>> senator begich, we share that concern. avgas is unique. it is the remaining leaded fuel but it meets the unique requirements that exist in general aviation. and the faa completely understands the importance of having reasonable alternatives before any effort is made to phase out avgas. i'm committed to work to ensure that doesn't happen. >> when you say reasonable, economical is part of that equation? >> certainly. >> okay. good. because for us in alaska it's truly, it's the highway and the sky. it's critical we have the right ability. when we converted a much higher level of leaded gas to unleaded which was our vehicles, it took many, many, many years to do that. it wasn't overnight. i'm worried that epa has a different view of life here that they can flip the switch and make it all magic. i'm glad that you have made the statement you just said because i think you understand the faa component of this and the aviation component of this. thank you very much. will you keep us, at least our office informed, kind of if there are some milestone

i welcome senator begich from alaska here. thank you, senator begich, for joining us. mr. kympton? >> madam chairman and members of the subcommittee, thank you for invite me to participate in these important hearing. based on my experience as a veteran and my service of the mission continues, i believe that this subcommittee is doing work that is critical to the success of today's generation of veterans. today i am testifying as a west point graduate and former army pilot and as a veteran who sought meaningful employment after service. a national nonprofit organization where we have worked with over 350 veterans to pursue successful transitions to civilian life. based on these experiences with veteran recruitment and retention, i believe that there are several key lessons that federal contractors and corporate leaders can apply to successfully tap into the great skills of today's veteran. applying these lessons will strengthen their organizations while also building successful transitions for veterans. at the mission continues, we create successful transitions by engaging veterans

i welcome senator begich from alaska here. thank you, senator begich, for joining us. mr. kympton? >> madam chairman and members of the

to make sure i understand their plan better and then i'll engage you on it personally and senator begich. >> i do recognize that and i understand that the proposed savings that the air force is proposing is demolishing buildings, and the replacement value of these is $150 million so it puts it in a situation where it would appear to be a back door break and that is the concern and consideration. so again, if i can ask you to do a very comprehensive review and work with us, general dempsey, i will look forward to your conversation. mr. chairman, i thank you, and i will conclude my comments with just a direct appeal. the focus as we look at infrastructure is all very clean, but as it comes down with the human assets i remain troubled with the high level of suicide that i'm seeing with the military and the veteran population and most are staggered to learn that we are seeing more deaths due to suicide than we are in theater in afghanistan and how we deal with this reflects on who we are as a nation and our commitment to those who service, but i know you have a commitment to that, and i feel

conservatives here in the senate, senator gregg and now senator coates and another democrat senator begich and we've produced a tax reform bill. it's modelled after the '86 legislation where you clean out a lot of the clutter, hold down the rates and keep progressivity, and it's been joined by the tax committee as essentially generating revenue. one of the toughest parts of actually sitting down, and senator gregg and i spent week after week after week for almost two years, was dealing with these issues that we're talking about here today, the energy question, and i came to those discussions saying, highlighting a point we've heard this morning, that natural gas is a huge, strategic american advantage. i mean, people ought to understand that right at the get-go, and we ought to be talking about renewables, and some renewables that hardly ever get mentioned around here like hydropower and geothermal and other promising renewable sources, and yet at the same time we were actually able to write a bipartisan bill, and two of the principles that we've touched on today, i think, are going to be

actually, i did a, we call them begich minutes, give or take a second, we call them.o the middle of the capitol and described this incident where we passed the bill and i physically had to point to the house side of where this bill is stalled. here we are with a small group within the republican majority over there that is holding the speaker hostage, literally. because they have some views they want to cut the transportation by over a third, which would have devastated the infrastructure of this country. let me tell you from my own experience -- and i know senator whitehouse has heard this, as a former mayor i was in charge of the metropolitan planning organization for our community of anchorage which maintained about at that time 45%, 48% of the population of the state. we were in charge of managing the road money. every time congress delayed their action, were ineffective in getting their work done, as a mayor we had to put projects off, stall projects, hold projects, tell contractors they can't get working. it creates this uncertainty which at the end of the day d

