thank you, madam president. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority floor leader. mr. reid: mr. president, at 2:00 we're going to start the votes on our massive number of amendments. the first one will be on outer continental shelf. it's my understanding that there -- that i have the right to call -- start the voting at 2:00. is that right? the presiding officer: the senator is correct. mr. reid: everyone should know -- staffs, alert your senators -- the first vote will be 20 minutes. and with consent, i ask all subsequent votes be -- the first vote will be 15 minutes with a five-minute time for people to get here. after that, we'll have 10 minutes. i ask unanimous consent that all subsequent votes be 10 minutes. first one be 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection, all subsequent votes will be 10 minutes. mr. reid: madam president, we are going to enforce that. if people are not here, we have 30 votes to get through today. it's going to be a lot of work on the clerks to do this, but our senators should

thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, great communities are made up of wonderful people. and atlanta is a great community. and monica cufeman has been an integral champion in making atlanta a great community. for nearly 40 years she's been an anchor on wsbtv in atlanta and now she's retiring. from her warm smile to her anxiously anticipated hair style, to her passion and her warmth for our beloved metro atlanta, we all love monica coffman. what a great champion of goodwill, southern charm and spirit she has been. mr. price: and for all the wonderful work she's given to our region, and our state and our nation, monica, we love you and we wish you god speed in your future activities and your future happiness. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from california rise? does the gentlelady seek unanimous consent? the gentlelady is recognized. ms. chu: a year aggie in afghanistan, harry lu was the victim of hazing. he was punched and kicked by his peers as they poured the co

rivera. >> thank you, madam chair. >> thank you, madam secretary. >> thank you, madam chair and madam secretary. i have a couple of written questions i want to submit for your consideration. madam secretary, this may be one of the last times together, so i want to publicly thank you for re-establishing america's influence abroad, especially toward the asia pacific region. as you aptly stated, and i quote, the future of politics will be decided in asia, not in afghanistan or iraq. and the united states will be right at the center of the action. thanks to your efforts, madam secretary, i believe the united states will be front and center, so i thank you for bucking tradition for your first trip overseas. on your first trip overseas you visited asia to convey a strong message that america's relationship across the asia pacific region are in dispensable, and in your many trips since then, cambodia, myanmar, south korea, japan and beyond you have been about the business of making and keeping economic and strategic commitments that will pay dividends many times over. i applaud you for recog

matheson: thank you, madam chair. i rise in strong support of this amendment as i do the underlying bill. the amendment before us will provide much-needed liability protections to medical professionals to ensure they will do what they're trained to do which is save lives. as mr. stearns indicated, in the aftermath of hurricane katrina, it became clear that a uniformity of good samaritan laws is needed in this country. in several instances qualified and certified physicians and other medical professionals from across the country were turned away from providing much-needed care to victims from this disaster. even when it was plainly apparent that the medical resources in the communities that were affected by the disaster were far beyond the capacity to give emergency care. volunteers shouldn't fear unnecessary lawsuits and above all else should not be turned away due to uncertainty about liability protections. i want to thank my friend and colleague, mr. stearns, for his work and partnership on this amendment, this comm

welcome madam secretary. i do want to get your comments a bit about the stir that was caused by the apology over the koran. and the administration has received a lot of crediticism i about this and you have expressed that it does not help your job any to stir up the resentment. but i think it's interesting from a national level. i remember what happened when mcnammara wrote mihis memories,e said what is wrong with the apology? if the policies are wrong, you have to learn something from it and change the policy. a lot of emotions come out on this issue of apology. i keep thinking that you know, those who did the criticizing, i got think they criticized the last administration for using the koran as a target. so apologies are not always all equal. even that said, there were torture photos before and that was aggravating and there was urinating on bodies, we did not particularly apologize for those, did we? some of these things are emotional, but what about the whole idea of invading a country and occupying a co

