senator akaka. >> no. senator carper. [inaudible] >> senator mccaskill. >> i am going to say no instruction. i do not want to cast a vote without them being here. we are going to pass again. ok. a no vote. .> senator begich > >> no. >> senator collins. >> no. >> senator brown. >> no. >> senator mccain. >> no by proxy. >> senator paul. >> aye. >> senator moran. >> aye. >> senator lieberman. >> no. can i go back -- >> senator mccaskill. >> senator mccaskill is no by proxy. >> senator brown has just appeared. >> underground. ok. -- senator brown. ok. mr. chairman, the yays are two, the nays are seven. on this vote, the yays are six, the nays are 10, and the amendment is not agreed to. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think the senator wanted to be noted that she based her vote on the napoleonic code. [laughter] listen, this amendment -- i do not think we have passed the amendment yet so maybe this will be the first 1. we passed one? there we go. maybe mine will be non- controversial. i would like to ask senator mc

we worked hard on this -- senator akaka. the administration through the department of labor thought the proposal we made was moving in so much the right direction to remove unnecessary costs without compromising reasonable expectations of employees for workmen's compensation. this particular provision of this legislation relates to all federal employees, not just to employees of the postal service. this is numerically justified. this is one of the ways in which the postal service, though it is cause i-independent, nonetheless is interconnected to the postal service because we are part of -- the postal service is part of the federal workers' compensation program -- it happens to be the largest participant in the federal government workers' compensation program responsible for about 40% of the caseload. as i know senator collins will note for the record, we feel that the program needs tightening. it is more generous than we can afford. i think we have done it in a way that does not fall below the standard of most workers compe

akaka 5. it is an amendment on medicare. i would like to come back to workers' compensation oanother time, but not now. now i would like to turn to health care. >> ok. e crux my amendment is to strike the provisions -- >> my memo is to strike the provisions requiring workers to enroll in medicare parts "a" and "b" if they are eligible and replacing their current plan with a not yet negotiated plan. i understand the post office estimates it will save $15 billion from theserosions, but as far as i know, they have not provided anything to support that particular claim. opm, which is much more extensive health care experience, does not believe this will save. believes it will incur further cross. additionally, this will shift costs to the medicare program, which has serious financial chalnges already. for this reason, mr. chairman, the finance committee staff supports this amendment. the provisions in this bill could also create jurisdictional problems. i am also concerned that the current provisi

if we live in the middle we should just steal it lots of akaka. if a seal comes close to you just relax and keep still and i'll take pictures of you verse full face and haw face what you want. to me to you is a diver an amateur cameraman he often goes to the cliffs and islands inhabited by common seals they are highly organized and capricious animals. filming them can be a difficult task sometimes they approach divers to bite on their flippers more often than not they play hide and seek with the seals tease the divers darting away before picture can be taken. when you look into their eyes you can see how to gentle and straightforward they really are . just like children. i mean that's reason enough to. common sales have almost no animals in the wild the islands of peter the great day are inhabited by thousands of them seal hunting in the reserve is banned and even then scientists are anxious about the future of the population. of course they are so susceptible to any external influence that it is almost impossible to protect them for example if an

visit him but that means that they'll be watched will be under surveillance by the prison officials akaka times that they're having their exchanges so it's hardly an exchange where manning constraint candidly and it's another indication that you know there's one law for the people that pay thirty five thousand dollars a plate and another law for the rest of us you know clearly they don't want manning's conditions looked into they don't want the u.n. and our effort to reporting on this is not been a transparent situation and it makes it very incriminating regarding the conditions that many has been not under i know that there is an action plan for that during reading's hearing days also. tell us more the details i mean can you get. people involved in this is this an issue where or they might see eye to eye. i think that will you know when they take over the port of oakland when they should go to port of oakland it really warmed my heart that the banner that they dropped was free bradley manning so i think that there are already is a lot of native interest there are people you know with the

i was not yet 21 and i had courage and an experience which is sometimes a great help akaka to the desire to do my very best. that young man was the most accomplished and commissioned a portrait artist on both sides of the atlantic. he painted a virtually everybody and anybody who was anybody on both sides. right now there are seven portraits by george healy hanging in the white house. there are 17 portraits by george healy tannin national portrait gallery and over in the courtroom gallery over in the portrait gallery is his great picture of abraham lincoln in illinois and springfield just after linking done that he had been elected president in the was while he was sitting for that portrait healy was painting him without his beard and he read aloud the letter from the young woman telling him that he would be much more handsome if he grew a beard and lincoln turned to him and said would you like to paint me with a beard and healy in all honesty said no, sir, i would not. [laughter] so it's one of the very few images in color by a painter that we have of abraham lincoln and one of the grea

