry could innovate and compete one up against the massive burden and costly burden of activist regulatory agencies like the epa and the department of the interior. i reminded this committee and the ranking member that of those old power plants you're talking about provide about 45% to 50% of america's energy needs today. in the state of ohio they provide 87% of the energy.

and thousands and thousands of jobs across the country. i am glad the chairman ihosted this important hearing today on the obama administration's abuse of executive power and the broader a fax that this abuse of power could have on the economy as a whole. the obama's administration war on call is most clearly exemplified in this case. however, as ms. harbour and mr. eisenberg have testified, the actions taken by the epa to veto a valid permit by the u.s. army corps of engineers has crippling effects to the rest of the economy if it is allowed to stand. america's businesses are already being crushed by the uncertainty of regulations from obamacare. if the epa suddenly had the power to veto permits justly

issued by other federal agencies, companies could start to move their investments overseas were they at least have the certainty and finally they need to invest their money. ms. harper, in your testimony, you cite a study that says over 2 billion -- over $200 billion are contention on a 400 for permits. after issuance of it, the u.s. district judge amy berman jackson, who was, in fact, appointed to the bench by president obama, asked the epa what are they supposed to do tomorrow? specifically, under epa's reasoning, so, everybody with a permit has to on a daily basis compare their permit to your list a specified sites?

they cannot do with a been permitted to do by the united states? so, my question to you is, what would be practical affect be on a company having their section 400 for permits subject to epa's potentially ever-changing list of acceptable disposal sites? >> i used to be an infrastructure project developer. the one thing you do is look at all of your risk. what this introduces is a whole nother level of risk that you have to find a way over. a hurdle. what does that do? it did because he canceled because it is too high, or causes you to increase the cost of the project is yet to take that into account, or you take that money and you go elsewhere. all those things make it very impractical. but we know we have a crumbling infrastructure in this country.

we know we need a lot of investment. those people who will make those, let's keep them. it is a timely impact. >> ok. mr. eisenberg, you talked about a hurdle cost the companies would have to account for if this epa action is allowed to stand. would many of the members of the national association of manufacturing have the same hurdle costs in markets overseas? >> and overseas? probably not. this is the case of duplicative regulation. and the epa does not have the authority to do this. the epa just tried to fix the one thing that they could, which is where you drop a lot filled. it distorts this hurdle rate, which is the calculation that an investor makes when they're going to decide whether or not to invest in a project. no.

certainly not. it gets to the core of my testimony which is, if the epa wants more authority, they need to come here and try to get it. if they do not feel comfortable with the balance of their authority, congress is the place they need to go to try to get more. >> thank you. my time is expired so i'll yield to my colleague from massachusetts. the you have any questions? >> i do. it is only to make this point again that for the first three months of 2012 coal on the produce 36% of energy in the country. it is declining rapidly because of natural gas and wind. just in the last five years, so we get the numbers right in terms of this trend, there were 16,000 new megawatts of coal. their 36 new thousand new wind.atts of o

to put another way, 70% of our new electrical generation came from col. 39% came from wind and 44% came from natural gas in the last five years. that trend is very clear. you might want to keep looking in the rearview mirror at some numbers from 10 years ago or 20 years ago, it is down to 36% of all electrical regulation. the market is moving to win the natural gas. when is a totally competitive. it is generating a source. these are numbers that, basically, again, go to free market decisions made by utility executives all across the united states of america in terms of where it is being generated from. these are just numbers that, i know, people want to blame obama for the free market moving against a technology which is

not competitive. but i think it is unfair and inaccurate historically. i yieldthe gentleman from new j. >> i think the demand for his very good statement, because he describes very well that market conditions are changing, and we want coal companies to innovate. we do not wish the miners killed by any means, but if they refuse to innovate, they are going to be left behind. i think the ranking member has made the point very clearly. meanwhile, an ongoing obligation to look after the environment. what is not changing is that obligation that we have to provide oversight to see the

environmental protection agencies, and the environmental protection laws of this country are working, and that is what this is about. i think the gentleman for yielding. again, i think the gentleman very much. -- thank the gentleman very much. this is not unlike auto industry. the fuel standards kept getting more and more uncompetitive with the rest of the planet until they reached a point where the product was not selling. and they neared bankruptcy. this requires the federal government intervention in order to ensure they did not go under. that was not anything i wanted to vote for. i am one of the few people that said -- voted twice to bail out chrysler. we were offering the same

opportunity. we were saying we will provide funding for the innovation. we will provide help for the coal industry. we will give you a bridge to make a transition so that you can stay within the competitive framework of new energy sources within the country. and the coal industry in the same way the auto industry did. where is auto industry today? they have come through their mess, and now they are embracing the goal of 50.5 miles per gallon by the year 2026, and they are advertising every 20 minutes on every television show about the new, more fuel efficient and safer vehicles they are selling. the coal industry said no. peabody coal said know. in the same way the auto industry did a disservice to its workers, peabody coal has done a

disservice to its workers. pretending they could not innovate, that they could not improve, that they could not make themselves more competitive. trying to blame an outside source, whether it is the auto industry for coal industry, is to defy an analysis of the marketplace. the auto industry was losing to international competitors, because there were no longer meeting the goals of the consumer, and the coal industry clearly down to 70 percent of new electrical generations. new gas at 44%. the coal industry is suffering inevitably because of the bad decisions of the coal industry executives who should be -- >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> think you.

the only side show has been the comments by the other side to try to change the subject. this hearing is not about auto mileage. it is not about coal, natural gas, or cap and trade or anything else. it is about out of control bureaucrats that change the rolules after they were passed. they are about out of control bureaucrats that are -- that are not following the laws after their past. that is what this hearing is about. before i came here to fantasyland where people could change the rules whenever they see fit, i worked in the real world and help create jobs. i set up operations all over the world. when i did it, i enjoy coming back to the united states of america, because i knew we had a clear, transparent, fair and regulatory structure. we have become a third world

banana republic. that is not with this is about. we have bureaucrats that and then junk science, bogus analyses, and then change the rules to fit whatever the rim is that day. they do it because they have and our mental list that want to move beyond coal and natural gas. you have environmentalist that want to attract -- attack crop insurance. pretty soon we will not be able to eat because of our mental list. we will have no jobs because of environmentalists. this is out of control. this is not what america is supposed to be. this is a region that has 60% unemployment. that unemployment numbers came out and really created 69,000 jobs. -- and it only created 69,000 jobs. now you have out of control bureaucrats.

businesses that create these jobs do not know what regulators will do when they wake up each morning. that is an issue for me and an issue for the american people. that of the reason we had a big change in this congress and the house. we have to move on and talk about why we're here. the first question is for you. i agree with your comment that -- i will come back in a minute. i have a question for you, and that is, when you get a permit you assume that as long as to fulfil the responsibilities in the permit, that should stay in existence, correct? >> absolutely. what happens if you are an employer or business if you cannot count on that permit to

be in effect, or that it can be revoked in a whim, even though you are filling the roles of the permit? >> if that happens before you made the investment, you give second thought to making the investment. if that happens under construction, do you hold construction and lay off workers, or continue at a great deal of risk in the regulatory process? this is all new territory. the business community was set back by this decision by the epa. they were overjoyed to see the justice system step in and say there were over reaching the authority. now we have epa over reaching the authority in alaska, and preemptively rejecting a project that has not gone to final decision. we're seeing very scary signs on the wall to the business community in want to figure out a way out of this. >> is there any statutory authority that epa has to

retroactively revoke permits? to go absolutely not. -- >> absolutely not. they do not have the authority to issue the permit. >> i have been to at a late show. i held up -- i have helped to go and repair homes for disadvantaged people in your part of the world. i can tell you it is an economically-depressed area, and the last thing i would think would be appropriate to have epa bureaucrats better unaccountable, and they are irresponsible. to have them controlling the life blood of your community, how do you feel about that? >> in my area we do have a lot of people that have underprivileged situations. we have worked on that through the years. when it tried to diversify the economy with tourism. it is working.

to get to the next level. you can have visions and hopes and desires. if you have no money to get there. for someone to simply put yourself in a position, how you attract business of one day they can operate, the next day they are pulled. it is a scary situation. i have talked to the ceos of some of the companies that have been long standing in my particular region. they do not want to be in this region. not because of this -- >> let me interrupt you for a minute. would they rather have bank checks or welfare payments? >> the ones i deal with would rather work. when the stimulus money was handed out in washington for the auto industry, the cry of the people was we do not want the stimulus money, give us a work permit. >> think you.

i yield back. -- thank you. >> we will go now to mr. mckinley. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you for the opportunity to participate. i think the previous speaker just said it all, what we're here for. there is always electricity in the air when people try to divert attention of what we're supposed to be talking about here today, because that is what they do a lot in washington. i would just like to start by -- i am one of three are for people in congress that have a construction background. i have dealt with permitting agencies for 40 some years. when they grant a permit, you worked with the permit. if you change this -- if the science changes in change requirements -->> i will ask all

committee members to respect the time -- we have a hallway that we can take this too. i appreciate that. thank you. >> when they changed the rules on the next permit, you make that applied. you do not go back retroactively. that is one reason i came here protectively was to learn from the epa, what was the grounds for the justification if it were science, then build on the science. i unfortunately chose not to be here or send any representatives within the organization. i am a little surprised with that. let's stay focused on why we're here. the permit was given, and if what i am told -- they said they wanted to revoke it because of the science. they felt there was more science

that they felt that was to be considered. irate and try to give an analogy for you. if within your house -- you probably have plywood in your house. you have dry wall perhaps in your house. are you aware of the epa is considering changing the standard on the rise in it used in plywood to such a level of the 10th of a part per million, and if they do make that change, how would you feel after you have been given a permit to a building permit in your house, and they knock on your door and say we have to -- you have to leave your home and you have to leave because your house is no longer in standard. would you leave it willingly? >> i am sure i would.

the same thing with concrete in your house if you have plywood in your concrete. the epa is now adopting standards but will say that is a hand -- hazardous material. i suppose with your willing to say in your very humble way that you are willing to face bankruptcy for standards and principles, and i admire you for that, but the bank will probably not like that after they loaned you the money. if i could continue with my time, you may lose your home and the bank may have to be foreclosed on it, because your house does not meet the standards of the epa. that is a real threat. when we keep moving the goal post for people to be able to make a decision. i particularly -- i like your

comments, and wonder whether or not you had any other comments about the report, but before we get to the report, i want people to understand that since we got off game, i will play in this court for a little bit. he will not acknowledge that in the other committee, but let's go back to car been captured in sequestration. i have asked time and time again to the epa if you are going to set the standard for carbon capture sequestration, show me one facility that has carbon capture, the commercially available technology, and there is not one. we cannot do it in america today, even in a laboratory setting. yet the epa has set that for being the standard for where we need to be. they know very well this is a war on cold. no question about it when we look at it being called a hazardous material.

new source standard, utility max. we could go on and on. we understand they do not want all of the above energy sources. can you say is there anything more in this study that we need to review that was done? >> i think the take away from that report is the impact on the broader business community and investment community will be huge, and it changes the business model, and was that the intention of the clean water act? it certainly was not the attention of congress to change the business model for the economy, and that is ultimately what this could mean. >> think you. apparently i have run out of time. i wanted to ask the senator about the fact that long view coal company in west virginia was producing power and long county in producing power.

this is at a rate lower than the gas production on the key rathet rate. >> would the gentleman like to ask for unanimous consent for another minute? >> i would be glad to grant another minute. >> i would ask for another minute. so that he is aware of the fact that there are coal companies that are providing innovation, but they are being held back because of the threats of over regulation. are you aware of this in long county that is producing at a cheap rate of 8700 btu per kilowatt? what would you say to that, that the coal companies are innovating? >> i think they're innovating to the best of their ability. >> thank you. >> we will go to mr. duncan from

south carolina. to go think you. i just want to make the point. i was contrast administration official some questions. they are not here because they did not want to delve into the subject. we wanted to warn the obama administration. the president himself said no aid. this will bankrupt them, because there will be charged a huge sum. so we cannot say more with that. i yield to the gentleman from ohio. >> i think the gentleman for yielding. i have a couple more questions. we talk about the decrease in the amount of energy being provided by the coal industry.

we have a vice president who in 2007 said cold is more dangerous than high fructose corn syrup and terrorists, so it is no wonder that americans today are paying $300 more on the average per year to power their homes. so if that is acceptable to the american people, then maybe we are on the right track, but i submit maybe we're not. i want to say i applaud the coal industry for turning down the opportunity to receive the bailout from the federal government in an attempt to choose winners and losers. we've certainly seen the federal government's ability to choose winners and losers with failed projects like solyndra. i think i have made the point.

mr. harper and mr. eisenberg, is it safe to say we would start to see some of the 200 billion we talked about earlier start to move overseas where companies can rely on finality of payments? >> sanctity of contracts is extremely important in any business model, and to the extent that the road -- the ability to rely on contracts that would certainly send a signal for capital to go where it feels more comfortable. if that is a are overseas, then it is overseas, or it just will not happen at all. >> i find it ironic vice- president biden was in my district just a few weeks ago talking about the resurgence of manufacturing in america, when the administration has taken actions that will only push jobs overseas and attack the very energy sources that are providing the surge in manufacturing today. kendale, manykindl

states spend a great deal of time and resources in the permitting process. what affect what a lack of finality in cwa section 404 contacts have in the permitting scheme? >> we of went on record many times that states should have arrived in the clean water act, and i think it creates an entirely different atmosphere when you talk about the process where states do not have sovereign rights over the clean water act and, and it is overridden by federal regulators. i think it challenges the permitting process totally. >> thank you. i was afraid that is what you were going to say. as i said in the beginning of my question, although this is an egregious case of president obama's administration carrying out the war on coal, we have

heard today from witnesses that these actions have major ramifications for all american businesses it that actions are allowed to stand. with that, that concludes my questioning. >> i want to make a point that denmark has hold -- held out as the epitome of wind power. they have reduced their carbon footprint that much. the rules -- still rely on 24/7 power supply from coal. it is an important resource, and i like wind power, and the gentleman talked about that earlier, but we cannot continue to talk about wind only. we have to support what works for the 24-7 base load always on power supply, and coal provides that in this country. i think about what coal technology could do for the african continent or latin

america where they used charcoal, which is taken from the woods and harvested from the forest that we love. we provide a cold power plants in other countries, especially third world and lessen their dependence on charcoal. think about the quality of life issues. kohl works. it is proven in this country and could be proven world wide. i yield back. >> without objection, i will yield the final two minutes to colleague, mr. holt. >> thank you. many of the questions the committee seemed to want to ask of the epa far better results in court dealing with a particular case. there have been general statements made that i think really should be addressed that have to do with the clean water act and what it actually says.

