mr. chairman, and i want to welcome mr. cordray from a neighboring state of ohio to this morning's hearing, which is the first stat torly mandated hearing to discuss the cfpb and discuss the report. a little over a year ago, professor warren visited my office to update me on this progress of standing up the cfpb. she said at the time that the cfpb provided an opportunity to knock down the silos that existed between federal financial regulatory agencies and to provide clarity to consumers and constitutions and consumer supervision. unfortunately, from all of the interviews and testimony that we received, this is not -- this is not what is occurring. and i fear that the cfpb has just created a new silo. although the prudential regulators transferred some personnel to the cfpb, some of these agencies have not eliminated fte positions, and they were not transferred. so rather than using this opportunity to ensure there's no duplication among the agencies, we have just added another bureaucracy to the equation. it is my hope tha

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, in addition to the republican plan that breaks the promise of medicare and ends medicare as we know it, the republicans also propose to raise the cost of prescription drugs and slash the smart, new benefits and popular consumer reforms that have been in place for two years now, and are working very well. this is a real double whammy for our older neighbors all across america. so here's what my amendment does. it proposes to retain the closing of the doughnut hole and the money that's going back into the pockets of our older neighbors, parents and grandparents. proposes to retain those important new screenings, the mammograms and colonoscopies that are saving lives and proposes to retain that important new wellness vis that has become very popular and actually is very smart policy. so first on the doughnut hole, under the affordable care act that has been in place for two years, what is currently happening is that cliff that many of our older neighbors were falling off of when

mr. chairman. the first point it makes is despite everything we've heard from our republican colleagues the democrats didn't have a plan to contain medicare costs, what it says is it's essentially the same in terms of medicare costs. the red line in terms of medicare savings. what the red line shows is the risk if things go wrong. and under your proposal the risk for when things go wrong, if this doesn't work, is put on the seniors. the cost is put on the seniors. and the reason that is very different than what we have for ourselves as members of congress and what federal employees have federal employees, you don't r. you will always get about 75% of whatever the increase in costs are picked up by the federal employees health benefit program. whereas under this proposal the senior eats it all, and that's why we do call itt suggests the support from medicare rises as health care rises. the way you do this is the risk it's put on the senior. i yield. >> and my time is up and i just want to say there'

mr. chairman? >> no. >> mr. chairman, no. >> any other members who need to vote? if not, the clerk shall report. >> mr. chairman, on that vote the ayes are 14, the nos are 20. >> the gentle lady from wisconsin is recognized. >> thank you very, very much, mr. chairman. >> do you have an amendment at the desk. >> yes, sir, i have an amendment at the desk. >> an amendment offered by ms. moore related to nutrition. >> the gentlelady is recognized for seven plns. >> i don't envy your job as the budget chair. to try to figure out how to reduce to a balanced budget when you have so many strictures that you've put in place. you can't tax the rich, you want to lower corporate taxes. you can't raise taxes in the middle class by ending the bush era tax cuts for them. that's not feasible. you can't stop sacred dough cows like defense. so you have to cut $7 billion out of programs that help the elderly, disabled, women, children and the infirm. th that's why we have to block grant medicaid, voucherize medicare and block grant things like food stamps. i call your attention to p

mr. chairman. mr. hanson, thank you so much. i want to commend you on your courage for being here today and providing us with that testimony because i can tell it wouldn't be easy for me to give that story if it was me. so i really commend you and your wife for being here today and i appreciate the education. i just have a couple of simple questions. was there any kind of -- on your discharge from the marines, was there any sort of a mental health evaluation upon discharge? or have you been willing to, you know, talk about your problems upon discharge so you could get help? i mean, i -- i was curious about how you were reluctant to seek attention because you felt embarrassed about it. tell me more about the discharge process. >> yes, sir, there's a final physical in which you go through to make sure when you are discharged that, you know, you're a hundred percent, you know. while as when you join the marine corps. and then if you're not, then you get hooked up with the v.a. but, for me, i passed my final physical and they, you k

