poe: thank you, madam speaker. tonight myself and other members of the house are going to talk about energy issues in the united states. probably a timely thing to start with are the recent comments by one of the individuals who works for the environmental protection agency, the e.p.a. and the more relearn about the e.p.a., the more we learn that they are hostile to real american energy for various reasons. let me give you some historical perspective that makes this continuous assault on the oil and gas industry make sense to us now in 2012. it seems that back in 2010, two years ago, e.p.a. region six administrator stood up on his bureaucratic pedestal of power and spelled out the true intentions that he had and the goals of the e.p.a. he declared that the e.p.a. and declared this from his marble palace here in washington, d.c., that the e.p.a. would target the oil and gas industry, calling it an enforcement priority. as if, madam speaker, the oil and gas industry is made up of criminals. he went on, and i quote, i

. >> thank you, madam speaker. i rise today to honor a woman of incredible strength and courage, one who has inspired and personally pushed numerous young ladies to achieve beyond their wildest dream. i'm talking about the record setting leader of the lady vols basketball team. pat head summit. mrs. black: i can sit here and read off a list of the stats and accomplishments on the courts, and they are many and quite impressive, but, madam speaker, i believe that we would miss the true scope of pat summit's impact not only on the sport but the lives of her players and so many who have watched her career. while the world saw her impact on the sport, her focus was always on teaching young women about life. and using their shared passion of basketball as the tool. her student athletes were always students first. they left the university of tennessee equipped for a successful life. she instilled in her players the work ethic that she learned on the dairy farm in henrieta, tennessee. it was her father's values of determin

thank you, madam president. mr. lieberman: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from concop. mr. lieberman: i -- the presiding officer: the snoer from connecticut. mr. lieberman: i note the presence of my friend from tennessee. first, i want to thank senator collins. i think she's made a quite complicated subject very understandable, and it is a misunderstanding, really a misstatement, to say that the mo enthat -- to shea that the money that the post -- to say that the money that the postal service will be refunded is taxpayer money. it is not. it is the return of money that was collected, as senator collins has said, by the post office from ratepayers and from their own employees, which was mistakenly put into this retirement fund. it is no -- this is no more a bailout with taxpayer money than in the case, which happens, where an individual or a business overpays taxes to the federal government. and when that miscalculation or error is discovered, they naturally ask for a refund. and that's exactly what's happening here with th

item no. 7, madam clerk? madam clerk: approve the extension of the mou with the san francisco public utilities commission for the c.c.a. program. chairperson campos: thank you and before we turn it over to ms. miller, mr. fried, congratulations i think are in order. ms. miller. >> this is similar to the previous item which is once again the mou. we thought the program would be launched by this time so the mou had a term date which we're beyond now so we want to extend it until june 2013. chairperson campos: great. thank you. another one-year extension. any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. motion by commissioner avalos, seconded by commissioner olague. if we can take that without objection? item 8. madam clerk: item no. 8 is public comment. chairperson campos: any member of the public who would like to speak on any item within the jurisdiction of lafco not otherwise on the agenda. seeing none, public comment is done. item 9. madam clerk: item no. 9 is future agenda items. cha

in fact, madam chair, this is happening all over the the country. i'm holding a recent article from the "wall street journal" that highlights how the dairy cooperative in california in response to a slow u.s. market invested in processing infrastructure to supply china's growing middle class with milk. i'd like to submit the article for the record. >> without objection. >> thank you. the products may be going overseas but the jobs are created in our rural communities. while i don't plan to offer my amendment for a stand-alone margin insurance program i strongly support this growth-oriented approach to risk management for dairy. i know we have regional differences here, and i respect that, but i hope to continue to work with you and others on the committee throughout this farm bill process to advance a dairy policy that reflects the industry's growing commitment to export opportunities. thank you, again, to the chair and the ranking member for all of your work getting us to this point, and i look forward to working with you as we head towards the flo

madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, i know we have not yet concluded the postal reform bill, but i have come to the floor to speak on an amendment i intend to offer when we move to the reauthorization of the violence against women act. the amendment that i intend to offer is one that enjoys bipartisan support, and i hope that, as more senators learn about the content of this amendment and how it will strengthen the violence against women act, that they will join me and senator mark kirk of illinois, senator bennet of colorado in supporting it, as well as senator vitter from louisiana. i believe that it will strengthen the violence against women act that we will vote on presumably later today, probably tomorrow. i'm also glad to have the support for this amendment from the rape and incest network, rain; protect, and the texas association against sexual assault, as well as bear county district attorney -- in san antonio, texas -- judge susan reid

chair -- >> senator brown. >> thank you, madam chair. i first asked consent to offer substitute amendment to the filed amendment, co-sponsors, senator gillibrand and leahy. i introduced amendment on t-fab, senator casey did roughly the same time. the amendments are consolidated under his name. he asked plea to carry it today, if he couldn't get back here. i asked to offer the substitute amendment on t-fab listed at k.c. john gillibrand. >> do i have it right? >> it's kc 5. >> kc 5 amendment, without objection, the senator may proceed. >> thank you, madam chairwoman. we know that today under ffab, the emergency food assistance program, we've all seen in our states, probably each has met somebody who used to give food or money but are asking for food from the food banks. we know the kind of pressure they're under. that's why what the chair and senator roberts and others did when the whole issuen tfap, made an important difference. we need to do more i think, madam chair, to address ongoing need of food banks that each of our states are try

thank you, madam chairman. >> mr. dan. >> thank you, madam chairman. madam ambassador, good 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 impact on the iranians, certainly undermining the assad regime is very important. and at what point do we show the same resolve to the friends of syria that the russians have shown to th

>> thank you, madam chairman. i want to express my appreciation to senator conrad, senator baucus, for theirs work on this amendment. i was pleased to join with them on it. i think it's very important that we have a farm level option and that it's a fair farm level option. and that's what we provide here, is that the producer can select the kind of level option, or the farm level option, and is treated fairly in either case. that was vitally important. certainly on our part of the country, but i think to have that option there for all producers is -- it is truly, truly responsive to their needs and ensures that you know in a year where they have a loss, then they have help. and in a year where they don't, then they don't need help and so they don't have help. so i think it was, it's well structured. it's very important to providing the kind of farm bill that we want with the kind of safety net and protection, and help for our producers that we want. so, again, i thank them and i also thank both you and the ranking

i want to -- >> madam chair? >> -- without objection, let me just say the committee counsel is authorized to make technical and conforming changes consistent with the actions of the committee. and i want to thank everyone again for perfect work. >> madam chair? >> yes. >> i think there were five nos. >> yes. >> would the clerk repeat the final tally? >> sure. the total tally -- >> four present. one by proxy. >> i'm sorry. thank you, madam chair. >> let me just say in conclusion, again, this is a very historic day to have not only the major reforms we have but over $23 billion in deficit reduction. i don't know another committee that's worked together in a bipartisan basis to provide something that works for our ranchers, our farmers, consumers, taxpayers, those all across america and at the same time provides the kind of deficit reduction that we have. so we're addressing the needs of american agriculture. and don't forget, it's 16 million jobs. so thank you very, very much for all of your support and helping get

hastings: madam speaker f.e defeat the previous question i will offer an amendment to the rule to ensure that the house votes on the buffet rule which representative baldwin has introduced and i'm a co-sponsor of h.r. 39903 the paying the fair share act of 2012. this bill would ensure that people making over $1 million a year do not pay a lower tax rate than middle class americans. to discuss our amendment to this rule, i'm very pleased to yield to my good friend, ms. baldwin, the gentlewoman from wisconsin, three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from wisconsin is recognized for three minutes. ms. baldwin: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the gentleman from florida for the time. i rise today on behalf of the hardworking middle class families in wisconsin and across the country who have unfairly been paying at a higher tax rate than multimillionaires and billionaires. working wisconsin identities are struggling to find good paying jobs, pay their mortgages, send their kids to college and save f

