proxy. >> senator akaka? >> aye. >> senator carper? senator pryor? >> aye. >> senator landrieu? >> aye by proxy. >> senator mccaskill? >> aye by proxy. >> senator >> aye. >> senator begich? >> yes. >> senator collins? >> no. >> senator koby burn? >> aye by proxy. we get them verified just by my staff about it too. >> senator brown? >> no. >> senator -- >> aye by proxy. >> senator johnson? >> aye by proxy? >> senator portman? >> no by proxy. >> senator paul? >> aye by proxy. >> senator moran? >> no. >> senator lieberman? >> no. >> is it possible there's a little mischief going on? >> i think may be, mr. chairman. >> mr. chairman, on the vote of those present the ayes are 4, the nays are 5. on the vote by proxy, the ayes are 7, the nays are 1. on this vote, the ayes are 11, the nays are 6, and the amendment is agreed to. >> okay, thank you. senator acontact car, congratulations. let's see. no one else on the republican side has any additional amendments. senator pryor, would you like to bring up one of yours? y

senator akaka? >> let me add that the department of labor has admitted that the changes to the benefit amounts and their proposal is somewhat arbitrary. round numbers based on rough calculations hardly the basis to determine what elderly disabled people will have to live on in the rest of their lives. as i have mentioned gao has a bipartisan

thank you, senator akaka. of those here, let me indicate that next we'll go to senator johnson and then senator mccaskill. then senator paul, then senator tester, then senator moran and then senator begich. all of whom have amendments pending. senator johnson? >> thank you. i'd like to offer johnson amendment number one and only. i would -- like my colleague from kansas, new to this process, and as i studied the issue, there's pretty -- pretty eye popping charge here that the gao study laid out the deficits of the 30esal service and it's $250 billion and it is a quasi private quasi governmental agency here, but the fact of the matter is if we experience those types of deficits we'll be on the hook for it. or the taxpayers will be on the hook for that. that certainly governs my votes in this process. my amendment recognizes my concern about the $6.9 billion -- what's referred to as an overpayment. i think the overpayment is primarily the result of a recalculation based on actuarily assumptions which can change.

akaka: mr. president, i rise today to urge -- the presiding officer: senator, the senate is now in a quorum call. mr. akaka: oh. mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection, it is rescinded. mr. mr. akaka: mr. president, i ask to speak before the senate for about ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. akaka: thank you, mr. president. and i rise today to urge my colleagues to oppose the blunt amendment which would lead to devastating health outcomes for over 20 million women across our country. just two weeks ago, i applauded the obama administration's decision to require health insurance plans to provide coverage of f.d.a. approved contraception needed for women's health care without co-pays beginning this august. the final rule issued by the department of health and human services was a tremendous step toward improving the health of our nation's women and their families, a step that was long overdue and one made with due r

. >> senator akaka, best wishes to you.thank you. >> stuart curtis, former general counsel for the much-mentioned today nsa from 1992-'94 and assistant secretary at dhs from 2005 to 2009 during which time we have benefited greatly from your counsel and service. thanks for being here x we would welcome your testimony now. >> it's a great pleasure. thank you, chairman lieberman, ranking member collins, senator akaka. it's a nostalgic moment to come back here, and i want to congratulate you on your achievement in moving this bill in a comprehensive form as far as it's gone, it's a very valuable contribution to our security. i just have two points, but before i do that, i thought i'd address the stop online piracy act ably -- analogy, the idea that this is like sopa, and the internet will strike it down. i'm proud to say if i can channel senator benson for a moment, i knew sopa, i fought sopa and, mr. chairman, this bill is no sopa. [laughter] >> here here. >> i opposed sopa for the same reason that i support this bill. as a na

senator akaka mentioned it, too. i too was very -- have been concerned about the lack of financial literacy being taught to our students. when i was in the north carolina senate, i also required students get that -- i think it's just a sound basis that you need to get by in the world today. have you to understand debt. and with that, i was also pleased they released examination for payday lenders. it appears there are a handful of banks making high cost payday loans directly to their customers. the center for responsible lending say they are marketed for short term but keep customers in debt for an average of 175 days a year. which is an average of 16 payday loans per year. and i understand the rate is somewhere over 300%. can you tell us the use of payday loans? >> yes, senator. and as i mentioned earlier, this was the subject of the first field hearing that the bureau conducted in alabama. recently. the examination procedures you mentioned, we have put out, they apply equally to nonbank payday lenders and also to b

. >> senator akaka? >> no. no by proxy. >> senator carper? >> no. >> senator pryor? >> yes. >> senator landrieu? >> no instructions.. no instructions. >> senator mccaskill? >> i'm going to say no instructions. maybe we'll pass until we get clarity about the proxies. i don't want to cast a vote for a colleague without them being here. >> senator tester? >> senator tester? we're going to pass again. senator tester has a proxy. a no vote. >> senator begich? >> no. >> senator collins? >> no. >> senator coburn? >> aye by proxy. >> senator brown? >> no by proxy. >> senator mccain? aye by proxy. >> senator johnson? >> aye by proxy. >> senator portman. >> no by proxy. >> senator paul? >> aye. >> senator moran? >> aye. >> senator lieberman? >> no. >> mr. chairman, on the vote of those present, the ayes are two, the nays are six. >> can i ask the clerk to go back to the senators we passed. >> senator landrieu. >> yes by proxy. >> senator mccaskill. >> no by proxy. >> and senator brown has just appeared so rather than his voting by proxy -- >> senator brown? okay. mr. chairman,

so we decided to meet in the old senate chamber and begin with danny akaka to open up with prayer, and ask a little bird to give us historic perspective of what we were about to do and then open it up with discussion to figure out how the proceed. we didn't know how to go forward and i can't remember exactly the order, but phil gramm got up and gave an impassioned pitch of course to move forward with the impeachment to get to remove him from office i'm sure. and then ted kennedy got up and gave an impassioned etch spspee then when we listened to it, it then connie mack said, great. t we have a deal, and it is the gram/kennedy agreement, and we went to the gallery and had a joint conference and then we said, what was the agreement? and then we have to figure out that we have to put it in writing so we put in the conference room, and i guess kennedy was in the room, and i put slade gordon in there and there were a few others that were thoughtful members that they put on paper and went forward, but amp not sure to this day what we agreed to at that moment. do you remember that? >> i remem

thank you chairman lieberman, ranking member collins senator akaka.it's a nostalgic moment to come back here and i want to congratulate you on your achievement in moving this bill in a comprehensive form it has gone. it's a very valuable contradiction to our security. i just have to point but before you do that i thought i would address the stop on line piracy act analogy, the idea that sopa, soap and the internet wants to strike it down. i'm proud to say if i could channel senator bennett for a minute i flawed sophia and mr. chairman this bill is no sopa. in fact, i opposed so buff for the same reason i support this bill. as a nation, as a legislature our first obligation is to protect the security of this country. sopa would have made us less secure to serve the interests of hollywood. this bill will make us more secure and that is why he supported. just two points on why i believe that. we know today the most sophisticated security companies in the country have been unable to protect their most important secrets. this shows us how deeply -- deep th

am sure at this point to end the hearing secretary panetta that you are contemplating what daniel akaka said to you and are wondering about your career choice, but we do appreciate your service and the service of all of you. general dempsey, i want to bring up with you in the issue that really troubles me. since may of 2007, afghan security forces have killed 70 americans and allied troops and wounded many more come over 100 more. in 45 separate attacks and one of those killed was the unnamed soldier private first class buddy mclean. i am so disturbed by the frequency of these attacks it raises questions about our the bidding process, it raises concerns among our troops when here they are risking their lives to train and assist these afghan troops to only have some of them turn on them and kill them. it's my understanding that the central command report concluded that there was the crisis of distrust that permeated both the national afghan security troops that we are trading, and our own troops as well so here they are being sent out on the joint missions trading side by side, but they

thank you chairman lieberman, ranking member collins, senator akaka. it is a nostalgic moment to come back here and i want to congratulate you on your achievement in moving this bill in a comprehensive form as far as it has gone. it is a very valuable contribution to our security. i just have to points but before i do that i thought i would address the stock online privacy act and now become the idea that this is like sopa and the internet will rise up to strike it down. i'm proud to say if i can challenge senator bentsen for a minute i knew sopa and fought sopa and mr. chairman, this bill is no sopa. it's for the same reason that i support this bill. as a nation, as a new legislature, our first obligation is to protect the security of this country. sopa would have made us less secure to serve the interest of hollywood. this bill will make us more secure and that's why i support it. just two points on why i believe that. we know today the most sophisticated security companies in the country have been unable to protect their most important secrets. this

thank you chairman lieberman, ranking member collins, senator akaka. it is a nostalgic moment to come back here and i want to congratulate you on your achievement in moving this bill in a comprehensive form as far as it has gone. it is a very valuable contribution to our security. i just have to points but before i do that i thought i would address the stock online privacy act and now become the idea that this is like sopa and the internet will rise up to strike it down. i'm proud to say if i can challenge senator bentsen for a minute i knew sopa and fought sopa and mr. chairman, this bill is no sopa. it's for the same reason that i support this bill. as a nation, as a new legislature, our first obligation is to protect the security of this country. sopa would have made us less secure to serve the interest of hollywood. this bill will make us more secure and that's why i support it. just two points on why i believe that. we know today the most sophisticated security companies in the country have been unable to protect their most important secrets. this

and in our senate breakfast prayer group, senator daniel akaka of hawaii has been our anchor for manying to miss him, aren't we, mark, when he retires? and we've asked him to say our prayer for world leaders, and i would just add i don't, i'm not -- i've not known anyone, alabama or elsewhere, who has better lived his life in the spirit of than danny akaka. danny, thank you for all you do to make the senate and our government a better place. we're also joined by our colleague, dr. tom coburn, who passionately represent it is people of oklahoma and will give us a reading from the scripture. [applause] and if you know tom, you know that his faith impacts his life, and we all know that. next i have the honor and privilege of introducing my wife, mrs. mary sessions, partner for 42 years who's enabled me -- [laughter] enabled me to be able to serve and be has provided us with three children and five grandchildren. [applause] so we are very grateful once again to welcome the first lady of the united states, michelle obama. [applause] none of us can even imagine the burdens you carry as the

so i want to thank senator barrasso and senator akaka for helping it move out of the indian affairs committee and to the tribal chairs, been eata cleveland and now tony foster, thank you for coming to washington, d.c. and explaining how important this legislation is and to the national park service and to the national park director, thank you for your help in getting this legislation passed and to senator murray for her cosponsorship of this important legislation. it is important in times like this that congress does act, that we break gridlock and move forward, and for the quilu tribe, a tribe that gained notoriety in the recent movie series, what's really important is not that notoriety but the fact today that people have come together to help them move to safer grounds. i thank the chair -- the president and i yield the floor. i ask unanimous consent that the senate adjourn until 10:00 a.m. tuesday, february 14, and that following the prayer and pledge, the journal of compleed preedings approved to date, the morning hour deemed expired and the time for the two leaders reserved for use late

i want to thank senators akaka, begich, leahy, harkin, blumenthal, and sanders for being initial cosponsors of this measure. the structure of our bill is pretty simple. if your total income, capital gains included, is over $1 million, you calculate your taxes under the regular system. if your effective tax rate turns out to be greater than 30%, you pay that rate. if, on the other hand, your effective tax rate is under 30%, like warren buffett's 11%, then you'd pay the fair share tax rate. after collecting input from some of my colleagues, i've also included a provision to allow the fair share tax to be gradually phased in for taxpayers earning between $1 million and $2 million per year. taxpayers earning less than $1 million, which is 99.9% of all americans, wouldn't be affected by this bill at all. taxpayers earning over $2 million would be subject to the 30% minimum federal tax rate. and those in between $1 million and $2 million would pay on a phased-in basis a portion of the extra tax required to get up to the 30% effective tax rate. this way we make sure that no taxpayer faces a tax cl

akaka popular snookie is. republicans have managed to beat a sitting president just once in the last 50 years. once was in 1980 with ronald reagan. that is why i said from this stage a year ago that i thought doug christie was the only one who could be obama. i was more pessimistic about any republicans beating obama, and chris christie is the kind of politician that comes around once in a generation. he speaks the truth, bald, directly, the way nobody else will, taking on the evil umpire -- the evil empire of the day, by which i mean the public sector unions. [applause] but despite my herculean efforts, christie has decided not to run. now he will not even return my calls. i thought we had something special, governor. [laughter] but since last year, obama has gotten worse, and at romney has gotten a lot better. i assume that you have bent -- [applause] i assume this audience has been watching the debates, and i thanked romney has been practicing, because he is a lot better in these debates that he was in 2008

