are built on are made of reeds and dirt.he reeds also provide fuel for the fire. one of his two wifes spents a lot of the day trying to keep the children fed. >> these are just the youngest of his 11 children. lunge is bread and fired fish, the same thing they eat every day. around the water he asks the fisherman about the day's catch. it is pain staking but a few pounds of these fish will bring enough to live on for the day. these people want the marshes restored not because of the beauty, and the ecology, and nature. in fact, this is about economic restoration. this is -- these people want the marshes restored because it is a way of life, it is a way to make a living without having an education. without having to live in the city. they can go out to the marsh, harvest enough reeds come back here and sell it and make a couple of bucks. it is about making a living from nature. and drankly, that's the best kind of restoration. >> now that there's enough water marshes are again a stop on the migratory bird path. >> that's like

reed: thank you, madam president. madam president, i come to the floor -- the presiding officer: quorum call. mr. reed: excuse me. madam president, i would ask that the calling of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: thank you, madam president. i come to the floor this evening to express my hope that the bipartisan effort that brought us this three-month bill here to the floor can be sustained as we go forward so that we can swiftly help the 1.3 million long-term unemployed workers who are cut off from these benefits on december 28. as many of my colleagues have discovered going back to their home states they are in many cases desperate. this was the difference between things that we take for granted, having a car to be able to get to a job interview, having a cell phone so that you can get a message saying you have a job interview. paying for heat in cold weather, putting groceries on the table. for many people, this is truly an emergency. that's why working with senator h

reed of rhode island, proposes amendment numbered 2631. mr. reid: i ask for the yeas and nays on that amendment, madam president. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. reid: i have a second-degree amendment at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an amendment numbered 2632 to amendment numbered 2631. mr. reid: i have a cloture motion on the reed of rhode island amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the amendment numbered 2631 to s. 1845, a bill to provide for the extension of certain unemployment benefits and for other purposes. signed by 17 senators follows -- reid of never -- mr. reid reid: with the consentf the senate, i ask that the names not be read. the presiding officer: is there obje

reed: thank you very much, madam president. i now ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment to call up my amendment, number 2703. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. reed: thank you. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: mr. reed proposes an amendment numbered 2703. mr. reed: i would scu ask unanimous consent to waive the reading of the amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: madam president, my amendment would require the federal emergency management agency to study and report on the advisability of establishing voluntary community-based flood insurance policies under the national flood insurance program, the nfip. the government accountability office would require to review and comment on the study. the study will help answer questions about how such voluntary community-based policies could be implemented within the national flood insurance program. it does not commit fema, the congress, or local communities to take any action. it simply ca

you cannot use technology to make a bad candidate good you can only elect a good candidate and mr reed let me push you on that you just said that four years is not that long of a time but to me when you are sitting around the room when it will. happen big country can get through anything i don't like look at syrian for you know difference between life and death so a lot can happen in that period if that's where you have to make sure you elect the right president how do you really make sure if as you just agreed that you are applying all that marketing tools to the political campaigns but you're making the jump and i think this is an important jump distinction is that even with a product we're talking about a product i can say that this is the best stereo and i can use all the marketing in the world but if the stereo sucks it doesn't matter how much money i pour into marketing i think that happens a lot with candidates where you have candidates that aren't very good and you've kind of it's they're very good and the people largely choose which one they want regardless of the marketing th

that was atlanta's mayor, kasim reed.aking their heads because he probably didn't give them the answers that they really wanted to hear. one of them might be my colleague, kyra phillips, who has quite the horror story to tell. >> i am sitting here burning up, taking notes from what he said. it is like what i heard at the press conference at 11:00 last night when i finally got myself home after an eight-hour commute, ditching my car and walking in the snow and ice, falling three times, to get home to my twins. here is what just drives me nuts. he is talking about what he is doing now but he did noted address what they did not do prior to this. they knew this was coming. this was a combination of bad forecasting and no planning. when they held that press conference last night, one of the emergency response individuals got up there and said, we understand your pain. it took us about an hour and a half to get here as well. an hour and a half. say that to the woman at the cvs who was eight months pregnant and couldn't leave an