thank you, madam chair. the products may be going overseas, but the jobs are created in our rural communities. and while i don't plan to offer my amendment for a stand-alone dairy margin insurance program, i strongly support this growth approach to risk management for dairy. i know we have regional differences here, and i respect that. but i hope to continue to work with you and others on the committee throughout this farm bill process to advance the dairy policy that reflects the industry's growing commitment to export opportunities. thank you again to the chair and the ranking member for all of your work getting us to this point, and i look forward to working with you as we head toward the floor. >> well, thank you very much. and we doin' tend to continue to work with you as we work to strike the right balance. that really is what the farm bill is about, and we'll continue to work with you. let me turn now to senator thune. i want to thank you in so many different ways. the foundation for what we're call o

madam president, i yield my time. thank you very much, madam president. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: i rise to speak about our federalist structure and the real danger of the federal government unduly interfering with the ability of states and localities to address activities and concerns in their communities. everyone agrees that violence against women is reprehensible. the violence against women act reauthorization has the honorable goal of assisting victims of domestic violence, but it oversteps the constitution's rightful limits on federal power. it interferes with the flexibility of states and localities that they should have in tailoring programs to meet particular needs of individual communities. and it fails to address problems of duplication and inefficiency. first, violent crimes are regulated and enforced almost exclusively by state governments. in fact, domestic violence is one of the few activities that the supreme court of the united states has specifically said that congress may not regulate under the commerce clau

we'll now move on to title three, which is trade. >> madam chair. >> excuse me. >>. >> madam chair, thank you. i'd like to call up johanns aem four. this amendment i have described as the agriculture trade enhancement study, what it does is it calls for a study to consider a re-organization of the trade function at the usda. trade is absolutely trittical to american agriculture. the u.s. exported $136 billion last year over $5 billion of that was from nebraska. one out of every three acres is of production goes into the foreign marketplace. increasing population, affluence, urbanization it's going to require our farmers to grow more and it's going to require our farmers to do it more efficiently and put tremendous pressure on our trade functions. there will be increased dmabd for ag products like nebraska beef, michigan cherries. thus it's increasingly important that usda ensure that our trade is open and it is based on science. as a former ag secretary i know while the importance of the department responding quickly and aggressively to sbs and other nontariff trade barriers, if he was a

hastings: thank you, madam chairman. madam chairman, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. hastings: madam chairman, i rise in strong support of h.r. 4089, the sportsmen's heritage act of 2012. this legislation protects the traditional right of america's sportsmen to hunt, fish from arbitrary and unjustified bureaucratic restrictions. it will limit government roadblocks on certain public lands and guard against new regulations that threaten hunting and fishing. this is a bipartisan bill, madam chairman. it has a bipartisan sponsorship of the republicans and democrat chairs of the congressional sportsmen congressional, mr. miller of florida, mr. ross of arkansas, as well as the caucus vice chairs, mr. latta of ohio, and mr. shuler of north carolina. this bill also has the broad support of america's recreational fishing, hunting, shooting and wildlife conservation community and at the appropriate time i'll include two letters, one from over 35 sportsmen organizations and one from the association of fish and wildlife agencies for the

langevin: thank you, madam chair. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the bill, madam chair that we are considering today, creates a voluntary information sharing network which would provide owners of infrastructure with valuable threat information that would help secure their networks from cyberattack. unfortunately, the legislation specifies it applies only to, and i quote, private sector entities and utilities. while utilities is defined extremely broadly in the legislation as any entity that provides essential services, including telecommunications and transportation providers, there remains the possibility that the definition may exclude pieces of our critical infrastructure that have significant cybervulnerability. my amendment which i'm offering with my good friend mr. lungren of california, strikes the uses of the -- uses of the words utilities and replaces it in etch instance with the phrase critical infrastructure owners and operators. this is a common sense way to avoid potential confusion and elimb