barry is recognized. >> thank you, madam chairman, madam secretary. let me ask a question about egypt. in 1979 as a young person, i entered the sinai desert in a place where there was fighting between israel and egypt in 1973, and a twisted pile of rubble and concrete were scrawled the words, here is the war, here is the peace. i was there in a jubilant time where there was a celebratory atmosphere between the new relationship between the united states and egypt. they had broken that treaty and the courage of sadat and began to extend their hands in friendship. that left us with peace between the two countries. now that a change has occurred and a great deal of uncertainty and an unclear commitment to that path of peace, given the deal that we put together and the amount of aid that we've given both to israel but to egypt as well, and now with the affrontery of the egyptian authorities holding, arresting americans who are simply there to help egyptians, what is the administration's position of temporarily suspending the aid package? >> well, congressm

blumenauer: thank you, madam speaker. recently there have been a series of very powerful articles in the popular press about what we call, end of life. the most recent was by dr. ken murray in the "wall street journal" last week entitled, "why doctors die differently." these series of articles focus in on this end of life period. usually the most intense, the most painful, the most expensive, it's too often confusing for patients and their families. too often we find people don't get the care they want and they need. this has been a passion of mine for years now to make sure that families and patients are equipped to deal with the end of life. it was my legislation that was in the health care reform that was unfortunately not in the final legislation because the reconciliation process wouldn't allow the senate to consider it in the house bill. we are working on it again with legislation entitled, personalize your health care, h.r. 1589. to make sure that these provisions that are strongly supported by the public finally b

thank you, madam secretary. i look forward to hearing your testimony. >> i thank the ranking member. it is the chair's intention to continue the hearing during votes. and now it is an honor to welcome the secretary to our committee today, the honorable hillary rodham clinton has served as the 67th secretary of state for the united states since january 21, 2009, the latest chapter in her four-decade career of public service. she has served previously as a united states senator from the state of new york, as first lady of the united states, and of the state of arkansas, as an attorney and a law professor. madam secretary, without objection, your full written statement will be made part of the record if you would be so kind as to summarize your written remarks, we can then move quickly to the question and answer discussion under the five-minute rule and the hope to getting to all of our members before you have to depart. madam secretary, welcome again, and the floor is yours. >> thank you very much, madam chairman,

madam speaker, i do yield back the balance of my time. mr. burton: thank you, madam speaker. i ask unanimous consent to -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman will suspend. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentleman from indiana, mr. burton, is recognized for 48 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. burton: thank you, madam speaker. i appreciate it. i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. burton: madam speaker, yesterday a good friend of mine, senator john mccain, became the first u.s. senator to publicly call for u.s.-led air strikes to halt the violence in syria. respectfully, i disagree with the senator from arizona. our main goal in the middle east is to protect our interests and the interests of our major ally, israel. if we are to be dragged into a civil war in syria for humanitarian reasons, i would respectfully remind senator mccain and the president that they do not have the power to unilaterally start a war. the authority to initial wait war is vested -- ini

. >> thank you madam secretary. thank you. >> welcome madam secretary, always great to have you here. it's exceptional to me that sometimes you cannot win for winning and even with the unprecedented victories this you and the administration have had in the foreign policy area. some people continue to look at it i guess i would call it the goldy locks game, the food is always too hot or it's always too cold. i think you got it just right. i think you are more like the guy on the ed sullivan show who was up there with the 12 bowling pins i couldn't pi pins juggling them at the same time and nothing falls to the ground, it's more difficult because you are twirling somebody else's dirty dishes. nonetheless, you seem to have everything pretty much together. i don't want to jinx it with all the problem s in the world that we are facing at the same time. three areas, north korea, egypt and iran, hot spots. congratulations on egypt. the announcement we received that the flight restrictions on the americans has been lifted.

madam secretary. another florida colleague. >> thank you, madam chairman. madam secretary, thank you for being here. it is safe to say that certainly here on the hill and around the world you are extraordinarily respected for the job you to. i'd particularly like to thank you for your leadership in the critical areas of the middle east. in particular, your continued strong advocacy for foreign assistance. i'd like to talk first about syria. rather than continue the discussion you've had already on what happens -- how what's happening now in syria ultimately ends, i want to talk about what's happening right at this moment. and, in particular, just today it was reported that 23 people were killed when syrian troops ambushed a group trying to smuggle western journalists out of the country. i don't know whether the body of -- of marie colvin, the american who wrote for "the sunday times" of london, whether that body has been recovered. if you have information, i want welcome that. the same for the frenchman. the fact is even as we talk about the big picture in