it actually says the administrator is authorized to prohibit the specification, including withdrawal of specifications of any defined area, and authorized to deny or restrict the use of any restraint area for -- a restricted area for specification as a disposal site, including withdrawal whenever he determines, after notice and opportunity, that the discharge will have an unacceptable adverse affect on water supplies, fisheries, wildlife and recreation areas. it goes on to say the administrator must consult with the secretary and corps of engineers. so the court expressed some surprise that congress would do this. but congress did that. our witnesses today seemed to disbelieve that congress did

this, but congress did this. i think it is worth making that clear, and i will yield my remaining time to the ranking member. earlier this week it was said the american electric power company was said to transition the company in kentucky. the coal companies objected. they organize and insisted ratepayers to pay 30% more so the plant could continue burning coal instead of much cheaper natural gas. they actually got the american electric power company to submit the proposal to state public utility commissioners. and that is welfare for coal executives. >> i hate to call the -- without objection. to go that is welfare making them pay 30 percent more. that is wrong. that is not free market. the company -- the company

finally withdrew the ridiculous proposal. i would also like to respond about electricity rates being increased. they are declining rapidly after thousands of new megawatts constructed of gas and solar and wind in new england over the past decade. we had a 15% reduction in electricity rates. that is without kohl. again, the coal industry now has 75,000 workers, but the wind industry has 75,000 workers, and the solar industry has 175. rates. thatthe market is now moving awy from coal, because the coal industry refuse to accept this. this would help to make the transition. >> i think the panel for testimony today. members of the committee may have additional questions for the record, and i ask you to

respond to these in writing. if there is no further business, the committee stands adjourned. >> the head of j.p. morgan case, jamie dimon is back on capitol hill tomorrow testifying about the recent multi-billion dollar trading loss and public policy implications. other witnesses include the head of the securities and exchange commission, mary schapiro, and jerry ginsberg who chairs the commodity futures trading commission. but coverage first lorry the trickster to our morning at 9:30 eastern. the u.s. house gets there week started at 2:00 eastern. legislative work begins schapir0 on a number of landfills. tomorrow, the swearing in of

ron barber who won a special election last week to fill the seat of gabrielle giffords. later this week, the bill mandating an increase in oil and gas production equal to the amount released from the petroleum reserve. but coverage of the house here on c-span. the senate is in at 3:00 eastern for more work on amendments to a farm bill proposal. the current bill expires at the end of september. at 5:00, they will consider the nomination of very tiger was to be a district judge in south carolina. this is set for 5:30. former alaska governor, sarah palin, was the keynote speaker friday at the right online conference this year in lost biggest. she criticized what she called the permanent media class for coverage during the 2008 presidential campaign and how new media has become a force for political activism in change. this compares how power and

political influence can be achieved using online messages vs. traditional media outlets. >> thank you so much. thank you. i am so honored to get to be here. thank you. have a seat. i cannot tell you how happy i am to get to be here among friends. right online, i thank you for the invitation. and americans for prosperity thank you for hosting this very important conference. it will be nice to share with you all tonight and express my appreciation for your call being on the front line in the battle for the future of our country. you are doing such a good job. independent conservatives and new media activists -- need media activists who can be the vanguard for the future of our country, for the movement that our country is dependent upon, the movement that defends our republic and fundamentally restores all this is good and

prosperous and free and safe and exceptional about america. you are doing that work because the older media does not know how to do that work. from the tea party to the town hall, new media is giving voice to the people because you are of the people. and you are leading the charge. without you, there probably would not be a tea party. thus, no 2010 a live tour of a tree, thus no hope for victory in 2012. this month we gained another victory. this time in wisconsin. [applause] tonight as we honor -- andrew, it's fitting in the the last event i attended with andrew was in wisconsin. it was late 2011 and we were speaking in wisconsin when the

radical left had surrounded us, and they have targeted that could state as their line in the sand. they were against the responsible fiscal reform that we were for. then it seemed that few people were willing to wade into that mess of community organizing. but we were there. we were there. we happy few, we band of brothers, we were there. in the blowing snow, i felt right at home. we were there to plan a flag and hold the top in that left wing mob. they had their drum circles, and bull horns and cow bells.

that was so intimidating. breitbart say, eh, go to hades, he yelled to the crowd of protesters. i told the good people of wisconsin that we would take courage and integrity they show the rest of america and we would win our country back with what they were showing the rest of america. [applause] is said that defeat is an orphan, can victory has 1000 fathers. the father of this month's victory in wisconsin, new media and tea party.

we live our ronald reagan's belief that there is no limit to what can be accomplished when we do not care who gets the credit. he stood by the electoral mandate that you fought so hard for. remember, while we were in wisconsin defending fiscal reform, in d.c. , they were walking back their promises to cut $100 billions from the deficit. remember that? quite typical. a permanent political class broke promises they never intended to keep it. but you stood by a governor that was bound and determined to keep promises to the people who hired him to do the job. as i said that day in wisconsin, you showed them how to fight like a girl. [applause]

the role of new media goes beyond organizing. it is more fundamental than that. it has become a voice for activism and for information. because you do what too many in the old media cannot do and that is tell the truth. and aside -- an aside, i've learned this the last four years, it does not do any good to personally complained about what the ramifications are because of the untruths told by , the old media. the circumstances they create when they lie, i would save my breath because, think about it,

50% of the people who you are complying with a rf busy with their own problem, and the other 50% are glad you have the problems. so you can save your breath. these mainstream media lies. according to news reports over the years, i should have been divorced how many times and under fbi investigation and living in montana or the hamptons. it's still a great mystery who is trig's real mother. according to them, i burn books and i shoot wolves from the skids of helicopters. is it any wonder why they are tough to believe and trust? when some of the old media are not outright lying, they are lying by omission. breitbart called them the democrat media complex. the new media rose up parsley because the old media failed to tell the truth.

it was from that very first new medium break through 15 years ago when this lowly little store clerk in a lowly little apartment equipped with his computer and a modem, he broke one of the biggest stories of the decade. his name was matt drudge, and the rest was history. [applause] in hindsight we see that the story that he broke, it was more than just a president having an affair. ago when this lowly littleto men that. it was about a major all media publication that had spiked the story 11 times and they knew all about. not just one to check their facts, not twice to double check, but 11 times despite the story. why? because as charter members of

the democrat media complex and they were protecting their guy. so when a fellow with a modem and a web site found out about this he decided to tell the truth there refused to tell, and how that old media cried foul and they howled. they denounced drudge as irresponsible and anti- everything from motherhood to apple pie. how dare that nobody from nowhere without a degree or pedigree, how dare he tried to influence the national discourse. the real reason they feared him because he was not beholden to the old media machine and the thought police. un shackled, he was free. a few months later drudge that to speak at the national press club. he predicted the future cured he said, we have entered an era of vibrating with the din of small voices.

every citizen can be a reporter and take on the powers that be. i envision a future where there will be 300 million reporters, where anyone from anywhere can record for any reason. it is freedom of participation realized at the birth of citizen journalism. and you are the future that he predicted. you proved you do not need a degree from columbia grad school of journalism, but that is -- the university of idaho. that will teach your journalism. it is good stuff there. you do not need that degree. you need integrity and you need work ethic. his speech that day was a warning shot to the old media machine that its days were

numbered if it did not adapt to the public's demand for fairness and honesty. alas, they did not listen. in the years since, have we not seen one all media giant barely hang on to relevancy. they made their choice. in a speech 12 years later breitbart repeated that same warning. he put more bluntly -- i cannot repeat what he said in case the kids are listening tonight -- but it was something about the it not being their business model that sucked. you can imagine what he said in repeating his warning. note, we mustn't blanket everybody in their industry -- i know there are good reporters out there. i know all two of them.

they, in their own way, they are trying to affect positive change. they're not into the spin or put anybody on a pedestal who would seek to be prince of made crap up. they want truth. what the old media did, in general, in the 2008 campaign, it was the final straw. then canada obama used new social media of affectively to organize, but ironically, he is a creature of the old media. they are the ones to prop him up and spun for him and refused to vet him. and they delivered the the trick. during that campaign, the same medium that reported breathlessly about a minor

candidate, an or relevant candidate's wardrobe, could not be bothered with the future of the free world's voting record as a state senator, a statement he had made in the past. if the media had done their job, we would have known, despite barack obama mocking the clintons, and condemning the health care plan, we would have known that his own plan would be based on an unconstitutional mandate that has resulted in years of uncertainty and agony. we would have known, had the media done its job, of his strange attraction to the most leftist, radical of leftist ideas. his government by intrusion in all aspects of our private life. all went up to his war on

religion. and we have known that his -- he actively and probably sought out marxist professors and canned was a member of the socialist now party when he ran for state office in the 1990's. these same media characters and that made such a big deal out of their 2008 investigation, they could have asked, to prove that my husband was not and still is not registered and the republican party. he has been registered as an independent. the same media, todd sure as heck never registered as a socialist. [applause] now, had voters known, they would not be surprised that our

now president and the government has the right to redistribute the fruits of your labor. in the middle of the worst recession of our lifetime, he would be one to proclaim that the private sector is doing just fine. he does not understand a private sector because he does not believe in the private sector. if the media had done the job, we would not be surprised at the white house off, the people's house, the white house, can you imagine a governor saying, in my state capitol building? can you ever imagine a major say, in my city hall. we have the president saying in my white house. only in chicago when you hear a mayor saying, in my city hall. if they had done their jobs, we would not be shocked to know that our white house would politicize financial security by leaking highly confidential

information to prop up the polls. now here we are in vegas. in washington, they talk a lot about polls. there are a lot of poles in vegas. the white house likes disciples in their recent record, especially because the figures involved in those polls are augmented, too. that was a stretch to tie in some vegas. but that is what they are doing to prop up the polls with national security leaks, trying to make a sound like a tough guy. we would have known had the media done the job we would have known that the plan from the beginning was to run up these $1 trillion deficit and budgets be darned, no need for a

blueprint. we are going on four years without a plan for our federal government. no budget in our federal government? the plan, evidently being running up these mind-boggling deficits to pay off public- sector cronies with customer list jobs that will be paid for by your children and their children and their children. and we known of these associations with anti-american, intellectuals and not be surprise at his desire to apologize for america to foreign dictators. or that he is the first american president since our history to not believe that we are an exceptional nation. perhaps we would have not been surprised had the media dug into some of his past positions

on energy. we have such an opportunity to become energy independent. god has blessed us so much with these natural resources and we have the manpower. as we are preaching drill, baby, drill and mine, baby, mine. he's saying stop. despite what the media says for him, we are not growing everywhere. we are not becoming more independent of these foreign dictators that we were about to and spin them and subsidize them to drill for energy resources we have here. the media did not do their job. based on the argument they could not afford it to do their job. they could not afford to send reporters to chicago to research the candidate's record. they were in alaska.

for the sake of argument, say they ran out of money, why did they at least not read his autobiography? may well have learned all whole lot and not just about the pot smoking and cocaine snoring and what he ate, fido, rufus. i think it is funny that the cocktail circuit gives me a hard time for eating elk and moose. anybody here have a pet moose? there is a difference. [applause] reading his own words would have revealed a lot, because they did

not do their job. it falls on you, independent conservative new media activist, you are an army of david against goliath of the old media. that still wants to deceive. they who would trample on our first amendment right to freedom of the press, that freedom that our sons and daughters go to war and are willing to die for defending for us, that freedom of the press. [applause] so in honor of their sacrifice, do not let our first amendment freedoms be taken for granted. by the way, if you love that freedom, thank a vet for what they have provided us with freedom of the press. truly it is up to you. where they cover up and prop up and spin up and around. you, with your ethical efforts, can get is your upcoming crises.

abraham lincoln said i am a firm believer in the people if given the truth and they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. the great point is to bring them the real facts. and that is your calling, that is your charge. you have heard that in a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act. well, we are in a political culture of universal deceit. for years, politicians have not told us the truth about the state of our union. the press has covered for them, and we have been kidding ourselves. but the truth catches up.

the austerity riots in europe we see revealed what happens when truth catches up. they are learning the hard way what thatcher warned that the problem with socialism is eventually run out of other people's money. somebody cut and pasted a tweeted, you have run out of other people's money. cc: margaret thatcher. the people there were provided a socialist utopia where work is an option and not an obligation. the government will take care of you. this was too good to be true because it is not true. now the debt is due and there are riots in the streets. this is our cautionary tale because we are even more broke than they are.