joining us now is the mayor of atlanta, kasim reed, mayor since 2010. mr. mayor, thanks for joining us. first question: has everyone been rescued? >> the answer is no. everyone. in the city of atlanta is fine, but we still have interstates that are blocked and congested and have frozen ice so we're working to clear up the interstates right now with our state partner. >> pelley: mr. mayor, you learned some bitter lessons as mayor of at than in 2011 when there was another big ice storm that had a similar effect. why was this ice storm not handledded any better than 2011? >> well, scott, i would push back on that. we here in day one of this snow event and we have our city moving again with the exception of the freeways. during 2011, that was a four-day event that had much worse results than this. >> pelley: so you would say that the situation in the city of atlanta, which you're responsible for, is what now? >> i would say that it's significantly improving. 80% of our roads are passable. we had zero fatalities. we had very few major vehicle accidents. we had 7

they identified her as kayla reed. kayla's mother had reported her missing a month before and to this day no one has ever been charged in the case. although kayla's aunt says she has her suspicions who killed kayla. mike mibach had this look back at the case in february 2012. >> reporter: a bay area teenager with a big green and big dreams at age 15kayla reed's future looked bright. but in early december 2005 the light turned dark. young kayla disappeared. on january 10, 2006, her body was found in this central valley canal and a homicide investigation was under way. two weeks later at this candlelight vigil in livermore. there was angel sheets, kayla reed's mother. the same woman who initially reported kayla missing from her own townhouse. michelle lowes lived right next door. >> we told them that we heard, you know them screaming a lot and fighting a lot. when i first heard about it, i thought that angel might be involved somehow. >> reporter: so did livermore police. nearly two years after kayla's body was found. an

welcome back to worlds apart from really discussing politics and technology of at harper reed who used to work for president obama as the chief technology officer mr reed i know that at some point of your life you go back addicted to the so-called personal informatics tracking your way to. what have you stopped and i wonder if it's possible to develop. some sort of application that would allow or did they were both politicians performance on the yardstick that they are personally interested in you know people editions and there's a few really good organizations that are doing this right now one of my favorites is pro publica and the united states is doing a lot of work to build software around journalism and politics to try and make sure that the people we're electing are actually doing the things and saying the things in our fact checked i think that's a really good summary of it because a lot of times especially when it comes to congress you have a lot of words that are being said and there's so much just kind of b.s. you never know what's real and so there's a lot of good organizati

[laughter] so please join me in thanking bruce reed. [applause] i am, and by the way, there's more room up front. i know it looks very tight up there, so if people want to move up a bit, they can. i am thrilled to be here tonight with my wife, carla, to honor al who has made so many incredible contributions to this country over the last 5 years. 25 years. and i'm not going to go through the full list of all of the programs, whether it's the earned income tax credit or national service or welfare reform. there's such a long list of ideas that he and will and bruise and the whole team at the dlc and the ppi championed for so long. i will never forget back in '99 or 2000 when president clinton spoke to a gathering of the dlc up in hyde park, new york. and i was so fortunate to be day, and i got to remember to president chinton speak for about -- clinton speak for about 45 minutes basically without a note. and he talked for 45 minutes straight. this was at the end of his administration. about all the accomplishments that they had achieved o

reed: mr. president, could you instruct me when i reach the four-minute mark, so i may reserve a minute at the very end? the presiding officer: yes. mr. reed: thank you, mr. president. i rise to urge all my colleagues to support this notion to bring this legislation to the floor to begin a debate. 1.3 million americans have been pushed off an economic cliff on december 28 when their unemployment benefits or extended benefits ended. they're searching for work. they have to search for work. they're in a market where there is typically two or three applicants for one job. yesterday i read a story from "the washington post" that talked about the opening of a new dairy plant in maryland. they're expecting a lot of interest in the 36 jobs. 1,600 applicants. i would wager many of those applicants never thought in their lives after being the vice president of sales in a company or a sophisticated manager of a financial aspects of a company would be applying to work in a dairy. someone i expect might ev