royce, thank you, madam secretary. >> thank you, madam chair, madam secretary. glad to have you back. i want to say thank you for following up with co-chair chris smith, chairman smith is i with the bosnian caucus and the fact they have a new government in place, we hope that continued u.s. and international support can help move them forward. so thank you for that. i also wanted to commend you on the recently announced international partnership, the climate between air coalition to reduce short-term pollutants. it underscored the nature of the challenge as well as the advantages to working with our partners at the u.n. and around the world. i wanted to ask, has that investment paid off in terms of stronger commitments by developing countries? and can we count on them to continue and fulfill those commitments if we are not hon honoring our pledges? raising that, congressman, because wehae change and the consequences of climate change pose national security problems to us, and so we are looking for ways to try to move forward where we can and take practical steps

madam chair -- at this point may be just folklore. madam chair, i yield back -- excuse me. i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: for what purpose does the gentleman from vermont rise? mr. welch: i seek time in opposition although i am not opposed. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. welch: first off, it's very refreshing that we have legislation that focuses on improving the business climate that we are doing together, and we had some internal squabbles about whose name goes first. i don't think it amuses the american people. but the bottom line, it should encourage the american people, we have bipartisan legislationes that going to do positive things -- legislation that is going to do positive things for those in vermont and around the country. i want to thank mr. fincher, mr. himes, mr. carney, mr. schweikert for working so well together to bring this legislation to the floor. there are a number of good things here. we don't have to exaggerate this as the answer to the real challenge in creating jobs, but you know what, just selling this fo

thank you madam secretary. >> thank you, madam chair and madam secretary. it's great to have you back. we're following it up with cochair chairman smith and i and so those concerns that we had raised earlier, given the fact that we have the new government in place, we hope that continued u.s. and international support can help move them forward. first of all, thank you for that. i also wanted to meant you on their recent international program. it understands the global nature of the program as well as the advantage to working with our partners at the u.n. and around the world. has that investment paid off in terms of stronger commitment by developing countries? and can we count on them to continue and fulfill those commitments if we are no, sir staying with our ple? >> thank you for bringing that up. we continue to believe that climate change and the consequences of climate change pose national security problems to it. and so we are looking for ways to try to move forward where we can and take practical steps. the fact is that the short-term climate forcers

mica: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker and my colleagues, i think it might be time right now, madam speaker, that we call the capitol physician to come to the house floor. i think we should call the capitol physician because there appears to be on the other side a mass case of loss of memory. i think we need to clear up just a few facts in what has been said here. we had the gentlelady from california who happened to be the speaker of the house, as i recall the other side controlled the house by a huge margin, the senate by a significant margin, at one point most of the time i think it was 60 votes where you could do anything, they controlled the white house for those two years. they could have done anything they wanted to do. president obama in fact sent secretary lahood to mr. oberstar and myself, i was the ranking republican, he was the chair, and cut the knees right out from the democrats and said, he wasn't doing any long-term bill. he was doing an 18-month bill which really sent a death signal to transp

madam secretary, the palestinians simply refuse to engage seriously in peace talks. my sad conclusion is that palestinian leaders don't have the will or the desire to make the compromises necessary to achieve peace. they don't want to engage seriously because they know that in the end they won't be able to do the deal. that's what happened at camp david in 2000, at taba in 2001 and in the olmert talks in 2008. and now nearly two decades after oslo, i see they have the prospect they will have to relinquish the so-called right of return and recognize israel as a jewish state, two critical elements of any peace deal. i find that disturbing. meanwhile the israelis continue to say they'll negotiate any time any place. if palestinian leaders really want state hood, they'll have to show it both through their public commitments and by engaging in serious negotiations with israel. if they try to circumvent negotiations by taking their case to the united nations, they'll get no recognition from the united states and they won't get the time of day from the u.s. congress. the on