so thank you, madam chair. >> i thank the gentleman. the time has expired. the chair now recognize sarbanes for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair. thank you for being here, mr. secretary. obviously, very important issue for us, and i want to commend the administration and you and other cabinet level officials for the commitment. and i think much more coordinated commitment to reviving american manufacturing. i am very focused on some of the special initiatives that have been undertaken at nist. you referenced nist in your comments. in particular, the manufacturing extension partnership which i know you're familiar with. within that, in the last couple of years, there's been a special outreach effort called the supplier scouting initiative. and i don't know if you are familiar with that or not, but basically, the idea there is to work harder to find a match between these contracting opportunities with the federal government and domestic manufacturers and suppliers and vendors so that we don't have as many instances where somebody is applying or assertin

. >> well, thank you, madame chairman. you had mentioned a comment made by senator reid and let me elaborate a little bit more on that. i was surprised when i say the fact that it was held in las vegas would have something to do with it. we're dealing with corrupt people here, madame chairman and what happened in las vegas would just as likely happen if it had been held in chicago or new york or anyplace else. so i think it's totally unfair for people to somehow draw a line there. i do thank you for holding the hearing. i've had a long history with this committee before i came to the senate in '94. i spent eight years on the committee over in the house and it happened that we were a minority but i was the ranking member on the gsa subcommittee and when you look at the overwhelming stuff they deal with, it is, if there's anyone who has a propensity to do something dishonest, that's where they ought to be. they deal with huge numbers and i've always been concerned about that and the long history of this happening. but the --

senator inhofe. >> thank you, madam chairman. getting back to all of the above, which was really our mantra, and we are real sincere on that, and the above includes coal. there's been a lot of concern that the mac standards are so strict, that no new coal-fire generating stations can be build. we know the existing ones because contracts are being canceled as we speak. information in the rule-making document indicates that the new unit mac standard was set using performance data from logan units. the epa posted a chart and the doc is showing six separate test results with logan failing the standard five out of six times and a similar situation in chambers. well, we've told the public that the new unit mac standards would not prevent new units from being built, but yet your own data seems to show that the very units you us a to set a standard would fail a compliance test. am i wrong on that? >> yes, i believe i disagree with you on that, sir. the mercury and air toxic standards are based on achievable technology for the best 12%. t

thank you madam chairman. i assume the record will be kept open. >> the record will be kept open for questions. and we then ask can the department to respond within 30 days. senators may submit additional questions. we ask the department to respond within 30 days. before i recess the committee, i'm going to conclude the hearing the way i began. as i listen to the questions, the answers, we've looked at the budget in the short time that we have to review, i want to end the hearing the way i began, which is to thank the men and women who work at the justice department. i've been on this subcommittee a long time. it's been a great blessing and a great honor. and when i think about it the way the scope and complexity of what our citizens and our country face and what our justice department faces, it's an amazing job from community safety to national safety, just the -- in the last decade the expansion and the national security portfolio and the transformation of agencies. the fbi is not -- you know, jay edgar hoov

madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: after our work on this important bill to reform the postal service is complete we will be turning to another important bill, one that has a long history of bipartisan support. that bill, the violence against women act act is law that has changed the way we think about violence against women in the united states. the violence against women act is one of the great legislative success stories of this generation. since it was first passed in 1994 and i will tell you that then-senator biden was involved in that -- drafting that legislation, led that effort and someone who we miss very dearly in minnesota, paul wellstone and his wife sheila were also involved in getting this important bill passed. since that time, annual domestic violence rates have fallen by 50%. as communities nationwide have stopped looking at these issues as family issues and started treating domestic violence and sexual assault as a serious crimes that t

