mr. cole, who had had a number of opposition statements in the committee and was not looking at smooth sailing, i do believe that we should oppose his confirmation and his permanent appointment. based on some concerns i have with his record, specifically his criminal justice view on the war on terror, which i believe is utterly wrong and his questionable decisions as an outside consultant for a.i.g., the big insurance company that had to be bailed out to the tune of, i think, $170 billion in its last bailout matter. he was an independent consultant, supposed to be monitoring that company for other errors they had made previously, and so that -- that is a concern to me. i served 15 years in the department of justice as a united states attorney for almost 12 and as an assistant united states attorney, i respect the department, i love the department of justice, but i'm getting concerned about it and i'm not happy with some of the decisions and philosophy that are emanating from the department. i

mr. cole has some good qualities. i supported mr. holder for attorney general. but i'm very uneasy about the direction the department is taking on a large number of issues, and i believe one of the reasons this is happening is because they've surrounded themselves with a group of leftist lawyers, activist lawyers who don't operate according to the more traditional views of law and justice in america. that's my view. other senators may disagree. that's my view. and i would just say that i'm not able to support mr. cole for that and the reasons i've stated and i hope in the future that the administration will appoint more nominees that have proven records of independence, effective prosecution and commitment to law. i thank the chair and would yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. a senator: mr. president, i greatly respect my friend from alabama, senator sessions, and i simply have come to a different conclusion with regard to jim cole. i w

mr. cole: mr. chairman, if the information isn't necessary for the bid or the evaluation of the bid then it's not necessary for the executive branch to have it and for us to run the risk that it might be misused. so with that i would urge the adoption of the amendment and i'd yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from oklahoma. those in favor of the amendment say aye. those opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. mr. cummings: i ask for a roll call vote on that. the chair: pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from oklahoma will be postponed. mr. cummings: thank you very much. the chair: it is now in order to consider amendment number 28 printed in house report 112-88. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? mr. garamendi: i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the

amendment number 27 by mr. cole of oklahoma. amendment number 28 by mr. garamendi of california. amendment number 26 by mrs. maloney of new york. amendment number 30 by mr. heinz of connecticut. amendment number 31 by ms. jackson lee of texas. amendment number 32 by mr. andrews of new jersey. amendment number 37 by mr. richmond of louisiana. the chair will reduce to two minutes the minimum time for any electronic vote after the first vote in the series. the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number 2 fingerprint -- by the gentlelady from california, ms. woolsey, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 2 precipitationed in house report 112-88 offered by ms. woolsey of california. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a 15

speaker, h.r. 1423 introduced by the gentleman from oklahoma, mr. cole, would designate the facility of the united states pose office located 115 fourth avenue in ardmore, oklahoma, the specialist michael e. phillips post office. this bill is co-sponsored by the entire oklahoma state delegation and was favorably reported without amendment by the committee on oversight and government reform on april 13. mr. speaker, it's altogether fitting and proper that we name this post office in ardmore for army specialist phillips to honor a true american hero in his service to our country. at this moment on our -- in our war on terrorism, with the recent death of saddam hussein, this is a moment to remember -- osama bin laden, this is a moment to remember those who have been fighting the war on terror for years. michael e. phillips graduated from ardmore high school in 2006. at ardmore high, specialist phillips ac selled in both academics and athletics, playing football, track and cross country. he loved history as well as drawing and was so talented he was offered

kerry, the senator from wisconsin, mr. cole, the senator from connecticut, mr. ms. feinstein, the senator from california, ms. boxer, the senator from arizona, mr. kyl, the senator from south dakota, mr. thune, the senator from texas, mr. cornyn, the senator from indiana, mr. luger, and the senator from utah, mr. hatch. the speaker: the members of the escort committee will exit through the chamber doors, please. >> mr. speaker, the acting dean of the diplomatic corps. >> mr. speaker, the president's cabinet. >> mr. speaker, the prime minister of israel. the speaker: members of congress, i have the high privilege and the distinct honor of presenting to you his excellency, binyamin netanyahu, prime minister of israel. >> thank you. thank you very much. thank you. vice president biden, speaker boehner, distinguished senators, members of the house, honored guests i'm deeply moved by this warm welcome. an i'm deeply honored that you have given me the opportunity to address congress a second time. mr. vice president, do you remember the time that we were the new kids

mr. cole consistently, and some of these nominees to the department, take the view that terrorists are criminals and not unlawful combatants. let me just say briefly if you catch a person, a murderer, a rapistra or any kind of criminar virtually of any kind, when they are taken into custody as the presiding officer noted as a good prosecutor himself, they have to g be, before you can interview them, once they are ie custody you have to give them around the warnings and that authorizes and tells them, basically tells them you don't have to make any statements at y all. you are entitled to a lawyer and if you don't have any lawyer or. they will point you in our. you have to a go before thecoveo magistrate within a number ofou hours. you are entitled to ace eddie trial. .. inquirying in world war ii where german saboteurs were dropped off on our coast from a submarine and they were going to sabotage the united states of america. they were apprehended, taken to military tribunal, tried and execute