mayor reed is a rising star in the democratic party and gop says mayor reed has just the same amount of problems as governor diehl did. interestingly enough, i don't think -- the democrats hope to get phil brown from the state of georgia. >> daughter of former senator running for the senate and still facing a primary but has been doing national fundraising as well. the big henry waxman retirement announcement today. another democrat, first to you, luke, that's your beat on the hill there. then i went chris to weigh in on it. joining george miller already from the pelosi forces, the california delegation, that's 40 years in the house. >> it's a tremendous amount of experience. two things, greg walden, who is chairman of the nrc, representative from oregon, he met with us about an hour ago, this is proof that democrats do not believe they can win the house this cycle. george miller and henry waxman who are like this with nancy pelosi, it's proof that they are retiring because this know she can't get that back. if she were, they would be in a very powerful position. number two, i think

reed like snen >> justin came into the conference room and danced on the table and sang on the table.away the label staff. it was an unknown entity, but i think l.a. reed being very sharp and perceptive just saw that spark and signed him really quickly. >> usher became his mentor and introduced his protege to the world in this youtube video. >> recording artist justin bieber, getting ready to go down. >> justin was pretty much groomed by usher, he was groomed by the best. you watch a justin bieber performance and you see usher in justin bieber. ♪ >> bieber would break records just months after the release of his first album. in 2010, his song "baby" became the most watched youtube video ever. >> when justin released his first single, he immediately became a superstar. he had fans running after him. he had to increase his security. so he immediately just had this wild life. >> bieber was stealing the spotlight from taylor swift at madison square garden. appearing on dick clark's new year's eve show. ♪ and performing for the president. >> i've done a lot of cool things. i got to present

called as, just as many of us were leaving, reed and heller forward. proposal the president, from his vacation, called both senators and asked how he could help. the administration has been out there continually. we you may have noted that don't always have 100% control over the united states congress. the record is pretty clear that the president and his secretary of d labor have aggressively been ushing for this both in december, both in the break, and as quickly as possible as we returned. >> gene, thank you very much. >> thank you. is this the last time that we are going to hear from you in this role or this administration from this podium? is there any sort of thought that you want my to share? >> i don't know when jay is asking me back. i will probably be here for -- i january here for all of quite a lot of february as well. jeff and i were talking yesterday and i'm quite when march comes i will be somewhere else. >> a lot of stories this weekend the 50th on anniversary of the war on poverty. you saw the clinton bush years on and and now the obam

reed: i will be happy to. mr. durbin: i would like to direct a question to the senator from rhode island through the chair. there's been debate on the floor here, and we've heard it off the floor, about whether or not we should pay for unemployment benefits. historically, if i'm not mistaken, most of the decisions to extend unemployment insurance benefits have been considered emergency measures and not paid for. and now there's a suggestion from many republicans that we need to cut spending in areas to compensate for these extension of unemployment benefits, which if i am nea not mistaken are ine area of $26 billion a year. one of the suggestions yesterday from the republican senate leader mitch mcconnell would address, is not surprisingly, the affordable care act, so-called obamacare, and would eliminate the basis for one of the basic protections in that law. what senator mcconnell proposed yesterday was to eliminate the responsibility of every individual who had health insurance that was put in the law so we cou

reed like then?to the conference room and danced on the table and sang on the table. just really blew away the label staff. it was an unknown entity, but i think l.a. reed being very sharp and perceptive just saw that spark and signed him really quickly. >> usher became his mentor and introduced his protege to the world in this youtube video. >> recording artist justin bieber, getting ready to go down. >> justin was pretty much groomed by usher, he was groomed by the best. you watch a justin bieber performance and you see usher in justin bieber. ♪ >> bieber would break records just months after the release of his first album. in 2010, his song "baby" became the most watched youtube video ever. >> when justin released his first single, he immediately became a superstar. he had fans running after him. he had to increase his security. so he immediately just had this wild life. >> bieber was stealing the spotlight from taylor swift at madison square garden. appearing on dick clark's new year's eve show.