>> madam chair. >> senator casey. >> madam chair, i have one amendment that i would like to offer. and make a few comments first. we know that agriculture provides a critical source of income to many and many rural americans and remains the backbone of rural economies i know across the commonwealth of pennsylvania as well as the country. farming is essential to rural development. local farms are job creators in our communities. >> excuse me, senator casey. we are not clear on which aem if you could just reiterate the number. >> number one. >> thank you very much. casey number one. >> this aem will support local farm businesses which are an essential source of economic activity and vital to getting healthy local food from farm to table. this amendment enhances local food systems and encourages production of food for local communities through the rural micro entrepreneur assistance program. the amendment will support jobs in ag production by supporting local food entrepreneurs can supply food to local distribution chains. these organizations help local producers to successfully meet

well, thank you, madam chairwoman. if possible, i'd like to return the compliments that other senators have given to you, and i say "if possible" because i don't know if -- i'd compliment you even more, but they compliment you so well. you have worked so hard to get us here. you know, the numeral telephone calls i've received from you, which i deeply appreciate, the calls i've made to you, i hope you appreciate as we try to work all this out. i mean, you're always there. you work -- i don't know anyone who works harder than you and is more receptive than you. you've been just terrific in helping put this bill together. there were times i wunltd sure we were going to make it, but you hung in there, you were determined to get a solid result. and i for one think i can speak for virtually every member of this committee and say how much we appreciate it. the same with the senator from kansas. i'm not sure if i was surprised or not surprised how hard you worked to make all this happen. basically not surprised because you kno

madam clerk, can we go to the calendar? >> these are without reference, and some will be called separately -- separately and considered. president chiu: colleagues, are there any items that you'd like to sever? i would like to sever item 43. supervisor elsbernd? 42. 41 and 44. madam clerk. clerk calvillo: [reading roll] there are 10 ayes. president chiu: those items are adopted. item 42. clerk calvillo: item number 42, to ensure that individual will only be detained pursuant to an immigration and customs enforcement told. president chiu: supervisor elsbernd has made a motion to continue, seconded by supervisor campus. if we continue that, that should be the case. madam clerk, which you please call item no. 43? clerk calvillo: item number 43, a resolution urging the san francisco municipal transportation agency to permit strollers on new vehicles. president chiu: there is the current policy on the strollers and the muni vehicles, a permit which many parents would say has prohibited their ability to bring in young children th

and we've done it, again, madam chairman, in a bipartisan fashion. thank you for bringing us to this point today. and let's pass this farm bill. >> well, thank you very, very much for your comments. and now we want to hear from members. and as we do with a markup, we'll recognize members in order of seniority, alternating from one side to the other. and so senator leahy. >> well, thank you, madam chairwoman and also ranking member roberts. i know you and i discussed this many, many times. late last night, we did. i was able to go home and go to bed. i know you stayed up working. and i think of the fact that you two worked together, and i looked down at the end of this room at the picture painted of senator lugar and myself. we chaired -- we each chaired this committee many different times. we were each ranking members different time. and we found getting farm bills, you work together in a bipartisan fashion. i know i -- it was great working with senator lugar on that, and i've worked with senator roberts and you. it's the only way it works. you don't

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 another thing that's very, very important to rhode island is that there be a proper enforcement of the clean air act. we are a downwind stayed. 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 engage 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. it's not a rhode island and downwind state sentiment. 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. 7

. >> thank you madam chairman.elcome to your leadership team as well as welcome to the veteran service organization here this morning. we are here today to review the president's budgett request for the department of veterans affairs for fiscal year 2013 which includes an increase in spending. i continue to believe that it is important that we provide adequate funding so that veterans of all generations will be able to receive the benefits and services they have earned and deserved without hassles or delays but we also need to analyze the budget request to be sure we spend the taxpayer's money wisely and more importantly that the funding will actually lead to better outcomes for veterans, their families and their survivors. as we will discuss today i have questions about whether that is the case for several areas of today's budget hearing. the budget for mental health care includes an advanced appropriations request. if adopted it will represent a 4% increase and a 66% increase over the '08 level. at hearings last