>> senator akaka. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to add my welcome to our witnesses today. i look forward to their testimony on the matter that many of us in the senate are deeply concernedded about. making sure that our service members and veterans are economically empowered to make the best financial decisions possible. for years, my colleagues here on on the banking committee heard me talk about financial literacy and economic empowerment, and my colleagues on the armed services and veterans affairs committees know i'm concerned about the unique challenges confronting military families and our veterans. prolonged deployments and more frequent relocations create unique banking and budgeting challenges. our veterans come home from fighting to the highest unemployment rates in the nation, and our reserved forces are feeling the financial impact of sustained active service. it is clear our men and women in uniform now more than ever need to be educated in financial matters both before and after they complete the service to our country. chairman johnson, thank you very much f

i also want to acknowledge and thank senator akaka. we are all fortunate for his service on this committee and as the chairman of the indian affairs committee. i'm proud to serve on the indian affairs committee under his leadership, where we considered many of these important issues. i now turn to ranking member shelby for his statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for calling this hearing. economic develop is a challenging endeavor even in prosperous times. into indian country, however, the problem is more persistent and have been made worse by our current economic situation. the statistics revealed severe, the average income of the indian living on a reservation in 1909 was $8000. compared with $14,000, indians living off reservation. in 21,000 for the average u.s. citizen at that time. to compound the difficulties, the average poverty rate of indians on reservations is 28%. compared to 15% for other americans. despite some well-known successful gaming operations and other business ventures pursued by tribes, the majority o

senator akaka. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i would like to add my welcome to a very distinguished panel of witnesses that we have here today on the eve of veterans day. i thank you and the men and women you meet in serving our country and defending our freedoms. i've read that most of you are opposed to needing to the jcs. i want you to know that while i disagree on this issue, i have complete respect for you and opinions that all of you hold. let me take a moment to say that understandably change is not always a welcome concept to peer evolution of joint chiefs of staff has been significant opposition to structural changes. however, there is precedent and changing composition of jcs to account for readiness, policy and budgetary issues. for example, in 1853, president truman signed the law as the commandant at the very core to discuss issues related to the marine. it was controversial but at that time several years later the commandant with elevated to full voting member status. today, i think we would all agree that making a

>> senator akaka? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to add my welcome to our witnesses today. i look forward to their testimony on a matter that many of us in the senate are deeply concerned about -- making sure that our service members and veterans are economically empowered to make the best financial decision possible. for year, by colleagues here on the banking committee heard me talking about financial literacy and economic empowerment, and my colleagues on the armed services and veterans affairs committees know that i'm concerned about the unique challenges confronting military families and our veterans. prolonged deployment and more frequent relocation create unique banking and budgeting challenges. our veterans come home from the middle east to the highest unemployed rates in the nation, and our forces are feeling the financial impact of sustained active service. it is clear our men and women in uniform now more than ever have to be educated in financial matters both before and after they complete service to our country. chairman johnson, thank you very much for conveni

senator akaka. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, for holing this hearing on the next wave in aviation security. mr. chairman, because hawaii is located 2500 miles from the mainland, we have unique transportation needs. hawaii residents and many visitors visitors visitor rely heavily on air transportation traveling between islands and from the mainland or abroad. although, protecting the public is our primary goal, we must ensure that security procedures and technologies safeguard privacy rights, 5e7b -- and are not so burdensome they discourage air travel. i applaud the federal employees who have worked tirelessly to secure our commercial aviation systems since september 11, 2001. as we approach the busy holiday travel season, i hope this hearing will allows to review whether the work force has the tools they need to meet today's security challenges. administrator pistole, you mentioned this morning that tsa's in the first phase of the expedited screening pilot. i understand that honolulu airport, hawaii airlines are being

thank you all. >> senator akaka. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. mrs.amilies of our reserve component when they are on active duty versus when they are in reserve status? >> i have had the opportunity as i mentioned to talk with a number of national guard officers and enlisted and their families on my trips out to the states and in fact i try to do that when i go out because their issues are a bit different. for a great amount of their time, the families especially consider themselves really to be civilian families and some of the challenges preparing for the change in circumstances when suddenly the baby, military family and they have their guardsman or reservist deployed. they don't have the installations that the active-duty force has with all the wonderful offices that they can walk into and get information. a great deal that has to be delivered virtually through the web. there are -- they have come a long way and there are great initiatives now. the yellow ribbon program that provides information before they deploy and also circle back around after

i also want to acknowledge and thank senator akaka. we are all fortunate for his service on this committee, as chairman of the indian affairs committee. i'm prod to serve under his leadership where we've considered many of these important issues. i now turn to ranking member shelby for his statement. .. the average poverty rate for indians on reservations is 28% compared to 15% for other americans. despite some well known successful gaming operations and other business ventures a majority of those living in the indian country are still struggling. the economic development is experienced by some tribal governments have not delivered improved living standards to all who live on the reservations. unemployment remains high and actress to capital for business formation is ritual in nonexistent. much of the research and work our panelists have focused on over the years highlight the inherent difficulty of doing business on reservations. due to the unique relationship between american indians and the rest of the population of bureau of indian

thank you, senator akaka and for your support of federal employees. clearly the goal is to move out as a quickly and efficiently as possible. there are a number of variables we are working through and those include things such as the airline capability. they are information technology systems. because the way that these expedited traveler works is that we take information that is on the bar code of the boarding pass which is the airline's produced and it shows it in a bar code as the person of a known and trusted traveler if you will. several airlines are going to mergers right now and so their systems -- they are waiting until the systems are merged and supposed to have a disparate systems that don't talk and then try to merge those into new ones so those will be after the first of the year. that is one criteria is the airline ready, cable and all that. the second is the airports themselves and the configuration of the checkpoint is the key aspect. one of the goals is to have a dedicated leni for the known and trusted frequent travelers such as in gl

president, first i ask unanimous consent to add senators akaka, chambliss, blawmle that, gillibrand, ben nelson, stabenow, and udall udall -- senator mark udall as cosponsors of amendment number 1032 which is the pending levin-mccain amendment on counterfeit parts. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. levin: secondly, mr. president, we are going to move now i believe to the conference report. but i do want to remind folks of -- our colleagues of what senator mccain said which is we will be here tomorrow morning and we are here to try to clear amendments. we want to be able to give our colleagues as much opportunity as possible to debate and to clear amendments. but we've got to move this bill. we're not going to be given a whole week after we come back to get this bill adopted, hopefully. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: the pending -- what's the pending business before the senate? the presiding officer: s. 1867 is still pending. mr. mccain: the amendment -- isn't the paul amendment the pending business? the presiding officer: the merkley amendmen

. >> senator akaka. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. ms.ve services have been called up to fight alongside their active duty counter parts to ensure our nation's safety. what do you see as differences in the consumer protection needs for families of our reserve components when they are on active duty versus when they are in reserve status? >> i have had the opportunity as i mentioned to talk with a number of national guard office officers, and their families, and i try to do that when i go out because their issues ar bit different. for a agreement of their type the families consider themselves really to be civilian families. and some of the challenges preparing them for the change of circumstances when suddenly they become a military family and they have their guardsman or reservist deployed. don't have the stphauplgss with the wonderful -- installations with the wonderful offices to walk into so a lot of it has to be delivered virtually through the web. there are some great initiatives now, the yellow ribbon programs that provide informati

i was not yet 21 and i had courage and an experience which is sometimes a great help akaka to the desire to do my very best. that young man was the most accomplished and commissioned a portrait artist on both sides of the atlantic. he painted a virtually everybody and anybody who was anybody on both sides. right now there are seven portraits by george healy hanging in the white house. there are 17 portraits by george healy tannin national portrait gallery and over in the courtroom gallery over in the portrait gallery is his great picture of abraham lincoln in illinois and springfield just after linking done that he had been elected president in the was while he was sitting for that portrait healy was painting him without his beard and he read aloud the letter from the young woman telling him that he would be much more handsome if he grew a beard and lincoln turned to him and said would you like to paint me with a beard and healy in all honesty said no, sir, i would not. [laughter] so it's one of the very few images in color by a painter that we have of abraham lincoln and one of the grea

senator akaka. >> thank you frame much of it, mr. chairman. i would like to add my welcome comments our very distinguished panel of witnesses that we have. on the eve of veterans day. i thank you and the men and women you meet in serving our country. i've read most of you are opposed to updating the card era of cheap to the jcs. i want you to know that while i disagree on this issue, i have complete respect for you but i'll let you hold. it may take a moment to say that understandably, change is not always is a welcome concept and an abolition of joint chiefs of staff has been significant opposition to structural changes. however, there is precedent in changing the composition of jcs to account for readiness, policy and budgetary issues. for example, in 1953, president truman signed the love to have the commandant of the marine corps to the jcs two related issues. it was insurer sought that time that several years later the commandant was elevated to full 13 member status. today, i think we would all agree that making commandant devoted member

>> thank you, senator akaka, and thank you for your support of federal employees. clearly, the goal is to move out as quickly and efficiently as possible. there are a number of variables we are working through. those include things such as the theires' capability, information technology systems. because of the way this works, we take information that is on the bar code of the boarding pass, which the airlines produce. it shows up in that bar code as the person is a known or trusted traveler, if you will. several airlines are going through mergers right now, and their systems -- they are waiting until those systems are merged, as opposed to having different systems that do not talk. those will be after the first year. that is one criteria. is the airline ready and capable? the second is the airports themselves, and the configuration of the checkpoint is a key aspect. one goal is to have a dedicated line for non-, a trusted frequent travelers, and others we will look at down the road. they can go through a dedicated line. the can be identified to the bar code on the

president, this is on behalf of myself, senator graham, senator rockefeller, senator ayotte, senator akaka, senators alexander, baucus, begich, bennet, bingaman, blumenthal, blunt, boozman, boxer, scott brown, sherrod brown, burns, cantwell, carper, casey, coast, conrad, coons, corker, crapo, durbin, enzi, feinstein, franken, gillibrand, grassley, hagan, harkin, heller, hoeven, inhofe, inouye, johanns, ron johnson, tim johnson, klobuchar, landrieu, lautenberg, lee, lug lugar, manchin, mccaskill, menendez, merkley, mikulski, moran, murray, ben nelson, pryor, risch, sanders, schumer, shaheen, snowe, stabenow, test tester, toomey, mark udall, vitter, warner, whitehouse, and wyden. and it's been called up. i ask consent to have it set aside so we can go on and continue with the pending matter. the presiding officer: without objection. without objection, the foregoing request from the senator from arizona is granted. mr. levin: well, reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: and i don't object because that is the way we should proceed, going bac

senator akaka. >> thank you very much, mr. sherman. i would like at my welcome to our very distinguished panel of witnesses that we have today, on the eve of veterans day, and i think you for defending our freedoms. i have read that most of you are opposed to elevating the guard bureau chief to the jcs. i want you to know that while i disagree on this issue, i have the complete respect for you and the opinions that all of you hold. that we take a moment to say that understandably change is not always a welcome concept. in the evolution of the joint chiefs of staff there has been significant opposition to structural changes. however, there is precedent changing the composition of jcs account for readiness, policy, and budgetary issues. for example, in 1953, president truman signed a law that added that, then of the marine corps to discuss issues. at that time several years later, the commandant was elevated to full voting member status. today i think we would all agree that making the commandant a voting member was the correct decision.

akaka: madam president stph-p. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. akaka: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. akaka: and, madam president, i ask unanimous consent that i may speak as though in morning business for five minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. akaka: madam president, as chairman of the committee on indian affairs, i am sponsoring a resolution cosponsored by majority leader reid, vice chairman barrasso and several members of the committee designating november as native american heritage month, and november 25 of this year as native american heritage day. this resolution recognizes the contributions of native americans. we see the influence of the iroquois confederacy on the founding fathers of our country as they drafted the constitution. and today native american contributions in modern agriculture, medicine, music, language and art are undeniable. in that tradition of service, native americans have had the highest representation per ca