carper: mr. president? mr. president, i'd like to begin my remarks this afternoon, really, to congratulate several our colleagues who've worked long and hard on this legislation and their staffs who've worked equally long and hard. senator schumer and senator alexander -- i see senator collins is on the floor -- senator lieberman, our leaders, democrat and republican leaders, senator pried and senator mcconnell. anyone watching this debate from across america on c-span might be wondering why is this important? why are we spending several days in the united states senate to focus on a mom nations bill? why? for those folks who might be wondering why, let me just offer these thoughts. this administration has been in office for roughly two and a half years now. if you look throughout the federal government, the executive branch of the government, most of the positions that require presidential nomination and senate confirmation have now been filled. but a number, including a number that are in highly important, hi

. >> chairman carper, ranking member brown, we appreciate the opportunity to be here today. for more than 35 years, adc has been the leading non-governmental organization involved with the brac process. we represent over 250 communities that have dealt with or are dealing with the impacts of brac. who are involved with the past round in her current involvement in the proper disposal process we bring a vast experience with working with local state governments, the federal, and the private sector on the impacts of federal property transfer. as the subcommittee considers legislation to dispose of excess federal property, we hope the lessons learned in the brac process and in particular the affect on the role of communities and states should be given consideration. committee and state have been a central part since its inception in the early 1980s. in fact, when the major reasons we ended up with brac was to mitigate the concerned regarding the transparency of the overall process. while decisions related to brac and impact of committees and states have been challenging, the broc

we're going to turn to the subcommittee chairman now, senator carper? >> i want to get back to -- i thought this hearing was focusing on and that is what have we learned. before i do that, i want to encourage all of you and the roles that you're playing on the commission whether it is as a commissioner or the chairman of the commission, one of the best leadership rules i ever learned in the navy and then a lot of other place places including my own home was the follow the golden rule. treat other people the way we want to be treated. i would just like to remind you that's how i try live my life. sometimes i fail miserably. treat other people the way you want to be treated. some of us will be meeting in a couple of hours. he always reminded us the golden rule is the cliff notes of the new testament. as it turns out it is the cliff notes of about any major re-religions. having said that, let's talk about lessons that we have learned. the tragedy at fukushima. mr. ostendorff give us one example of the lesson we have learned that we have or have not begun t

foscarinis. >> thank you very much, et chairman carper, ranking member brown. i appreciate the opportunity to testify today. i and the executive director of the national law center on homelessness and poverty. our mission is to serve at as the leaders of the nationwide effort to end homelessness in america. the numbers have increased as a result of the recession and foreclosure crisis. in fact, the u.s. conference of mayors estimated a 9% increase in family homelessness in 2010 alone over 70% of the officials surveyed for the report expected family and child homelessness to increase further during the coming year. the united states government has committed itself to ending homelessness. just a year ago, the u.s. interagency council on homelessness released "opening doors, the federal strategic plans the two end homelessness." the central belief is that no one should experience homelessness, no one should be without a safe, stable place to call all bahome. recently, our government stated that homelessness implicates our human rights commitment and renewed a pled

senator carper's comments are important. nobody would take a prison until i said we had only one, and then we had a line of people. we are going to need repositories. we need to recycle used nuclear fuel, and that means there will be less of it, and then we need to find either get the mountain or other ones. we should not continue collecting billions of dollars from ratepayers and not using it for its intended purpose. i hope we learn from this hearing more about spent fuel storage. we have heard from the secretary, our energy secretary, who is a physicist, and we have heard that spent fuel can be stored safely on site for up to 100 years. it is important for americans to know that and to hear that. to know about such things. but we need to bring to a close this discussion about whether spent fuel long-term repository is are the right way to deal with the fuel that we have, and we need to take advantage of the distinguished panel the president has appointed. we need to explore how we can improve safety capabilities, for exam

i don't question the intentions or motives of senator tester or carper and i never will but i can i tell you the effect of this amendment is going to be given to those big tanks of those creditit card companies a windfall of profits they do not deserve. if the interchange fee is zero in canada plays at of 44 cents stand here? can we stand up representing the people of this country and sayve it is fundamentally unfair? if we can stand up and do that why are we here? i hope we are here to standconoc stand up for economic fairness and for consumers and small businessesum across america making us to defeat this amendment and i yield the floor. >> staff writer and "congressional quarterly," how did the senate vote on a proposed delay of new amendments on debit card user fees? >> yes the senate today rejected an amendment sponsored by john tester, democrat of montana and of corker a tennessee republican 54-45 and they needed 60 votes for it to be adopted. >> can you explain what are the fees? >> sure. so every time a customer buys something at a shop with a debit card, a fraction of that goes