>> my guess would be no, mr. cole, i don't think was in the -- i think, i don't think he was in the department at the time that operation started. >> but he's been aware of it much longer. >> he's been aware of it much longer? >> than you have since you've only been aware for a few weeks? >> i'm not sure. >> did he authorize it? >> i'm not sure whether mr. brewer authorized it. you have to understand, the way in which the department operates. although there are operations, this one has gotten a great deal of publicity. >> the there are dead americans as a result of thi hasn't gotten enough attention, has it, mr. attorney general? >> it's not necessarily -- there's an investigation that is under way. >> i'm aware of that investigation. let me follow up with a couple of questions. >> we'll have to look at that to see exactly what happened with regard to -- >> mr. attorney general -- >> i take very seriously the allegation -- >> mr. attorney general, do you take seriously a subpoena signed by the clerk of the house? >> o

last night, we defeated a cloture petition for mr. cole, the president's nominee for deputy attorney general, and today we turn to judge chen. of course, there are noncontroversial nominees that the senate could turn to. we could confirm additional district judges that we have -- as we have been doing, but rather than continuing to move forward with the consensus nominees, the other side has chosen to turn to the president's most controversial nominees. i must say this makes it extremely difficult to continue to work in good-faith effort to move forward on noncontroversial nominees. from our perspective, it appears that the more we try to work with the majority, the more that we're accused of not moving fast enough. and the -- the pudding -- the test i guess is in the pudding in the general counsel for the white house telling the american bar association lawyers to get on the senate to get more nominees confirmed. so the more we try to move consensus nominees, the more the other side insists on moving the president's most objectionable nom

>> my guess would be no, mr. cole, i don't think was in the -- i think, i don't think he was in the department at the time that operation started. >> but he's been aware of it much longer. >> he's been aware of it much longer? >> than you have since you've only been aware for a few weeks? >> i'm not sure. >> did he authorize it? i'm not sure whether mr. brewer authorized it. you have to understand, the way in which the department operates. although there are operations, this one has gotten a great deal of publicity. >> the there are dead americans as a result of thi hasn't gotten enough attention, has it, mr. attorney general? >> it's not necessarily -- there's an investigation that is under way. >> i'm aware of that investigation. let me follow up with a couple of questions. >> we'll have to look at that to see exactly what happened with regard to -- >> mr. attorney general -- >> i take very seriously the allegation -- >> mr. attorney general, do you take seriously a subpoena signed by the clerk of the house? >> of c

>> my guess would be no, mr. cole, i don't think was in the -- i think, i don't think he was in the department at the time that operation started. >> but he's been aware of it much longer. >> he's been aware of it much longer? >> than you have since you've only been aware for a few weeks? >> i'm not sure. >> did he authorize it? >> i'm not sure whether mr. brewer authorized it. you have to understand, the way in which the department operates. although there are operations, this one has gotten a great deal of publicity. >> the there are dead americans as a result of thi hasn't gotten enough attention, has it, mr. attorney general? >> it's not necessarily -- there's an investigation that is under way. >> i'm aware of that investigation. let me follow up with a couple of questions. >> we'll have to look at that to see exactly what happened with regard to -- >> mr. attorney general -- >> i take very seriously the allegation -- >> mr. attorney general, do you take seriously a subpoena signed by the clerk of the house? >> o

mr. polis of colorado. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 276, the gentleman from cole, mr. polis, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. mr. polis: given our looming fiscal crisis we look at spending cuts in a responsible way that does president hurt our national security. in fact, the budget deficit are a threat to national security by making us beholden to foreign powers. i propose an amendment that would get most of the 80,000 troops out of europe where they are no longer needed and save over $1 billion we would reduce the amount of troops to 30,000 troops from 80,000 which would not affect the troops being used in our wars in the middle east estimated to be 12,000 to 18,000 and fulfill our obligations. my amendment would allow the department of defense to save money by closing bases across europe that are no longer needed and have no strategic rationale. by pulling our troops out and closing these bases we could save money. my amendment would cut the 50,000 troops from our force in europe, would save over $1.3 billion over 10 years and reduce our troop lev

mr. meena. >> chairman cole, ranking member lee, members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. i'd like to set the tone for my remarks with a brief video. [inaudible] >> that commercial illustrates the situation we have today. a vibrant national market in which four companies feel free to self-consumers high-tech services while making fun of their competitors. however if the merger of at&t and t-mobile comes to pass, the wireless market will be transformed to something quite different. we will go back to the days when this phone was in use. only two companies ruled the cellular phone market resulting in high prices for consumers and little innovation. in 1993, a year after this phone came to market, congress created the wireless market we now enjoy by empowering the f.c.c. to auction spectrum and create more competition. that policy worked. prices dropped. innovation exploded. consumers benefited. over the years industry consolidation has gradually eroded that competition. but if this deal goes through, that era of competition and innovation will come to an e

the clerk: nomination, department of justice, james michael cole of the district of columbia to be deputy attorney general. mr. reid: mr. president, i have a cloture motion at the desk and i ask that it be reported. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of james michael cole of the district of columbia to be deputy attorney general, signed by 17 senators as follows: reid of nevada, leahy, cole, feinstein, franken, coons, blumenthal, klobuchar, whitehouse, brown of ohio, udall of colorado, durbin, carper, sanders, rockefeller, shaheen, schumer. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask consent that the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the senate resume legislative session and then proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid

mr. cole, who had had a number of opposition statements in the committee and was not looking at smooth sailing, i do believe that we should oppose his confirmation and his permanent appointment. based on some concerns i have with his record, specifically his criminal justice view on the war on terror, which i believe is utterly wrong and his questionable decisions as an outside consultant for a.i.g., the big insurance company that had to be bailed out to the tune of, i think, $170 billion in its last bailout matter. he was an independent consultant, supposed to be monitoring that company for other errors they had made previously, and so that -- that is a concern to me. i served 15 years in the department of justice as a united states attorney for almost 12 and as an assistant united states attorney, i respect the department, i love the department of justice, but i'm getting concerned about it and i'm not happy with some of the decisions and philosophy that are emanating from the department. i