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. sessions: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. sessions: i thank our republican leader, senator mcconnell, for bringing some perspective to this situation. i've seen the circumstances in the senate and how the nominations process has changed over time. when i came here, there were no filibusters. maybe there had been one in which they delayed a nomination because of problems that ended up the nominee withdrawing because it had problems. but virtually none. it was the position of the senate we didn't filibuster nominations, and i still believe that. but i would point out that in 2001, the democrats met in conference and they had a plan to change the ground rules of confirmations. they are announced it to "the new york times" -- they announced it to "the new york times." cass sunstein and laurence tribe met and they came out and started filibustering systematically president bush's fabulous nominations that he'd sent up. he sent eight nominees early in his administration. two of t

and last week, madam secretary, we thank you. you issued your draft national plan pursuant to the national alzheimer's project act, which i'm the principle house author of, along with congressman smith. and i think it's great, you know. the one thing i wanted to talk about here today is that at nih, the $6 billion a year spent on cancer research, and $3 billion a year spent on aids research. but only $489 million on alzheimer's, even though 15 million baby boomers are going to have it. we have to find a the cure. so madam secretary, i congratulate you and the mission on announcing the addition of $80 million more in this coming year's budget on the -- on the research for alzheimer's. i think that that is absolutely a critical and i congratulate you on that. i j it has to be dramatically higher. and if there is one thing we should just single out and say this has to be spared, it's the nih budget. that just has to go up and up and up, because the national institutes of health are really the national institutes of hope. in alzheime

thank you, madam administrator. that's one out of three totally unrelated questions but one of them is -- i remember exactly. it was 14 years ago where majority and you might remember they came in and trying to regulate propane on the farm and all of this stuff. very similar, what is going on today, under the same program, the epa is trying to force the ag retailers to report. when they sell to their customers and they have to be a commitment that we're going to get to let them enjoy the exemption in the law right now in terms of the fertilizer sales. >> senator, i try to know everything about the epa's regulatory programs. you have managed to give me one that i'm not familiar with. >> that's a first. >> but i'm happy to look into the matter and answer your question. >> it just makes sense, though. there's a reason that we have in the law that they are exempt and i think that the mistake here is the way it's being applied is that they consider the ultimate consumer actually coming from a walmart or something like th

and senator boozman. >> thank you, madam chair. and again, very quickly, i just want to thank the secretary for being here. and the team that he's assembled for your hard work. senator brown mentioned that there's a lot of individuals in the va that are there because they want to be and could have other opportunities. and certainly you're in that category. and you know, you've led soldiers and now you're serving veterans. so we really do appreciate it very, very much. the other thing i would say is senator isakson mentioned, i do appreciate the fact that you're very willing to work in congress and very approachable, you and your staff. so that's something that is appreciated. so we appreciate all that you guys have done in the past and are looking forward to you doing a bunch in the future. and i yield back, madam chair. >> all right. thank you very much. with that i want to welcome again secretary shinseki. thank you for coming here today to give your perspective on the department's fiscal year 2013 budget and the fiscal year 2014

thank you madam secretary. >> thank you, madam chair and madam secretary. it's great to have you back. we're following it up with cochair chairman smith and i and so those concerns that we had raised earlier, given the fact that we have the new government in place,

madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. rockefeller: i thank the good senator from missouri for her courtesy. madam president, i rise today to express very, very strong support for the confirmation of gina maria groh to serve as united states district judge for the northern district of west virginia. gina groh is absolutely qualified for this position and deserving of every senator's support. she has more than 22 years of legal experience of which 14 have been devoted to serving the people of west virginia first as a prosecutor and now as a trial judge. in these roles, judge groh has kpebted exhibited seer -- serious intellect. lawyers describe her as meticulously prepared as a judge and describe her as somebody who administers justice in a timely and equitable manner. because of her superior equal ni ni -- qualifications she has been reported out of the judiciary committee committee and has been waiting patiently for five months for a up-or-down vote. judge groh wi

thank you, madam chairman. >> mr. dan. >> madam chairman. madam ambassador-b g. to be with you. just following up on representative cole's comments, i was one of the few folks on my side of the aisle to support the administration's retroactive action in libya on the house floor. i thought it was the correct thing to do. obviously, i had some questions about how we conducted the operation but i thought it was the right thing to do. but in that situation we had u.n. support obviously, nato support, arab league support. and that's important. but with respect to syria we don't have u.n. support quite clearly. and it seems to me that as long as the russians and chinese have a seat at the security council table they're going to veto anything that comes up on syria that's meaningful. i guess the real question is if we really want to -- if we really want to make an