that was mayor kasim reed from an earlier news conference. these incredible images have been coming in all day. roads and interstates turned into park lots. cars crawling along. we've heard from folks who say that they were trapped on highways, upwards of seven, eight hours. that winter storm wreaking havoc. paralyzing not just the area around atlanta. southern states in general. 900 accidents reported in the greater atlanta area. almost eerie to see this happening just outside america's ninth largest city. these are some images from douglas county just west of atlanta. graveyard of cars and tractor trailers. the governor there is saying that these 18 wheelers have been a major part of the problem. these 18 wheelers that have gotten jackknifed on the interstate. blocking regular cars from passing. a lot of these cars haven't moved since yesterday afternoon, last night. several reports of people who say they had no choice but to spend the night in their vehicles. the governor saying that as of last night midnight there were roughly 100 school

. >> reporter: that's why san jose mayor chuck reed is crying foul over state attorney general kamala harris' official rewording of the title and summary of a public employee pension reform measure that reed and others hope to put before voters. for starters, the word reform isn't even there. >> reform is a word that's popular with the voters, i think. >> reporter: reed also says the attorney general threw in language that is both loaded and inaccurate. for example, the summary issued by harris says that the proposal would, quote, eliminate constitutional protections, unquote, for pensions to public employee workers including teachers, nurses and peace officers. three groups of workers who are very popular with voters. >> it's inaccurate. her language would have the average voter believe that on election day, there are no more vested rights for state employees. >> reporter: reed said the measure would let workers keep what they have earned so far but it would allow cities and counties and the state to renegotiate benefits in future contracts. it's no secret that harris was elected wit

now, mayor kasim reed insists they started spreading salt on the roadways at 9:00. now, it did start snowing until about, oh, 1:00, per se, right? at that time everybody left. which meant the salt trucks couldn't get through the traffic to resalt the roads. what effect do you think that had, chad? >> well, i grew up in buffalo. let me tell you, when we knew snow was coming, the roads were white before it snowed. because they salted the heck out of everything when they knew snow was coming so that those first snowflakes didn't stick at all. and we had a good brine. this is an issue where nobody wants to take responsibility. these are my streets. no those are your streets. we don't care of the interstates. someone has to do everything at some point in time. but of the thousands of miles of roads in atlanta, we simply have never purchased the amount of equipment necessary. why would you in a city that gets one snow event every three years, why would you buy 500 snowplows and salt trucks and have them sit around for 1,000 days, waiting for the next event? that's the iss

rhode island senator jack reed co-sponsored that legislation and joins me now. happy new year. thanks for being with us. >> happy new year. >> give me your best argument on why it should be extended without paying for it. >> our extension is just for three months, so the finance committee, the committee of jurisdiction can look at the appropriate way to pay for it if necessary. most times we have passed emergency unemployment extension bills without paying for it. we've done it a number of times since 2008. but the best way to do that is not on the floor, various ad hoc proposals, it's the work of the committee. our bill, senator heller's bill and my bill gives the time to do that and allows 1.3 million americans thrown off the cliff to begin to get some support, continue to get some support and if we don't act, the 1.3 million will grow by about 3 million more people this year. so this is something we can do while we look at the longer term aspects of the program. >> do you have the votes? >> we're working awfully hard. we've got great support. it's bipartisan. senator heller'

