guest: senator mark begich, thank you so much for being with us. coming up next, economic reporter from "the wall street journal," sudeep reddy. now an update from c-span reopen the >> president obama travel to michigan and missouri next month. he will travel to st. louis to throw out the first pitch at major league baseball's all-star game. major league baseball is focusing on consumer to service throughout the summer in conjunction with the president pasquale to service. -- with president' obama's call to service. the report goes on to say that the younger kim is overseeing the handling of two u.s. journalists, laura ling and hanna lee, who were detained earlier in north korea. defense secretary robert gates signed an order yesterday creating a cyber command to oversee pewter networks. -- to oversee computer networks. the new headquarters will be based at fort meade, maryland, just outside washington, d.c., and will be under the offices -- the auspices of the u.s. strategic command and the last -- the u.s. strategic command. finally, south caroli

this is 20 minutes. >> host: senator mark begich, democrat from alaska to joins us for the next part of the program. thanks for being with us. >> guest: good to see you. >> host: this week the senate armed services committee marks up the 2010 defense authorization. why should we look for? >> guest: first as a new member what i'm going through is the process understanding each subcommittee and listening to the presentations as we go to the subcommittees did present various paper work up the review but i think when you look for is at the end of the day one thing i notice in the arm service committee is a bipartisan approach and how we deal with issues so there will be some amendments, no question about it but i think generally there's been a lot of good work on each subcommittee to present your day in the fall markup process. a budget i think most people would agree with at the end of the day but there's obviously as you know i've talked about missile defense and the importance of that program. there's others with troop strength i know a couple senators are interested in ensuring that

i apologize to my colleagues. >> [inaudible] >> senator begich? >> i apologize to the panel have to leave after my questions. but for me, this is not only an important discussion. my father perished in a plane crash, so i'm very familiar with issues and impact it can have on a family so i appreciate you all here today. i have from the velÁzquez perspective is the small plane capital of the world. small planes are like vehicles, that's how we get around so as we think of safety issues we have to keep that in perspective especially in the rural areas so i am very aware of that could be an impact by. i want to follow-up on a couple of questions and it was intriguing to me as i was listening to the recommendations and mr. babbitt, we've had good conversations in regards to the faa and your new role and you've come in with a fire hose and you, but i want to make sure i understood what you said and then i saw your body language so i'm going to try to connect the two. i can't imagine you would make recommendations that are not necessarily recommendations

libby's job is to do that. >> host: alaska senator mark begich, thanks for being with us. >> guest: the to see you again. >>> through donations. >> i think a little bit from federal government. >> grants and stuff like that. >> may be from sponsors. >> they might get government funding. >> the viewers? >> how is c-span funded? 30 years ago america's cable companies. it's c-span as a public service. a private business initiative, no government mandate, no government money. >>> now, governor mark sanford of south carolina holds a news conference at the state capital. from columbia, south carolina, this is about 20 minutes. >> how are we going to do this? do you want to hold it? >> i have my own. >> somebody want to help me here? how are we going to move this around? okay. ready? everybody ready? and won't begin in any particular spot. let me just start with -- where is gina smith? not here? okay. i had a conversation with jean smith this morning when i arrived in atlanta and i told her about my love of the appalachian trail and i use to organize hiking trips when i was in high school i di

i will lead a trip to alaska for a couple of days at the invitation of senator mark begich who wants to show me and a group of senators and also senator murkowski has been gracious enough to say that she will join us in this. we're going to see ground zero for global warming in alaska. i know greenland where i went is -- you can see thetic melt. you can sit and actually see thetic break off if thes off frt icebergs and watch them go to sea. so the scientists have proven it and we know it's absolutely true. so when senator inhofe comes down here and he flies in the face of science, those of us who have been working on this -- and i see one of our great leaders not only, i say this in the senate, but, frankly, in the country, and even in the world community, john kerry, who has joined us. just for his information i will speak for about another continue manipulates and i'll be so happy to sit and hear him because he's got such an important vision on this. but here is the good news. the good news is that this is an enormous opportunity to move our country forward. and again i could quote