mr. chairman. >> thank you. mr. reyes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, both, for being here this morning and general, always good to see you. i guess one concern that i have and others have had as well has been whether or not there is any intention of drawing down further the presence of u.s. troops in theater. is there any plan or are there any contingency plans to do that in light of all of the issues including sequestration that would play into that kind of scenario? >> congressman reyes, there are no plans that i am aware of that draws down any forces on the peninsula. we are staying at 28,500. there may be adjustments inside those capabilities, but it is those adjustments would be to improve our overall force posture. there are no plans that i am aware of. >> and in terms of the agreement that we have with the particularly for the stability of the korean peninsula with the south koreans, are there any concerns and i apologize for not having been able to be here. i had another meeting that i have to be at, but are there any changes that we

mr. chairman. >> no. >> mr. chairman, no. mr. ribble. >> aye. >> mr. ribble, aye. >> are there any other members looking to vote or to change their vote? clerk will report. >> mr. chairman, on that vote, the ayes are 17 and the noes are 20. >> the amendment is not agreed to. next we will recognize mr. van hollen for the purposes of amendment. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i have an amendment at the desk. >> clerk will designate the amendment. staff will distribute copies. >> an amendment offered by mr. yarmouth -- or mr. van hollen. an amendment relating to taxes. >> the gentleman is recognized for nine minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this amendment is very simple. it's designed to make sure that we don't finance another round of tax cuts for the wealthiest americans by increasing taxes on middle-income americans. as you can see from this chart that's up here, after the first round of the bush tax cuts, 2001-2003, the wealthiest americans after tax income has shot up in a huge way. that's why the president's b

mr. chairman. i would just urge my friend, mr. price, again to look at the chart presented by the chairman of the budget committee, mr. ryan, that again makes it clear that we have different paths with respect -- different approaches with respect to containing costs. but at the end of the day, the trajectories are the same and i say again that if the republicans think the notion of the premium support plan, the voucher plan, whatever you want to call it, that doesn't rise with health care costs is such a good deal for seniors, why are they giving themselves a different deal in the health care plan for members of congress? i now yield 1 1/2 minutes to the gentleman from rhode island, mr. langevin. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for 1 1/2 minutes. mr. langevin: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend. the chair: without objection. mr. langevin: i thank the gentleman for yielding. mr. speaker, we all recognize that we are facing difficult fiscal challenges and we have to get our fiscal house in order. and obviously that m

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, the rhetoric on the other side of the aisle on this debate on this issue is rather interesting. let me take a couple of the issues that were brought up and try to address them. first, the issue of an earmark. now, just to remind our bodies, we must have a very short attention span, this house acted not too long ago on the question of earmarks and said we should proceed, that's why we are debating this bill. why? because h.r. 2087 does not contain an earmark. it is in full compliance with the earmark definition, provided for in the house rules 21, and the earmark ban that was instituted by the house republicans in january of 2011. why is that or how is that? because the house definition of an earmark requires that there be spending in some form directed to an entity. and h.r. 2087, we do not direct any spending or any money in any form. it has no fiscal impact. so, mr. chairman, to repeat once again, we had this debate earlier and the house confirmed the debate, by the way, th

mr. chairman, chairman bishop, and ranking member, i appreciate it. it's good to be here. i kind of felt like as this came about that probably you might appreciate having a little comment from somebody on the commission. i wasn't on the commission it first started. was appointed after it had been started and i will talk about it a little bit. i want to make two points and i want you here to know that the commission has done what congress has asked it to do, it has been engaged. and secondly, it's followed the policies and procedures set forth, so i want to say that. and they've been working on it for about ten years, as you've already made that point, i believe you're right, it's time to get it done. and we must move forward. commission received $63 million federal funding, about half's that been spent. so, it gives a little perspective there. i think what i'd like to do is just kind of give you my testimony of what i feel about. but first off, i'm very delighted to have family here, sisters. i got to meet them not too long ago, and read about them, and i just very impress

mr. chairman. let me commend you and the members of this committee and the staff who have worked diligently to come up with whatible is a wonderfully positive and visionary document and getting us on a path to economic vitality. we're here today to consider a budget which is our positive blueprint for how we can and must address a predictable and looming crisis while putting our nation on a path to future prosperity. american people, as i've on then said, are smarter than the politicians here in washington. they understand that washington cannot continue to spend beyond its means. ignoring this crisis, which we believe the president does, clearly with his budget, is absolutely irresponsible and reckless. that's why we're bringing forth this budget resolution to reduce en broken bureaucracy, and to ensure that taxpayers and job creatorsephar. this budget is a bold vision for our nation's future. it restores fiscal responsibility, by cutting he$5 the first year alone, and trillions over the years to