thank you. >> thank you very much, madame secretary. thank you very much for being here with us today. i i will be brief to allow mr. connolly to jump in, as well, before you leave. you've been generous with your time. i am one of a large number of folks here who are skeptical about our current timetable for a withdrawal from afghanistan. i'm surprised we haven't talked more about afghanistan today. and part of that skepticism comes from the fact that i'd like to see us spending a lot more time on the diplomatic and economic cooperation necessary to get afghanistan to a place in which they can succeed on their own. and so i had a couple of questions related to that economic and diplomatic cooperation, but i'll ask one of them. and it's on the economic side. you know, there's various numbers that come out suggesting that 80% to 90% to perhaps even as high as 97% of the afghan economy is dependent right now on international aid. and i'd love to get an update from you as how you see the timetable playing out over the next five years to mak

welcome, madam secretary. always great to have you here. it's exceptional to me, sometimes you can't win for winning even with unprecedented victory victories have had in the foreign policy area, some people continue to look at it. i guess i would call it the goldilocks game. the porridge is too hot or cold. i think you have the bowling ball guy, balancing the balls, sticks on his knees, nothing sticks with the plates on top that he's twirling in the air and nothing ever falls to the ground. it's more difficult, because you're really twirling somebody else's dirty dishes. nonetheless, you seem to have everything pretty much together. i don't want to jinx it, with all the unprecedented problems in the world we're facing all at the same time. i want to thank you and congratulate you and the administration. three ears, north korea, egypt, iran, hot spots. first on egypt, congratulations, we just received that the flight restrictions on the americans has been lifted. i think that's miraculous. i know the great effort and work you've put into th

madam administrator, i'm concerned about the efforts being undertaken at u.s. epa to supplant state regulators on a number of environmental issues particularly where states have been the sole regulators for decades. quite frankly, i'm proud of my folks in nebraska and i think they have done a fine job. since this is a budget hearing it strikes me as if the federal government were going to push the states aside so it can occupy the regulatory field in a way it never has. that you are going to need lots of new bodies in your regional offices and d.c. headquarters as well as lots of new budget authority to pay for these people and programs. so i'd appreciate if you'd state the first part of the question, the additional budget authority epa needs to increase its in-house expertise and expand its program attic and enforcement reach to carry out the authorities, especially as it relaelts to permitting, inspections, technical compliant assistance and regulatory enforcement. >> in fact, mr. terry, in general, the budget goes different direction. i used to run a state p

thank you, madam chair. mr. bingaman: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. bingaman: madam president, first i'd ask unanimous consent that hanna bruehl, who is a detailee from the department of energy, working on the staff of the committee on energy and natural resources this year, be granted floor privileges during today's session of the senate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: madam president, i wanted to speak for a few minutes about gasoline prices, which my colleague from utah just talked about a few minutes ago. also about domestic oil and gas production and also about access to federally owned oil and gas resources. these are issues that have been raised by numerous senators on this transportation bill. they're issues of critical importance to our country's economy. -- to national security and to resource management, and i've been increasingly concerned that the issues that we're debating and the facts that are being put out there are often not the true facts. there's wides

madam clerk, please read item number one. >> item number one. hearing to consider that the issuance of a type 20 off-sale beer and wine license to 1749 union street, to lorrie hoel for wine's about you, will serve the public convenience and necessity of the people of the city and county of san francisco. supervisor elsbernd: thank you, madam clerk. inspector, welcome. >> i am ready. good morning. the african has applied for an application with the department of africa -- department of of all and beverage control for 1749 union st., located between octavia and gulf of st.. the applicant originally applied for a type 42 on sale beer and wine permit any type 20 off sale beer and wine. after receiving multiple complaints, the wrist -- they withdrew the application for type 22 with abc. the applicant's plan that hours of operation is 10:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. daily. there is no opposition from northern station. the applicant premise is not located in a high crime area. it is located in an undue concentration area. at the time of this report, dated