senator akaka. >> thank you, madam chairman. general shinseki, as we know, we often face challenges in treating our veterans who live in many rural and remote areas. this is especially true of places like alaska and hawaii, where you just can't get into some place business jumping in a car and driving there. i know that you're working on an m.o.u. with the indian health service to find solutions to help provide services to our native american veterans. and i commend you and all you're involved in these efforts. mr. secretary, can i get your commitment to look into possible ways of working with the native hawaiian health care systems and native american veteran systems to provide services for in this case native hawaiian veterans wh

madam chair, thanks for holding this hearing. i look forward to hearing from our witnesses. >> thank you senator portman. if our first panel of witnesses could come forward. while you are doing that, i will introduce you. richard ginman assumed the position of director of defense procurement and acquisition policy. he retired after 30 years of service in 2000. prior to assuming his current position he was principal deputy to the director from 2008 into 2010. and deputy director contingency contract and acquisition policy from 2010 until assuming the position as director. patrick kennedy has served as undersecretary for management for the united states department of state since 2007. he has been with the department of state for 39 years and has held positions including director of the office of management policy, right sizing innovation, assistant secretary for administration, u.s. representative to the u.n. for management and reform, chief of staff of the coalition provisional authority in iraq and deputy director of national int

thank you. >> thank you very much. >> madam secretary, thank you for being here today. i think you earned a well-deserved respect on both sides of the aisle the way you worked with all of us on both sides of the aisle and i thank you for that. i really do. i thank you for coming before a committee that doesn't do authorizing. you are preventing the budget and much of this is to the appropriations committee. there may be a few meetings regarding this, but it's nice of to you come up anyway. we won't impact that in any way. one of the things we did impact was a star treaty. we worked with them to work through the star treaty. i supported the star treaty and we worked closely with the office to make sure all of the compliments of the treaty were put in place. one of the big components is if we are going to reduce the number of nuclear arms we have in this country, we ought to make sure the ones that we have work. that was a rational thing and we have guided systems that have tubes like all the black and white televisions and to at least have them parade as well as my black

thank you, madame chairman. >> thank you, madame chair. mr.r, the -- what were some of the red flags that were overlooked in regard to this? this stuff is pretty blatant. what was there that people didn't pick up that they should have picked up? >> almost everything, senator. when you have a select number of individuals invited to a party where food is paid for by the taxpayer, somebody somewhere should have -- some red flag should have popped up and said, oops. this isn't right. that didn't happen. and we have some of our highest ranking officials attend these networking parties. and private receptions in these rooms. >> and so was that -- i mean, was that budgeted? were there receipts? were they falsified or -- >> we went through all the receipts. it was billed to the federal government. it took a long time to find because some of the bills are on purchase cards, credit cards. some of the bills are in budget for the conference. some of the bills came out of the operating fund for the public buildings. they were all over the place. >> so who

a senator: madam president? mr. lieberman: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. lieberman: awhile back we skipped over the mccaskill-merkley amendment because we were working on a modification. a modification is ready now and i ask unanimous consent that we proceed to the mccaskill-merkley amendment number 2031. the presiding officer: is there objection? mrs. boxer: madam president? the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mrs. mccaskill: i call up 2031 and ask consent that it be modified with changes at the desk. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from missouri mrs. mccaskill, proposes an amendment numbered 2031 as modified. mrs. mccaskill: i ask consent that further reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. mccaskill: madam president this amendment reflects the efforts of a lot of people to deal with