mr. chairman, let me ask a question of mr. larsen. if we pass legislation for pntr and nothing else, in other words we don't deal with jackson vanic, have we accomplished anything? >> senator, i think the way that we can accomplish something -- and what i -- >> this is real simple. to get the benefit of russia joining the wto. >> exactly. and that's why there is leverage. nobody here can say that the russians don't want repeal of jackson vanic, they do. this something the russian government wants desperately, it's something mr. putin talks about, and your comments reflect that. to there is leverage. there is leverage with regard to jackson vanic. >> that's not what i said. i want to make clear what i said. i said that putin and others' failure to repeal it as leverage. so if we repeal it, there's no longer leverage. >> the point is in deciding whether or not to repeal -- >> you want leverage to help -- >> mr. chairman, if you want to argue with me, they need jackson vanic repealed. they want it repealed desperately. that's beyond any

mr. chairman, at this time i'd like to yield one -- mr. ryan: mr. chairman, at this time i'd like to yield to a majority leader of the house, mr. cantor. the chair: the gentleman from virginia is recognized. mr. cantor: mr. chairman, i rise today in support of the house republican budget resolution offered by my friend and colleague, the gentleman from wisconsin, chairman paul ryan. mr. chairman, people in this country are looking. they are desperate to see a strong signal from washington that we are prepared to make the tough decisions necessary to address our nation's fiscal crisis. today we will pass our budget that proposes real honest solutions to create a stronger economy and a more certain future for our country. our budget takes bold steps that will get the fiscal house in order and will manage down the debt and deficit. it also strengthens the entitlement programs which are the biggest drivers of our debt. it reforms the tax code and prevents devastating defense cuts from taking place, all without raising taxes. mr. chairman, we are seizing

mr. chairman.the rule that we intend to propose is we propose a rule in the near future after reaching out and having dialogue with folks. it would require insurance companies in a directly-insured plan to provide contraception coverage so a religious employer who had objections would not have to either pay for or provide or refer people for contraception. we are confident that similar arrangements can be made with similar institutions. there is an independent body outside the board. there are a variety of arrangements in place in the 28 states that have this law already in place and we intend to be informed by that when we impose the rules. whether it is through a third-party administrator or a side-by-side plan as operates in georgetown or many other hospital arrangements, we will offer a variety of strategies to make sure religious libertys are respected at the same time millions of women who work in the institutions and spouses of employees and daughters of employees have access to these import

mr. chairman. welcome again, mr. chairman. sense the federal reserve took unprecedented actions in response to the financial crisis, there's been a growing recognition that the fed needs to become more transparent. there was a time when central bankers met behind closed doors and stubbornly refused to inform the public of their decisions. those days are clearly over. the public now rightly demands that policymakers not only explain their decisions but also be account an for their actions. this is especially true of the federal reserve, which thanks to dodd-frank exercises even greater authority over the american economy and the lives of every american. to its credit, chairman bernanke has long recognized the need to modernize the fed. in his first confirmation hearing for this committee, he stated that he believed making the fed more transparent would, and i'll quote his words, increase democratic accountability, promote constructive dialogue between policymakers and informed insiders and reduce uncertainly in financial market

mr. chairman. >> thank you. dr. miller? >> chairman mckeon, ranking member smith, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today. i'm very pleased and honored to be here with outstanding commander, general john allen. i ask that my full remarks be enters into the record and i would like to summarize them. >> without objection, so ordered. could you pull the mike a little bit closer, please? >> mr. chairman, the united states' objectives in afghanistan remain to deny safe halve tonight al qaeda and to deny the taliban the ability to overthrow the afghan government. this administration is committed to meeting these core objectives. while we have faced serious challenges, our strategy is succeeding. our counterterrorism efforts against al qaeda have been successful. the job is not finished, there is no doubt that we have severely degraded al qaeda's capacity. as a result of this surge launched in 2009, we have broken and reversed taliban momentum in afghanistan. in the afghan national security forces are i