a little that is fair to consumers and small businesses and banks too.ker's let me go to senator carperenator cardin said the problem with his amendment of possiblearges a charges and costs to count the value of the dough and the peace and not all the other things they might add in. can you can charge a fee reasonable the and proportionate to the cost of the transaction reasonable and proportionate. it's n decide to open the door wide open. it's no longer reasonable and p proportionalag they have fullifferent pages here describing all the to different things the banks can add in to establish a fee they charge small businesses and to consumers.efuln arthu trusting these banks to be careful in what they add? ok at i'm not. and i can tell you that when youthey can look at the list of things thatludes they can include it includes executive compensation because it's about the cost of thehe operation of the program that happens to include a lot of managers and officers as well. and i don't know what else itpen. includes. it is wide open. so here is what the banks have somewhat said.fying inci

cochran number 512 as modified with the changes at the desk, carper 517 and paul 503, a manager's amendment at the desk be agreed to. that at 11:00 a.m. on wednesday, june 29, the senate proceed to vote in relation to the remaining amendments to s. 679 in the following order -- demint 501, portman-udall, udall of new mexico, cornyn, that's three senators as modified with the changes that are at the desk. demint number 511, toomey number 514. further, the cornyn amendment number 04, mccain and the paul amendment 502 be withdrawn, that no amendments be in order to any of the amendments prior to the votes. upon disposition of the amendments, the bill be read a third time and the senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill as amended. that there be no motions or points of order in order. the bill or any of the amendments other than the budget points of order and applicable motion toss waive. finally, that all other provisions of the previous orders with respect to s. 679 remain in effect. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: mr. president, reserving my right -- the presiding

today also filed an amendment with senator carper, the senior senator from delaware, makes it clear that as we close the door on corn-based ethanol we need to do two oir things going forward. first use those billions of dollars in savings to reduce the deficit. and, second, redirect funds formerly committed to vtec to support an important but just-beginning, a nation-advanced biofuels industry. ultimately, the policies we pursue should lead to american consumers, producers and farmers using less petroleum and more importantly using less oil from overseas sources. if we are going to reduce or dependence on fossil fuels and especially on those that we import from overseas, we're going to need to continue to pursue a range of cleaner and more secure sources of energy. advanced biofuels are central to this effort. now that we have taken the important first step by adopting the feinstein-coburn amendment and significant nailing the intent of this body to end federal subsidies for corn-based ethanol, i hope that we will also responsibly pay down our federal deficit and continue a strong path f

carper: mr. president, good to be with you again. spent most of the morning with you and now part of afternoon. this is -- this is -- this is -- this is really a difficult issue for a number of us in the senate because we have friends on both sides of this issue. and it's also a difficult issue for a lot of people because we don't want to be unmindful of the concerns raised legitimately by merchants for a number of years about debit charges that they have had to pay and we don't want to be unmindful of the concerns of banks, be they big or licialtion or by credit unions. one of my colleagues said, i don't want to vote on this. one guy said, i certainly don't want to have to vote on it twice. another colleague said to me, i don't like the idea of just kick the can down the road, having a 24-month pause and maybe the new congress, the new administration, maybe it'll all go away. that's not interested in what i'm doing. one of my colleagues said, why don't we fix this problem rather than kick the can down the road for 24 months? as it t

as the functional carper rep for contacting, mr. denver oversees the recruitment and training of the army's contacting work force. he was previously director of contracting for the u.s. army corps of engineers. j alexander their has been the assistant to the administrator and director of the office of afghanistan and pakistan affairs for the u.s. agency for international development since june 2010. prior to joining usaid, he was director of afghanistan and pakistan at the u.s. institute of peace. once again, is his custom of the committee, if you would stand so i can administer the oath. do you swear that the testimony you will get before the subcommittee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? thank you all for being here. we begin with mr. solis. >> good morning. madame chair, ranking member portman, appreciate the opportunity to be here to discuss dod contract oversight and afghanistan and the vetting of non-u.s. vendors. collectively,dod and state have offered billions of dollars for contr

cases such as mohammed, the 27-year-old xu moly american from indianapolis who's been invited natural carper fighting somalia as part of al-shabaab. according to family members and court records, he was a gang member convicted for a number of crimes including assault with a deadly weapon, upon being released from prison when he was radicalized he began attending the islamic in minneapolis and was on his way to fight in somalia. the obama administration recognizes the prison radicalization as a serious threat. and the prisons are a fertile ground for recruitment. the department of homeland security announced the 63 janet napolitano and other state and local partners are, quote, collaborating to develop a mitigation strategy for terrorist use of prisons for radicalization and recruitment. the reality of the radicalization threat emanating from the presence was demonstrated again last month when michael was radicalized in the illinois state prison, pleaded guilty in illinois for attention use of a weapon of mass destruction. sent to is planning to assess the colleague and destroy the federal co