chair. >> senator udall. >> thank you, madam chair. good to be with you today and really appreciate you doing this hearing. i think it's tremendously important to focus on the issues that the gsa does -- it does focus on. i'm going to talk a little bit about new mexico here. at the house hearings in our hearing today, many listed the out rages in this wasteful, over-the-top conference. i'm not going to spend a lot of time on that. mind reader, sushi, luxury suites. when you're wasting taxpayer money, what happens in vegas does not stay in vegas. so, let's take a little bit more of a look here at this conference in terms of the big picture. and what's -- my first question will focus on all of these things you've done in the past. first to hit on new mexico. from a new mexico perspective, this conference scandal is also especially worrisome for two reasons. first, i'm disappointed that this conference involved the western regions of gsa, of which new mexico is a part, which is in the southwest region, region seven. secondly, the scandal

thank you, madam chairman. >> senator brown? >> thank you, madam chair. thank you 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 professionals dedicated to the dallas bank fraud task force during the savings and loan era. he also suggested -- mr. angelides also suggested congress should extend the statute of limitations for financial institutions fraud 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. you, of course, are aware of the public sentiment of anxiety, frustration, outrage, pick your noun, towards the fact that so few peopl

chairman. >> thank you, madame chairman. just to add one more question to lisa's line, and i think she has taken the lead on this and properly so, but i do commend the fbi agent who came forward, who just couldn't sit back and let a person be accused, go through a trial, lose an election and then all based on very bad misconduct on the part of the agencies that we look 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 in some of the alleged misconduct, and my question to you is, what are you doing to deal with the allegations 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 in convict senator stephens? >> well, at the outset, justice department opr led the investigation. we participated and contributed to that investigation to the extent that individuals within the bureau were implicat

i want to thank you, madame secretary. before i finish, i do want to say i agree with my colleagues who say that we need to do something about cyber security. there's no question about that. i just think we need to get the legislation right. such that the bill does not unnecessarily sacrifice civil liberties. and i thank you so much for your service and for being here. and for your answers. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, senator franken. senator sessions? >> thank you, mr. chairman. your medioric rise to the chairmanship arises over senator franken's. >> mine was -- [ muted ] that's neither here nor there. we have the secretary and i don't think we should squabble over that. >> we're glad to have both of you fine senators here. madame chairman, this is homeland security, a big operation. i guess it's the third largest personnel operation or second in our government. >> i think it's the third largest, yes, sir. >> third. over 200,000 people. it's cobbled together. i've got to say, i was uneasy about that bill. as

very pleased to madame chair, u.s.agreed to my amendment because the program much needed authority to effectively protect and enforce organic integrity albeit consumers confidence in the brand. the mark we are considering today also has support for the antihunger programs such as supplemental nutrition assistance programs, emergency food assistance program, not just important in vermont. it is every part of the country and i will continue to work with the bush to view to make it a reality and i want to applaud the work by both of the chair and the ranking member to prove that national quality of food aid and on and on and i will put the rest of the in the record but this is the culture of forestry at the both of you have recognized all three of them and i applaud you for it. it's not an easy job. >> thank you very much. senator leahy, we appreciate your relationship as the champion helping us get this right as well as organic and nutrition and other areas as well. now, someone else who has been a terrific leader, senat

>> thank you, madam chair. mr. chairman, commissioner, thanks for being here. i'm intrigued, it's sort of nice to go last every now and then because you hear all the questions and there's a lot of good dialogue. mr. yoder really gets to the heart of it all. that is as we sit here on this panel and we look at the request that's put before us, we realize the dire condition our nation's in from a fiscal perspective, i have to say it troubles me a little bit that, you know, what's put before us is really not going to save our nation in any way. it's almost to me appears to be a deferance to other agencies, other departments, other areas that must take responsibility for all this crazy spending that's going on in washington when i think it needs to be addressed in totality by all, all agencies and departments. so if you could help me a little bit with the history of the cfpb and how, where that departure occurs, where that funding goes. i know it was discussed a little bit when i was coming in, but help me understand that, where the timeline and how that tracks and