mr. chairman. thank you, mr. chairman. mr. garret was asking a little bit about the european exposure and you were pretty soundly and you're recommendation that the european banks are pretty sound. is that -- did i hear you correctly? you're saying that they have pretty stable -- >> no, i was talking about the european central bank. the european banking system is currently being asked by the european banking authority to raise a good bit more capital. and, of course, their liquidity situation is being satisfied almost entirely by the european central bank rather than by private markets. >> sto that would explain. was a little confused about page four you continue to monitor the european xp europe european exposure of u.s. financial -- >> yes. >> how long have you been watching the exposure of u.s. firms to financial -- to the european financial -- >> the european situation was about -- came prominent about two years ago. so pretty much throughout that period. >> i guess my question is then about the new york fed that gave prim

mr. chairman, you can do what ever you like. >> i only -- mr. young asked for, he's more ranking as far as chairman than i am. >> thank you, mr. chairman for yielding and first let me say, thank the chairman, for this hearing. you know, i will tell you this. there was nothing wrong with this ship. this was a good ship. there were probably three errors and they were all human errors. one, we had a captain that forgot he was a captain. as a captain, i was very embarrassed. he took it off the plot. he was too close to shore. and there's nothing wrong with these ships that we have in the industry. one thing, also, in our area, we have american pilots. that pilot the ships in our waters. especially in the northwest. crucially important. the pilot had been aboard that ship as he should have been this would not have hand. was the crew trained? maybe, maybe not. i'm not sure about that. and i want us to be careful about casting dispersions to the american cruise lines and american waters, because we're doing a very good job. we've had a good safety recor

mr. chairman. mr. speaker, this is washington so we have to have an acronym for everything up here. the ipab isn't a new techy technique but an example of one of the many misguided parts of the budget-busting health care law. what's this debate really about? we all know that medicare's headed toward financial catastrophe, and the health reform law only succeeded in putting the program in a more precarious position. there's no easy solution to this problem but republicans have put forward a plan that would actually set the program on a healthy fiscal path again without hurting those who are already on the program. of course, because this is washington, rather than having a hardy debate, these proposals continue to be demagogued and derided. instead, the health reform bill gave us ipab, an unaccountable bill taxed with limiting procedures and treatments in order to control costs. it's a topdown, unconstitutional, ineffective and inefficient way to solve medicare's fiscal problems. and if you think thi

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i want to spend my time actually covering a subject that it may or may not call for a response from the witnesses, but i will invite that at the end. on february 5th, russia and china blocked a u.n. security council resolution that would have endorsed an arab league plan for assad in syria to step down. it would have supported a demand that syrian troops withdraw from towns and start transitioning to democracy. this is just the latest incident in which russia has for its own reasons intervened in a way that has destabilizes the world and helps iran in this instance, which is the main beneficiary of the continued regime of president assad to stay in power. but i want to highlight this issue. this has to do with how president assad is getting arms with which to kill innocent syrian citizens, some 8,000 of them according to reports from the united nations. it's not only a question of russians exporting arms to syria to kill innocent civilians, it's also the fact that the departm

mr. chairman.elcome to all of the witnesses. thank you for being here today. as the title of today's hearing suggests, communications networks is part of the critical infrastructure from electricity generation to finance at services and transportation. we depend on our communications networks for nearly all aspects of our daily lives. yet, as was highlighted during our first cyber security hearing, our networks remain vulnerable to attack. in particular, there are three areas i would like to hear more about from our witnesses today. first, as we discussed in the last month's hearing, the fcc chairman is proposing a voluntary isp code of conduct as a way to alert consumers when a bot net or malware infection is discovered. today's witnesses will be on the frontline in ensuring such best practices are effectively implemented and obviously i think that you will talk about that. i look forward to it. second, i would like to hear more about your views on this supply chain security. i continue to have gr

mr. chairman? no. >> the clerk shall report. >> mr. chairman, on that vote, the ayes are 14, the nos are 20. >> nos have it, the amendment is not agreed to. >> do you have an amendment at the desk. >> the clerk will report on the status -- >> the midwest working together. an amendment offered by ms. mccollum related to women's health. >> thank you. women deserved access to affordable health care. unfortunately before the women health care act, women were not guaranteed access. a woman was dpe nighed health care buzz she had a c-section. in florida, a woman denied coverage because she was given anti-aids education after a sexual assault. a senior could not afford her prescription drugs while in the medicare doughnut hole. a woman in south dakota could be charged $1,200 more than a man for the same identical coverage. a woman in texas had her insurance rescinded because she was fighting breast cancer. a mother of three children with cystic fibrosis in utah was stuck in a low-paying job because she simply couldn't risk losing her employer'