madam speaker. today, i'm here to pay tribute to a great public servant, a person who tirelessly fought on behalf of his constituents in the 10th congressional district of new jersey and for all americans of all backgrounds across this nation. i pay tribute and celebrate the life of our beloved colleague, congressman donald payne. you know, donald made history as the first african american in new jersey to be elected to congress. he served as a former chairman of the congressional black caucus and was recent chairman of the congressional black caucus foundation, where i really saw him go to work on waff behalf of the people across this nation. along with many others, i considered representative payne not just an accomplished colleague, but a role model and a dear friend. he was relentless and iconic advocate for the continent of africa as well as the caribbean region. he spoke boldly. he spoke out boldly against genocide in darfur and rwanda and fought with the black caucus to help haiti recover fro

thank you, madam president. we continue the discussion today about the impact of high energy prices, high gasoline prices at the pump, what they mean to families from alaska to new york. just the very reality that we face as a nation that is struggling still, coming out of a recession, we're worried about jobs, we're clearly worried about the high price of energy and what can be done. i think it's important to note that this is something that there are no clear and easy answers. there are no short-term, quick, flip the switch fixes that we can do, but there are a lot of things that we can -- we can help to make happen by either affirmative action or in many cases getting the government out of the way. but in doing so, i think it's important that we speak honestly about the situation before us, about what the -- what the solutions, potential solutions are, and how they really translate. in the past day or so, i have -- i have heard some comments from some of my colleagues that i think deserve a fair and an honest

>> thanks very much, madam chairman and welcome, attorney general holder. the job doesn't seem to be getting easier, and i'm not blaming you. i'm just sympathizing. not so much that i won't ask for more, because we're doing with less, and we see it in my state of new jersey. 246 gun murders in 2010. 12% more than the previous year. we've had layoff it's galore, and from cities that can't afford

madam ambassador, dr. rice, again, thank you for standing up so strongly for the united states' interests at the i.n. your leadership has been outstanding. you are here, after all, to ask for the president's budget for the u.n. what in your view are the major issues that relate to u.s. national security interests that are served by our membership at the u.n. and the funding that you seek, and what -- i know the administration, the obama administration's been involved in u.n. reform efforts. so those two aspects. what are the national security interests of the u.s.'s continued involvement at the u.n., and what reforms are still needed? >> thank you very much. there are so many ways in which the dollars we spend and the programs they support at the united nations advance u.s. national security interests. let's begin with one of the largest elements of our request, which is funds for international peacekeeping operations. the u.n. is president in some 14 countries and engaged in important life-saving missions

the messenger: madam secretary. the secretary: i have been directed by the senate to inform the house that the senate has agreed to the house amendment to s. 2038, cited as the stop trading on congressional knowledge act of 012 of the stock act. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. bilirakis, for five minutes. mr. bilirakis: thank you very much. today i rise to honor and commemorate greek independence day. on march 25, 1821, archbishop raised the flag of revolution over the monastery. liberty or death, mr. speaker, became the battle cry. this day, to start the greek independence, was not chosen by chance because it is coincidence with the greek orthodox church. it coincides with the greek orthodox church, the anunsiation of the mother of god. indeed, it is not a coincidence because the mother of god was their champion and their protector. as we all know, the price of liberty can be very high. socrates, plateo, paraclese and others throughout history warned we must maintain de

mica: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker and my colleagues, i think it might be time right now, madam speaker, that we call the capitol physician to come to the house floor. i think we should call the capitol physician because there appears to be on the other side a mass case of loss of memory. i think we need to clear up just a few facts in what has been said here. we had the gentlelady from california who happened to be the speaker of the house, as i recall the other side controlled the house by a huge margin, the senate by a significant margin, at one point most of the time i think it was 60 votes where you could do anything, they controlled the white house for those two years. they could have done anything they wanted to do. president obama in fact sent secretary lahood to mr. oberstar and myself, i was the ranking republican, he was the chair, and cut the knees right out from the democrats and said, he wasn't doing any long-term bill. he was doing an 18-month bill which really sent a death signal to transp