there's no evidence reed's life was ever in darrening. a woman was also harassed by reed for texting during a movie back in december. >>> americans still reacting to the explosive tell all book from former defense secretary robert gates. kelly wright is here with playing with party politics in washington. good morning. >> robert gates says he is not happy with >> senas secretary of defense i prepared five budgets and not once did i have an appropriations bill at the beginning of the fiscal year fighting two wars we were being dribbled out money two and three months at a time to sustain it. then they complain about how the department of defense is poorly managed>> gates writes he was surprised to hear of the former siktd ry of state hillary clinton and he supported the surge in iraq because she was running against then senator barack obama for president. >> in the whole 2 and a half years we served together there was the only time i ever heard secretary clinton ever mention domestic politics in terms of her views for recommendations on dec

another, kasim reed, you failed the people of atlanta once again.is accepting blame. >> i'm not going to get into that blame game, but the crisis that we're going through is across the region. so if you look at anybody's street in any community across the entire region, there's no one who is doing any better job than we're doing in the city of atlanta. >> well, i talked to some of your meteorologists, and let me say that there were a couple who said they were disagreeing with the national weather service. >> reporter: a sober tone from the mayor and the governor as they review the response wednesday but representatives from both the mayor's and the governor's offices confirm the two were together at an awards ceremony tuesday at an atlanta ritz carlton. governor deal posted this picture and the tweet, i was honored to introduce mayor kasim reeds a he was named 2014 georgian of the year. congratulations. hours after mayor reed received his hardware, brittany louise was forced to abandon her car and sleep in the hardware section of an area home depot.

. >> thank you, senator reed, and thank you for your leadership on this. you and senator heller made this a bipartisan vote. it was very good news to see 60 votes to move forward. it's good not just for the 1.3 million families who will benefit, but it's also going to be good for the economy of the united states. the congressional budget office and numerous economists, including mark zandi, have indicated this is one of the best things we have can do to help keep the money in the economy, keep it stimulated. it's a good way to spend public dollars to encourage private sector response. this is good for families, but it's also going to be good for our economy as we know that people who get unemployment insurance are going to spend those dollars. they are not going to put them in the bank. as senator reed said, how do we create jobs? this is one of the challenges we have. making sure that people can still go out and look for work, those dollars can be used to buy gasoline, pay for groceries, pay people's rent is important because it keeps a lot of other peopl

i'm rebekah king reed. this week we're in the win chester mystery house in san jose.it's one of the bay area's interesting places. there are acres of gorgeous gardens. and the fortune in the tiffany windows. we kept car penters working nonstop for 38 years building this lavish mansion. later, we'll meet an architect building as long as mrs. winchester and a man who lives with

he's reeding about a year and a half behind the 13-year-old girl. most importantly they like school less than girls. they are less engaged. there may have been a time where it wasn't a big problem. you could get a high school degree and work hard and make it to the middle class. and there's some educators at the harvard graduate school of education the passport to the middle class used to be the high school diploma. not anymore. there's a new economy. and the new passport to the middle class is education beyond high school. and girls seem to be getting it and boys less and less. i feel that problem -- i can't find major organizations or government groups. the department of education is still talking about the shortchanged girl. because they were deeply i think influenced by the early research. and that said girls were shortchanged in the 1990s. and so they haven't adjusted or adapted to the times. so we have a white house council on women and girls that concerned about the education of girls and girls don't fall behind, and when it's boys that are,

monday, and the filing deadline for all second-degree amendments to the reed amendment number 2631 be 4:30 p.m. on monday. that further, at 5:00 p.m., the senate proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of robert wilkins to be a circuit judge for the d.c. circuit, with the time until 5:30 p.m. equally divided and controlled in the usual form prior to a vote on confirmation of that nomination. finally, following the disposition of the wilkins nomination, the senate resume legislative session and proceed to the motion to invoke cloture on the reed amendment number 2631. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: the next vote, mr. president, will be 5:30 p.m. on monday on the confirmation of wilkins. if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until some of today's debate on extending the jobless benefits. majority leader harry reid unveiled a revised bill that would extend unemployment benefits until november and include

c-span: right out here at walter reed hospital? >> guest: right near it. c-span: i didn't expect to get out of this kind of a trauma. i mean, there are some -- drama. i mean, there are some personal stories in here that are pairly dramatic. were you surprised about the competition going on to find this -- >> guest: by be the time i started to write the book, i knew there was a story. and i write books for myself. i read fiction for fun. and i like -- i wouldn't write a book unless i thought there was a story, because the if you just have chapter after chapter of a textbook, for me, it's not something i would pick up and read just because i wanted to read it. so that's what appealed to me, was that there was, there was a drama there. it was competition. it showed all of the strengths and weaknesses of the search for scientific data -- c-span: what book is this for you? >> guest: besides my -- well, it depends on whether you count noncommercial or commercial books. i guess commercial, fourth. c-span: how long have you worked for "the new york times"? >> gues

many people think reed will bring this up in january. essential lip frozen the debate and brought the bill to himself and will largely support the white house in what it decides to do. so right now, reed is holding most of the cards on the menendez bill. >> let's pick it up at that point. there is still a lot of time between this, this would be a six-month deal when implemented. we are talking about harry reid maybe buying into january to force some kind of a vote here. we started this by saying look over in iran where if parliament this week is responding to the maneuvering in our congress and they're basically saying, hey, if the congress and the united states says we're going to impose new sanctions af the six-month deal, we will set all these conditions on it. we will accelerate our nuclear program. that's what eastern is saying, you have an iranian foreign minister who says the entire deal is dead if the united states congress -- >> has a six-month delay is there it seems to me this classic, almost tragic story embodyening the hardl

captioning sponsored by cbs good morning again before we get to senator reed a quick update on this bitter cold that has two-thirds of the country in its grip from the midwest to the northeast and good part of the south. this cold is expected to set record lows in many parts of the country, some of the coldest weather so far is in the st. paul, minneapolis and wcco reporter has the latest from there. >> bob, it is currently nine degrease below zero only expected to get worse. for the first time in 20 years, schools are closed statewide on monday with lows expected at minus 25. with wind chills expected to be around minus 70 degrees, exposed skin can become frost bitten in minutes. ski hills and ice rinks have closed until tuesday at the earliest. today's green bay packers playoff game could be among one of the coldest nfl games ever played. the temperature at lambeau field is expected to be two degrease below zero with wind chills at minus 30 when packers and san francisco 49ers kick off. the arctic air will keep a track east, chicago will likely hit 15 below. new york and new england will

reed shaw will be counsel for the committee investigating. mr. shaw made bones in some of the highest profile cases in the country. rob blagojevich was accused of trying to sell president obama's former senate seat to the highest bidder. jurors credited his cross examination. blagojevich was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison. rob blagojevich is a democrat. after the trial ended attorney shaw said he hunts for justice regardless of the politics. >> i think it is fair to say that the u.s. attorney's office is an equal opportunity prosecutor of public corruption. 99% of public officials and government employees across various levels of the city, county or state and federally are honest. there have been a number of high profile cases. for those individuals we can say they didn't get the message. >> this honest public official didn't get a message for over a decade. it was reed shaw's job to make sure they did. now it is his job again. late today the new jersey assembly announced members of their new special investigation committee. tomorr

reed: mr. president i ask that dr. jeff fine and lawrence mehan, fell flows fell flows my office, be granted the privileges of the floor for the dur ravings this congress. the presiding officer: woiks. mr. reed: i stand to speak on the reed-heller bill which would extend unemployment insurance for three months. it is the right thing and the smart thing to do for ow commitment of unemployment insurance has been around since the 1930's. it has received historical support and i'm pleased that senator heller has joined me, so this is a bipartisan bill also. and it's something that we have to deal with today. it is a huge crisis. aces i said, 1.3 million americans have lost their benefits as of december 28, but we can expect through this next year approximately 3 million more to exhaust their state benefits typically 26 weeks and not have this federal long-term benefit available to thevmentvery many. this has awless received federal support on a long term basis. it is something that impacts this ent