>> senator carper, at gao generally at the request of you and other members of the senate and house of representatives we evaluate various programs. but i could say i'm a public policy perspective, you are sort of philosophical question as it were, is i think and person speaking, not necessarily representing gao in that sense, but i think almost everybody, whether they're from and after citigroup or never of congress, wants to do the right thing. people approach it from different perspectives. i'm pretty confident that as we work through these issues and are being able to gather different perspectives from both folks like in the first panel and from this panel that it will give the congress a perspective to move forward and be able to account for the differences and come up with i think an appropriate piece of legislation that will accomplish the kind of things you are trying to accomplish year. >> mr. lepore? >> i think the brac statute may offer the model for you. as you know, the property disposal provision of the 1990 brac statute are pretty detailed. what it says essentially is th

and i mentioned, senator crapo, senator brown, senator carper, a number of people have gotten involved in this and come up wp a one-vote strategy. i know numbers of people want to vote and get this behind thevment i understand that this is one of those issues where we got retailers on one side, you got bankers on the other side and you feel like in some way you're trying to deal, you know, you're trying to pick between friends. what i think we're trying to do just put a good, sound policy in place, a place that the retailers should be very happy because they're going to end up with a regulated market, something candidly that i don't support. but i think the senator from illinois has been very successful in that front and basically the retailertailers wn this because they're going to end up with something that's regulated. they don't feel like they have the ability to negotiate with visa and other companies. on the other hand, those senators, most senators in this body that understand economics, understand business, also know that you cannot run a business you're only going to charge th

senators that i know -- senator mccaskill, for one, who is here today, who is developing a bill; senator carper, who has spent years on this subject and is quite the expert -- they would all come before the homeland security committee, which i have the privilege of serving on, and in a short amount of time -- just a few weeks -- figure out something that the majority could support. this isn't about fixing the problem. this is about bumper stickers for elections, and i am very tired of it. and i'm not the only one. as chair of the small business committee, i can promise you that our committee, which senator snowe is the ranking member, has worked every day very hard through this recession to put forward bills on this floor that could help create jobs, bring relief. in fact, one of the most burdensome regulations that the business community was just screaming about, our committee was very aggressive in helping to eliminate, and that was section 1099 which would have required every business to report to the i.r.s. any purchase that they made for goods 0 over 600. it would have brought many busines

my role as ranking member of the federal financial manager along with tom carper of delaware, we held a field hearing in boston on june 20 to identify a lot of these long-standing problems and identify the problems with the asset forfeiture fund itself. unfortunately, the hearing revealed that while noaa has instituted some reforms to its management of the fund, including auditing the fund for the first time in nearly four decades, it still intends to utilize the seized assets of fishermen to pay for foreign travel, which i feel is completely inappropriate. the years of noaa's mismanagement and abuse of the asset forfeiture fund have bred mistrust among the fishermen and federal officials and can only be broken by removing the fund for noaa. it is for these reasons i'm introducing the asit forfeiture act of 2011 which will hopefully end a sad chapter of financial mismanagement by this agency and replacing the existing funds with a new fisheries investment fund and the funds will be kept at the treasury department for the benefit of regional counsels in noaa. the fund will be audited f

carper: mr. president, good to be with you again. spent most of the morning with you and now part of afternoon. this is -- this is -- this is -- this is really a difficult issue for a number of us in the senate because we have friends on both sides of this issue. and it's also a difficult issue for a lot of people because we don't want to be unmindful of the concerns raised legitimately by merchants for a number of years about debit charges that they have had to pay and we don't want to be unmindful of the concerns of banks, be they big or licialtion or by credit unions. one of my colleagues said, i don't want to vote on this. one guy said, i certainly don't want to have to vote on it twice. another colleague said to me, i don't like the idea of just kick the can down the road, having a 24-month pause and maybe the new congress, the new administration, maybe it'll all go away. that's not interested in what i'm doing. one of my colleagues said, why don't we fix this problem rather than kick the can down the road for 24 months? as it t

carper maintenance -- they employ third-party nationals living on the compound. there are none of the problems that you have outlined. we are administering the contract and seen the same as holding the master contract. >> i hope so. these things have gone on. inve made a recommendation order to foster and look at the contingency process. this is nothing for us to respond to it. i am a little troubled, because we are looking at how the interagency process works. does the no comment mean you do not care for the system works fine? what does it mean? >> the national security staff does not consider itself an operational agency. it will not engage in this kind of oversight activity. there have been other discussions of activities related to the details. they do not feel it is within their statutory mandate. neither of the agency's field but it is within their mandate to charter an executive office agency to engage in these matters. we have to defer to others on that. >> thanks. >> thanks for being here. it seems there were a few issues left hanging by various exchange

and we're going to include the fast act introduced by senator coburn and senator carper and others to root out the waste and fraud in medicare. we know that each part of our proposal will make some group of people unhappy and will provide easy target for attack by those who understandably want to preserve the status quo. but the status quo only leads to the collapse of medicare and fiscal disaster for our country. we're way past the point when we can save medicare and cut the debt while keeping all the interest groups satisfied and all of our constituents happy. if there ever was a time in american history for elected officials to stop thinking about the next election and start thinking about the next generation, it is now. i'm really pleased to have worked with tom coburn on this. he's got a longtime record of thinking about the next generation and not the next election. he's built up tremendous expertise in the area of government financing. if you ask how did we come together, after i voted against the ryan plan when it came for a vote in the senate, i said to myself, okay, i've don