s functions to the f.e.c. some of the best ones simply go away. so let's say that h.r. 672 will save the money, will save the federal government $6.6 million a year. that's great. unless you happen to live in a state. this is just another example of shifting the cost to the states. well, we lose the efficiencies of having a central clearing house for information, so maybe this isn't just cost shifting, but cost increasing. because no matter what we do, our states have to run elections every year, often twice a year. the e.a.c. doesn't run elections , that's not its job. it assists the state and local election officials so they can run elections better and for less. and local election officials have written in from across the country in praise of the e.a.c. and opposition to this bill. h.r. 672 would eliminate the one federal agency that's focused on finding best practices for elections. that will make it that much harder for the supervisor of elections in palm beach county, florida, to learn that the registrar of voters in fresno county, californi

it was of the separate was it was making news news how do we get back to that now while we think the f.e.c. had. opportunities to do that and again as i said the business has gone public interest obligations loop is what we really see as problematic the f.c.c. has right now a localism proceeding that has considered ways to encourage patients to serve their local communities better and this report actually suggest terminating that proceeding and not concluding that we think that's outrageous the record is there you know obviously it is a little bit out of date now perhaps but it could be refreshed this is a regime that was started by a republican chairman of the f.c.c. michael powell hundred george bush and this report it's kind of is suggesting that that report not be concluded but the creating just basically be shuttered and at the f.c.c. not proceed to adopt any sort of recommendations of in regard to how to make stations more responsive to their local communities to what extent is that the. problem is probably the wrong word the lack of better one is that the problem versus the telecomm

to me about this is that we see steven called here on capitol hill before now we see him here at the f.e.c. amien he's a comedian right it's all part of entertainment but then suddenly you can see how far it actually goes to where he's essentially done something that's a groundbreaking or now the federal election commission has granted him his own super pac and a lot of people are you know worried about that his own super pac and basically free commercials during his show i mean i think that this is a little over the line and i think that it's crazy that it started out i'm assuming as him making a joke about how you can just buy our entire electro process these days and now he's actually doing it and i find that kind of ok people spend more on potato chips than they do on campaigns in america ok it's not it's not a diet american idea how to regenerate yeah i did what about corporation you know what i what i'm saying is that you know if the premium is that low in comparison to you know other things that we consume really not that big why do we have getting bigger and nobody does it the conc

suggesting that that report not be concluded but the proceeding just they basically shuddered and at the f.e.c. not proceed to adopt any sort of recommendations in regard to how to make stations more responsive to their local communities to what extent is that the. problem is probably the wrong word but a lack of better one is that the problem versus the telecommunications act of ninety six versus reagan's decision in one thousand nine hundred two to stop and force in the sherman act which led to the war mergers and acquisition mania which spilled over into the media right i mean they're all related the problem with the antitrust lack of enforcement for the last several decades is that we do have the f.c.c. also approving mergers there are two bodies of radio mergers like the merger that are before the commission now like the f.t. it's like the comcast n.b.c. merger that was approved earlier this year yes he has a separate mandate not only to ensure that there is competition in local media markets but that the local media is serving the public interest and it's been that twin failure to enforc

we can ee f.e.c. 2008 significant -- effectuate significant reforms that will send the right signal not only to our constituents but also to the markets that will have a lot to say about what kind of interest rates we have in the future, for example, and whether or not they believe in the recovery that we would like to achieve. mr. president, i hope that my colleagues will be very open to the consideration of the balanced budget amendment when we bring that up. i wish the president and the leader, leaders of the house and the senate, all the best in their discussions now on how to deal with this problem. the president will have to make a decision is raising taxes more important than trying to get our budget back in balance through reduced spending, and i think that we will find there is a great deal of support on both the democratic and republican sides with the latter and that there won't be with the former. but by getting together and achieving those -- those goals here within the next four weeks or so, we can both meet the deadline of august 7 that he has set for debt ceiling increas

the f.e.c. she served there since 2008. prior to that, worked as a staff member in the senate for senator schumer and on the judiciary committee and the rules committee, and prior to that, worked as a lawyer in private practice. the f.e.c. is an interesting government agency, has the authority for making sure our federal election system is working properly. many critics, including on the commission, recognize the f.e.c. itself is not functioning so properly right now. i'm sure we'll be hearing about that. of course, the f.e.c. has also received some unusual attention from an unexpected source in the last several weeks, as comedian stephen colbert has decided to file nonfrivolous petitions with the f.e.c. on some strange and perhaps troubling issues. i'm sure we'll have a chance to talk about that as well. so with that, let me hand the floor over to you and eager to hear what you have to say. >> thank you. i want to congratulate public citizen on 40 years of hard and good work on behalf of the pu