as senator reed said, how do we create jobs? this is one of the challenges we have. making sure that people can still go out and look for work, those dollars can be used to buy gasoline, pay for groceries, pay people's rent is important because it keeps a lot of other people working in the economy. it's very good news. serious negotiation vs. to start as we think -- noshes have to start as we think about how we get this bill passed. >> before i introduce senator brown, i have to personally thank senator dean heller of nevada. he stood up, responding to his constituents and to what he was seeing in his home state, but across the country, and he provided great leadership. he did it with thoughtful persistent advocacy, and we are here today because in large part of his efforts and all of my colleagues on my democratic colleagues, but also my republican colleagues who stepped forward and said let's put it the rhetoric aside for a moment and try to help people. then do it in a constructive, cooperative way. with that let me recognize sherrod brown. >> it's 8 degrees below

of nevada, senator reed on the far side of the screen on the democratic side. they're voting now. this is a procedural vote on whether to move forward on the the bill. you can follow live coverage of 2.t on c-span we expect to bring you reaction from senators reed and others the the vote sometime in upcoming half hour or so. we'll have that live for you. president who's expected to speak at 11:40 eastern about unemployment benefits. we'll have that live for you as well. while we wait to hear from we bring you ts, back to our conversation from this morning's "washington focus on this time a the president's climate change policies. desk now oined at the by dan weiss who serves as the director of climate strategy at progress. of american the hot topic of conversation in a ironmental circles was 60-minutes report from sunday that seemed to conclude that the federal government has little to show in the heavy investment in green technology projects in recent years. why the outrage from this story? >> well, it's both -- not it is great disappointment. the "60 minutes"

mayor reed already just won reelections.d, i don't know if four years from now, if people will still have this on their mind. but certainly right now, today, people in atlanta are angry with him. so there is repair work to do in terms of the perception of the people. >> i think also the frustration is this is -- it doesn't happen very often. but this happened three years ago, there was a big snow event. everyone is saying why have we not learned lessons. do you think they're going to learn lessons now or is third time not even close to a charm? >> surely they're going to learn lessons. this is bigger than do we have enough trucks. we need a transportation plan in georgia. we need an entire restructuring of dealing with the people, the amount of people living in atlanta, the amount of people that have moved here and not having a way to move them around. we don't have a commuter train system that can kick in when we have these kind of weather emergencies. so i think this is going to put pressure on officials to do something mo

there is a reed amendment from rhode island. this would require fema to conduct a study on the viability of offering community-based flood insurance policies. my notes say there's broad support for that. there is a coburn amendment which is an alternative to the narab. that amendment will probably not receive the votes required, but we're happy to talk about his amendment and have him offer it. and there is a merkley amendment that will subject nfib policyholders to place policies or let their policies lapse. it is a technical amendment. there is has rubio-nelson amendment that's being discussed. those are the only amendments that we know about. so if there's anybody else that has an amendment on flood that would like to offer it or have it considered, the next couple hours would be the last opportunity to get those amendments in. i know everybody is busy. ive has got lots to do. i have cleared my calendar, had meetings, cleared the calendar do this today because it is very important that we not just get so busy with other thing

senator reed. >> thank you, there are two clear issues emerging with broad consensus. one is we have to correct this issue and my sense is it has to be done very quickly, immediately. for many reasons. one is the issue of what signal we are sending to forces on the field. i understand, correct me or respond that we could move such a bill without a form. is that accurate? >> that is accurate. one bill which has been referred to the committee, we are double checking this, the bill of senator hagan that does not have a pay for. if there is the pay for, an offset in other words, that i believe will be referred to a different committee but this committee i believe will have the ability to act promptly on a bill. and i hope we will and not wait for the commission because there is a clear consensus we should clear the air on this issue. >> because of the obligations of these costs that are building up and have been building up because of congressional action. can you comment on that? >> the commission will certainly offer its recommendations to the congress and, certainly, to