we are the brokest nation in history. our politicians have been telling our esteemed senior citizens that the money they invested in our government -- all those funds, having been invested by the government, they will be there was to retired. no. those funds have been raided. social security is broke. medicare is broke. the politicians dodge specific questions about deficit spending and what they want to cut and entitlement reform that is so necessary. they must know that we are broke and are accumulating $4 billion in debt every day. and yet they must realize this but they do not seem to want to fix it. last summer, our nation's credit rating downgraded for the first time in history, and there was a general agreement at their

time that we're in a debt crisis and we cannot ignore this any longer. but right that moment, what happened? the media complex change the subject. they changed the conversation. right underneath us. and the masters of distraction changed the subject to this pivot from debt reduction to class warfare, based on a related was under the guise of politicians subjective definition of fairness. and then we see another shift recently, this encouraging or promising young people they can sign on the dotted line and take all those college loan dollars that are available, take all you can get. saddle up and settled herself with $100,000 in debt for a degree in post structural feminist new colonial underwater basket weaving

because of the job market is so ripe for that. don't worry about that, kids. just have fun. now we have a generation that is shackled with lifetime debt and often with useless degree. how fair is that to perpetuate that deception? i want to warn young adults, they have to be warned. tonight you will watch a new documentary. it will reveal how the media does change the conversation. this film called "occupy unmasked," it's andrew's last earthly effort to break through the massive allied known as the occupy movement. it exposes the fraud that is abetted by the lamestream media. this was not a movement that was organized by average patriots

concerned about their country. it was organized by a violent, radical left-wing anarchists who decide that our free market system must be overthrown. you do not have to take my word for it. they speak candidly about this themselves off. you will see footage of occupyers throwing molotov cocktails. you will learn of an epidemic of a rape and occupy camps who some referred to as freedom of expression. you'll see the violent forces our community organizer in chief has unleashed on america. see, president barack obama in the democrat media complex, they have increased the occupy movement, yes? and you are going to see, having blessed it early on, they denounced the tea party

movement, which has been one of the most peaceful, patriotic, independent grassroots movements in our nation's history. [applause] i think your reaction to this is going to be out rich with a twinge of sadness. our rates at the violence and at the media for lying about the - all- outrage at the violence. we would not have this footage were it not for the new media activists unmasking the truth. [applause] that bit of sadness, because it is a sad day when such a thing goes on in this america we so love. sad that young people that are so and that turned to this

movement because the professors taught them that america is the root of all evil and the free market system must be overthrown. unfortunately, it granted crony capitalism on both side of the aisle makes us more vulnerable to the some of the criticisms. but now, we have this growing class full of angry, unemployed idle hands with heads full of marxist lies. who is going to tell them the truth? we have to tell them the truth. if we do not tell them the truth, then our country fails. we must succeed in this and we will succeed in this. we will reach them through the media and through politics and through popped. culture pop culture, where we should not be afraid to get out there and the influences, right, in pop culture. [applause]

breitbart said, culture is upstream of politics. do not be afraid to be out there participating. it is not selling out. it is infiltrating and influencing. do you know when i told my daughter bristol that, when she got a call from "dancing with the stars." she said, i told the producers, i do not dance and i am not a star so i will be on your show. i said, wait for the criticism. you are a palin. she says, the haters are going to hate, so i might as well dance. i'm like, right on. that's a message. but to be out there trying to influence for good in culture. a word of warning, whatever the outcome in november, please do

not get co-opted by the permanent political class. you will not make many friends in the beltway or in hollywood. hbo will do what they're going to do. you will not be one of the cool kids, doggone it. sometimes you'll find yourself under the bus. but you need to stay outside of the machine. sometimes you have to rage against it, stay outside of the political establishment's in order to hold them accountable and just tell the truth. do not spin gop failures the same with the left does for president obama and nancy pelosi and harry reid and barney frank and elizabeth warren. and then in our hoped for, prayed for and worked very hard for predicted victory this fall, we have to make sure we do

not go back to saying, our team has the ball so we get to ignore what everyone is doing. no. our nation can no longer afford partisan apathy. please stay ever vigilant, holding feet to the fire. and we shall. you probably heard this -- success is preparation meeting opportunity. when they meet, they will succeed. for such a time of this, be confident you are prepared and certainly you recognize this gift you are given, this opportunity at this time in our nation's history. so we will have preparation meeting opportunity. we will succeed. i say we because i consider myself an part of you, part of this movement. without social media, my platform would be so narrow. it would be so much shakier and more narrow as i will try to maneuver a constitutional conservative -- very traditional, very common sensible platform and message through the filter of the old

media. so i probably consider myself a part of this movement and i thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for what it is that you do in trying to correct the untruths and trying to get what the real story and the real message and somebody's a real record is actually all about. i know many of the independents have had my back. i cannot tell you how grateful my family and i are for your efforts. and we need to have each other's backs. we must have each other's backs, because of the more effective >> you can see this event in the c- span video library. the house is about to double in. they will return for legislative work of 4:00 eastern for votes on a number of landfills. you can see the house live right here on c-span as the gavel in.

now, live to the u.s. house floor. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. june 18, 2012. i hereby appoint the honorable stephen c. latourette to act as speaker pro tempore on this day . signed, john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer today will be offered by

our chaplain, father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray. dear god, we give you thanks for giving us another day. we ask your special blessing upon the members of this people's house. they face difficult decisions in difficult times with many forces and interests demanding their attention. in these days, give wisdom to all the members that they might execute their responsibilities to the benefit of all americans. bless them, o god, and be with them and with us all this day and every day to come. and may all that is done be for your greater honor and glory, amen. the speaker pro tempore: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule, the journal stands approved. the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from texas, mr. burgess. mr. burgess: please join me in the pledge to the flag of our

country. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will entertain requests for one-minute speeches. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. burgess: mr. speaker, ask permission to rise and address the house -- ask unanimous consent to rise, address the house. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. burgess: on friday, the administration showed it is less concerned with supporting policies that will put millions of unemployed americans back to work and instead has decided to go in an entirely new direction. unilateral changes in law that have been done for political expediency put individuals ahead of the 12.5 million people who have been seeking work for the past 3 1/2 years. mr. speaker, the administration has produced an executive order

that is a political decision, purely political, and one that will continue to block opportunities for american citizens frying to -- trying to find employment. prosecutorial discretion is what we heard this was. this is not prosecutorial discretion. it means you either decide whether or not to prosecute an individual for a crime they may or may not have committed. what this is is new polcy. new policy that is being implemented by the administration unilaterally, no respect for the people's house, no respect for the united states congress, no respect for the legislative branch, and instead prosecutorial discretion now has morphed into we'll provide you a work permit, good for two years, renewable for two years. this administration has a histry of picking winners and losers. this time has got to stop. this congress needs to stand up to this administration starting today. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute.

the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. poe: mr. speaker, with respect to the notion that i can suspend deportations through executive order, that's just not the case. because there are laws on the books that congress has passed. mr. speaker, that was president obama a year ago. but that was then and this is now. and on friday, the 5d mcmorris rodgers -- the administration issued an imperial decree acting to unilaterally ignore portions of the immigration law of the land. mr. speaker, the last time i checked it was congress who makes law not the president. and it is the job of the executive to enforce lasters -- laws, not ignore the ones he doesn't like. the president has no interest in fixing the broken immigration system of the instead he has decreed this temporary amnesty in hopes of winning vose in november. doesn't like -- votes in in a moment he doesn't like the constitutional process for lawmaking because it gets in his way so he acts like and emperor instead of a president. it's time for the former

constitutional professor to read the constitution. that's just the way it is. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from something rise -- south carolina rise? mr. wilson: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, on wednesday's washington examiner, columnist john stossel quoted economist john b. taylor of the hoover institution who stated unpredictable economic policy, massive fiscal stimulus, and ballooning debt, the federal reserve's quantitative easing of the multiyear interest rates, in regulatory uncertainty due to obamacare and the dodd-frank financial reforms is the main cause of persistent high unploument and our feeble recovery, end of quote. over the last three years our economy has not improved. our unemployment rate is -- remains above 8%. our small business owners have been faced -- forced to pay

higher taxes and the government spending continues to spiral out of control. the president and his liberal allies in the senate continue to support legislation that creates more barriers resulting in job loss. the president and the senate should work with house republicans and pass over 30 house bills that are aimed to create jobs through private sector growth. in conclusion, god bless our troops and we will never forget september 11 and the global war on terrorism. best wishes for a speedy recovery for earl brown of columbia. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise? mr. pits -- mr. pits: to rerned. i want to praise my colleague, senator toomey, to introducing an amendment to the farm bill to phase out growth. in the federal sugar program. though the senate narrowly voted to table the amendment, it demonstrated their substantial bipartisan support to reform a program that hurts american job creators and consumers. today's "wall street journal" ditorial snilted tale of two conservatives raises -- entitled a tail tale of two

conservatives. the program doubles the price of sugar in the united states. while we protect sugar growers and processors, the users and consumers are at a severe disadvantage and american jobs have been lost as foreign competitors benefit from produced prices for raw sugar. the sugar using industry has lost 112,000 jobs from 1997 to 2009. here in the house, i'm working with danny davis on a bipartisan amendment in the farm bill and i hope when the chamber considers reform in the farm bill, democrats and republicans can come together, protect jobs, and stop the government from playing favorites. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: though the for what purpose does the gentleman from alabama rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, last week barack obama unilaterally and unlawfully changed america's immigration law by ordering the federal government to assess

illegal aliens' applications for work permits. mr. brooks: i am deeply alarmed that america's president so blatantly undermines the rule of law. article 1, section 1 of our constitution states, quote, all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in the congress of the united states. article 1, section 8 states, quote, the congress shall have the power to regulate commerce and to establish a uniformed rule of naturalization. article 2 defines executive branch power. it does not give any president the power to make his own laws. in america, we elect presidents not caesars. the only way to change america's immigration law is as our constitution demands. through congress, not by imperial decree. in america, no one, not even the president, is above the law. i urge congress and all law-abidinging -- law-abiding

americans to protect our constitution from white house attacks. the speaker pro tempore: the chair would remind all members to avoid personal references or personalization of actions by the president of the united states. for what purpose does the gentleman from nebraska rise? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to recognize the more than 1,500 youth from across america visiting our nation's capital this week to participate in the 48th annual electric cooperative youth tour. they are attending meetings with their senators and representatives watching floor action from the respective galleries and visiting museums and memorials dedicated to our country's rich past. i lernlly look forward to meeting with the students from nebraska and urge my colleagues to take time this week to meet with youth from their states as well. mr. smith: these constitutes are part after great tradition. every june for the past 48 years more than 50,000 yuning citizens and future leaders have come to washington, d.c.,

with the help of their electric cooperatives. they are now engaged at many levels of government as well. i want to once again applaud these young people and thank participating leak trick cooperatives and rural electric associations for sponsoring this program to instill lessons of citizenship in the next generation. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from nevada rise? >> i request permission to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to recognize the outstanding career of dr. john w. becker, or chief as he was called by scores of medical residents, an osteopathic physician who dedicated his life to his patients, students, and improvement of the medical profession. his commitment to the field of emergency medicine spans more than 30 years. as professor and chairman of department of emergency medicine at the philadelphia college of as teyo pathic medicine, he has helped a lot of students, myself include, to become an essential part of our

health care work force. as a young resident i was fortunate to have his insight and guidance as my residency direct yomplet mr. heck: his understanding of the osteopathic profession was invaluable to my training and career. his involvement in the field of osteopathic medicine is unparalleled. he currently serves as the secretary treasurer of the national board of osteopathic medical examiners. as a member of the board of trustees for the osteopathic association. he was a member of the editorial board of the journal of the osteopathic association for 20 years and past president of the american college of os teaee pathic emergency physicians. these are only some of his accomplishments. his never-ending contributions and service to his profession and patients have rightly been recognized both recently by the awarding of the o.j. snyder memorial medal. his lifelong commitment to patient care and excellence of future physicians serves as a powerful legacy to the field of emergency medicine.

i consider myself fortunate to have learned under his leadership and it is an honor to recognize his achievements. chief, my sincere congratulations on your well deserved retirement. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives. sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on june 15, 2012, at 1020 a.m. that the senate passed without amendment, house concurrent resolution 128. with best wishes i am, signed, sincerely, karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess until approximately

at 5:00, consideration for a district judge in south carolina and vote on the nomination scuttled for 5:30 p.m. eastern. watch live coverage of the senate on c-span2. >> for the future these companies to be successful, the things like sopa and pipa matt

er, but we will need to take account of what is happening internationally. we need to break down barriers where they still exist but find a balance. >> business software alliance president robert holleyman on "the communicators" on c-span2. >> next month, and david pietrusza, a passion for american presidents and baseball have resulted in one dozen books including, "1920, the year of six presidents" and the fixing of the 1919 world series. join us live with your comments, calls, and tweaks sunday, july 1st, on a "indepth."

>> the three day take back america conference got under way today in washington kicking off with a look at the progressive movement in the upcoming election. among the speaker, van jones, the former white house adviser on green jobs, and melissa harris perry. this is campaign for america's future. >> good morning. everyone come in. we're going to get started almost immediately. but to welcome our two other guests. come on, van jones and melissa harris perry. [applause] my name is robert and i'm here to welcome you to this take back

the american dream summit. this will be an amazing few days. your are activists and leaders from across the country and across the progressive movement, over 1000 strong by registration. we offer a stunning lineup of sessions that await you. we will highlight the organizing being done to try to elect progressives who will fight for the 99%. we will share strategies on how to drive critical issues in this election and give our major focus to this independent movement to try and take back the american dream. the days will be intense because the stakes are high. i'm old enough to know that every election, people say that this is the most important of our lifetime. i think the important status

something more than this. i suggest to you the beginning of what will be a fierce struggle, about what comes after a 30-year failed experiment of a failed conservative era. it has left us with extreme inequality, a declining middle- class, the worst recession since the great depression, and an economy that does not work for working people even when it is growing. americans are casting about for change. you saw the elections in 2006 and extraordinary election in 2008 looking for someone to help transform america. the uprising of the tea party and occupy wall street, the assault on women's rights, the right to vote. now we see brazen billionaires,

the koch brothers, super pac's, all looking to consolidate complete control. this is a situation that we should be clear about. thee not going to let modern day robber barons and their tea party allies to take over in washington, d.c. [applause] we cannot stop there. if we're going to build a foundation force shared prosperity, we cannot expect massive unemployment as the new normal. we cannot expect -- accept increasing insecurity as the inevitable. we are not signing on to a grand bargain, partisan, bipartisan, trans-partisan, using this to sabotage the elderly. if we're going to build a new

start for this economy to save the american dream, we have to build an independent progressive movement, one prepared to take on big money politics and confront the entrenched interests that now in danger our future and rebuild the american dream. 9 million jobs were lost and 40% of their wealth. any recovery from that kind of a collapse would have been long and difficult, but this was made even more difficult by two major factors. there was no help the economy to return to. working families had been losing ground for decades over the bush years when most this -- fail

suffered declines. we were running up record trade deficits. we were in denial about global warming. there's no place to recover to. we all know about republican destruction. from day one, they set out to pursue what mitch mcconnell said was the single most important thing they want to achieve, and assuring that barack obama would be a one-term president. when obama pushed even minor reforms on health care, recovery, new energy, it was far more repressive and that was the power of entrenched corporate interests that mobilize the

legions of lobbyists to protect their privileges and their subsidies. corporate lobbies succeeded in delaying, the looting, and in some cases defeating reform. the economy is said to be in recovery, but it is the old economy that is coming back. the top 1% have taken all of the growth and we're back to casino finance with too big to fail banks bigger and more concentrated than others and making big bets like jpmorgan has just shown us. we're back to trade deficit over $1.50 billion per day. americans are only learning about mitt romney, but he is not

a mystery. he is inevitably of a, by, and for the 1%. if they want to be saved, they better pick one of their own. his agenda is wanting to double don got us in the hole as it is. it give a 25% tax cut and the calls for eliminating regulations. he wants to reopen the casino economy that blew up the economy. he repeal the health care reform and medicare as we know it. he got 34 million people out of protection. he denies the threat posed by global warming. he wants more money for the military and less for our

schools. he wants to say that obama is out of touch. this is a lower rate than his chauffeur, but that is the tax return he chose to show us. imagine what are in the one to keep secret. talking about inequality is the politics of envy and should only be done "in quiet rooms." are you kidding me? we're not going to let the brazen billionaires' elect this guy president. [applause] he's not offering a remedy. are offering potions that poison for the middle class and the american dream. we're going to work to reelect

the president and take back the house, but that's not enough. we have a bigger battle over america's future. conservative columnist david brooks says they are extreme because they're fearful that the welfare state is unaffordable and that it now threatens our future. we agree. we cannot go back to the old state, the old path, but it up the victims and the culprits wrong. it is not the elderly a blow up the economy. you want to build sustainable growth that works for working people, it's not enough to put obama in the white house or nancy pelosi in the speaker's chair. we need to take on the entrenched interests, the corrupt politicians in both

parties. [applause] look at the sources of our current debt. half of the deficit comes from the economic collapse that came on wall street blow up the economy. next comes the bush tax cuts and tax loopholes that have millionaires paying lower taxes than their secretaries. and then the continued cost of a bloated military in two wars. turn to the scary long-term projections that make it look like america is going broke. these are entirely in the question of soaring health-care costs, and a veritable -- and unaffordable health care systems, complex is that all heighten the costs of that americans pay twice per-capita what other citizens in other industrial companies --

countries pay for worse health care results. to revive the american dream, we have to take on the powerful that profit from these arrangements, not bubble marble who are their victims. this is not a question for one president, won election, one administration. we are about to head into what they call the grand bargain. i think. this is right after the election when we had a fiscal train wrec purely made by the politicians in washington and it is being used as an excuse, an excuse to cut a grand bargain, shared sacrifices are necessary, we are told. let's do a big trade. let's trade cuts in social security and medicare for tax reform that lowers rates, closes loopholes, and gives us more

revenue. this ought to be no, instead, as the big heist. -- this ought to be known as the big height. the clear about what it means. what it means is that we accept massive unemployment abnormal because we're going to turn to balancing our budgets rather than focusing on creating jobs. it means that middle-class americans and the vulnerable will get stuck with much of the bill of the mess that wall street created. worse, in some ways, it ignores largely the causes of the plight we face, the wealthy still not paying their fair share of taxes and wall street will still be free to blow up the economy. insurance and drug companies will still drive up costs and we still will not have our long term budget under control. we have to organize now to

oppose the big highest and demand a real deal. the pieces of this are simple. we need good jobs now and good jobs first before a return to austerity. we have to focus on what drives our deficit, the big money interests that are now reforming our government. this will not be easy. we have to build an independent capacity to affect people's champions and hold them accountable. we will talk about that in this conference. we need to make big money toxic as we work to overturn citizens united and get money out of politics. [applause] we need direct action, nonviolent demonstrations that exposed the interests standing in the way. [applause] this is a forbidding task. it is the great challenge to

curb the rapaciousness of big money and big power. we have been in this situation before. at the end of the 19th century, the robber barons consolidated oligopolies and politicians were routinely bought or rented. labor unions were outlawed. the populist movements, progressive reformers, labor uprisings all challenging the supremacy of that unassailable power. it took decades of struggle, but eventually that people's movement one. the extremes of an equality were reduced. the brazen corruption was curbed. what made america special, exceptional, the broad middle class, was built. now we are back to that same kind of inequality of, that same kind of robert baron money politics, and once more, the

test is opposed -- can we, the many cannot overcome the power of the few? what's exciting is that we have seen the first stirrings in wisconsin, ohio, and occupy wall street which spread across the country like wildfire. [applause] we must continue to build, be serious about taking power, rebuilding the country, and understanding that we will suffer setbacks. fierce opposition to the robber baron politics, not satisfied with the defense. we will try to work to defeat romney and the right. we will push to take back the house, but we will keep on building an independent movement to take back the american dream. that's the subject this week. that's the task for the years to come. we know it will not be easy. we know it can be done. si, se puede.

can.we [applause] introduceelighted to melissa harris perry, and modern wonder rahman -- a modern wonder woman. she is the author of "sisterscitizen" shame stereotypes of women in america and she is that most -- host of her own show on msnbc, a proud mother, and once a month or so she gets some sleep. it's a delight to introduce you to melissa harris perry. [applause]

>> the morning. it is the start of what is going to be in an ideologically diverse day for me today. i'm going to run off the stage when i'm done with my dress because i'm heading off to chicago where i will join the bush family for a conversation about volunteerism in america. that will be fun. by the end of the day, i will have no idea what's going on in the world, but i'm very happy to start the day with you, and particularly because what i find to be my value-added in the public sphere is not as an activist foreign organizer. i'm married to an activist and an organizer, so it's very clear to me which one of us does real work and which one of us talks about the real work that needs to get done in the world. that is not my comparative

advantage. i hope today to do a little bit of what i think my advantage is which is to try to understand analytically where we are and how we got here. and so appreciative of the framework of thinking of this within a historical context of the robber baron moment and i want to take a much shorter historical context, really just the past decade. rather than focusing primarily on what the elites have been up to, let's think a little bit about how where we are now has been made possible by the choices that we, as ordinary citizens and americans made. we were not fully disempowered in these moments. we made many choices. i want to start with september 11th, 2001. i believe the era we are in now began on september 11th. the election of george w. bush

in 2000, whenever we think it, as an election that was a choice that the american people made about [no audio] okay -- that's fine. i have been reading "the hunger games" and i thought i needed to adopt or something. -- eneded to duck. [laughter] i'm not even kidding. i was running through my head what kind of thing the capital may be spenending to us. when we elected george w. bush or when he was given the presidency by the supreme court of the united states, that decision was made in part because we understood it ourselves to be in a time of peace internationally, domestic international growth and george w. bush, for whatever failings

are successes does seem like a guy to keep the party going, right? if you are thinking you're coming out of the clinton era and things are good economically and we are at peace, it does not seem to be that audit to elect a kindlier, gentle conservative. you have to remember where we were in that moment. we did not know then that a few months into the first year of his presidency that there would no longer be the good times come a time of economic expansion, a time of relative international peace, but instead the new era would begin when americans finally came in to where many of our trading partners, political partners and allies had been for decades, the age of contemporary terrorism. americans responded in a typically american ways to that

entrance into something the rest of the western world had already experienced. we began with a nationalist fervor that was justified as a reasonable patriotism. i like to point out that we clearly must have been having posttraumatic stress disorder and because for about one year after 9/11, there were african- american man walking around the city of new york with nypd hats on. that can only be explained as a ptsd response. i will let you sit with that for a minute. the other thing that happens in that moment is that a new version of what americans typically need emerges, and that is a racial enemy. americans in part identify who we are and who deserves what through our notions of whiteness

and our racial enemies. in this moment, the new racial enemy became not so much the reagan welfare claim, but this imagined "other" that is muslim, arab, sheick, something "else.'' we became willing to stomach a kind of horrific racial violence in the name of national security. it is something we had been willing to stomach as a people over and over again in our history. the patriot act is not the act of a republican president acting alone. it is a bipartisan decision by both parties. it was not bought and paid for by corporations. it was bought and paid for by our fear. as much as we have our eyes on the citizens united decision, we have to remember that it was

maybe not the people in this room, but the collective banks that gave permission to democrats in the house to rally behind republicans in the white house under the banner of nationalist patriotic security with the goal of both reducing our domestic civil liberties and giving as an entrance into what is the man at this moment, and everlasting war. we made those choices. [applause] that was a timber 11th, 2001. an interesting thing happens a few years later. the democrats need to run a presidential candidate and it turns out to democrats are really very bad at one thing -- actually, a couple of things, but one thing in particular. one thing we are bad at is trying to think what kind of democrat republicans will vote

for. this is our predictability thing. it's the only reason we ended up with candid it obama, because we were in an open seat races and we did not know who we were running against so we got free with our actual preferences and ended up with hillary clinton and barack obama. we never would have made those choices had we been running against an incumbent. we undoubtedly would have picked john edwards. let's just be honest. in 2004, we chose what we thought would be the good moderate candidate, one that would get republican votes come about with john kerry who showed up, saluted, and said, "reporting for duty." we did not launch as a democratic party an attempt to push back against the war effort, quite the opposite. democrats decided to run a soldier under the banner, the

idea that he could do even better at the war machine. what change that? august 29th, 2005. august 29th, 2005, it is the day that the levees failed in the aftermath of hurricane katrina. on that day and the five days immediately after and the city flooded, we behaved just as we did in the immediate post-9/11 moment. we got scared of our racial enemies. [applause] the governor of louisiana, a democrat, the mayor of the city of new orleans, a black democrat, jointly decided to suspend search and rescue efforts in order to focus on law and order. until -- on until the national media recognize that there were people -- not "people," but

women, elderly, and children dying in the city center. it was not until the image of the african-american women, elderly, and children dehydrating in the heat of a new orleans august finally turned the language away from this law and order and into what the economist called "the shaming of america." i looked at this image and it's the "economist" magazine, an african-american woman on the cover and it says, "the shaming of america." how many black women have appeared on the cover of "the economist" magazine. i don't know her name.

i live in new orleans and i have studied katrina, and she may be -- maybe condi? maybe? the notion that the rest of the collective shame me in a country that fancies itself a place where women and children are first, hurricane katrina shames us into an anti-war stance. from the timber 11th, 2001, until about september 4th -- from september 11th until september 2005, we are but dissipating in this nationalist patriotic fervor against the imaginary enemy that are those others over there activating terrorism until the levees failed. we realized we had allowed our own citizens to drown, die, and dehydrate on camera and we go -- "oh."

if you cannot get water into an american city in a week, how can you perform a war? all these media people who realize this is how we resp ond, we're screwed. we hear an active anti-war message resonated up through a left party. this is how democrats win back the house because, for the first time, they articulate an actual paradigm difference fro the first time in 5 years. we remember the response to the mid-term elections in 2006. you remember what happened? the surge. the response saying, "we want

out of the war," is that they sent more soldiers in. the opposite of 2010 when, by takingof the house, the republican party decides it has a mandate to turn back. this white house said, "we don't care. effort."ning this war we let them. we know what happens. the young guy, a state senator in illinois managed to make it into the senate because the republican party was in such shambles that their decision for a candidate to run against him was alan keys. i could beat him on a wednesday

for nay race. this is not to say senator obama is not sensational, but the ease he walked in had to do with the fails of the illinois republican party. thanks, judy. in the aftermath, the national figure that emerges is barack obama and one hand, hillary clinton on the other, and a sense among the american people that what we had just done and been doing since 2001 was not the best of who we were. we were capable of something else. i loved the 2008 campaign. it was great fun. it just was. it was not great fun because the obama for america campaign was so brilliant.

it was great fun because of the freelancing. remember the freelancing? obama goes and does this amazing thing in new hampshire. he loses and gives a victory speech. that takes real gumption, right? he says, screw it. yes, we can anyways. everyone is like that's hot. and then we walk away until one week later. what happens? will.i.am remixes "yes, we can." it is not about that being as great as it was, btut about the remix and you put on your facebook wall, emailed it around, and it became viral. it was amazing because freelancing, ordinary people

come and technology decided that was no longer the best of who we were and how the 2008 campaign may provide an opportunity for us to indicate the best of who we were, the exceptional is and we defined as what made us exceptional, our willingness to think about a white woman or a black guy -- that school. -- that's cool. the response from the right was a kind of anxiety, a willingness to pull us back into what we have been doing the years before. once president obama is elected, the languages that he is a secret muslim. of course he is. 9/11, the new racial enemy becomes the muslims. you can be a secret christian, but not a secret muslim.

you can say, "i love jesus. he's in my heart." you cannot be a secret muslim. you would notice him praying certain times of day. along with that the anxiety, there was also a revival of the anti-immigrant panic. we are as much on the left to blame for failing to recognize and stem this at the moment it occurred. do you remember the joe wilson moment? wilson's stand up and says, "you lie!" a white black man standing up looks like old fashioned

ordinary racism. h he was talking about the health-care bill. he said, "don't worry. illegals will not be allowed to partake in the health care reform that we are passing." that is when he stood up and said, "you lie." you drawing a boundary between citizens and non-citizens on health care reform. that was before he stands up and said you like. there is is brand new anti emigration panic. notice this week when he was again interrupted by a journalist in the rose garden that it came when i was talking about -- emigration. that is about this new fear, this old fear, and mixed together with american racism.

there is plenty of old-fashioned american racism going on still among us as people, but the that tookill walaws trayvon martin is what are the same shoot-to-kill laws that were enacted in the days immediately following sharking katrina that are based in our same great fear that emerged immediately post-9/11, this vilification of bodies that we assume to be criminal. lie on top of all of that, the war on women that i noticed was occurring -- i was not sure it was coming, but i started seeing it when president obama nominated sonia sotomayor or to the supreme court. if you can take yourself back and remember the gauntlet that

she was forced to walk through those senate confirmation hearings. just for fun the, for kicks and giggles, watched the jamie dimon testimony next to the sonia sotomayor confirmation hearing. just watch them. [applause] white after sonia sotomayor was put through the moment, the girl forced to walk the gauntlet with the screaming, yelling faces behind her. right after that, we have the vilification of sherrod. i'm not making a critique of the administration. i'm making a critique of the naacp. it is an organization that i think has been ordinarily great

work but when she was first presenting to the people as a racist. the leadership of the naacp initially, although they came around quickly, said she should be ashamed of herself for her comments. that had to have happened because they just did not know who sherrod was. it may be ok if i didn't know, but if you ever watched "eye of the prize," the name in georgia should have rung a bell since they liberated georgia while king was taking care of atlanta. asneing that woman inherently expendable then post-

2010 the full assault through personhood amendments, contraception on the agenda. i'm sorry, it's horrible, but you have to laugh. we're talking about teh pill in 2012. the outline of abortions that never occurred. telling sandra fluke she has to defend against being a slut that she needs to submit to a virginity test in order to be in the public sphere. by the way, that 2010 year, we actually lost ground in the u.s. house of representatives in terms of women's representation in more than 30 years. we did that.