curious at this point to end the hearing, secretary panetta, that you are contemplating what danny akaka said to you and wondering about your career choice, but we do appreciate your service and indeed the service of all of you. general dempsey, i want to bring up with you an issue that really troubles me. since may of 2007, afghan security forces have killed 70 americans and allied troops and wounded many more. over 100 more. in 45 separate attacks. and one of those killed was a maine soldier, private first class buddy mclean. i'm so disturbed by the frequency of these attacks. it raises questions about our vetting process. it raises concerns among our troops when they are risking their lives to train and assist these afghan troops only to have some of them turn on them and kill them. it's my understanding that a central command red team report concluded that there was a crisis of distrust that permeated both the afghan national security troops that we are training and our own troops as well. so here they are being sent out on joint missions. they are training side by side. but they don

akaka the intent last month the united states conducted a bombers and an exhibition of the associatedmobile launcher as it was entering into the force. the united states and russian federation have also been chairing a mountain of data with each other. over the course of the first year we have exchanged 1,900 notifications pursuant to the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty. why so many notifications? these notifications help us keep track of the movement of each other's strategic forces and changes in status of the strategic system. for example a notification sent out every time a him bomber is moved out of countries for more than 24 hours. so we are exchanging information at a greater rate than under the s.t.a.r.t. treaty just to give you by way of comparison, 2009 was the last treaty year for s.t.a.r.t.. windel the force in december, 2009 and the first treaty for the s.t.a.r.t. treaty as i said went from february 5th, 2011-february 5th, 20 call. comparing those years we are 28.5% of on the number of medications exchanged but we are exchanging more information under the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty than

am sure at this point to end the hearing secretary panetta that you are contemplating what daniel akaka said to you and are wondering about your career choice, but we do appreciate your service and the service of all of you. general dempsey, i want to bring up with you in the issue that really troubles me. since may of 2007, afghan security forces have killed 70 americans and allied troops and wounded many more come over 100 more. in 45 separate attacks and one of those killed was the unnamed soldier private first class buddy mclean. i am so disturbed by the frequency of these attacks it raises questions about our the bidding process, it raises concerns among our troops when here they are risking their lives to train and assist these afghan troops to only have some of them turn on them and kill them. it's my understanding that the central command report concluded that there was the crisis of distrust that permeated both the national afghan security troops that we are trading, and our own troops as well so here they are being sent out on the joint missions trading side by side, but they

i want to talk a little bit about what senator akaka talked about very quickly. and that is the kind of strategies that the v.a. is using to recruit votes. this is in an area that's much more difficult in my opinion and g.p. is not easy, and that is the need for mental health professionals. we have as you know, you were there when we opened up the facility in helena, and we need -- it's a great facility. we don't have staffing at this point in time as far as from a psychiatric standpoint. do you have the adequate flexibility to be able to go out and recruit? and you can go to the secretary or to mr. petsle, to be able to go out and recruit and get folks in? i'm not sure we're there yet. >> thank you, mr. secretary. thank you, senator tester. i am aware of the issues in -- at fort harrison. we have four psychiatric psychiatrist vacancies. in general we can recruit around the country very successfully for psychiatric social workers, for psychiatric nurse clinicians, and for clinical psychologists. the most difficult recruitment for us is the m.d. psychiatrist. we a

among the guests, the agriculture secretary, tom vilsack 2 akaka 30, of the committee on homeland security and public safety and the role of the national guard. during the governors will be the general gregg mckinley. watched live coverage beginning at 9:30 eastern today here on c- span. this morning on washington journal, our guests include detroit news editorial page editor nolan finley. in 2008, the detroit news in 2008, the detroit news

akaka what i have been worried about is on friendly nations secretly giving money to which individuals or dummy corporations and we, the american people could have our tough elections subverted by a nation like iraq or north korea. we do not know where this money is coming from. in fact, a foreign nation and could actually give money to one of the secret pacs and have a mountain of willie horton-style ads. host: frank in frazier park, california. go ahead. david levinthal. guest: to your question, i have not read the specific article you cited but i will take it under advisement and check it out. the point you were making and your question, that plays back to the fact that campaigns and political operations have been using negative advertising for many, many decades, many, many years. going back on television, of course. what is different this time around as many of those assets previously were coming from the campaigns themselves off. when an advertisement that was very negative was going on the air, it was the campaign that was funding or behind that. not always the case, but definit