the atlanta mayor, kasim reed, who did the interview you just witnessed effectively saying this was a independent decisions. this was not his problem. you tell that to the people not able to watch the live news conference. they are sitting like that, stuck and unable to go anywhere. i want to bring in my colleague, carol costello. lieutenant general, russell onere, we know so well as being ably in control of the hurricane katrina. >> hats off for you for not going aploplectic. he said he had no problem getting into the interview. there were still people trapped and we only heard the last of children stuck on buses reunited. tell me more about his demeanor off air. >> i think what he was saying when he answered my question in that way was that the freeways are outside of his jurisdiction. they are in the county, in suburbia. he is only responsible for the streets of atlanta. no one is stuck on the streets of atlanta, at least this morning. last night, it was a whole different story. i live two miles from cnn and it took me two hours to get home, two hours. i was afraid i was going to r

. >> the proposal by republican senator dean heller and democrat jack reed extends benefits for only three months. >> will it be more partisan hip ship and acrimony? >> even if it does come out of the senate -- >> the president is vowing to hold republicans' feet to the fire. >> probably dead on arrival in the house. >> all those people have to run for re-election next year. >> could this set the tone for 2014? >> the 2014 elections, now just 11 months away. >> bundle up. get used to hearing this populist message against growing inequality a lot. >> the gop doesn't get it. >> they're happy to hurt the economy under barack obama. >> and we mean a lot. >> it's cold here, chris. it's so hard to even smile. >>> the senior senator from nevada and the junior senator from nevada don't team up very often. the senators from nevada -- the senior senator from nevada is the majority leader of the democrats in the senate, and the junior senator is a conservative republican. today on the senate floor you couldn't tell them apart. >> it is difficult to stand here in the nation's capital, an area th

. >> and this is atlanta mayorca similar reed last night -- that actually was kasim reed.g his part to share responsibility by basically abdicating responsibility. >> we can't control mother nature. just as we could not make better predictions, neither could school superintendents. that's why the school children were in the situation they were in, because they were probably looking at the same modeling that some of our state folks were looking at. >> in another press conference this afternoon, governor deal said a lot of confusing stuff about accountability. >> we will hold people accountable, but we also hold people accountable for what they are going to do to prevent it in the future. >> amid all of this, at least there was this man, charlie english, the head of the georgia emergency management agency. >> we get constant weather information, and i have to make decisions based on that weather informs, whether it's warnings, whether it's watches, whether it's special statements, whether, regardless of the situation. and i got this one wrong. >> joining me now is nbc news p

and larry reed of fied a found tation for economic education. larry i learned from you the welfare state started halfway through the empire. >> it took the form first of payments to recipients in the form of subsidized grain and government gave it away at half price. the problem was they couldn't will stop there. there was a man named flotius who ran on the free wheat for the masses and he won and it was downhill from there. >> they gradually raised taxes and gave stuff away and increase. >> including free salt, free pork, free olive oil other staples of the roman diet. >> people who show up and pick it up. >> there would be long lines. in fact they had a means test at one time and did away with it so that anybody could show up and get this free stuff. >> they decided everybody had to be educated by the state? >> nod everybodyieverybody but public schools. >> that was much later. rome grew to greatness with largely home schooling. and the first public schools. the first public schools didn't appear until around 50 bc and they weren't funded by t

[laughter] i was born with the ultimate washington curse i look like ralph reed and i think like al from. [laughter] but it could be worse second half and the other rare around. i think by now the shelf life would have run out and a place in washington that people cannot remember anybody in fault but today i was walking back to my office and the white house and a republican from across the street waved and said hi ralph. till death do us part. but thinking like al from is an honor and privilege of a lifetime luckily i am the only one cursed to look like ralph reed the world as a vastly better place because so many have come to think like al from and the amazing story he tells bring subtle back we taken for granted that although we should not forget just how hard it was to freeze new life into an old party when al from was started in the '80s and as congresswoman schroeder used to audiences democrats just need to do three things unfortunately no one knows what they are. [laughter] but tain i do a and he understood to lead the party out would take at a different kind of democrat and we hav