our broadest sense is, our fear, our anxiety to frame others whether they are illegal immigrants, and really women, lazy black people come a terrorist muslims are willingness to see us and them but to see them as "other" made possible these ments. that is the last day i will say and then i will run from this building. there is no reason to lose hope. we are just not a perfect people. we're just not. we are kind of like an adolescent country. remember adolescence? my daughter is almost 11. i had forgotten to. adolescence is a hard. you randomly feel bad, get afraid, wonder about the security of childhood that he once had. particularly for a country that became so dominant so quickly,

that became so wealthy in the context of such inequality, that understood itself as standing on a shining hill, we are in our adolescents and were making a bit of a mess of it. [applause] that said, there is no reason to lose hope. the fear that has activated past decade cannot be countered with more fear of what is coming. is there money in the political system? the discipline court friendly? -- is the supreme court friendly? are there people willing to damage the very core of our democratic principles in order to win short-term gains? yep.

maybe it's coming from people who were slaves. white people are mormons, black people were slaves. mormons were ejected to push handcarts across the west. the black people got enslaved. struggles don't worry me in the sense of struggles themselves. my enslaved grandmother believed in god. i'm not asking you to, but i'm asking you to believe in this. she never knew anything but slavery for herself, never knew anything but slavery for anyone she was related to. there was no empirical evidence that any being cared about her

circumstances. there was no empirical evidence that there was a loving god. if there was, he was pretty pitiful, or if he was powerful, he didn't care abotu her. i'm asking you to think about the state of the hope not rooted in the empirical realities that says we can still be a part of something bigger than ourselves that we cannot see at this moment requires us not to be afraid of each other. it is our fear of each other -- [applause] it is our fear of each other that makes us exceptionally easy to divide. i promise, i'm leaving. i talk to a lot. i'm going to go off and talk to the bush's now.

i'm not afraid of them. i often disagree, but i'm not afraid of anyone with whom we are struggling. we can get to a different place. [applause] >> melissa harris perry. [applause] and she is literally running to make that plain. -- make that plane. we will leave you with one final speaker this morning. you all know the van jones, i assume. [applause] school boy who grew up to be a graduate of yale law. i like to tease him that he rose above it.

he is the co-founder of the ella baker center for human rights, co-founder of oil for change. we joined him in rebuilding the american dream, an extraordinary innovative effort to restore good jobs and economic opportunity to build a movement necessary to make that happen. he has not amassed a great fortune. he has not held an elected public office. yet "time" as named him one of the most 100 influential people. give it up for van jones. [applause] >> good morning. melissa got it bad. give it up for melissa harris

perry. [applause] all tell you what, i love getting up and see her on television. she does not speak that way with that she gets a chance to speak that way to the whole of the american people on saturdays and sundays. that is part of what i want to talk about today, the voice that has been missing. rodney king passed away over this weekend and it's hard for me to imagine that it has been 20 years since he became a household name on planet earth.

just a regular brother with a lot of regular brother problems than regular brother issues, put in a situation that we all saw coming. the only difference was, it was put on camera. we all know what happened with the verdicts and the uprising, but we sometimes don't think about what it must have been like for him to be pushed out in front of television cameras, no -- with theand, no ulcer whole world watching, and have to speak from his heart. a lot of things you could easily dismiss him and discount him for, but in those moments, who you are really comes through. he just said five words. the same five words that melissa

tries to bring us back around to, can we all get along? a prayer, a plea for some kind of sanity to emerge from the catastrophe that was unfolding all around, for some kind of wisdom, some kind of higher purpose to be somehow pulled from the mess, to be pulled from the wreckage of america. can we all get along? he went on with his life. he did good things, he did bad things, he did things he regretted. and he passed away. but i think his question still resounds. can we all get along? we have this extraordinary moment now, when you look at november and the months beyond. who are we as a country in this mess, in this catastrophe?

are we going to turn to each other or were going to turn on each other? that is a great moment, the great question that the world is now looking at us to answer. and i appreciate dr. perry for pointing out that it is not just about the corporation's, it is about us in this room. we have a responsibility. some people felt that four years ago we were too emotional. we made decisions to emotionally and then we got a little bit doped up on hold and stuff. -- on hope and stuff. we were not thinking clearly, and now we want to have a reaction to that. i am wanting as this moment of testing for america emerges.

i am seeing the people who fall hardest, in the decade that dr. perry just talked about, now fighting the least. i am seeing a movement that was built up over that decade that stood up against bush, stood up against cheney, that stood up against torture and more, that stood up for the people who were suffering in katrina. who saw african-american mothers and grandmothers on rooftops and whose hearts were broken to see people drowning, to see an american city drowning, and who stood up at that time when there was nothing in washington d.c. that would answer the call, and who insisted that we go a better way. and luncheon at movement that broke the back of karl rove's stranglehold -- i am looking at that movement that inspired the world, that shocked and stunned

the world. in a moment of maximum peril, sit down. there are people in this country who were drowning on dry land. they are drawn in economically on dry land. they need a movement that is willing to stand with them, and yet, and yet, there is this reluctance. we saw in wisconsin what happens when we put our minimum against our opponents maximum. the people in wisconsin ball beautifully and bravely, but help was not on the way -- the people in wisconsin fought bitterly. that had to fight against 13 , a whole squadron

of billionaires, only one of whom lived in wisconsin. our opponents did their maximum. most of us did our minimum, and we saw what happened. so there is a question now that falls upon this conference. are we going to let the tea party govern america? is that the kind of movement that we are? can we not find some lessons from 2008 to 2010 2010 that would allow it -- that would allow us to move forward, and more committed, that innocent people, whether they beat rodney king's of today like trayvon martin, and those of us across the country who are suffering

economically will not be further harmed by the outcome of the two big fights of 2012. in order for us to figure out what we are going to do, we will have to do something i was taught to do when i was in public schools. i got some education, as you mentioned. i get credit for having gone to yale, that is true, but i was not born at yale. i was born on the edge of those small town in rural western tennessee. both my parents for public- school teachers. i had a public schoolteacher named miss brown who was my kindergarten teacher. whenever we were stumped, whenever she would ask a question that was just too hard answer, she would say put your thinking caps on.

did you guys have thinking caps in the budget in your public schools? and we will put them on. and we would think. and lo and behold, somebody would come up with the answer. why was that? because we had a moment to go deep, and we had a public schoolteacher who cared. i will say this before i move on. maybe i was raised from, but in my community, my neighborhood, and my home, i was never taught about any threat to meet call the public employee. called areat cheapito me

public employee. >we did not call them public employees. we did not call them public employees, we call them teachers, nurses, librarians, firefighters, police officers. they were the backbone of our community. they were our everyday heroes. we were taught to look up to them. we were taught to respect them. we were taught to say yes ma'am and no sir to them. and they never abandon us. and never abandoned us, not one time, no matter how big the fire, no matter how heinous the crime, no matter how slow the learner. they never abandoned us, not one single time. but now it is fashionable to

turn on them and abandon them. we say no, we are a better country than that. we are not going to attack the people who have been there for us. we are going to lift them up and treat them right. but let's just be smart enough to follow the words of miss brown, god bless her soul. on's put our thinking caps and reason together. if we were too emotional last time to learn all the right lessons, let's not be so emotional this time that we do stupid stuff in the other direction. let's put our thinking caps on. what can we learn from 2010 that will let us win not just politically in november, but economically in 2012. what did we learn from 2008? we all know the happy part of it. people went from hoping to moving. we went from hope to heartbreak.

what happened? well, we did not know enough. we thought something that was not true. we thought that we had at 100% of what we needed to govern in america. we had a house, with the best degree of ever had, nancy pelosi. we had the house of representatives. we had the senate with 60 votes, and we had president obama. we had enough now to govern. but it turned out not to be true. it turned out we only had one third of all we needed to govern. turns out you don't just need formal control of the government, but you also need to back other things. you have to have movement in the st. -- you need two other things. we abandoned the streets. you have to have a media establishment like babcock --

like that have on fox. not having a coordinated media strategy, we were checkmated by fired up, fearful, right wing, funded by brazen billionaires', and we were checkmated. it does not mean the administration did not make big mistakes, we will talk about those, but fundamentally, we did not have what we needed to be able to govern from below, even as the democrats tried to govern from above. we had a top down capacity that was not met by a bottom up movement. instead, the streets were filled, not with people like us, but with people carrying signs, comparing the president to hitler. people were spitting on commerce people and calling them the "n"

word. many people sat down in 2010. what can we learn from 2010? if you look at the numbers, they did not turn out that many more people in 2010 than 28, we just turned out a lot fewer. we stood up in 2010 and made history, then we sat down in 2010 and helped other people make history. people will tell you if it doesn't matter who wins these elections, i am just so disgusted. i am just going to quit. i just cannot take this. you hear this. not for immune -- not from you, but you hear this. and it doesn't matter. who cares?

after all, ask people in wisconsin if it matters. ask people in ohio if it matters. ask people who are living with the consequences of that kind of the mobilization and demoralization. be careful, now. you have more power and influence than you recognize. careful, now. everybody in this room, and most people who are watching at home, are what are called opinion leaders. you may not have a lot of money or elective office, it does not matter. you are an opinion leader. people look to you in your social network. a look at your facebook page.

they look to your e-mail, to figure out what is right and what is wrong. careful, now. is a dangerous time to be reckless and irresponsible with the power that we do have. we are now in danger of demobilizing and demoralizing people at the very moment they need to be lifted up, just like dr. perry did. be careful, now. for us to quit now, surrender now, given to cynicism now, is to disrespect the shoulders of the people we are standing on. is to disrespect them. this change stuff is just too hard, van. i voted once. and you see what happened. democracy is not an app.

just downloaded, push the button one time. that sucks. the people in my father's generation knew what it meant to fight for change. they had fire hoses put on them, fighting for change. they were beaten, fighting for change. someone went to jail fighting for change. some were murdered and put in the ground, mortars, dead, gone, never to come back, fighting for change. -- martyrs, fighting for change. we will quit over a really mean

tweet. did you read that terrible tweet? i just cannot stand it. so we have a quandary. if we just for the president, just vote for the democrats, we don't get what we want. but if we don't, our opponents get power and decimate us. so we have a quandary. [applause] can we put our thinking caps on now? look at what they do when they get power, just in case you did not pay attention and did not get the memo. and they get power, they don't say that i think the unions perhaps have gone a bit too far, and i think what we should do is have some reforms. no, they decimate us.

they destroy the unions. they did not run on that, they ran on a terrible message and as soon as they got power, they did even worse. we are the only ones that when we get power, we say we now have power, we will now be bipartisan. can we compromise on something to make you happy, please? that is not what they do. they get power, they decimate us. the same right now, if they get power, they are going to eliminate the epa, wipe it out. the epa, which has probably saved wore american lives and the department of defense. it is keeping the poison out of our children's bodies. they are just going to wipe that out. when they get power, they use it to destroy us, but if we just

support the existing democrats, we still warned of disappointing. so what is the answer? what do we need to do? very simple. the lesson of the past decade is very clear. if you have the wrong president, say george bush, it doesn't matter how strong your movement is. if there is a movement for peace to try to stop the country from invading iraq, your movement, it was beautiful. millions of people you put in the street. you put more people in the street to stop the invasion of iraq in six weeks than the entire mobilization against vietnam in six years. you put a magnificent movement on the streets. you have the right movement, you have the wrong president. then, arguably, you have the right president with obama, but

the people in the street where the wrong people, in the tea party. the tea party changed the narrative and the discussion so much that they were able to make austerity the watchword last year, when every in the economy in the world said it would be the worst thing to do. you had arguably the right president, but the wrong movement. the key to real change is to have the right president and the right movement at the same time. that is the way forward. is, yes, weeans thi have to reelect the president, and we have to reenergize the movement. that is the right formula. you have to have a president willing to be moved. you cannot have an bush, of romney, you cannot have a koch brothers president.

the young people have taught us something in this past year since we were here together. if we learned their lesson, we can win in november and in december. look at these extraordinary young people. they are blessed with not knowing that the calls is a champion are impossible -- the causes that they champion are impossible. despite the fact the this administration has deported more latinos than bush, despite the fact that there are vicious laws being put on the books like places -- in places like arizona, despite the fact that any moment they could be snatched away or their mother or father could be snatched away and sent away from this country, despite all that discouragement,

stepped forward and said i am an undocumented child, but i want to be here. i want to be respected. i am undocumented, but i am not afraid. look at the courage of that. [applause] can you imagine being a child, knowing no other country but this one, and knowing that the only way you get to stay is to be silent, is to be quiet, is to be cynical, is to believe the worst about the country, and never say what is in your heart, just be quiet, just be cenacle, don't believe in america, and you get to stay. but if you speak out, you may be sent from here, never to see your friends or your family, to live in a land you don't know.

look at the courage of these young people. look at their beliefs in who we are as a country. and they step forward, when it was hard, when nobody would counsel them to do it, and moved up president, moved the nation. so now you have an example. look at these young people. can we be as wise and courageous as these young people? look at the ones who watched the hopes of a planet be destroyed by a do nothing, obstructionist congress this still has not moved on climate change, this still has not moved for clean energy, that has been stuck on stupak for three or four years. they look in the face of that -- has been stuck on stupid for

three or four years. look at these young people. they said we are not going to let them put this dirty needle of a pipeline into america. we will not let them take the dirtiest energy ever created in hook it up and stick it in this country. we don't care if anybody comes to help us. that broke the seal august of last year on civil disobedience against this white house. nobody a year ago was saying is time to do civil disobedience against the white house. these young people said the future of this planet is too great. they went down in the heat of august and they sat in and thousands were arrested. the media tried to ignore it, but a message was sent.

for their courage -- through their courage, the project was derailed. the fight goes on, but look at these young people. look at the young people who have transformed the discussion on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights. look at their courage, culturally and politically. look at the young people who rescued america last year, coming out of that horrible august when the tea party put congress in a headlock and said if you don't do what we say, we are going to blow a hole in the american economy. we are going to destroy america's credit rating, and the whole town trembled in fearing abn and said okay, we will create a super committee to do super damage to the american people. and some young people and some struggling folks, no pollsters,

no lobbyist, no big grants, went down with some sleeping bags and and occupied it wall street and turn it this country upside down. ed this country upside down. suddenly you talk about economic inequality. the super committee never met. those young people, their messaging was really not that great. and what was their agenda? i've got an agenda. and a grant.

but they obliterated the entire idea that we were going to add to the image of this country and bought us a year, and put our thinking caps on. so we have a responsibility now to be as brave and as courageous and as determined as these young people who have shown that if the struggle, you can win. if you fight, you can make progress. you say we have not made enough, well, we have not struggled enough. there is a lesson in having to push through this catastrophe. there is some hope on the horizon, if we aim for it. so we have to do three things going forward. first, we have to win in

november. part of the reason we have to win in november is because we have to also win in december. they let me in the white house for about six months. i took some notes. i learned a couple of things. one of the things that i learned, sisters and brothers, is there is something called a lame-duck session. you can win in november and lose in december, because it is december when the most important budget battle of the past 20 years and of the next 20 years will take place. it is december, not just november that progressives have to rally for. it is december that is the reason that we have to get off

our hands and began to mobilize the people, because it is december that the bush tax cut to expire, and they will either give the rich more of a break and put more pain on the people, or we will try -- we will file late try to move toward some justice. it is december when the pelgrin is run out and low-income kids going to -- when the conversion pell grants run out. it is in december that every can that was kicked down the road -- after the election now has a name, it is called december. it is in december that are wrecking ball will possibly come down on our heads, or we can follow a lead of the young people and stand and fight. number one, let's take advantage of the media that we already have.

there is a great documentary called "heist, who stole the american dream?" that will be shown at this conference. number two, a fight in december has to be over economics. we can find now on economic questions, student loans. if we do not make congress act, the interest rate on student loans is going to double from 3.4% to 6.8%, taking $20 billion out of the pockets of students. we want young people to be excited about our history. we need to get excited about young people's issues and stop them from doing this to these young people.

[applause] another issue that is coming up , the question around home ownership and home mortgages. one-third of american homes are under water right now. there is a bill in front of congress that rebuild the dream is pushing along with others on this stage that will allow homeowners to refinance, give them the tools to refinance. take advantage of these lower interest rates. it would save $10 billion a year for about 14 million households, every you are going forward. those are the kind of fight that we cannot relent on just because congress wants to play politics with the american people. these are real-life struggles for the american dream is on the table. the last thing we have to do is this. put our thinking caps on.

the other side is not playing tic-tac-toe. they are not playing checkers. they are not playing chess. they are playing three deep vulcan chess. these guys are not stupid. here is what they do to us. they will have their congressional delegation right now on their knees sign pledges to grover norquist, saying they will never raise taxes, no matter what happens to america. they are doing it right now. no matter how many wars, they will never raised i -- never raise taxes. they will go into negotiations saying our hands are tied. you have to give us what we want. our hands are tied. i grew up, i got some education.

that is a smart move. it reminds me of odysseus. he put himself in peril, going past the sirens. he said, tie me to my mask, so i will not give in to the siren call. remember that -- i remember that from mr. thurman in 11th grade. he said, tie my hands, tie me to the mast so i will not give in to the siren call. that have been doing that for a long time. well, i think it is time for us to make just one demand of this president, just one demand of this white house. we are not stupid. we are not going to lay down and

let the tea party run america. we are going to fight. we are going to fight in november and december, too. you need to do something to help us when the real fight goes down in december. we know this president is a good family man. he does not like to use rough language, i understand that. he is a good family man, but we have a request. i call on this president to use it one four-letter word when it comes to these bush tax cuts for the rich. he can do 14-letter word. with regard to the bush tax cut, we want a four-letter word, we want about to veto the extent of these republicans to give this country over.

[applause] we want him to veto any bill that comes before him that will let the rich walkaway " with another extension. it is time for the wealthy people in america to pay america back. they have gotten the benefits of the tax breaks, the bailout, the bonuses, and they left us with this fake grand bargain, which is neither grant nor a bargained for the american people. it is ham and eggs justice at best. you know what that is, don't you? i learned that from reverend jackson. amex justice, the former says it is time for breakfast. we are going to be fair to everybody in the barnyard. he turns to the hand and says give me one of your little eggs. then he turns to the pig and

says give me one or two of your legs. that is ham and eggs justice, a tiny contribution from the rich and a devastating body blow to working class, middle class, and poor people. we say no. there is nothing grand about that. that is not a bargain. it is time for the wealthy people in this country -- we are proud of their achievement, but they did not make it by themselves. it used to be when i grew up that if you did well in america, you were supposed to do well by america. we call on this president to issue a veto threat toward that end. thank you very much. [applause]

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> we have one more? thank you very much. [applause] >> i thought we had another thing here, but i think we are done. thank you very much, and let's get working. >> the u.s. house gavels back in at the top of the hour to start legislative work.

there are several bills dealing with indian tribes and land use. earlier this afternoon, we spoke with a capitol hill reporter for more about the house pose a legislative agenda. daniel is a staff writer for roll call. great to have you with us today. the house is back from break today to a fairly long must do list of legislative items. can you tell us the things they need to work on? >> they are back for two weeks before the recess again for two weeks. they are still deep in the -- in debate and negotiations on the student loan and the transportation conference committee. these things are facing expiration at the end of the month and if they don't get something done in the next two weeks, it looks like a lot of transportation projects might go to the wayside, and student loan rates will drastically rise.

>> while they continue deliberating on student loans and transportation off the floor, what are we likely to see brought to the fore this week? >> energy bills, they are bringing a package of bills to deal with shipping regulations, a lot of offshore drilling measures, domestic energy production, gas prices. we are seeing a lot of messaging. it is targeted at president barack obama and his domestic energy policy which they say does not focus enough on domestic energy production like oil, coal, and so forth. >> supporters of the energy bill say it is part of the house republican jobs agenda. >> they said that stripping these regulations will help these production companies create more jobs, give them less bureaucratic red tape to go

through and allowing domestic drilling, a lot of federal lands for drilling, it would create jobs. democrats on the other hand say that if you want to create jobs, put that in the transportation bill. they say this could create 3 million jobs. that is what we are likely to see or hear from them, they are going to say why are they going to have these political messaging energy bills, why not just get to work on the transportation bill? >> any word from the administration? >> not directly, but i have to assume we will see some sort of be a strategy if things are passed. certainly the administration is not keen on some of these bills. >> talk in the media about the

keystone pipeline issue seems to have cooled a bit. where does that stand? >> it is hard to tell right now, but i feel like there is a stalemate. barbara boxer, the top senate democrat, calling it the republicans intransigent on these issues. it did not look good. we will see when they come back, some are sure they will have negotiations, but everything right now seems to be at a standstill as far as the conference committee goes. >> anything else significant in the house that you are watching? >> everyone is waiting on health-care decision from the supreme court. some people thought it might come today, but it did not. at least we are safe for the next week or so, but for basically everything is going to be about health care. we will seek, in the house they are promising to have a full repeal measure as soon as the

decision comes down. the next debt is less clear. they said they want to replace it incrementally, and it probably will not happen before the election, but it will be a big issue once the supreme court decision comes down. >> thanks for your time today. >> house lawmakers will begin legislative work for the week at four o'clock eastern today. nine bills with a vote scheduled for 6:30 this evening. we have a similar conversation with florida congressman alan west, talking about the election and the republican party's efforts to attract the african- american vote. >> thank you for coming in this morning. we have been hearing a lot about wooing latino voters. let's talk about african- american voters.

what are conservative republicans doing to get black voters on board? guest: today we will be covering the conservative black forum today from 1:00-3:00 p.m. it is so important. when you look at the numbers out there is far as unemployment, they talk about 8.2%. it is really 14.8% with underemployment and also discouraged workers that are not even looking any more. the raw numbers for the black community is 14% unemployment. the zenith point was last august of 16.7% unemployment. you look at black teenage unemployment at 37%, the highest since the depression, look at median family incomes down, about 33% of the black community is living below the poverty line. out of the 45% increase we have

seen in spook -- in food stamp recipients, 25% has been in the black community. small businesses -- i sit on the small business committee and an know that minority businesses and contractors are suffering. today's policies can help get the black economy restored. >> unemployment rate by demographic group, we can see adult men and women overall, but as we look at african- americans over 16 years old, that number is significantly higher than the average for all americans. >> we cannot have true restoration in the united states if we do not have the some of our parts strong. >> you look at the profits that come from small business, they are trailing. we have to talk about the right

type of tax policies and incentives we can help -- we can have to help them grow in the urban communities? i grew up in atlanta, georgia. it was the heart of our community. what we see now is a shadow of what existed back when i grew up. auburn avenue has been decimated. >> here is the number to call to talk to republican -- representative allen west. host: what is mitt romney doing to connect with the african- american community? guest: jennifer carroll is a voice that can go out there. we have a great young lady in utah who is the mayor of sarasota springs who will probably be the first black republican member of congress coming here. she is looking very well in

winning her election. we are getting these forces out here in this forum today, which is important. we have support from the party with members and representatives from the ways and means committee. we are talking about solutions. we are going to talk about the idea from jack kemp about organ economic empowerment summits and how to get those established -- urban economic empowerment summits. when you invest your money, you don't investor capital in one investment fund or one-stop. i think when we look at the political capital of the black community, we have to diversify that and make sure we are speaking across all philosophies and principles of government and all parties. host: you can find out more at

c-span.org arcade to live at 1:00 this afternoon. let's go to atlanta georgia and hear from wayne on the independent line. caller: cursed of all, i think that the president of the united states should have some military experience, like you have. it is kind of hard to be ahead of something if you don't have it eight shakespearean senate. the other thing is, have you thought about being nominated for being our vice-president? guest: first of all i want to send a shout out to atlanta. once upon a time, the country

looked at a man who had served in the united states military to continue their service outside of their uniform and put on a suit and tie and continue to serve on capitol hill or as the president of the united states of america. i don't think we need to put that in the constitution as a requirement, but that is something the american people should be looking towards in the future. as far as vice-president, you have to talk to the presumptive nominee. i don't think i am on any short list. host: are best served for over 20 years and retired as a lieutenant colonel. let's hear from a republican caller in shelby township, michigan. guest: colonel west, it is a real honor to see you on c-span. the last guest, i had it on

mute at the time. guest: you should not have had it on mute. it is important to listen to everyone. caller: the comment i want to make this morning, what i see obama doing out there is transforming this country. he is not fixing anything. that is one of the reasons why he is blaming bush, to set the table to continue his reconstitution of this country. i am just out there doing my best to try to convince other individuals out there with what we are facing this november. again, it is real honor to speak with you and continue to speak

from the voice of the american people out there. guest: >> i am reading a great book called "the founders key." i think right now the american people have a choice to make. do they really want to continue to be a constitutional republic, or do want to see ourselves become a more bureaucratic, nanny state? comes down to the philosophy, the principles of government. it comes down to individual responsibility and accountability. as opposed to believe in growing a social, egalitarian welfare state, to focus on nationalizing production, having more people in government and

people who are on their creating their own new businesses and expanding the economy. you can have social and economic justice. america was all about fairness and a fair share and all that, i probably would have been it suited up with the miami heat last night, playing basketball. there are other things i can do, other talents i can have. i don't think we need to have government trying to engineer and design and outcomes and results for the american people. host: represented allen west represents west palm beach in florida. , is on the independent line. -- tom is on the independent line. caller: we need a good leader, and i think we have that in you.

host: he wanted to challenge speaker john boehner. why do want that to happen? caller: because i think he is a good leader. i don't think john boehner is fit to be in that position. host: what did think he brings to the table? caller: he has the desire not to capitulate but to defeat the communists, the progressives, and the marxist that are in our congress. guest: i just call it as i see it. i believe that a leader has to stand upon truth, integrity, and character. i think that speaker boehner is doing the best possible job that he can do you have some very intransigent individual such as harry reid on the senate side of the house. there is legislation that he has not taken up, and

philosophically, he has a huge amount to climb with president obama. i have been up here for 18 months. in my entire 51 years of existence, i have only been in politics for 18 months. it is very humbling that you would think that of me, but i may jr. voiced out of here. i am learning things every single day -- i am 8 jr. -- a junior boy scout up here. i will tell you this. the military teaches you don't have to have a title to be a leader. it is about how you carry yourself and the example used set. look a this story .rom cnn's economi a bit of a contentious fight he is then with the obama administration.

attorney general holders told the senate committee we have done all we can to reason with the people of florida. the governor there agreed that removing nine u.s. citizens from the list of registered voters was a legal necessity. talk about what this means and who is being affected by it. some leaders in the progress of black community have said that it targets minorities. guest: it is the same thing as people sang should not have a picture i get to be able to go and vote. i found it interesting that the democratic convention is requiring people to have a picture id, so that as a little bit ironic. the federal government mandates the state be able to police their voting rolls and to have integrity.

we found out we have 50,000 dead people on the rolls at in the state of florida that we are trying to take care of. the irs can go out and make an issue about looking at the people that may have tax problems or auditing them. we do not shut down the irs. the state of florida has been trying get the department of homeland security to work with us for over a year to make sure that we do have integrity in the voter system. that is what makes america america, the democratic process. i have problems with the department justice going after sovereign states, trying to do the things that are necessary to keep integrity in the process. host: how you respond to civil rights leaders to say this

disenfranchisement? guest: i do not think it is. we saw them vote in numbers that have never been seen before. we should be able to go in and look at the voting systems and make sure they are clean. they should ask the democrat party, are they requiring picture i.d. at their ?onventions questio when you go on board an aircraft, you have to show a picture id, and i don't think that is disenfranchisement. caller: i first, it is, you being a black man in the united states and watching how people are treating our president, does that make you mad? are you happy with that? since you are a conservative and you believe in what the conservatives believe in, or does it make you mad?

guest: it made me mad when they did the same thing to george w. bush. it makes me mad when they challenge people based on things out of their policies. caller: if romney becomes president, with everything he said he would cut for the middle class, how you expect the middle class to make it? guest: what we have to understand is you have different income levels in the united states of america. my story is very simple. i was born in the inner city of atlanta, georgia. look at where i am today. i retired as a lieutenant colonel and now i am a member of the united states house of representatives. people in america can achieve whatever heights they want. the most important thing is that you have a government structure that provides the right conditions and the write-off of opportunities for everyone to be

able to grow. when you look at our regulatory policies and the lack of access to capital, that is affecting our communities. we don't have those small businesses going so we have high unemployment all across this country. we are not trying to do anything against the middle class. we want americans to build a transition whatever level of income they have, and make sure the free-market economic system in the united states of america can continue to thrive. that is what built this country of 235 years. caller: good morning. the first thing i like to say to you is to thank you very much for your service to the country. both in the military and in the u.s. congress. i am very, very happy that you are there.

