. >> my pleasure to introduce john barrasso. >> thank you, madame chairwoman. i think you and senator carper for holding the hearing today, entitled recommendations for enhancing reactor safety in the 21st century. there are a couple of points that need to be stated from the report itself. first, our regulatory frameworks to protect nuclear plants is working. although complex, the current regulatory approach has served the commission and the public well, and allows the task force to conclude that a sequence of events like those happening in the food fish in the accident is not likely to happen in the united -- fukushima accident, is not likely to happen in the united states, and to be mitigated reducing the cord damage and radiological releases. as commissioner ostendorff stated on july 19, "i do not believe our existing framework is broken." i agree. second, our regulatory system is quite different than japan's. i agree with commissioner ostendorff's opinion that the fukushima tragedy happened in another country whose regulatory structure is quite different fr

i do not think we should limit ourselves to what the task force said. >> thank you. >> senator barrasso. >> chairman jaczko, how involved were you in the selection of the six members of this near-term task force? >> not involved. i believe the edo would tell me the list of people on it and i okayed it. >> were you involved in any way of the deliberations of the task force? >> not all. i spoke to them before their work, told them they had a tremendous response ability and that they should do the best they could. >> the commission talked about a patchwork of current programs flowing. do you agree that our current program of nuclear safety in the united states is defective, not working? >> i do not believe that is what the task force said. the inference that it is defective, therefore, is not true. it is true we have a patchwork of regulations. that is what the task force indicated. if you just look at emergency procedures, we have emergency procedures that fall into three classes. emergency operating procedures. we then have operator procedures for severe accidents. then we have potential

senator barrasso has been a leader on that subject. i am often asked, what would you do to get the economy going, and my answer is always the same, quit doing what we have been doing. quit borrowing, quit spending, quit trying to raise faxes, quit overregulating and let the private sector flourish so we could have a chance to have a growing economy which again will produce more revenue for the government. so that ought to be our single focus, not only at home during the recess but when we come back here. one very big thing the administration could do in that direction is get those trade agreements up here. they enjoy bipartisan support. they will create jobs in america, for americans. we hope they will be waiting for us when we get back from the august break. with that, senator kyl. >> i am amazed that the white house believes it's press shop and the president's eloquence and the campaign team of the president can override the substance of issues with rhetoric. and it's very interesting, therefore, that the moment we got this debt ceil

the quote that i just read was from senator john barrasso who wrote an op-ed in the washington times, he's been out in the forefront trying to get a handle on these regulations. doug, you claim it's just lip service, you know, look, $10 billion is not a drop in the bucket, it's a lot of money, but it sounds like what you're saying is there's so much onerous regulation being implemented outside of that $10 billion, it's just making that a wash. it's worse than a wash. they have proposed far more than $10 billion in new costs this year alone, there's an enormous amount of new regulation under the health care reform, under the e p-fpt a reform -- under the financial reform, the epa continues to regulate and the fact is the proposals are not in place. the only thing they've put in place is one rule about hazardous milk spills that cuts our regulatory cost by $140 million, that's the only fact on the ground in this debate and that's not enough to turn the course of the economy. martha: i guess when you get right down to it, it's a philosophical difference, this administration believes you

i saw john barrasso yesterday, a couple days ago on the floor talking about an analysis he did -- whereif government regulations were promulgated last month were costing business $10 a month. i mean, it's suffocating what this administration is doing with all the regulatory agencies. so one of the things you need to do is look and see how we can get change in the regulatory environment from what this president has done. but it's again command-and-control. we know that spirit will tell you how to run your business from health insurance to firming. the government says this is what you do and how you do it. sorry about that. and it's contracting business, paralyzing business, creating uncertainty. plus you have a president who routinely, just like franklin roosevelt beat the out of business, tell them how bad they are, how they don't care about anybody, how will go after them, tax them, regulate them. why would you want to do business the next country if you have someone who is antibusiness. guess what? the don't have to and they don't purity through on want talk about the fact he wants to

it's my pleasure to introduce john barrasso the ranking member of the subcommittee. >> thank you very much, i appreciate it. i thank you. i thank chairman carper entitlet recommendations for enhancing reactor safety in the 21st century. in reviewing the report, there are a couple of points that i believe need to be stated that come from the report itself. and first, our regulatory framework to protect our nuclear plants is working. it is working. as the task force concludes, although complex, the current regulatory approach has served the commission and the public well and allows the task force to conclude that a sequence of events like those occurring in the fukushima accident is unlikely. unlikely to occur in the united states. and could be mitigated, reducing the likelihood of core damage and radiological releases. as commissioner ostendorff, who is before us today, stated on july 19th, i do not believe that our existing regulatory framework is broken. i agree. i do not believe that our existing regulatory framework is broken. second, our regulatory system is quite different than j

for example, the employer impact act introduced by senator john barrasso of wyoming is a simple bill.ber of jobs that will be lost as a result of a proposed rule or regulation. senator ron johnson from wisconsin has introduced legislation that would place a moratorium on new federal regulations with an economic impact exceeding $100 million until the unemployment rate falls below 7.7%. and as a newly appointed member of the joint select committee on deficit reduction, i am ready to work hard with my federal project fellow committee members to produce a proposal to reduce government spending and help us pripet -- create an environment where entrepreneurs can thrive. i have confidence that the 21st century can be a new great american century. another we can have a booming economy. but to get there, we have to remember the source of our national strength -- our street as i come from a bigger government controlling our economy. it comes from our free enterprise system and the hard- working, honest citizens to make it run, the kind of industrial folks i see every day in pennsylvania. when

senator barrasso has been a leader on that subject. i am often asked, what would you do to get the economy going, and my answer is always have been doing. the same, quit doing what we quit borrowing, quit spending, quit trying to raise faxes, quit overregulating and let the private sector flourish so we could have a chance to have a growing economy which again will produce more revenue for the government. so that ought to be our single focus, not only at home during the recess but when we come back here. one very big thing the administration could do in that direction is get those trade agreements up here. they enjoy bipartisan support. they will create jobs in america, for americans. we hope they will be waiting for us when we get back from the august break. with that, senator kyl. >> i am amazed that the white house believes it's press shop and the president's eloquence and the campaign team of the president can override the substance of issues with rhetoric. and it's very interesting, therefore, that the moment we got this debt ceil

tom barrasso was on the floor a couple days ago talking about an analysis that he did where he said government regulations promulgated last month by the administration were costing americans $10 billion a month. it is suffocating. one of the things we need to do is look at how we can get growth going in the country by changing the regulatory environment from what this president has done. again, command and control. we know best. we will tell you how to run your business. from health insurance to farming, the government says this is what you have to do and how you have to do it. and it is contracting business, paralyzing business. plus, you have a president who returned a, -- just like franklin roosevelt -- beat the crap out of business. you do not care about anybody, we are going to tax you. why do you want to do business in this country if you have somebody who's going to be as aggressive anti-business as this president is? they do not have to, and they do not. you throw on top of that the fact that we are implementing this health care bureaucracy. taxes and mandates will be in place. busines