senator whitehouse. >> thank you madam chair. i'd like to welcome administrator jackson back to our committee. i have some concerns about the beach protection budget that we can discuss as the budget process moves forward. very, very important to rhode island. and i wanted to mention what's very important to rhode island is there would be proper enforcement of the clean air act. we are a down wind state on a bright summer day, you drive into work and the drive time radio is often saying that today is a bad air day. and infants should stay indoors and seniors should stay indoors and people should not have engaged in vigorous outdoor activity. all because of toxic emissions that are being dropped on to us by midwestern coal plants and power plants. so that sentiment has been echoed. the american lung association has just done a poll that shows 73% of americans understand that you can have solid clean air standards and a strong economy. that they go together. 78% of independent voters agreed. 68% of republicans agreed with that. the

madam secretary, thank you for being here. ranking member waxman was quoted in the hill newspaper yesterday as saying and this is a quote, i pad is a useful backstop to put discipline on congress to stop out of control medicare spending. do you agree with that? >> i do. >> because the president believe we need to save the medicare program from bankruptcies like ranking member waxman does? >> i believe the president believes in very strongly and -- >> so -- so my time is limited. yes and no is fine on that. thank you for that. >> i didn't give you an answer. >> -- slogan, we can't wait to highlight congressional inaction really on many issues. tell me this. should we take ranking members waxman's advice and start showing discipline to reform medicare this year or should we tell our seniors to wait until after the next election? yes or no? >> the president's budget has a very positive proposal for medicare which not only ensures that the 48 million people have the benefits that are committed to them, but that we continue to slow

madame secretary, if i could yield one minute to mr. johnson who has been so patiently waiting there. and i don't want to end the meeting without him having an opportunity. thank you, mr. johnson. >> thank you so much, mrs. chairman. it's a real quick question, madame secretary, and thank you for being here today. with the growing economy and vast foreign reserves, it would seem that beijing has more than enough money to deal with many of the issues that u.s. foreign aid supports like its own citizens' health issues. borrowing money from the chinese government to spend back in china on health programs there seems a particularly bad use of u.s. government funds, especially as americans struggle to cover their own rising health care costs. why are we proposing $2 million in support of health programs in china when the chinese hold an estimated $1.2 trillion of u.s. debt? >> well, congressman, the remaining aid that we are asking for goes to what we consider to be transnational issues in which we have a stake. it was united states aid and

welcome, madam secretary. let me join my colleagues. i have great admiration of our service to the country. i have known a lot of secretaries of state over the last 30 years. i wonder if could comment on our diplomatic efforts to sort of try to change minds in russia and china with respect to the syrian situation. it gets worse by the day. they have provided a shield of protection that has, at this point, proved not only counter productive, but lethal. i welcome how we are engaging diplomatically and how we are turning that around. thank you. >> thank you,re member murphy, very specific ideas and plans about what we could do to assist afghanistan being more integrated into the developing economic assets. i would like to take it for the record to give you a broader set of responses because we see this as you just said, as a critical part to really support the transition of r troops out in the end of 2014. they do go hand-in-hand, which is one of the reasons for the transition period for military withdrawal was established. we will follow

thank you madame sure. >> senator hutchison. >> thank you madam share. just to add one more question to the line, and i think she's taken the lead on this and properly so i do commend the fbi agent who came forward who just couldn't sit back and let a person be accused and go through a trial with an election and then all based on very bad misconduct on the part of the agencies that we looked to for complete integrity which would be the department of justice, the prosecutors and the fbi. there were others that were implicated with the fbi and some of the alleged misconduct, and my question to you is what are you doing to deal with the obligations which i assume will come out in a report or the opr report. if the agents are found to still be in the fbi and have been actually to your satisfaction part of the scheme that was put together to conduct senator stevens. >> well, on the outset, the justice department opr led the investigation. we've participated and contributed to that investigation to the extent individuals and the bureau were implicated along wi

murray for five minutes. >> thank you, madam secretary. i want to follow up on the religious freedom first amendment issue as well. i just want to be sure. if an employer is saying that he or she cannot find it in their conscience in terms of practicing their religion that they cannot pay for a plan or have a plan that allows for or requires provision of abortion patient drugs and therefore do they pay the $2,000 tax for not having it or the $3,000 tax for having a plan in violation? >> there is no penalty attached to the provision of preventive care. there certainly are penalties for employers who don't comply with the law. there also is no abortifacient drug that's part of the fda approved contraception -- >> that's not true. >> well, the scientists -- >> is the morning after pill or something like that an abortifacient drug? >> it's a contraceptive drug -- >> yes or no? >> it is not an abortifacient. it does not interfere with a pregnancy. if the morning after pill were taken and a female were pregnant, the pregnancy is not interrupted.

thank you, madam chairman. >> senator brown? >> thank you, madam chair. think, general, for your service. you established a new residential mortgage backed securities working group. thank you for that. i want to talk in a moment about that. but last week phil angelides from senator feinstein's state, former chair of the financial crisis inquiry commission observed that what -- the number of lawyers, some 55 lawyers, investigators and other staff of the working group i just mentioned, that this is far fewer than the hundred law enforcement esdedicated to the fraud task force during the savings and loan era. he also suggested -- mr. angelides also suggested congress should extend the statute of limitations for raud from five years to ten years as congress did in 1989 when it passed the federal institutions reform recovery and enforcement act after the savings and loan crisis. public sentiment of anxiety, frustration, outrage, pick your noun, towards the fact that so . talk to me about the working group, the dollars you're dedicating of the $55 million incre

>> thanks, madam chairman, and it's good to see you. i was thinking about a conversation we had during your confirmation about griffin bill for whom you worked and i know you admired him. i ai i was a law clerk when he was judge and one of the things he say and which i have heard you say i think too is that the attorney general is the lawyer for the united states, not just the lawyer for the president. in the following up senator graham's comment on the so-called recess, i want to ask you a question. united states, if the president called you up and holder, i noticed the senate's gone into recess for lunch. i've got a supreme court nominee i want to appoint. can we put him on the court without their advice and consent what would your answer be? >> gone to lunch? that would not be a sufficient recess. id they're going to lunch. they're going to recess for lunch and for dinner. th w would that be a sufficient recess? >> well, i mean, i think what we're getting at, if you look at that olc opinion. >> no. i'm asking your opinion, mr. attorn

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. durbin: madam president.the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: madam president, those who have followed this debate know that members can disagree, and obviously i disagree with the republican leader on the issue of health care reform. i would say that there are a couple of elements i would add. yes, we expand the medicaid roles. that's health insurance for those in low-income categories, but the federal government picks up the tab. it's not an added expense to the state governments for four or five years, and we're hoping their economy gets better. what about the millions of -- one million kentuckians who are going on the medicaid roles? those one million kentuckians have no health insurance today. will they ever get sick? will they ever show up at the hospital? yes, they will. who will pay their bills? the rest of the folks living in kentucky with health insurance and the rest of us. is that fair? do these people have a personal responsibility to have health insurance as long as we he

. >> thank you, madam chairman. excuse me. ambassador, thank you for being here. i appreciate it very much. i have three questions i want to ask all three and -- >> i'll try my best. >> i feel it's important to bring up on unesco, and i think it's been pointed out that -- international recognition. successful with unesco. but i think that, you know, the position i think that many of us are looking at is that the immediate halt in the u.s. funding sent a powerful message to all other u.n. bodies as well as the palestinians that the u.s. is serious about its intent for negotiated peace. i agree with you unesco does good work. the concern is that resuming that funding at this time would send the wrong message to the palestinians at this particular time. and i appreciate your willingness to work with this committee in trying to come up with how to deal with a waiver -- thank you. sorry. >> i could hear you. >> okay. as long as you were able to hear me. a waiver in which the president has put in his budget and which you've described because i think it's important, agai

thank you, madam clerk. please read item number three. see you in a couple weeks, inspector. >> item #3. resolution authorizing the recreation and parks department to accept and expend an urban greening grant in the amount of $710,779 for cayuga playground and clubhouse funded by the safe drinking water, water quality and supply, flood control, river and coastal protection bond act of 2006. supervisor elsbernd: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i am the project manager with the recreation and park department. tony is also joining me today, he is the brand manager for the recreation and park department. we are seeking authorization to accept and extend an urban greeting grant. under the proposition 84, also known as the state's drinking water water quality flood control river and coastal protection bond act of 2006. this grant would supplement the department's park bond for the renovation of the cliff house and would pay for the green elements on that project, including landscaping. the grant requires that a memorandum be filed and