the question i have is in connection with this illegal immigration nonsense, which is what i call it. we are loading up on our country, one minute it is 10 million, the next minute it is 12 million. the statement as advanced by obama was that we have these people, illegal young people, and some of them i am sure are very good, in the united states military. i personally believe that if you were to look at los angeles, you'll probably find more of them in the crips and bloods and that level of society than you will find in the united states military. in plain words, colonel, have you experienced in your time in the military, many illegal aliens who are serving in the army? guest: in my 22 years in the

ninth states military -- in the the state's military, i did not have any ceremonies where we had to swear in people to be citizens of the united states of america. to be citizens of the united states of america. i cannot speak to that, but we have got to put american citizens first. they are concerned about the details of the verbal order, the edict that the president gave out. what are we going to do as far as the americans that are under- employed. college graduates that are living with their mothers and fathers because they don't have any job opportunities. what happens as far as you are able to get this work permit, you work for a month or two and you decide you're not going to work and you are given unemployment benefits. this can be brought up in a

committee, it can be debated or amended. this is a representative government, a representative democracy. it is such an incredible policy is this. as you just talked about, we don't really know the status of the situation. we can work with the agricultural industry to make sure that we don't decimate them so that we can have those crops harvested. >> the chin on the emigration, the last couple of days in light of the policy on the young people to be successful. >> you can find the rest of this conversation on line as we take you live to the floor of the u.s. house.

members taking up nine bills under suspension of the rules. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chairs will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered or on which the vote incurs an objection under clause 6 of rule 20. recorded volts on postponed questions will be taken later in the day. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and passion h.r. 1556. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 206, h.r. 1556, a bill to amend the omnibus indians advancement act to allow certain land to be used to generate income to provide funding for academic programs and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from washington, mr. hastings, and the gentleman from new mexico, mr. lujan, -- lujan, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks, include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. hastings: i yield myself as much time as i may consume. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, the santa if he indian school in santa if he,

new mexico, established in the late 1800's, is a federal offreservation boarding school for the governors of the new mexico. on december 20, 2000, public law 106-5568 transferred 115 acs of profit to the school with certain limitations. h.r. 1556 would allow the santa fe indian school to use its 115 acres of land for economic development. the bill retains the prohibition on indian -- on gambling on indian land. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from new mexico. mr. lujan: mr. speaker, i yield myself as much time as i may consume. mr. speaker, i'd like to thank chairman hastings, chairman young, ranking member marky, and ranking mer member boren for working with me on the natural resources committee to help dreals the many issues impacting indian country and the tribes i represent in new mexico. i also want to recognize the hard work of the superintendent of santa fe indian school and

former governor, former aipc president and former ncia president on this bill. they worked with the pueblos and all indian pueblo council to support this legislation which will help new mexico's 19 pueblos achieve educational sovereignty for native american studentings across new mexico. santa fe indian school and the 19 pueblos approached my office seeking the introduction of a technical change to the omnibus i understandian advancement act, to allow certain lands dessnated to the school to be used to generate income to provide funding for academic and cultural programs at the indian school. knowing the importance of what santa fe indian school provides to native american studentings in new mexico, i was very interested in this approach to move forward through try financial independence and educational sovereignty for santa fe indian school and its students. i want to point out the importance of sovereignty and what it means for our tribal brothers and sisters. to be able to provide a quality education for their own

children. education that's truly empowering, especially when native american students are able to get an education that embraces their cultural and traditional identities and that is the type of education santa fe indian school provides. i worked with superintendent chaveezz to draft a bill that would make a technical amendment to allow the school to export economic opportunities so that the students can attain the best possible education and to be able to support their mission. santa fe indian school provides a challenging, stimulating and nurturing learning environmental that -- environment that shares to develop the students' true potential to develop obligations to themselves and their communities. at this time, it is so important to give santa fe indian school the tools they need to help their students receive a quality education, regardless of the political and financial climate in washington. h.r. 1556 would achieve that goal and i am proud to be able

to assist santa fe indian school and many of the act to allow the school to achieve new heights in educating native american students. this technical amendment will help make santa fe indian school more self-sufficient and create greater opportunities for students attending the indian school by assuring the financial capability to maintain and expand the level of academic and cultural education for native american students. this is a commonsense bill that will help native american students and new mexico and i urge the support of my colleagues and i thank the chairman for his support as well and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: i urge adoption of the bill and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the sque to will hot us conscious the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1556. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington rise? mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i

move to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4027. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 357, h.r. 4027, a bill to clarify authority granted under the act entitled an act to define the exterior boundary of the uintah and ow ray i understandian reservation in the state of utah and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will receive a message. the secretary: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i'm directed by the president of the united states to deliver to the house of representatives messages in writing. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from washington, mr. hastings, and the gentleman from new mexico, mr. lujan, each will control 20 minutes. and the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to

revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. hastings: i yield myself as much time as i may consume. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, h.r. 4027 is a bob: bill that would clarify the boundaries of the uintah and ouray indian reservation as passed by the hill creek, he tension of 19 -- hill creek extension of 1948. it would relinquish to the indian tribe its subsurface mineral rights in exchange for subsurface rights to an equal number of acres of other land owned by the federal government. the exchange would allow the school trust fund and the tribe to explore additional oil and gas development that will help support the utah education and create jobs for the tribe while preserving more culturally sensitive land for the tribe. i urge adoption of the resolution and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from new mexico. mr. lujan: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. h.r. 4027 clarifies existing law regardsing the federal government's authority to permit land exchanges within the

reservation in northeastern utah and resolve the tribe state problem. this legislation returns the subservice mineral estate to the ute tribe in portion. thus preserves the area's pristine wilderness from development. the bill also benefits the state of utah by opening up a federal minerals for development in an area of the tribe's reservation already being developed by the tribe's energy company. legislation that corrects a federal error and satisfies both tribal and state interests without cost to the federal government, does not come along very often. mr. matheson is to be commended for his dess kate -- for his dedication and for crafting a workable solution to a difficult problem. i urge my colleagues to support h.r. 4027 and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: javelt the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from new mexico. mr. lujan: i yield to the gentleman from utah, mr. matheson.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah. mr. matheson: thank you,mr. speaker. i rise in support of h.r. 4027. which is a bill to authorize an acre for acre exchange of subsurface mineral lands within the hill creek extension between the state of utah and the united states on behalf of the ute tribe. i really want to thank chairman hastings and his staff and also chairman young and his staff, ranking member markey and his staff, remarking member boren and his staff, for their support in moving this bill through the natural resources committee. i'd also like to thank mr. bishop who is a co-response of the bill. -- co-sponsor of the bill. in the transaction authorized in this bill, the tribe would acquire certain state minerals in grand county, yulte, and in exchange the b.l.m. would relinquish certain lands to the state. this bob: bill would give the b.l.m. the authority to approve this transaction that was first proposed several years ago. in order to fully protect state and federal interests, this

legislation reserves identical overriding financial interests in each other's exchanged lands should development occur. often in the past these land exchanges had challenges with appraisal and making sure everybody's treated fairly. this legislation tries to address that issue going forward. this bill is a win-win. it helps the tribe consolidate its management of land that is considered sacred and at the same time it allows for edmontonistic energy development on land not considered environmentally sensitive that would provide more school trust fund revenue for utah and employment for energy workers -- workers in the state as well. this legislation has broad support from local government, the state of utah, and the u tembings tribe as well as partner agencies. the wilderness society also testified in support of this legislation. i urge my colleagues to support in passing this bill. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: i'm people ared to yield back, mr. speaker, if the gentleman has no more requests for time. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman from new mexico. mr. lujan: mr. speaker, we thank the gentleman from utah for his hard work and we yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: ja. the gentleman from washington -- the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4027. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon table. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass s. 404. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 404rks an act to modify a land grant patent issues by the secretary of the interior. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from washington and the gentleman from new mexico each will control 20 minutes and the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection.

mr. hastings: i yield myself as much time as i may consume. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, s. 404 would simply modify a land patent that was issued by the department of interior to the great lakes ship wreck historical society in 1998, to reflect an agreement between the historical society, the michigan autobahn society and the u.s. fish and wildlife service. the current land patent references an outdated 1992 comprehensive plan for white fish point, a 43-acre spit of land surrounded by lake superior. the michigan autobahn society sued when this plan for development was proposed and following a court-ored settlement and lawsuit, a new plan was negotiated in 2002. this bill would modify the land patent to appropriately reference the 2002 plan and finally allow for the development to go forward. congressman ben check, our colleague from michigan, is the author of the companion house bill, h.r. 3411. and he should be commended for

his commonsense approach to help manage the support in tourism in the upper peninsula of michigan. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from new mexico. mr. lujan: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lujan: this requires the secretary of the interior to modify a land grant patent in cippewa county, michigan. the patent issued to the michigan autobahn society and the great lakes ship wreck historical society will be amended to allow for use in modification of the property to allow for new use plans. we have no objections to this legislation and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i'm pleased to yield three minutes to the author of the companion bill in the house of this legislation, the gentleman from michigan, mr. benishek. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan for three minutes. mr. benishek: mr. speaker, this evening the house will take up senate bill 404, a bill authered by my colleague in the senate, senator carl levin. as you heard, i authored a

companion bill in the house last november. this bill will end the bureaucratic road block that has prevented the museum from mixing -- making improvements to its facility located in cippewa county, michigan, along the southern shore of lake superior. only an act of congress is able to correct an error in the land patent that was enact -- enacted in 1992. from the bell of the edmond fitzgerald to the white fish point light house, the shipwreck museum exhibits tell the story of brave men and women who have navigated the great lakes for hundreds of years. . this facility displays an important part in michigan history. each year some 60,000 individuals visit the museum and explore firsthand the rich maritime traditions of michigan's first district. preserving michigan's maritime history is a resource that both senator levin and i agree warrants enthusiastic bipartisan support for the benefit of future generations

of visitors. i want to thank chairman hastings for bringing this bill to the floor today, and i encourage all my colleagues to support this measure and bring it one step closer to the president's desk. thank you. i yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new mexico. mr. lujan: mr. speaker, we have no further speakers and we are prepared to yield back. mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: i urge adoption of s. 404 and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass senate 404. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative -- mr. hastings: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, andrew. -- the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule

20. further proceedings on this question will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington rise? mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the house suspend the rules and pass senate 684. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title. the clerk: senate 684, a to provide for the conveyance of certain parcels of land to the town of alta, utah. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from washington, mr. hastings, and the gentleman from new mexico, mr. lujan, each will control 20 minutes and the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. hastings: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. hastings: thank you very much, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, s. 684, introduced by senator mike lee of utah, would address a pressing issue in the town of alta, utah. alta is a small ski town that currently operates most of its mawniss pal infrastructure on the wasatch national forest

under a multitude of special use permits. it would convey this land, a maximum of two acres to a town to provide for certainty, simplicity and flexibility in maintaining its facilities. i urge my colleagues to support this commonsense bill and i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from new mexico. mr. lujan: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lujan: mr. speaker, s. 684, sponsored by senator mike lee of utah, provides for the conveyance of no more than two acres of land from the wasatch national forest to the town of alta, utah. the town of alta has been built to facilities under special use permit. the town will be paying for all survey costs. we have no objections to this legs, and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: we have no

speakers and we are prepared to yield back. mr. lujan: mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: i yield back and urge adoption of the resolution. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass s. 684. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair -- mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i ask nar the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington rise? mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass s. 997. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 997, an act to authorize the secretary of the interior to extend a water contract between the united states and the east bench irrigation district. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from washington, mr. hastings, and the gentleman from new mexico, mr. lujan, each will control 20 minutes and the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may

have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. hastings: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. hastings: thank you very much, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, s. 97, the east bench ir-- s. 997, the east bench irrigation district water contract extension act will extend this until december 31, 2013, or until a new contract can be executed. this bill allows for the continued irrigation of 28,000 acres of land which is an important -- is important to that area's economy. it also preserves the district's renewable rights while a local manner is adjudicated at the state level. this will not influse state outcomes. this is supported by senator levin and i reserve the balance

of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from new mexico. mr. lujan: mr. speaker, yumes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lujan: mr. speaker, s. 997 passed the senate in november of 2011. s. 97 would extend the east bench irrigation district's water contract for four years, pending judicial ruling. the administration has testified in support of s. 997 because it would allow for water service for the district to continue and allows for contract renewal while it is being time to be completed. we thank senator jon tester for his leadership and have no objections to this legislation and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from washington. mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i urge adoption of the legislation, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass senate 997. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a message. the clerk: to the congress of the united states. section 202-d of the national emergency act, 50 u.s.c. 162 -d provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration the president publishes in the federal register and transmits to the congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. in accordance with this provision, i have sent to the federal register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency declared in executive order 13466 of june 26, 2008, expanded in scope in executive order 13551 of august 30, 2010,

and addressed further in executive 13570 of april 13, 2011 is to continue beyond june 26, 2012. the risk of proliferation of weapons used on the korean peninsula and the government of north korea that destabilized the korean peninsula and imperil u.s. armed forces, allies and trading partners in the region continue an extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and the economy of the united states. for these reasons i have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency with respect to these threats and maintain a force the measures taken to deal with the national emergency. signed, barack obama, the white house, june 18, 2012. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the committee on foreign affairs and ordered printed. the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: to the congress of

the united states, section 202-d of the national emergency act provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration the president publishes in the federal register and transmits to the congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. in accordance with this provision, i have sent to the federal register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the emergency declared in executive order 13159 of june 21, 2000, with respect to the risk of nuclear proliferation created by the accumulation of large volume of weapons, useable fissile material in the territory of the russian federation is to continue beyond june 21, 2012. it remains a major national security goal of the united states to ensure that fissile material removed from russian nuclear weapons pursuant to various arms control and

disarmament agreement is dedicated to the peaceful uses subject to transparency measures and protected from diversion to activities of proliferation concern. the accumulation of a large volume of weapons, useable fissile material in the territory of the russian federation continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the united states. for this reason i have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared with respect to the risk of nuclear proliferation created by the accumulation of large volume of weapons, useable fissile material in the territory of the russian federation and maintain and enforce these emergency authorities to respond to this threat. signed, barack obama, the white house, june 18, 2012. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the committee on foreign affairs and ordered printed.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman would recognize the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: express of the regret of the house of representatives to the passage of laws that affected the chinese of the united states. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 683, resolution expressing the regret of the house of representatives for passage of laws that adversely affected the chinese in the united states including the chinese exclusion act. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, and the gentlewoman from california, ms. chu, each will

control 20 minutes and the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on house resolution 683, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i first want to thank the gentlewoman from california, ms. chu, for introducing h.res. 683, expressing the regret of the house of representatives for the passage of laws that adversely affected the chinese in the united states including the chinese exclusion ability. i know through conversations with several of my colleagues, including the ranking member of the foreign relations committee, mr. berman, that this is an important resolution for them and their constituents. the resolution concerns laws passed by the house of representatives that restricted the civil rights of certain individuals in the united states based solely on the ethnicity of those individuals. specifically during the late 19th and early 20th centuries,

congress passed and the presidents signed laws that restricted the rights of people of chinese ethnicity. for instance, in march, 1882, the house of representatives passed the initial chinese exclusion act that denied chinese people the right to be naturalized as american citizens. and in april, 1893, the house of representatives passed the gary act which re-authorized the chinese exclusion act for 10 years and denied chinese immigrants the right to be released on bail upon application for a writ of habeas corpus. laws that deny certain civil rights to people in the united states are inconsistent with the values on which this country was founded. i thank the gentlewoman from california for working with me to refine the text of this resolution and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from california. ms. chu: mr. speaker, i yield myself as much time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. chu: mr. speaker, i rise in support of house resolution 683.