. >> let me turn to senator begich for some questions and then i'll have some additional questions when he's done. >> thank you very much, madam chair. first, i appreciate you all being here and giving us some insight on what we need to do about our employment for veterans. you know, my state has about 11%, 12% of the population are veterans. highest per capita in the nation. so we have a lot of need and, as you can imagine, a lot of issues that come up. you know, when i was mayor, just to follow up on the guard issue, the esgr, we always signed up on it because we wanted to make sure people were taken care of no matter where they were. is there an -- let me just throw an idea, and i have a couple questions more specific. anyone who wants to answer this, and i'll start with you, ramsey, if that's okay. to create an incentive for the businesses to -- they know they're going to be gone for a period of time. the question is how long can you keep those kind of jobs open? is there a -- through tax policy is there an opportunity to create incentives to incentivize them not only to hire them b

umcan of his -- who brought a couple of his cement trucks and we had a rally and i think, senator begich,ern there. after the rally we were saying pass the bill, get the bill done. i talked to this gentleman, and he identified himself as a conservative republican who is so much for this bill. and one of the most, i think, touching things that happened was is that he introduced me to two of his drivers who came over to meet me, and i realized, as i stood there with these two gentlemen and the owner of the business, how much they were counting on us. what we do here matters. what we do here should matter. what we do here is literally life and death for the construction industry, for the business end and for the workers. and we know our president and all of us -- we all know that this economic recovery is too slow, and one of the things that's weighing it down is the construction industry. one of the things that is weighing it down is the transportation sector. and we know, if we don't do our job and we pass another extension here, that is a signal that the construction industry is going to

crane's life and how and why hwrote the red begich of courage the story of an ordinary soldi in the civil r. davita a t ales ra had in becoming an author in the 17 century. this is about an hour. c-span: linda h. davis, author of "badge of courage: the life of stephen crane," where did you get the idea for this book? gut: well,bout 10 years ago, haedrete e'eaorrk on,"chnory well-known. it's about a man who saves the life of a child in a fire and is horribly disfigured. he--he lived, but he lives as a wit a ce. d ou ave m ca wi eiyes old, my father lost his life in a house fire while trying to save me. and ever afterwards, i was tormented by dreams in which i inecwrmyht,e his face. there are a lot of small scenes, too, that were eerily like what happ to me when i was a child. and i thought: who was stephen crane that he can write this w about a fire? c-: e yivat when the--your father lost his life? >> guest: i was living in ft. rucker, abama. my father was a soldier, which stephen crane wanted to be at one time. he was a career man and he'd been through the korean war and he was in flht sc

during that time, it was the intention of senator begich, mark begich, from alaska to be on the floor with me. he was tied up with constituents, and i didn't feel i wanted to talk about him unless he were down here, but i have visited with him, and i just want to say to -- because i know right now we have -- i don't know how many but thousands and thousands of pilots that are watching us at this moment to know that mark begich has been my cosponsor of my legislation, and i want to tell you that we would not be able to be here doing what we're doing as far along with 66 cosponsors if he -- if we hadn't had his cooperation. so i really want to thank -- and i thank the junior senator from west virginia, senator manchin, who has been by my side on this legislation all the way through. i just want to make sure that the pilots of america know who does want them to have equal justice under the law and who perhaps does not. so i thank the chair and i yield the floor. mr. manchin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: first of all, i thank senator i

. >> i will just have i know that you and senator begich or in contact with the air force. i won't commit to going back and talking on the other plan. i will commit you to go back and make sure i understand the plan better and then engage with you on it personally, you and senator begich. >> i do recognize that part of the proposed savings of the air force is looking to is demolishing several buildings. the replacement value is about $150 million, so it puts it in a situation where it would appear to be a back door concern of consideration if i can ask you to a very comprehensive review and work with us i will look forward to your conversation. mr. chairman, i think you and i will conclude my comment would just a direct appeal. the focus as we look at the infrastructure is very keen that comes down to the human asset. i remain very troubled with a high level lot suicide that we are seeing with our military and also with our veteran population i think most are staggered to learn that we are seeing more due to suicide and we are actually out in the theater in afghanistan how

17 senators as followed, reid of nevada, harkin, whitehouse, conrad, reed of rhode island, coons, begich, kerry, schumer, mikulski, cardin, menendez, lieberman, landrieu, blumenthal, murray, carper. mr. reid: i move to concur in the house amendment to s. 3187 with an amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada mr. reid moves to concur in the house amendment to s. 3187 with an amendment numbered 2461. mr. reid: on that i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be a sufficient second. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. reid: you now have a second-degree amendment at the desk i wish to be reported. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: is noter from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an anytime numbered 2462 to amendment number 2461. mr. reid: i have a motion to refer to the house -- i have a motion, mr. president, to refer to the house message to the health, education, labor, and pensions committee with instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment. the presiding of