mr. chairman, here's a chart that the chairman of the budget committee, mr. ryan, presented in the budget committee. the black line here is the trajectory that they claim for their plan in terms of cost containment. the blue line is what they acknowledge is what the president calls for. as you can say the tracks are very different. this red line is from the congressional budget office. the different between the approaches is that the republican plan puts the risk at being wrong here on the senior whereas the plan we put forward says we need to change the incentive structures to change the incentives in a way that providers provide more cost efficient care rather than putting that risk on the senior. that is the fundamental difference and aarp, the largest organization of seniors in this country, agrees with what i just said and they say in their letter the premium support method described in the proposal, unlike private plan options that currently exits in medicare would likely, quote, price out traditional medicare as a viable option, thus rendering the trad

mr. chairman. >> mr. chairman, if i might -- first of all i'm really looking forward to this hearing, i agree with the ranking member that we really ought not make design questions here. there are others that are far more capable of doing that and the commission has it, but it would seem to me that our purpose ought to be to make sure that this gets done, that we get this memorial under way and that it become available for the general public to memorialize and to remind us of the incredible contributions that this man made together with millions of other americans during world war ii, before and after and his presidency. so we'll get on with the hearing here. art is always controversial, and certainly memorials to this day, some on the monument remain controversial, but i -- it ought to be our task to sort out any delays that there may be and the causes of though delays and what we can do to get this project under way and completed. i yield back. >> thank you. all right. leonard, we've done our formal work

mr. chairman. chairman bernanke, in your testimony you describe the recovery as modest relative to historic terms with note for the record that under this administration when you add in those that are underemployed, those who have left the labor force due to giving up the true unemployment rate is 15.4%. half of all americans are low income and in poverty, and 1 in 7 rely on food stamps. so from the% it active of my constituents, the use of the term modest is indeed modest. i would like to first return to the subject of our structural debt. wauft major players in our economy hassed the number one driver is medicare and medicaid and our health care spending, nothing comes close. that, of course, was our president, barack obama. so i would suggest to the ranking member when convenient he first debate the president on the subject before he debates us. i would skk this, p if we cut the pentagon by 50%, have we solved the long-term skrushgtal debt crisis in our nation? yes, that's you. >> you refer to he

mr. chairman? i'm new here. i don't want to be breaking protocol. >> i may have to consult my counsel but go ahead.of the con of senator mccain and because this is so important, certainly a good way to start the process. obi meanction and those of the ranking members, are we going to consider doing -- not taking this to the floor directly? is that going to be reconsidered on that basis? >> i don i suppose if people want to raise the question, but i think -- this has been a long process here. the bills have been reported out of this committee, out of commerce, intelligence, foreign relations had some stuff all done -- not all done on a b bipartisan basis. senator reid got really agitate body this problem last year and began to convene the chairs and then held a meing which in these times is very unusual. bipartisan meetings, senator reid, senator mcconnell, the chairs and al the committees urged us to begin to work together to reconcile the differences. some came to the table, as i said. some didn't. to try to br

mr. chairman. >> mr. spetman? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. hanson, for being here. it's a good story. and taking the opportunity to share with us your experiences and what you've experienced not only in the military, but also after the military and how you're finding success. also, to your wife, i know she's been through a lot, as well. i can tell she's very proud of you. my question is, after you left the military, did the va ever give you any direction to programs? you mentioned that you heard about teen challenge on the radio and on an ad. challenge. a good friend of mine growing up, you know, hit the bottom in his life and actually found a lot of success at teen challenge. so it's really encouraging to hear this. but did they give you any direction of different programs? any ideas of where to find help? anything like that? >> they -- when i did finally decide that i needed to get help and they, you know, they were supportive in saying, yeah, you should find a place. they offered v.a. treatments, which was a dual diagnosis program in the medical center. that was

mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. chairman bernanke, this is a question which is a follow-up in your discussion with senator crepele. in your testimony you note there has been some modestly encouraging data recently, including slightly better performance in the labor market, improved consumer sentiment, and some increases in manufacturing. but these signs of economic recovery aren't necessarily reflected glet experiences of our workers and their families in the communities. putting aside a question in the euro zone, what possible set backs concern you the most with respect risks in our economic recovery. for instance, could action to cut critical investments too quickly send the economy back into a slowdown? >> let me just say first that one of the points that i talked about in my remarks was there still is a little bit of a contradiction between the improvement in the labor market and the speed of the overall recovery in terms of growth in particular. i mentioned that income had been flat for consumers in 2011 to revi

chairman of the full committee is recognized. mr. rogers? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you and your ranking member for doing great work over here. you're doing good. mr. secretary, happy birthday. happy anniversary. welcome. this week the national average price for a gallon of gas is $3.60. it's up 20 cents over last month. 40 cents more than this time last year. the increasingly unstable middle east, belligerent iran threatens to shut down the strait and limit exports. china's rapidly growing economy is driving up oil prices through increases demand. while a state owned enterprises are securing commodity contracts around the world. monopolizing new foreign sources. once again, energy security key to economic prosperity and national defense is the focus of public debate. the congress has said a very strong message that we must have balance in the expansion of conventional fuels. coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear to provide energy today with investment and to renewable energy to power our future. and while the president has repeatedly mentioned his support for a simil

mr. chairman. >> the lady yields back her time. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i haven't heard one reason not to vote for this amendment. i have heard other ways we might want to do the same thing. i respect them and respect those who have spoken against the amendment. would you please hold that code up one more time? or help her. thank you. that code that you're holding up, ma'am, what percentage of that code has been written by corporations in this country? we always refer to this code. most of the code does not deal with the people, most of the people who live in my district or probably your district. they don't have the shelters and the means and the attorneys to figure out what is going to cover their fannies. they don't. when you hold up that code you make all of us suspect in that each of us are trying to write pages into that code. that's not the case at all. in fact, let's go to the 25% rate which is a nice number -- >> we are not going to go to the 25% rate because we are out of time. we know where you are going. we get the picture. questions on the am

mr. chairman. >> thank you. mr. forbes? >> thank you, mr. chairman. dr. miller, thank you for being here. general, we appreciate you being here. i support what you do. the only thing, sometimes up here we talk about winning and losing and asking questions it american people will say that's not really the question i wanted to ask. you know, one of the things, the realities we deal with is that congress spent $825 billion on the stimulus package and we are spending $345 billion on the interest for that. we are taking almost that exact sum out of national defense out of the country. as a result, we're hearing that carriers are going to be postponed. we're taking ships out of commission. we are reducing weapons systems and force structure. everybody that comes up says we have to do that because of the budget we are dealing with. the question i hear from a lot of folks around when i talk about afghanistan is this, you said earlier that the actions we had there made americans safer. you're the best person we have to articulate how that's happened. how would you

mr. chairman, that's right. i would ask the chair to honor that request. but 3.8% roughly improper payments, so all of that was not fraud? >> correct. >> what percentage of fraud? >> the fraud figure we have is 1%. >> and have we reduced improper payments over the last decade or has it gone up? >> we have considerably -- that's one of the charts we handed out. we have reduced it significantly over the past decade and continue to focus on it as well as reducing fraud in the program also. >> it's good this committee is having this hearing to absolutely highlight there are still problems we have to get -- our goal should always be to get it to 0. let's not overstate the problems and lose sight of the mission especially at budget time when people might be thinking of a $100 million cut in the program. miss fong you mentioned to us you still think mr. concannon's operation could do a better job of debarment and suspension, correct? >> that's correct. >> mr. concannon, could you address that, in my final question. >> in your second overrun minute. >> i'm sorry,

mr. chairman. i think we all understand that we gather today to consider a long-term budget plan and an especially consequential moment for our country. unfortunately, this republican budget makes the wrong choices for america. i'd like to put up a slide now that shows the current job situation where we've come from and where we are, and what this slide shows is that as a result of the extraordinary actions, that have been taken over the last few years, and many difficult decisions made by the president and the previous congress, america avoided a second-grade depression and is now emerging from the ravages of a financial meltdown and near economic collapse. this chart is very vivid and very clear. what it shows is that the day the president was sworn in, we were losing jobs in this country at the rate of 800,000 jobs per month. gdp was collapsing. negative 8% growth. soon thereafter, congress and the president took action. we stopped the free-fall and we've been climbing out of that. we've now had