so thank you, madam chair. >> thank you, madam chair. >> i thank the gentleman. his time is expired. the chair now recognizes mr. sarbanes for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair. thank you for being here, mr. secretary. obviously, very important issue for us. and i want to commend the administration and you, and other cabinet level officials, for the commitment, and i think much more corded commitment to reviving american manufacturing. i'm very focused on some of the special initiatives that have been undertaken at nist. you referenced nist in your comments, and particular there's the manufacturing extension partnership, which i know you're familiar with. within that, in the last couple of years, there's been a special outreach effort called the supplier scouting initiative, and i don't know if you're familiar with that or not, but basically the idea there is to work harder to find a match between these contracting opportunities with the federal government and domestic manufacturers and suppliers and vendors, so that we don't have as many instances where so

stearns for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair. is it true that prescription drug overdose deaths now surpass our car-related fatalities? >> it's true that all overdose deaths from drew, misuse and abuse, not accidental are the number one cause of accidental death in this country, ahead of gunshot wounds and ahead of car crash deaths, driven by prescription drugs. >> that's a startling fact, don't you think? >> yes. >> do you think based upon that that we should have a radical change in our approach? >> i think that we haven't gotten anywhere near the attention or near the traction to something that is killing more people in this country than the car. >> 10 or 20 years ago i wouldn't find the statistic like it is today? >> not at all. >> and why do you think that has occurred? >> one, i think the driver of the prescription drugs as we've been -- as has been mentioned a little bit, people don't see them as addictive, they don't see them as dangerous and they don't see them as deadly. because they're after all a prescription. >> i th

. >> thank you madam chairwoman. mr. secretary, i come from this a little perhaps differently than you. you talked about an energy plan. the energy plan that i think you and the administration supports is based upon using solar panels, wind panels, thermal, solar thermal devices and things like that. so it seems to me if we're talking about, where are the jobs, if we use our natural resources in this country, fracking of gas, oil and shale, burning clean coal, offshore drilling, anwr, the keystone pipe. that would create a plethora of new jobs. that's where we come from a different perspective here. i read in a quote in the "l.a. times" recently that you support the reauthorization of the export/import bank. is that true? i think that's in your statement here that you are asking for congress to reauthorize it. that's true? >> yes, it is true. >> one of the things i have with that, when i looked at their 7 annual report, they gave $10 million loan guarantees to solyndra. and i share the oversight investigation committee o

secretary of state, madame clinton, you shattered the glass ceiling like someone else with 18 million votes. i was struggling very hard with zero vote. when i last saw hillary, she was being introduced at the woman of the world's summit in new york. muriel actually handed her an oscar. i can surely say that nobody has ever given me an oscar. although, although, inside job got the oscar for documentary films. holy cow. that was my last quote in the film. very, very teeny bit. now i thought maybe i can outdo madame secretary of state, so i worked really hard on my twitter account. i even turned into a wao-bo so i have hundreds of thousands of chinese followers. but you know, the tweets from lagarde, forget it. they can't possibly compete with the texts from hillary. i'm sure you've all seen the photo, there she is, hillary, sitting in a military plane with dark glasses on, reading her messages on blackberry surrounded by very tense and anxious men, very cool. very cool. my favorite text from hillary is the one where rachel maddow asks her, who runs the world? 140 character response? for

thank you, madame chairman. >> thank you, madame chair. mr. miller, the -- what were some of the red flags that were overlooked in regard to this? this stuff is pretty blatant. what was there that people didn't pick up that they should have picked up? >> almost everything, senator. when you have a select number of individuals invited to a party where food is paid for by the taxpayer, somebody somewhere should have -- some red flag should have popped up and said, oops. this isn't right. that didn't happen. and we have some of our highest ranking officials attend these networking parties. and private receptions in these rooms. >> and so was that -- i mean, was that budgeted? were there receipts? were those things falsified or -- >> we went through all the receipts. it was billed to the federal government. it took a long time to find because some of the bills are on purchase cards, credit cards. some of the bills are in budget for the conference. some of the bills came out of the operating fund for the public buildings. they were all over the pla