. >> senator begich. >> thank you very much. i will also be very interest ed in how you proceed. zo someone asked me what kind of shows have i watched recently. they started to them me about a sitcom they were watching. if it's not pbs, i have no clue unless it's a newscast. so i'm very interested as you proceed as the chair of fcc. you and i talked briefly about this and how important it is for our state, a very rural state. and i would like to describe here in this committee extreme rural as other people talk about rural states, the distance and the travel and the complexcy of the transportations of the climate conditions, create unique situations. i know there's talk of reform. alaska, 100% tribal which gives it special considerations. i wonder how you feel about that policy and how tribal lands is recognized in how alaska fits into that. that and the reform the principle of universal service is a core principle of communications policy that goes back to the beginnings of the communications act that has been reinforced many times by congress. that is a priority of mine. i woul

our guests are todd akin and mark begich and we'll discuss the economy with the economics reporter for the "wall street journal." also on washington journal this week, tom ridge, former secretary of homeland security. he'll take your questions on thursday at 9:00 a.m. eastern. >> the senate health committee continues to mark up a health care bill this morning with senator chris dod acting as chairman. he is sitting in for senator kennedy who is being treated for cancer. >> july 4 weekend on book tv, discover an unfamiliar side of our nation's first president as we're live from george  washington's mount vernon estate with historian and author john ferling. join our three-hour conversation sunday july 5 live on "in depth" on c-span 2's book tv. now a republican news conference on health care legislation. this is 15 minutes. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> when it comes to the issue of health care, the congress shouldn't rush through health care like we did with the stimulus plan several months ago. a w

begich? >> i want to refer the kennedy to the report, the interesting part of the report is it was stimulated by this committee. it does address all these issues we are talking about. the panel was staffed by experts from the field, training, operating, and so all of these issues have been addressed. specific recommendations were applied to the ntsb, faa industry in general and congress. >> very good, mr. scovel? >> i will note in the committee asked my office to investigate the matters and training will be the first phase of the ongoing review. >> i appreciate that and also i know senator snowe and i have a bill focusing on some of the inspections and relationship with faa we hope to be included in the reauthorization and we can talk about that and the cooling off period at another time. >> thank you. >> senator klobuchar, thank you. senator from? >> thank you mr. chairman and gentlemen appearing before us today. i just want to follow-up with mr. rosenker if i can be read in your testimony t

i can tell you senator begich has his very own personal story for me. it was eerily reminiscent of the crash of paul wellstone's plane. he is the senator from minnesota, while that was a private plane, the issue was ice. the issues were pilot training and the issues were fatigue. so when i hear all of this from our hearing last week of underpaid pilots, pilots that are tired, and pilots that aren't earning enough money it reminds me very much of that. in addition to that here you have a factor up i was far away from their bases leading to long commutes and a lot of time spent waiting in airport. i know there have been some questions about fatigue, but i had a question about the reimbursement for hotel rooms in the evenings. i know that some of the larger airlines pay for hotel costs so that the pilots can get sleep before shifts. average under our regional carriers doing the same thing? >> senator klobuchar, when pilots are on duty the minute they check in, their hotel costs on duty are paid for 100% by the company your they also receive a per diem, tra

. >> senator begich? >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. mr. mceleney, can i ask you a question first just so i understand? of the gm and chrysler dealerships, what percentage does your association represent? >> 50 -- >> 92% -- excuse me. senator, we represent about 92% of the dealers of all brands, both domestic and international. >> to -- thank you very much for that. i just want to make sure i was clear on the stats. to the two gentlemen from chrysler and general motors, did you ever have any inclination as you developed, i will turn to both in regards to the documents that are required by dealers to sign, did you ever have any inclination to work with the association to figure out what's a decent agreement that the dealerships could sign? >> let me see if i can't deal with both of the agreements. in the case of the wind-down agreement, as i said, we had done a similar exercise in canada just recently and our early returns from our dealers who are going to be wound down and with the appeal process, we think we have a workable approach for th

begich: i'd like to call off the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. begich: madam president, i have is it unanimou unanimous ct requests for -- consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. begich: i suggest an absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: