investigation and an article 3 court prosecution by the ayotte amendment. how did this happen? you know how if happened? instead of using coercive tech negs, the obama administration convinced abdulmutallab's family to come to the united states. and his family set down with him and told him, why don't you cooperate with the f.b.i., and he did. that's a very different approach from what we saw in previous administrations when course of techniques are used. -- when coercive techniques were used. but it is not like the tv program "24." here's what we learned during the bush administration. in real life, people will say mig to make the pain stop. they will lie and fabricate and go on and babble as long as necessary to stop the pain of the torture. they often provide false information instead of valuable intelligence. richard clarke was a senior counterterrorism advisor to president cline continue and president george w. bush. wheres said about things about begs approach: "the f.b.i. is good at getting people to talk. they've been much more successful than the previous attempts of t

one amendment is by senator ayotte of new hampshire. and what she would do in her amendment is restrict the authority of the president of the united states to refer suspected terrorists to our criminal justice system to be invested, prosecuted, and tried. she would make it mandatory that those terrorists, particularly associated with al qaeda, would be tried before military commissions and tribunals. i listened as she and senator mcconnell came to the floor to explain their point of view. it's an interesting point of view, that we are at war with al qaeda and therefore any trials of suspected terrorists associated with them should be before a military tribunal. but, unfortunately, the logic of their argument falls flat when you look at reality. here is the reality. since september the 11th ten years ago, president bush and president obama have faced time and time again allegations that individuals are suspected terrorists. each president, bush and obama, have had to consult with the secretary of defense, the attorney general and the oth

ayotte: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: mr. president, i rise in response to my esteemed colleague from colorado's comments about my amendment, 753. and i would say this first: my amendment does not provide immunity to terrorists. what my amendment does is treats terrorists as they should be. we're at war, and under the laws of war traditionally, we have tried people in military commissions, military tribunal, and those individuals that my colleague from colorado cited, including the umar farouk abdulmutallab could be held accountable in a military commission because our priority has to be when we are at war to gather intelligence, to protect our country, and not where we should prosecute in our article 3 courts, which i have great confidence in -- i served as attorney general of our state and believe very much in our article 3 court system. but our article 3 court system is not where terrorists should be tried whom we are at war with. and in light of the recent comments here on the floor, i feel compelled to point out some of

ayotte: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to temporarily set aside the pending amendment and i call up my amendment 753. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. ayotte: thank you. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: ms. ayotte proposes amendment numbered 753 -- ms. ayotte: i ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. ayotte: i filed amendment 753 to h.r. 2112, the appropriations mini bus. my amendment would prohibit the use of funds for the fiscal year 2012 for the prosecution of enemy combatants in our article 3 courts. this prohibition would apply to individuals who are members of al qaeda or affiliated terrorist groups and who have participated in the course of planning or carrying out attacks against our country, the united states of america, or our coalition partners. in no other conflict have we treated our enemies and tried them in our civilian court s i believe that we need to

senator kelly ayotte from manchester this morning. we will see you back here in washington in a few hours. >> thanks. >>> tom on the show, presidential candidate, herman cain will be here fresh off the new hampshire debate. with our new poll showing him running neck and neck with romney in iowa. tomorrow at 9:00 a.m., the herman cain train coming to "the daily rundown." we will get information from the other side of the i'aisle. chuck schumer joins me. they are trying to come up with plans b, c, d, and e. red flags for romney. there is the poll trouble we told you about. now, nbc news shows you the evidence that really does link the obama health care law to the romney massachusetts law. first, a look ahead at the president's schedule. he heads to pittsburgh after about 11:00 today. the daily rundown on msnbc. it's new! ahhh-ahh-ahh! it's nice 'n easy colorblend foam! permanent color with tones and highlights. now in a delightful foam. just three shakes, foam it, love it! it's foamtastic! new nice 'n easy colorblend foam. your right co

