but on the house side we have sufficient support that bennie thompson could get that bill done if i thinkif the administration came on board and i have to be honest with you, i don't know where they are in terms of answering some of his letters. i just don't know. >> while waiting for that, let me -- an interesting fact that i believe is correct is that the overwhelming majority of americans favor missile defense but they also believe we have it, to the extent we do not. they do not understand that we are not adequately defended right now. if we were to harden the electrical grid as peter subscribed, are there some subsidiary benefits even if there's never an emp attack? >> of course. well, again let's go back to the carington effect. what's the probability that iran or north korea is going to launch on us? well, we could maybe go across the river and somebody could work the statistics. what's the probability of a solar event hitting us 100%? >> uh-huh. and so -- >> we better do it now. >> it's a form of modernization because we have an antiquated electrical grid patched over generation g

kleeb mixup. >> benny thompson was convinced by roscoe bartlett. they are good friends. he's from mississippi. he's a democrat. he's got everything from a to z on homeland security. he gets it. yvette clark is the chairman of the subcommittee that deals with threats and terrorism and so forth, so i would same maybe there's 10% of the democratic party may be 20%, jim marshall and others inclined to support missile defense any way. this is a way to get around the conundrum. and then what we do with missile defense, we either get it right or we don't get it right. in the senate you've got joe lieberman, jeff kyl, ben nelson, evan bayh and mr. begich, democrat from alaska, was on the armed services committee, they get it. there isn't a companion bill yet but then again joe lieberman and sue collins i think could be persuaded to put in a homeland security bill but the denny thompson's bill is you've got 800 billion in stimulus money? what's 20 million? it's over three years, fiscal ten, 11, 12. spend $15 billion your 60% of the way of solving a problem, not everything but aga

. >> reporter: congressman benny thompson, chairman of the house homeland security committee went ahead with a previously scheduled hearing on h1n1 and complained his office was never directly told of the suspected senate page swine flu cases. >> we have no knowledge of it other than reading it in the paper. i think that's part of the issue that we don't really have a plan of informing people when potential situations like this exist. >> reporter: the senate sergeant-at-arms office declined an interview but said in its letter, quote, "while it is not unusual for several pages in a class of 50 to be ill at any given time, we are aware that the flu is of particular concern to our community right now." now, as you might imagine for privacy reasons, the senate has not released the names of these pages who have become ill but at least two of them may have left the dormitory to live with relatives in the washington rea. the office of the attending physician of the congress tells us that they are reminding staffers on the hill to take those precautions they've warned about which is frequent ha

. >> reporter: congressman benny thompson, chairman of the house homeland security committee went ahead with a previously scheduled hearing on h1n1 and complained his office was never directly told of the suspected senate page swine flu cases. >> we have no knowledge of it other than reading it it in the paper. i think that part of the issue that the report goes is that we don't have a plan of informing people when potential situations like this exist. >> reporter: the senate sergeant-at-arms office declined an interview but said in its letter, quote, "while it is not unusual for several pages in a class of 50 to be ill at any given time, we are aware that the flu is of particular concern to our community right now." for health and privacy reasons, the senate has not released the names of the pages who have become ill. the office of the attending physician of the u.s. congress says it is taking steps to warn capitol hill staffers to use precaution through hand washing and sanitizing. >>> house democratic leaders have reached an agreement with the party's conservatives paying the way for

lieberman, the chair the house committee on homeland security, bennie thompson, the letter was directedto carl and evan. i will read a couple of paragraphs from this letter. it was about 400 page bound report backing what we said is happening. it said in the wake of several high-profile murders by extremists of the radical right, we urge a committee to investigate the threat posed by racially extremists kumbaya the training domestic terrorists. of will -- the whole letter. you can pick one up outside this room. it says we are not alone in are concerned. in july 2008, and get back issued a report indicating that the problem of extremists in the military may have worsened. according to very poor, since the sources reported to premised leaders encouraging followers who left a documented histories of activity and to do not have swastikas on the body to infiltrate the military as ghostskins. we go on and layout what the homeland security report says. just to indicate some of the things that we found, and we gave the posting on a neo-nazi facebook page. i cannot think of the name. 40 postings

bennie thompson -- homeland security, hon. denny thompson. the letter was directed to the hon. ike skelton, chair of the house armed services committee. accompanying this letter was about a 400 page burana report backing what we said it was happening. we said, in the wake of several high-profile murders by extremists of the radical right, we urge your committee to investigate the threat posed by racial extremists owho might be serving in the military to ensure that our own armed forces are not inadvertently training future domestic terrorists. a couple more things -- and i will not review the whole letter because you can pick one up outside this room -- it says, we are not alone in our concerns. in july 2008, the fbi issued a report indicating that the problem of extremists in the military may have worsened. according to the report, reliable sources indicate to premise leaders encouraging followers who lack of committed histories of neo-nazi activities and do not have swastikas on their bodies to infiltrate the military as goatskins in order to receive the training for the bene