merkley: madam president, that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of senate resolution resolution 2658 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 265, honoring the firefighters who sacrificed their lives while battling the station fire in southern california in august 2009. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. merkley: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the resolution be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the appointment at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. he mr. merkley: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m

. >> senator merkley? >> no. >> senator byrd? deegan no. >> no. >> voted 12 allies, 11 nays. -- 12 ayes, 11 nays. and >> we're a team. >> for a while it was you and bernie samberg and now is you and me. >> you see senator coburn docking -- joking about this being called on requiring members of congress to be on the public plan, failed in the house. this is one of the few non-party votes in the committee. does this have any chance when it goes to market? >> it is certainly one of those positions that makes people very uncomfortable it, and i think that is the way it was intended. also, like many of tom coburn's of minutes, she is making a powerful point, which is to not pass anything you would not want to participate in yourself. so many of the problems of health care because they're done in the third person, without really thinking about the practical implications. >> we will presumably steeped this session in the coming weeks or weeks as congress returns from the august recess. " you give us a snapshot of what you think will tak

round for me and turn it over to senator merkley. >> thank you very much, mr. chair. i want to start, mr. markopolos -- you said that your three sons are watching at home. and i just want them to know what a cougeous thing you did in reporting your belief that there was frd at this firm. when i first read your 29 red flags report, you began it by asking for confidentiality very limited circulation of who you were because of concerns of your safety and the safety of your family. and when you're taking oa multibillion dollar enterprise those concerns were very legitimate but you put the interest of our nation and our finances first. took some personal risk and i applaud you for it. >> thank you, senator. >> i keep coming back to try to understand the cultural factor because i simply can't believe that the capable folks coming out of -- even if they came relatively freshly out of college weren't able to see the basic simple elements involved. and sometimes one gives the benefit of the doubt. and in some cases, one gives a massive benefit of the doubt. and there ar

merkley: thank you, mr. president.i rise today to remembernd honor o colleague, senator edward kennedy. i first had the pleasure of hearing senator kennedy speak in 1976. i had wanted to come out to washington, d.c., to see how our nation operates. i'd had t great privilege of serving as an intern for a senator from my home state, senator hatfield. my father had always talked about senator kennedy. senator kennedy, as someone who spoke for the disenfranchised, someone who spoke for the disposed, someone who cared about the workingman,o i was looking forward to possibly meetg him or at least hearing m. and lo and behold i foindz out that he was scheduled to speak as part of a series of lectures to the interns that summer, and so i made sure to get there early and what followed was exactly the type of address that you might anticipate: a roaring voice, a passionate spirit, a principled presentation of the challenges we faced to make our society better. i walked outf that lecture and thought, thank goodness, tha goodness

merkley: phank you, mr. president. i rise today to remember and honor our colleague, senator edward kennedy. i dirst had the pleasure of hearing senator kennedy speak in 1976. i had wanted to come out to washinon, d.c., to see how our nation operates. i'd had the great privilege of serving as an intern for a senator from my home state, senator hatfield. my father had always tald about senator kennedy. senator kennedy, as someone who spoke for the disenfranchised, someone who spoke for the disposed, someone who cared abou the workingman, so i was looking forward to possiy meeting him or at least hearing him. and lo and behold i foindz out that he was scheduled to speak as @art of a serie of lectures to the interns that summer, and so i made sure to get there early and what followed was exactly the type of address that you might anticipate: a roaring voice a passionate spirit, a principled esentation of the challenges we faced to make our society better. i walked out of that lecture and thought, thank goodness, thank goo

. >> thank you, senator merkley, thank you, mr. kotz. we will call our next panelists forward. >> ok. let's get started. each of you has a limit. mr. markopolus seven, and then five and five. your entire statement will be read into the record. you may begin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you ranking member. thank you members of the committee. i can speak to 1/3 of the report. i did submit different complaints to the s.e.c. in march of 2001 and in the fall of 2005. if the inspector general's report was falsified, inaccurate, or a white wash, i would be denouncing it before you today, but i find this report to be extremely accurate, exceptionally well written, well researched. it is comprehensive. it is hard hitting. it gets right to the fact of the matter. in a nuth shell, the -- in a nut shell, the s.e.c. staff was not capable of finding ice cream at a dairy queen. however, i don't believe that anything illegal or inappropriate occurred. they were asking if there were violations at high levels and low levels and every level in betwee

absolutely. >> thank you, senator merkley. thank you mr. cobbs and we will now call our next panel forward. harry markopolos, john walsh, robert khuzami, these come forward. >> [inaudible conversations] >> okay. let's get started, and i know that senator dodd has already inoduced the witnesses so we're not going to do that again. each of you has a limited mr. markopolos, seven, mr. walsh, mr. khuzami five each so we have time for questions try to keep your statements within those limits. there is a little clock up there, and your entire statement will be read into the record, so it will b part of the record. mr. markopolos, you may begin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you ranking member, thank you numbers of the committee. i was approximately one third of the inspector general's 477 page report either directly or indirectly, so i can speak to that one thirdf the report. i did submit three different complaints to the sec in may 2000,arch of 2001 and in the fall of 2005. if the inspector general's report was falsified, inaccurate or a whi

senger merkley of oregon. senator alt mire of pennsylvania. senator gil brandt of new york.sland from a -- senate term rtor reidf rhode island. any other member is ths? congressman dan to of pennsylvania. reaching dench of pe -- center dench of pennsylvania. i think we should take them as a sign of the enormous gratitude that we have. i hope we will go from here to our 9/11 ceremony were real honor you. anyone who visit here will see the name of your loved dom. now we will on bail. -- now we will unviel. unveil. [applause] >> [unintelligible] >[reaading list of honored heroes] [reading list of honored heroes] [readintg lisg list of honored heroes] >> and brave sacrifice on september 11, 2001. they say to the u.s. capitol from destruction. chefs >> of the next, senator carl levin discusses u.s. involvement in afghanistan. that of the pollard -- that'll be followed about german chancellor on july -- angela merkel. this week during a special session, the supreme court heard an oral argument on campaign finance. the first session for a sonia sotomayor. >> would only be doing mor

merkley, my office has overseen programs from our regional office, increasing our staffing levels has increased. we have recently established a full-time presence of officers in this country, placing an auditor and investigator in kabul and two auditors in is lamas dog. this is inefficient oversight of our office in the philippines. -- this is in addition to our oversight of the office in the philippines. we a conducted 27 program performance audits in afghanistan in which we have made 84 recommendations for operational improvements. we have issued nearly 30 financial audits and have identified nearly $8 million in costs, at which 1.3 million was sustained. we investigate fraud and waste in this country. in afghanistan, we have opened 44 investigations that have resulted in eight indictments, nine arrests, and three convictions. i want to mention just two of our recent investigations involving security contracts. in one, a defendant pled guilty to conspiracy this past week for his role to solicit kickbacks. in another investigation, four individuals were indicted after they obtained r

. >> thank you senator merkley. and we're going to call our next panel forward, harry markoplis. >> okay. let's get started and i know that senator dodd has already introduced the witnesses, so we're not going to do that again. each has a limit, mr. markoplis seven and five each for the others. keep your statements within those limits. there's a clock up there. and your entire statement will be read into the record so it'll be part of the record. mr. markoplis, you play begin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you ranking member. thank you, members of the committee. i was approximately -- one-third of the inspector -- inspector generals represent, either directly or indirectly, so i could speak to that one-third of the report. and di submit three different complaints to the s.e.c. in play of 2000. and march of 2001 and the fall of 2005. and if the inspector general's report was falsified, inaccurate or a whitewash, i would be announcing it before you today. but i find this report to be extremely accurate. except

provisions orule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the sate, i hereby appoint the honorable jeff merkley, a senator from the stae of oregon, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: robert c. byr@, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks th senate will be in a period of morning business f an hour with senators permitted to speak up to 10 minutes each. the majority will control the first 30 minutes. the republicans will control the second 30 minutes. following morning business the senate will resume consideration of the travel promotion act. the senate will recess from 12:30 unpil 2:15 to allow for the weekly caucus luncheons. we hope to reach an agreement to yield back some of the time on the travel promotion legislation prior to 4:30. senators will be notified when the vote is scheduled. the senate will proceed to the cloture vote on the executive nomination of cass sustein. this week we will go to the transportation appropriation bill, so we continue to work through the important appropriation proc

[applause] senator merkley of oregon. [applause] senator enzi of wyoming.plause] senator altmire of pennsylvania. [applause] senator gillibrand of new york. [applause] senator reed of rhode island. [applause] we havnever had this many senators center over to the side, this side of the house. actually we aren their side. [lghter] and the other members? we said senator graham. [applause] charlie dent of pennsylvania. [applause] congressman murphy of pennsylvania. i think we have them all. little did i know when we went down this path of very honored we were but i think you should take that as a sign of the enormous gratitude that we have, and that is what words are to thank you but i hope by the presence of so many members in this space will go from here to -- we will also honor you but first it h been said by all the speakers for you to see for as long as this cassilly says that anyone who visits here will see the name of your loved one and honor his or her memory. now we would like to unveil-- [applause] [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conve

jeff merkley, it really been because of hurricanes and somewhat better prepared for emergencies done other countries because every year we have hurricanes, and usually the hurricanes have some impact on the population themself by country preparedness response activities and their systems were actually attending to these events. the current hurricane bill is being tracked by my office and it seems that it is being downgraded. however, we will get some rate. but last september we had a freight train of five hurricanes in four weeks, which more or less followed the same path. and did quite a lot of damage to several countries the worst of course being haiti, jamaica, but also the cayman islands and others. and it is this sort of experience of having frequt events that we actually capsulized on disaster preparedness for the pandemic that is played out in terms of the response. since 2005, we hav actually been encouraging all countries in the americas to bring their national and pandemic plan. initiatives with our avian influenza and it was a strong element of agricultural health and so o