first i want to thank chairman lamar smith and subcommittee chair trent franks of the judiciary committee for all their work on this resolution. i appreciate it so much. we have come together across party lines to show that no matter what side of the aisle we sit on, congress can make amends for the past no matter how long ago those violations occurred. it is because we have worked together in a bob: way that we will make history today. today for the first time in 130 years the house of representatives will vote on a bill that expresses regret for the chinese exclusion act of 1882, one of the most discriminatory acts in american history. over a century ago the chinese came here in search of a better life. during the california gold rush, the chinese came to the united states to making so of themselves. their blood, sweat and tears built the first transcontinental

railroad, connecting the people of our nation. they opened our minds -- mines, constructed the levees and became the backbone of farm construction. their efforts helped build america. but as the economy soured in the 1870's, the chinese became scapegoats. they were called racial slurs, were spat upon in the streets and even brutally murdered. the harsh conditions they faced were evident in the halls of congress. by the time 1882 came around, members of congress were competing with each other to get the most discriminatory law passed and routinely made speeches on the house floor against the so-called mongolian hoard. representative albert shelby willis from kentucky fought particularly hard for chinese exclusion act. in his floor speech he said,the chinese were an invading race. he called them aliens with sworded and unrepublican habit. he declares that the pacific

states have been cursed with the evils of chinese immigration and they disturbed the peace and order of society. the official house committee report accompanying the bill claimed that the chinese, and i quote, retained their distinctive pe kuhl yarities and characteristics, refusing to assimilate themselves into our institutions understood remaining a sfrate and distinct class, entrenched behind immoveble prejudices. that their disregard of sanitary laws breeds disease, pest lens and death, unquote. and so on april 17, 1882, under a simple suspension of the rules, the house passed the chinese exclusion act. it prevent the them from becoming naturalized citizens, it prevented them from ever having the right to vote and it prevented the chinese and the chinese alone from immigrating. but this was only the beginning. as the years passed, the house built upon this act, increasing

the discriminatory restrictions on the chinese. two years later, the house made clear that any ethnically chinese laborer, even if they weren't from china but from somewhere like hong kong or the philippines, were banned from u.s. shores. four years later, the house passed the scott act. this bill prohibited all chinese labors from re-entering the united states if they ever left, even if they were legal residents in the u.s. and even if they had the certificates of return that should have guaranteed their right of return. this prevented approximately 20,000 legal u.s. residents who had gone abroad, including 600 on ships literally en route back to the united states, from returning to their families or their homes. with little floor debate, the scott act passed the house unanimously. in 1892, when the chinese exclusion act was settle to expire, the house extended it for another decade.

but it increased restrictions further. it made the chinese the only residents who could not receive bail after applying for a writ of habeas corpus, that is, to protest an unjust imprisonment. it made them the only people in america who had to carry papers or certificates of residence with them at all times. if they couldn't produce the proper documents, authorities threw them into prison or out of the country, regardless of whether they were u.s. citizens or not. legally the only means by which this could be stopped is if a white person testified on their behalf. in 18928, the u.s. nixed hawaii and the philippines, making them u.s. territories and while other residents of the territories could come and go between their the u.s., who did the house make sure to exclude? only the chinese. then in 1904, the house made the chinese exclusion act permanent. this act lasted for 60 long

years. it was not until 1943 that this law was repealed but it was only because of world war ii, when the united states needed to maintain a critical military alliance with china. u.s. enemies were pointing to the chinese exclusion act as proof that the u.s. was anti-chinese and the u.s. had to erase that perception. however, congress made no formal acknowledgment that these laws were wrong. the chinese exclusion act wased first and only federal law in our history that excluded a single group of people from immigration on no basis other than their race. and the effects of this act produced deep scars on the chinese american community. families were split apa part permanently, without the ability to naturalize as citizens and to vote, the community was disenfranchised. because immigration had been so

severely restricted, few women could come and the ratio of meals to females was as high as 20-1. many chinese american males could not have families and were forced to die completely alone. if they did try to marry, they were forced to go abroad and families were separated. the family of gene kwan, mayor of oakland, had been here legally since 1880. her father went abroad to marry a woman in china in 1920 but had to leave her behind along with their children. when the chinese exclusion act was repealed, over 25 years later, his wife was finally able to come and have gene in the united states. but the siblings did not know each other for decades. the chinese, like my grandfather, did not have the legal right to become naturalized citizens. he had been here legally since 1904, but unlike non-chinese immigrants, he was forced to register and carry a certificate

of residence at all times for almost 40 years or else be deported. he could only be saved if a white person vouched for him. these laws are why we ask for this expression of regret. last october the u.s. senate did its part to right history by passing their own resolution of regret for these hateful laws. it did so unanimously with bob: support. . and today the house should issue its expression of regret. it is for my grandfather and for all chinese americans who were told for six decades by the u.s. government that the land of the free wasn't open to them, that we must pass this resolution. we must finally and formally acknowledge these ugly laws that were incompatible with america's founding principles. we must express the sincere

regret that chinese americans deserve. by doing so we will acknowledge that discrimination has no place in our society and we will reaffirm our strong commitment to preserving the civil rights and constitutional protections for all people of every color, every race and from every background. thank you and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, we have no other speakers on this side so i'll reserve the balance of my time as well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from california. ms. chu: i yield to representative mike honda. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california. mr. honda: i, too, want to tell my thanks to the pleerp,

particularly chairman lamar. i rise in support of h.r. 683, a resolution expressing the regret of the house of representatives for the passage of laws that adversely affected the chinese in the united states, including the chinese exclusion act. a century and a half ago the chinese were used as cheap labor to do the most dangerous work, laying the tracks of our transcontinental railway and building the california delta levies. only to be persecuted when they were seen as competition. and when the dirtiest work was done. in 1848 when gold fever spread across the pacific ocean, many thousands of young chinese came in boats to gold mountain, to california. in 1861 to 1865, there was waged a civil war in this country. there were over 50 chinese americans who battled each other in the civil war and that went unnoticed. in 1863, construction of the transcontinental railroad commenced with the recovery of silver in nevada, 1865, white

workers left the railroads to search for sill vemplet charles crocker, one of the big investors of the railroad and the man responsible for constructing the western portion of the railroad, began hiring chinese immigrants. crocker's famous justification was, they built the great wall of china, didn't they? for the promise of $25 to $30 a month, the new workers endured long hours and harsh winters in the sierra nevada mountains. while working in the sierras, chinese workers were hung in baskets, over cliffs 2,000 feet above raging rivers to blast into the granite mountain to make way for laying the tracks. once they board holes stuffed with dynamites, they had to be pulled back up before it exploded. sometimes these poor souls in the baskets were not drawn up safely because there was no fate in the timing of the fuse.

hence the phrase, ain't got chinaman's chance. nf 1897, 80% of the workers were chinese and by 1869, 11,000 were chinese. in utah wrong may 10, 1869, the final spike was driven. sits is plaque commemorating the attainment and achievement of the great political objective of binding together by iron bonds the extremities of continental united states, a rail linked from ocean to ocean. however, neither in thomas hill's famous painting nor the spike are the face of 11,000 chinese workers visible and one wonders, where were these 11,000 workers? perhaps they were given the day off on that day. though absent in these visual historical depictions -- may i have one more minute? ms. chu: i would like to yield

one more minute to the gentleman from california. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. honda: thank you. though absent in these historical depictions, the chinese left mark in the history of california and in the largest story of binding this country's ocean to ocean. upon the railroad completion, the chinese settled in the california delta to help with the levy construction, thus advancing california's agricultural development. the passing of anti-chinese law shows the shameful chapter of exclusion. it is politically or economically expedient. the great thing about humanity is that we have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes. in closing, mr. speaker, i am pleased that this resolution is on the floor today acknowledging and addressing these injustices throughout our nation's history. not only strengthening civil

rights and civil justices but doing so brings us closer to a more educated nation and a more perfect union. thank you, mr. speaker, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas continues to reserve. the gentlelady from california. ms. chu: i yield five minutes to the gentleman from american samoa, representative eni faleomavaega. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from american samoa for five minutes. mr. faleomavaega: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to extend and revise my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. faleomavaega: i also want to thank the gentleman from california, chairman lamar smith, for support of this legislation as well as my good friend, congressman conyers, the ranking member of the judiciary committee, for his support as well. i especially want to express my appreciation and thanks to the chairwoman of our congressional asian pacific american caucus, ms. judy chu, not only as the chief sponsor of this legislation, but for her

dynamic leadership in bringing this bill to the floor today. mr. speaker, i rise in support of house resolution 683, a resolution of regret for the chinese exclusion act of 1882. the chinese exclusion act was the first major law restricting immigration to the united states to enforce a 10-year moratorium on chinese immigrant laborers and denying naturalization to those who were already in the united states. and acting on the premise that chinese laborers, endanger the good work of certain locality it's, it was largely motivated by fellow americans who felt that chinese laborers were to blame for unemployment and the declining wages in the west. to the geary act of 1892, the chinese exclusion act was extended for another 10 years before becoming permanent in 1902 and it was only repealed by the magnuson act of 1943 when china became an ally of the united states during world war ii.

even then the new law allowed 105 chinese immigrants per year. a much lower quota than immigrant quotas in other regions of the world. large scale chinese immigration was allowed with the immigration act of 1965, some 80 years after the chinese exclusion act. like their counterparts from european countries, chinese immigrants in the 19th century came to the united states in search of opportunities for a better life. since the first wave of chinese immigrants to the united states, tcheans american communities have contributed greatly to the development of our nation, and it is a shame that these discriminatory practices and laws, fear-based laws split up families and preventing them for decades pursuing the american dream. they connected the first transcontinental railroad through the sierra mountains into the western states and, of course, that final spike was

done in the state of utah. the completion of the railroad with the help of these chinese laborers would later mobilize other industries and pave the way for a more connected and prosperous america. but the chinese exclusion act, mr. speaker, the first law restricting entry of an ethnic working group stifled chinese immigrants' ability to lend their skills to the betterment of our nation and becoming part of the american family. because of this law was validated by leaders in our nation, it gave credence to the underlying notion that certain groups did not deserve fair treatment in our nation. the policies sent a clear message that chinese immigrants were not qualified for the american dream. furthermore, it set a precedent for later policies against immigrant groups such as the national originalins act of 1929 which barred asian immigration and our shameful policy of forcing some 100,000 americans, born in the united states, but happened to be of japanese ancestry.

this is one reason why i always admired our nation, mr. speaker, and our form of drauks and that is it tries to correct its mistakes from the past. while our nation has come a long way since this legislation was enacted 130 years ago, let us continuely be reminded in our diverse country to uphold our principle of our nation. that all men and women are to be treated equally and fairly under the law. and with that, mr. speaker, i yield back and urge my colleagues to pass this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlewoman from california. ms. chu: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. chu: today is historic. this is a very significant day in the chinese american community. it is an expression that discrimination has no place in our society and that the promise of equality is available to all. this is only the fourth such

apology in the last 25 years. in 1988 president reagan signed the bill apologizing for the japanese american internment during world war ii. in 1993, congress apologized to hawaiians for the u.s.-led overthrow of their monarchy. in 2008, the house issued an apology for african-americans on behalf of the people of the united states for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and jim crow. this bill was a huge undertaking, requiring the efforts of chinese americans and their supporters all across the nation. without the dedication of countless community organizations and grassroots advocates from across the country, none of this would have happened. i thank them and i thank all the congress members from both sides of the aisle, including the 50 co-sponsors of the bill, and especially chairman lamar smith for their support.

thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, yield back the balance of my time as well. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 683. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the resolution is agreed to and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. smith: mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3668, the counterfeit drug penalty enhancement act of 2012, as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 3668, a bill to prevent trafficking in counterfeit drugs. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, and the gentlewoman from california, ms. chu, each will control 20 minutes. and the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and

extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on h.r. 3668, as amended, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i thank mr. meehan of pennsylvania and ms. sanchez of california for their work on this issue. this is a bipartisan, bicameral bill. similar legislation sponsored by senator leahy was approved by the senate last march by voice vote. this bill enacts penalties for trafficking and counterfeit drugs, similar to those for trafficking and military goods or services as established in the national defense authorization act, which congress passed last december. counterfeit military goods affect the credibility of the supply chain that support our national defense. and counterfeit drugs call into doubt america's pharmaceutical legal drug supply. in both situations, the significant and multiple dangers to the public demand

enhanced penalties. counterfeit drugs are fake drugs. they may be contaminated, contain the wrong ingredient or no ingredient at all or have the right active ingredient but the wrong dose. they are intentionally packaged to convince the consume they are genuine. counterfeit drugs rill legal and can be harmful to a person's health and even deadly. counterfeit drugs present not only a financial loss to the manufacture or markholder but also a real health risk to consumers. while current law technically includes counterfeit drugs, the law does not expressly prohibit trafficking in counterfeit drugs and carries a maximum penalty of only 10 years. late last month, the u.s. food and drug administration warned consumers and health professionals about a counterfeit version of aderall that is available for sale on the internet.