ayotte: no i cannot. mr. mcconnell: two days ago the president's top lawyer at the pentagon dwengdz the pentagon's use of force against an american citizen who is a member of al qaeda. in doing so he noted that using lethal force in such a case is perfectly appropriate because that person was an enemy combatant. specifically, he said, those who are part of the congressionally declared enemy do not have immunity if they are u.s. citizens. so, does it not strike my friend from new hampshire as inconsistent for the administration to authorize lethal force against a member of al qaeda, even if he is a u.s. citizen, because he is part of an enemy force, as declared by the congress? but, on the other hand, not to trust the military to try by military commission members, the same enemy force who are foreign nationals? ms. ayotte: it certainly strikes me as very inconsistent. it's especially odd given that the military commissions were enacted by congress at the suggestion of our united states supreme court. they wer

ayotte: thank you, senator chambliss. i would say this, you highlighted the importance, number one, as did senator mccain of passing the defense authorization. i have been to the floor twice on this issue because i think it's so important for our country. the notion that it's been half a century since we have failed to pass this authorization, what is at stake for our troops and for the troops and the message that it sends to them. we still are at war, in two wars. there are threats that face our country every day, and our military men and women, we owe it to them that they know that we're going to pass this authorization to address issues like pay increases and issues like weapons that they need, and all of the fundamental day-to-day issues to make sure that they know that we're behind them. but this issue of the detainee policy of this country, i would summarize over the last few months in the armed services committee, military leader after military leader has come before our committee, and we have asked them about this

ayotte: thank you, senator chambliss. i would say this, you highlighted the importance, number one, as did senator mccain of passing the defense authorization. i have been to the floor twice on this issue because i think it's so important for our country. the notion that it's been half a century since we have failed to pass this authorization, what is at stake for our troops and for the troops and the message that it sends to them. we still are at war, in two wars. there are threats that face our country every day, and our military men and women, we owe it to them that they know that we're going to pass this authorization to address issues like pay increases and issues like weapons that they need, and all of the fundamental day-to-day issues to make sure that they know that we're behind them. but this issue of the detainee policy of this country, i would summarize over the last few months in the armed services committee, military leader after military leader has come before our committee, and we have asked them about this

we have young senators like rubio and graham and kirk and kelly ayotte in new hampshire, and members of the house like eric cantor and paul ryan. we have the deepest bench that i have ever seen. i'm very excited about the future of the party. if governor christie decides to run, i wish him luck. i think that there is a bit of a caution. the swimming pool looks a lot better until you jump right in. the water may not be quite as warm as you think. >> schieffer: well, you cite this deep republican bench, and yet the polls suggest and the anecdotal evidence i mean when i talk to republicans, they don't seem very happy with the republican field that's running. why do you think that is? >> it happens almost every time that people are not happy with the "perfect" candidate. i do note that governor romney and perry and others are very competitive now. others in the polls with the president. and i think that we have a good crop of candidates. i think the party will rally around the nominee. i think we're going to win this next election. >> schieffer: let me just quote what rush limbaugh said

ayotte: thank you. mr.resident, i rise today to talk about the state of affairs and where we are in the senate, particularly with regard to the defense authorization bill. right now in the senate i'm a freshman member of this body, it's been over two years since we passed a budget, we've only passed one appropriations bill. last week, the democrats changed the rules in the senate because they didn't want to vote on amendments. and for the first time in my lifetime, the defense authorization bill is not being brought to the floor by the majority leader. this is at a time when we are engaged in two wars and the threats to us and our allies from the islamist terrorists remain. in fact, today authorities broke up an alleged plot to bomb the israeli and saudi arabian embassies in washington and to assassinate the saudi arabian ambassador to the united states. and why at a time like this when there is nothing more important we can do in the united states senate than to ensure the national security of the american

joining us now, republican senator kelly ayotte of new hampshire. as lindsey graham? i assume you are. >> i'm deeply concerned. i think we've seen a pat here. we saw it in afghanistan withdrawing majority of the surge, the remainder of the surge troops in the middle of the fighting season and now, we're seeing in iraq. general austin, the commander in iraq, has given a number of 14 to 18,000 troops would be needed to complete our mission to make sure iraq remains stable. unfortunately, what we're going to see here is iran cheering over this decision and they're going to have more control in iraq than we want them to have. >> the pentagon, i'm sure the general, wouldn't want any u.s. troops to stay there if they didn't have status of forces agreement with the iraqi government that would protect these u.s. military personnel from any prosecution. they need immunity to stay and the iraqi government said no immunity. >> i find that a little astounding that the administration couldn't negotiate this. my staff was on a conference call with dennis mcdunn t

republican senator kelly ayotte of new hampshire.niform, she did it as an adult. >>> jon stewart has his own thoughts on rick perry and birther demism. >> perry has picked up the cold torch to suggest that none of us have seen the president's birth certificate. this represents progress for perry. right now, he is only six months behind the national conversation. his "n" word national hunting ground is only 150 years behind. in many ways, perry is actually gaining time. st rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? this guy's amazing. [ dr. ling ] i need to get the results from the m.r.i. see if the blood work is ready. review ms. cooper's

. >> new hampshire senator kelley ayotte thank you for coming on this morning. >>> just when you thought whether president obama was born in america had you been put to bed, rick perry brought the issue back into the headlines. in an interview with "parade" perry this had exchange. do you believe that president obama was born in the united states? governor perry. i have no reason to think otherwise. then after being pressed, governor perry says, i don't have a definitive answer because he has never seen my birth certificate. but the reporter responded, but you have seen his. and perry said, i don't know i have. mark la montana hill and most of our world and republican strategist and founder of del percentia strategies. the birther issue reborn, so to speak. we thought the birther debate was old news and here we have it coming back into the news cycle through perry. do you think this was a mistake? >> not for perry, because at this point people know who and what he is. what he is trying to do is send a smoke signal out to the extreme work to court voters back, particularly when herman cai

ayotte: thank you, mr. president. i rise to the floor to discuss my amendment 753.this amendment would prohibit the use of funds for fiscal year 2012 for the prosecution of enemy combatants in article 3 courts, specifically applies to members of al qaeda or affiliate ed entities who are also participants in the course of planning or carrying out attacks against the united states. i've heard yesterday many of my colleagues from the other side of the aisle whom i have great respect for come to the floor to oppose my amendment. i would like to address the issues that they have raised and start with this. i think their arguments miss the point. we are at war with these terrorists, enemy combatants, members of al qaeda who are planning or have planned attacks against the united states of america. and in what other conflict has the default or preferred position been to try these individuals in the civilian court systems of the united states? the primary focus when we capture an enemy combatant needs to be on gathering intelligence to protect the people of this country and

ayotte: thank you very much. mr. president, i rise today to address the majority leader's refusal to bring the defense authorization bill to the floor. on monday senator reid came to the floor and acknowledged the importance of bringing the defense authorization bill forward, aepbd said -- quote -- "it is vital that we get to this bill and pass it." i couldn't agree more. that's why it's nothing short of outrageous that the majority leader is blocking this important bill from being debated and passed by the senate based on misguided objections that the administration has raised to a bipartisan provision in the defense authorization which addresses how we detain and treat terrorists who are captured under the law of war. the american people and our military men and women deserve better. the 2012 national defense authorization act addresses many essential issues for our war fighters. just to mention a few of the important measures that the majority leader is blocking from consideration by failing to bring this bill to

kelly ayott of new hampshire and susan collins of maine said no one should make fun of how he had toor school because he had a humble background. >> kelly, thank you very much. let's get a check of the weather from al. >> beautiful morning. 37 and 33rd birthday, where is mom? >> she's there. >> went down there to go on tv. >> oh, no, mom, where are you? oh! let's check your weather. mom, where'd you go? o oh, first we have a risk of strong storms ahead of a front, stretching from texas all the way to the plains, rainfall, you can see the radar is already firing up. we are looking at anywhere from three to five inches of rain, some areas picking up eight inches of rain over the next few days and texas, we've got a little bit of a high pressure bringing that wind onshore, and that's going to mean for some rip currents, low pressure will develop there, over the next 72 hours, look at the rainfall amounts, anywhere from three to eight inches of rain in parts of texas. mom finally got here! yeah! yeah, mom! that's w >> good morning. typical cool this morning but the sunshine is out. storm

good morning @ ayotte 56.ro escalator's panel held an emergency meeting last night and they voiced their concerns about escalator problems at the bethesda station. all the stations, three escalator stop working earlier in the day. had a public meeting d.c. leaders will be an area what to do with by world war i missions. at least one home could be torn down. let's check in with lisa baden traffic.k at there's an accident that has on theking care of county parkway. virginia is loaded up this morning and across the roosevelt bridge has heavy traffic to constitution avenue. north of reagan national airport virginia, it is getting better up to the pentagon and the beltway as normal delays. 95 to georgia avenue, at least we don't have rain. >>> pretty morning and around 70es will be later and clouds will thicken from north to south and fallratures will start to as a cold front moves through. degrees tonight and tomorrow we will have periods of 62-67, cooler and drier on friday and a chance for showers saturday and d