mr. chairman. >> thank you. i think that concludes today's opening statements, so, i will recognize myself for five minutes for the purpose of asking questions. i'm so anxious to ask questions, i guess i should let you testify first. i would like to recognize you for five minutes for an opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you for inviting me to testify on the budget for the epa. i'm joined by the agency's chief financial office barbara bennett. we focused on fulfilling the core mission of protecting public health and the environment while making the tough decisions that americans across the country are making every day. epa's budget reflects the president's commitment to reducing government spending and finding cost savings in a responsible manner. and supporting clean water and clean air as well as the safeguards. >> ms. jackson, excuse me one moment. some of the members are having a hard time hearing you. >> i'll get closer. in some instances we take a step back from some programs. there's

mr. chairman. earlier the chairman of the subcommittee said that the bill does not change the public interest standard for reviewing mergers. that simply is not the case. the bill does change it. it alters the ability of the f.c.c. to impose conditions for the public interest which is a very serious issue. i'd now like to call on the chairman amayor tuss of the energy and commerce committee, the dean of the house of representatives, mr. dingell, for three minutes. the chair: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for three minutes. mr. dingell: i thank the distinguished gentlewoman. i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the chair: without objection. mr. dingell: mr. chairman, i begin by praising my good friend from the full committee. it's that he brought us a bad piece of legislation. it should be rejected instantly by the house of representatives because it does nothing to help anything. i refer to the federal communications process reform act, which it is not. time and time

mr. chairman. thank you, mr. chairman, for your willingness to help this committee with its work. in your remarks, i think, at page 4, you cited the concern regarding the downside risk to the economic outlook that's due to stressors in the european banking system and the eurozone in general. and i note that recently there was an agreement between the greek government and private bond holders where the greek government will.i. impose a hait of a little over 50% on those bond holders. i'm trying to understand the agreement itself. it looks like there is a collective action clause that says once a certain amount of the old bonds are redeemed, then the government will impose a collective haircut across all of those bond holders. and there is a question here -- well, i guess you could say that charitably, at least, there is a default here. and i guess there is a controlled default. and what remains unclear is whether these bond swaps will constitute a creditor vent for some of our vault protection derivatives and whether it will trigger a payout on false swaps of greek debt. i guess wh

mr. chairman. >> the time of the gentleman has expired. the chair recognizes now the gentle woman from illinois, chairman of the subcommittee, mrs. collins. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i too want to extend my heart felt thanks that you are here at our hearing, mrs. clinton. as always, you bring a certain perspective with you that we certainly learn from. one of the things i'm concerned about right now, a number of issues is red lining, what i call medical red lining at this point in time. as i look at what i perceive to be the kind of plan that we're looking at, if we are, it seeks to address redlining by health alliances by preventing states from drawing those health alliances in a manner that would discriminate against segments of the population on the basis of ethnicity or economic status. but i wonder how the plan would prevent individual health plans within the alliance from attempting to draw service areas that would, in fact, be redlining against those kinds of situations. >> well, congresswo

mr. chairman. >> i thank the gentleman. i thank both the subcommittee chairmen on t.a.r.p. and financial service and our former full committee chairman. with that we go to the ranking member of the financial services and t.a.r.p. smet mr. quigley for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. today's hearing as we know builds on two previous hearings we held before t.a.r.p. subcommittee of which i'm honored to be the ranking member. today's hearing will examine the european debt crisis and what it means for the u.s. taxpayers and our economy. as mr. eliot of the brookings institute testified in december in 2010 our exports to eu totaled 400 billion. we have 1 trillion of direct foreign investment in the eu. the global market is not what it was ten years ago or for that matter five years ago. the complexity of the market is such that there can be no question a healthy european economy is in the best interest of the united states and the american taxpayer. the plain truth is when the earthquake of a financial crisis hits, every nation feels it's after shocks. including here at