. >> let me turn to senator baggage -- begich. >> first, appreciate you all being here and giving us some insight on what we need to do about unemployment for veterans. we have 11 or 12% of the population are veterans. we have a lot of need and issues that come up. esgr, we always signed up on it. let me throw out an idea and i have a couple of questions. to create an incentive for businesses -- they know it -- it will be gone. how long can you keep those jobs open? is there a policy, an opportunity to create incentives not only to hire them but to keep that space opened in creating flex schedules? >> i testified about this several times in the past. tax incentives while they're nice and feel good is not a way to get people hired. bill of people getting off active duty. there would love to support members of the national guard reserve if there were compensated for when their employee is taken away. he gets called up, i wanted a direct cash stipends i could hire a contractor to do his job. once the department of labor -- of this cost me $11,000 for the reporting. i will not make it up

senator gray and now senator coats and senator begich produce an actual tax reform bill. it is modeled after the 86 legislation weekly note a lot of the clutter, hold down the rate can make rate maquis maquis progressivity and has been scored by a joint committee on taxation because essentially generating revenue. one of the typeface parts of actually sitting down and senator gregg and i spent a week after week for almost two years dealing with these issues were talking about here today. the energy question. and i came to this discussion saying, hiring a point we've heard this morning that natural gas is a huge strategic american advantage. people understand that rated the get-go. we ought to be talking about renewable since renewables target forget to get mention in hydropower and geothermal and other promising renewable sources. and yet at the same time we were actually able to write a bipartisan bill. in two of the principles that we've touched on today i think are going to be key as chairman baucus and senator hatch latest now and tax reform. one of them is that we ca

in transit security but has been at the forefront of many important developments including joint begich screenings are explosives, the establishment of a pure advisory group of transit police chief, assisting and directing funding for the infrastructure protection and operational security and the administration of dbase program to assist agencies in the application of the security efforts. this is only a partial list but it's a substantial one. that being said, in today's tough economic times, i think would be prudent to ensure that all of the tsa efforts make the best possible use of the respective budget allocations. one pergamon particular that i agree is worth a close examination is the surface inspector program. amtrak's experience with this program has been somewhat mixed. on the one hand, the program has been helpful to us in the assessment of the northeast corner. on the other hand, amtrak has encountered difficulties over interpretations of regulations but different field officers. informal inquiry, as revealed confusion and disconnect with tsa headquarters at times. today the

certainly senator begich has been working hard, senator pryor and senator manchin, as well as many on the republican side. but it is a reality now and it's something -- i look at this as kind of a strange day for me anyway because i've been working on two bills for a year and a half. both will become a reality on the same day. one, of course, the highway bill. the other, everyone knows about, the pilots' bill of rights that only the pilots know about. you know, when you stop and think that we've been -- and i've been a pilot for 55 years and i get all the calls and the complaints that come in. but when you stop and think that the pilots are really the only ones in our society that are denied access to justice like every other citizen is, and this corrects that. and so i would say -- i just want to say to my friend that i appreciate very much his support in -- in making this a reality. mr. manchin: mr. president, if i may say, the leadership of my good friend from oklahoma and his unwavering support and in basically bringing this to all of our attentions -- i've been a pilot for not qu

begich: i would like the record to reflect that if there had been a roll call vote i would have voted "no" on this item. a senator: mr. president? mr. president? i would like to also be recorded as having voted "no" if there had been a roll call vote. a senator: mr. president, i would too. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah is recognized. mr. lee: mr. president, i call up my amendment number 2314 which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from utah mr. lee proposes amendment number 2314. the presiding officer: there will be two minutes of debate. the senator from utah is recognized for one minute. mr. lee: mr. president i propose 2314 to repeal the conservation reserve program and conservation stewardship program. we have another instance of the federal government paying people not to use their land. in this circumstance, they're being paid not to grow crops on their land, not to use agriculture land. we have an almost $16 trillion debt. c.b.o. says that this amendment would save over $15

madam president, this amendment is cosponsored by senators boxer and begich and is supported by over 40 pro-consumer organizations throughout the country, including public citizen, u.s. perg, center for food safety, and many, many others. this is a very conservative amendment. it says that the american people should have the right to know what is in the food that they and their children are eating, and if that food contains genetically engineered products. this amendment grants states the authority to label genetically engineered food. it is not a mandate. it grants states that right, something which, by the way, is now taking place in 49 countries throughout the world. if the people in england, germany, france and dozens and dozens of other countries have labels allowing their people to know if they are eating food with genetically engineered products -- the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. sanders: states in the united states should have that right. i ask for a yes vote. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow