senator akaka was sorry he could not make it here, but he asked meo come and give you all an update. thanks tom and everyone else for inviting me here to say a few words about our progress with the whistleblor protection enhancement act. i want to thank you all for organizing this assembly to honor the commitment and the courage of whistleblowerand the need to better protect them. as tom said in his introduction, i worked for senator akaka who is the chairman of the senate federal workforce subcommittee. he has a longer game than that but i will leave that out. senator akaka's longtime advocate of suppoing strengthening the rights and protections for federal wurtzel blowers. he first introduced abe bill to improve the whistleblower act in the year 2000 he and his staff and the staffs of many other offices and many of you have spent i think literally thousands of hours working to get this done ever since. this year, last year actually now, february 2009 senator akaka reintroduced with senator voinovich mccaskill grassley and others the whistleblower protection enhancement act which is

senator akaka was sorry he could not make it here, but he asked me to come and give you all an update. thanks tom and everyone else for inviting me here to say a few words about our progress with the whistleblower protection enhancement act. i want to thank you all for organizing this assembly to honor the commitment and the courage of whistleblowers and the need to better protect them. as tom said in his introduction, i worked for senator akaka who is the chairman of the senate federal workforcesubcommittee. he has a longer game than that but i will leave that out. senator akaka's longtime advocate of supporting strengthening the rights and protections fo federal wurtzel blowers. he first introduced abe bill to improve the whistleblower act in the year 2000 he and his staff and the staffs of many other offices and many of you have spent i think literally thousands of hours working to get this done ever since. this year, last year actually now, february 2009 senator akaka reintroduced with senator voinovich mccaskill grassley and others the whistleblower protection enhancement act whi

when you campaigned against senator akaka you anchored center-- senator inouye. sew realistic is it to be cooperative and be working together again with completeli peace ofsto mind when he had so angrily spoken out against you? for example at senator hanbusa campaign opening? >> i would answer by pointing tu the actual experience that i have with members of of the to colors-- delegation. asembers a member of the delega, there was neveron once a time wn anybody criticize me for not being a member of the team. there were several instances in which we work together on very complicated and very difficult d issues. o pearl harbor and naval shipyard, the allocation of the federal ofograms to whitey, the agreement among the delegation about where we were going to focus and not focus and one that year i was a candidate for the u.s. senate and in that yearar o we had nort problems working together. i would also go back to the history ofsena hawaii in the ck that it is not unusual for people that have disagreed politically to work together as members of the delegation. or

senator akaka's amendment and mine would end the confusion. it would require brokers to act in the best interest of their clients, just like investment advisors already do. it requires brokers to disclose conflicts of interest so brokers would have to tell retail clients if they get more fees for selling a particular mutual fund or annuity product. and it gives the s.e.c. discretion to apply a fiduciary standard for all types of investors, which would include institutional investors who were victimized by the allegations in the goldman sachs skas. investment advice should be transparent. if there are conflicts of interest or higher fees for particular products, investors should know about t inkvestors need to know that brokers have a duty to act in their best interest. i also have an amendment to expand the opportunities for women and minorities in banking. currently, the staff of financial regulatory agencies lag in diversity, called into the office of personnel management, minorities comprise only 13.7%. women comprise 34%. well, a recent g.

when you campaigned against senator akaka you enteredabou senator inouye.w realistic is it to say youno can bounce back there and the cooperative and working together again with complete peace ofnd mind when he's helping early spoken out against you. for example, ms. hanbusa campaign opening. >> i would point to the actual experience i've had with member of the delegation and my prayero service in congress.wi in four years as a member of the delegation there was never once a time when anybody criticize me for not being a member of theny team. there were several instances inf which we work together on very complicated and difficultethe issues. pearl harbor neighbor shipyard, and the agreement among the delegation about where we're going to focus and one of the years of that i was, in fact, a candidate for the u.s. senate. that you're had no problemsr working together. i would go.s. back to the histoy of hawaii to indicate it isn't, unusual for people that have disagreed politically to workuns together as members of the delegation. working with wen washington

on top of that, our caucus is bicameral with representation from senators akaka and hi no, ia. -- hiroono. representative chu is the first chinese american woman elected to congress. representative cao and chu are members of kpac's board. our newest members are joseph draw lee of new york, representative conyers of michigan tsms a testament to our evolving nation to have people coming from beyond our shores. at this time, i would like to share the microphone and podium with a gentleman who's been here in excess of 25 years, probably 30 years he claims that all the sumo champions of japan that are over 6'5" are his cousins. i don't deny that and i think his service to this country representing the island and american samoa has been long and distinguished. he's articulate, an advocate for asian-american issues and through kpac, i believe he has a platform of bringing the issues of asian pacific islanders in that area to the public's aand to the last battle for comprehensive health reform, he has been an outspoken lead for the making sure that territories such as the virgin islands, samoa, g

you had senators and daniel in a way -- inouye and akaka. the senators stood behind him.ou had a situation where democrats were bound for the vote. the map was not there for democrats. host: the headline from a colorado paper is referring to andrew roman off -- roumanoff. ken salazar is not the interior secretary. what happened over the weekend? guest: you saw roumanoff picking up some of the votes. this is a continuation of what we have seen for months now, picking up the support of political insiders in colorado. host: michael bennett is now running as the outsider. guest: it goes to show you that incumbents now realize it. bennett feels he has to run as the outsider in order to avoid the fate we have seen other incumbents face the cycle. host: andrew cuomo launches his crusade for governor. a similar headline in "the new york post." details in "the new york times." in a direct confrontation with a legislature controlled by his party, the democrats that he would pressure lawmakers to state publicly whether they would embrace essential changes, including disclosing their

on the republican along with lrps akaka gisela wanted to i ask about the recent offer to: destroy the poppy fields that roye the opium and i guess the u.s. declined singing know it would disrupt local themake agricultural income and we had to protect that and i'm just wod kind of curious when the talibao was willing poppy growing was allowed, it was against their it religion. and it just seems we are giving growingression that we are supporting the poppy fields andi i think we all agree that this money is funding the terrorists so if we are to a strong position on the terrorists we at should also take a strongoney position on getting rid of the poppy fields. on td you comment, please? >> guest: you are right. the link between the poppy andte terrorism poppy and even old dogs as a source of funding to terrorists and for the taliban it is exactly right and it is an enormous problem. the government has been working on that problem, but the united states government in close coordination with the afghan ben government. but obviously we have not made nearly the progress that is required and

i applaud the senate and especially senators lieberman, collins, akaka and voinovich for recognizing the importance of this bill and for sending the bill back to the house with minor change the bill, as amended, by the senate would extend these family benefits to employees of u.s. customs and border protection. the senate amendment also makes several largely technical changes to the scope of available assistance. these improvements were made at the request of the obama administration which supports this measure. i do want to emphasize that the bill has strong support among the federal law enforcement community, including federal law enforcement officers association and the f.b.i. agents association. lastly, i'd like to point out that the title of this bill pays tribute to the memory and service of special agent samuel hicks. special agent hicks was fatally shot on november 19, 2008, at the age of 33 while executing a federal search warrant associated with a drug distribution ring. he was a stormer police officer with the baltimore -- former police officer with the baltimore police de

reaction to only make a game to replace justice john paul stevens that the supreme court about three akakastern senators will resume debate on new financial regulations, several amendments are pending that no vote today. life in the coverage now on c-span 2. once again the senate about to gavilan within our general speeches, reactions to speeches at a lena k. ginter replaced justice john paul stevens. she was nominated this morning by president obama, that the two of them walked out along with vice president joe biden to the east room in the white house. ms. kagan born in new york city holds a bachelor degree from princeton come a master's degree from oxford and a law degree from harvard. she was the first dean of harvard law school in the first two service top supreme court lawyer for any of evisceration and you can read more about her on our website you span.org. unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: we are in morning business. mr. merkley: mr. president, in honor of national nurses week, i'd like to recognize the more than three million nurses who

. -- akaka requirement will go up. -- your capital requirement will go up.our second question was about the fund. that is probably one of the areas that evokes a lot of different reactions from people in the g-20, and for a variety of different reasons, because -- there are lots of questions around that, even in academics. how do you define insurance? what are you going to get as a bank in exchange for getting that insurance? it is really complicated to think about that in the right way. therefore, it is one that is going to take the most amount of work. to the extent that we have been through this crisis, to the extent that everybody has learned and memories are fresh, i do not think it is an issue of urgent decisionmaking. it is an important one, but i hope that we will take the time to think through rather than rush to judgment. >> with regard to the supervisor capital investment program, the $5.50 billion offer to citibank is recovery, do you think bank stress test should be imposed every two years, or just if one of the major players failed, like lehman