mr. chairman. >> no. >> mr. chairman, no. miss bass. miss bass, aye. >> any other members looking to vote or to change their vote? if not, the clerk shall report. >> mr. chairman on that vote, the ayes are 16. the the nos are 20. >> the nos have it.e recognize katherine. >> thank you, members of the committee. i have an amendment. >> the staff will hand out copies of the amendment. the gentle lady from ohio. >> an amendment offered by miss castor. >> gentle lady from ohio is recognized for nine minutes. >> thank you very much. the amendment i'm proposed would establish the veterans job corps. it would employ 20,000 returning veterans in project to reserve the parks, the state parks and other public lands and touch up federal facility ls. the american people know jobs need to be our number one priority. and while the economy is gradually recovering, it's not yet come in fully. there are still nearly 13 million americans without a job, of which three quarters of a million, over 770,000, are veterans. many of these veterans, as we know, wh

mr. chairman. >> naked, gentlemen. i yield to the ranking member, mr. capuano. >> chairman, it is interesting. i start off trying to be bipartisan, and then i just heard that the dodd-frank bill and obama possums problem. i would like to invite anyone who has any information whatsoever, the justice department, the cftc, anyone who has given mr. jon corzine a past related to this matter, i would like to see it and it would be another matter we don't have. i would like to know if dodd-frank cause this problem, then what caused we human brothers, what caused bernie madoff? i know we are here to make a point, but let's stick to the matter. if you know, go to the justice department and tell them. >> will the gentleman yield? >> i appreciate you yielding. the point that i am making, i am quoting the commissioner at the cftc. it is his observation. it is his observation that since the dodd-frank act became law, the commission has acted in this way. it is his observation that he has concentrated on swaps rule-making while averting its gaze from futures market --

mr. chairman? >> mr. carter. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. administrator, welcome. a lot of things you have to say about hard decisions are things that i agree with. i have a question that i'm trying to figure out the answer. dhs budget seeks to fundamentally reform fema grant structure. i strongly support competition in procurement process and the direction you take in the training grant programs concerned me because, in that it negates the significant investment congress has already made through the national domestic preparedness consortium. it seems to me this new direction would create duplicative programs rather than bolstering the existing programs. i've been told that the current backlog in first responder training through the existing program is over 20,000. how does this newly-proposed structure portrayiar

mr. chairman. i yield back. >> thank you. let me point out one thing about energy that we all need to look at, and that's natural gas. i think it was 1985 we estimated we had 200 tcfs of reserve. it's now 2,500. we ought to take advantage of that price differential, and i know we do that with natural gas vehicles, but it could be a game changer. miss hayworth? >> thank you, mr. chairman, and welcome, chair man bernanke. it's always a pleasure to hear you because you are eminently sane about all these issues. i have heard from our life insurers and granters and providers of annuities that they're very concerned, as you can imagine, about an interest rate squeeze that may occur in the future. it almost feels predictable in certain respects. how do you recommend that they proceed, that they anticipate the challenges that we're facing because of the way in which we have to have an accommodative monetary policy? >> well, we've had numerous discussions with insurance companies and pension funds and other

mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. are chairman. thank you for giving us the opportunity to come in here and present what we had to say. i would just start off saying that this was our fifth year wedding anniversary trip. first trip to europe. we were very excited. ands as ms. brown said earlier, it's affordable way on travel. we had cruised before, so, that kind of like helped us to make up our time and our mind to take another cruise. we boarded on friday january the 13th, 2012, from italy. between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m., the first impression was the ship was huge and very beautiful. the boarding process was fairly easy, since we had one of the noneuropean passports we had to surrender our passports to the crew members. after that we went to our room that was on the ninth deck. at this point we had no communication regarding the emergency safety drill or any instructions from anyone from the crew telling us where to go in case of emergency. we were in full spirit of our vacation. and were very happy to be on board. soon after getting

mr. chairman. thank you, chairman bernanke, for your service. i read your statement, and i'm just obviously creating jobs is the singular most important issue in our country for families, for our collective in an economy when such a large part of our gdp is consumer nand. obviously, without income there isn't the opportunity to make that demand. how would you describe -- how are the latest programs of quantitative easing and operation twist helping us get to a more robust growth in creating those opportunities? >> of course, it's very difficult to figure out exactly how on attribute the progress we have made to monetary policy to fiscal policy to other sources of growth. if you look at the record, for example, if you look back at the quantitative easing 2 so-called in november 2010, the concerns at the time were that it would be highly inflationary. it would hurt the dollar. that it would not have much effect on growth, et cetera. since november 2010 where we've had since then the qe-2 and the so-called operation twist we had about 2.5 million j