it's cosponsored by senators crapo, risch, snowe, ayotte, wyden, johanns, nelson of nebraska, mikulski and hoeven. mr. president, earlier this year the u.s. department of agriculture proposed a rule that would limit servings of a certain category of vegetables that includes white potatoes, corn, peas, and lima beans. it would limit them to a total of one cup per week in the national school lunch program. the proposed rule would also ban this category of vegetables altogether from the school breakfast program. our bipartisan amendment would prevent the department of agriculture from moving forward with this arbitrary limitation. i'm concerned that the proposed rule would impose significant costs on schools and would limit the flexibility that they need to serve nutritious, affordable meals to their students. now, for those who are less familiar with this issue, let me give my colleagues some background. current law already requires the school lunch and breakfast programs to follow the most recent dietary guidelines for americans. last year, the usda released the newest guidelines that c

this version of the amendment: senator udall, senator crapo, senator risch, senator snowe, senator ayotte, senator johanns, senator nelson of nevada, senator hoeven, senator murkowski, senator johnson of wisconsin. the presiding officer: is that udall of colorado? ms. collins: thank you, udall of colorado. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. c ms. collins: and, mr. president, i want to thank the senator from business which wisconsin and the senator from colorado and the two senators for their help. i ask that senator kohl be added as a cosponsor of this amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendments and call up my amendment number 816. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from vermont, mr. sanders, proposes an amendment numbered 816 to amendment number 738. on page 87 -- mr. sanders: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from louisiana. ms. landrieu: mr. president

ayotte: ward that has already been -- any award that has already been granted. the g.a.o. and inspectors general have testified that the size and complexity of the programs and the short turn around time provided by ntia and r.u.s. to award the money has created substantial risk in these programs. and thus far nearly 30 awards and grants worth about $200 million have been returned to the treasury. many have returned the awards because they recognize that they won't be successful. in those cases we want to assure that the taxpayer exposure is minimized and prevent throwing good money after bad for projects that should be terminated for waste, fraud or insufficient performance. now, during committee hearings, the administrators testified that the decision to deobligate funds for awards that give rise to reason to terminate is discretionary according to the recovery act language. i emphasize discretionary. the inspectors general said the stimulus bill does not make clear whether or whether the ntis or the r.u.s. must deobligate funds for troubled projects. this legislation re

ayotte: thank you mr. president. mr. levin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: mr. president i oppose the amendment. this is a very different amendment from the one that we adopted in our armed services committee relative to detention. this amendment was rejected on a strong bipartisan vote in the armed services committee. the reasons are set forth in a letter from the secretary of defense, mr. panetta who wrote us if we're to safeguard the american people, we must be in position to employ every lawful instrument of national power including both courts and military commissions to ensure that terrorists are brought to justice. by depriving us of one of our most potent weapons in the fight against terrorism the amendment -- the ayotte amendment would make it more likely that terrorists will escape justice and innocent lives will be put at risk. they have been successfully prosecuted. they just recently in detroit a terrorist was successfully prosecuted in an article 3 court. we should not deny the prosec

if the ayotte amendment had been law these prosecutions would have been thrown into doubt. in fact, prosecution might not have been possible in any forum because if a court determined that a military commission lacked jurisdiction and if the ayotte amendment precluded jurisdiction of a federal court, there couldn't be prosecution in any form whatsoever. now, that could have actually been the outcome in the case of ahmed warsami, a member of al-shabaab. he was indicted in federal court earlier this year on charges of providing material support to al-shabaab and al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. in that case our national security and legal teams determines that the federal courts provided the best forum in which to prosecute warsami for his alleged crimes. this decision was reached for two reasons. one, warsami is alleged to have violated a number of federal statutes including sections of the criminal code, protecting -- excuse me, prohibiting trafficking in explosives, use of dangerous weapons, acts of international terrorism, providing material support to foreign terrorist