bingaman: mr. president, first i'd -- i have six unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. these have been approved by the majority and the minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: mr. president, i'd ask consent to speak for up to ten minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: mr. president, i rise today to talk about the damage that would be done if h.r. 1 were to become law and, specifically, to talk about a few areas that i have been paying particular attention to: science and technology, for one; particularly related to energy, energy policy; second, border security and law enforcement; and also education. to me, this is not a question of whether there should be cuts in our federal budget. clearly, there should be cuts. but the real issue here is whether we shou

bingaman: mr. president, i ask permission to speak up to 15 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. bingaman: madam president, i wanted to just take these few minutes to discuss high oil and gas prices, gasoline prices. irthink when we get -- i think when we get them to our respective states this next week we're going to find that many of the people we represent are understandably concerned about the rising price of gasoline at the pump. and they -- they have good reason to be concerned. senator murkowski and i hosted a senatewide briefing on tuesday afternoon with three top oil industry analysts. we had dr. richard knewel, head of the energy information administration, mr. bob mcal inly, part of the bush administration's white house team on energy markets, and mr mr. frank rostro, who is the head of the energy and natural security program with the center for strategic and international studies. and they gave us their. mr. whitehouse: whit-- andthey bangalore and they gave us their insiects as to what is - bing ay gave us the

bingaman: thank you, mr. president. the other letter is from 175 universities, industries, and laboratories, including the u.s. chamber of commerce, and it supports the goals outlined in the america competes act and asks that -- and it goes on to ask the congress to reject the cuts adopted by the house funding bill. i would ask that that second letter also be included in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: let me move to the issue of homeland security. over the last several years, we've had a lot of speeches here in the senate about the need to bolster border security, particularly along the southern border. enhanced homeland security capabilities -- enhance homeland security capabilities. unfortunately, the budget the house has presented falls short in this respect. the continuing resolution would severe impact the capabilities of the department of homeland security and reduce essential assistance that is provided to organizations at the state and local level. the legislation would be a

over many years of dealing with these kinds of issues and and in the senate for example senator bingaman is chairman of the energy committee i think he's taken a very sober view of this at this point and basically has said we're going to look into this much more closely and carefully going forward and the president has said nuclear power is part of our mix and we need to really take our time and get this get the lessons correct so i think we have a good shot what about globally though what if we look at even i you know that i say is this a body that's completely unbiased that's completely independent. you know i haven't had that much experience with i but. i am confident that in the in the u.s. we the nuclear regulatory commission has been a non politicized entity and really is responsible for these issues and i think the policy makers around. like the congress has really taken care over the years to make sure that they were they were given the freedom to do what they needed to do on the timeframe that they set and i think we keep hearing right now of course is that you know the dangers

men and thinking to the panel -- thank you chairman bingaman. i will reaffirm that i think there is broad concern about irradiation, dosages, and i am sure you are far more familiar than i am. general confusion about orders of magnitude and possible impact. i happen to represent a state that has no nuclear facilities but is within 50 miles of four others. one of which is of the design of the reactor in question. as i understand reading and listening today, one of the areas of action has to do with the battery power and backup power. the unique circumstances may not occur in the united states, but there are other circumstances that may give rise to the need for a more than 48 hours back of scenario. what are you doing to look up battery -- to look at backup battery capacity for the spent fuel rods especially given deep lack of a clear path forward for spent fuel rods in the united states? >> these are exactly why we're putting together these lessons learned. we will be looking at the blackout rule which require a review of the coping capability a

bingaman proposes an amendment numbered 142. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to dispense with further reading of the amendment. it is my understanding that this amendment is agreeable to both sides and, therefore, i ask for its adoption. the presiding officer: without objection. the amendment is agreed to. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. sanders: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: mr. president, as you well know, congress is now engaged in a debate of huge consequence, and that is the budget. and the budget of a nation like the budget of a family expresses who we are as a people and what our priorities are, where you spend your money, where you make your investments tells you everything about what well be in. i am more than aware that this country faces a $1.6 trillion deficit and a $14 trillion national debt, and these are enormously important issues, but they're issues that have to be dealt with in a sense ofable way, and they're -- in a sensible way

yuval of mexico, h, in, menendez, casey, shaheen, klobuchar, carns, boxer, franken, feinstein and bingaman. >> mr. president i ask consent demand for a quorum under the ak rule 20 to be waived.nder >> without objection. the presid m i now withdraw my motion andw proceed. >> the center has that right.hen >> mr. president? when an american sits in theurch kitchen after table and sorts fs through their finances as they oftenen do, partisan politics don't figure into the equation. when the families we represent calculate their own budgets, when they add up the cost of gas and groceries, tuition in some instances, and other b necessities, they care more about the bottom lines and the l news headlines. and when a family was desperately counts the dwindlinf number of weeks before the sun and plymouth insurance runs oute that family doesn't have time to the most political points durink any given week.sc that's because when you have toc make the tough decisions that go into any budget those decisions have to be practical, not political.practical, not they have to be realistic, notlr ideological.gue

bingaman: mr. president, first i'd -- i have six unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. these have been approved by the majority and the minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: mr. president, i'd ask consent to speak for up to ten minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: mr. president, i rise today to talk about the damage that would be done if h.r. 1 were to become law and, specifically, to talk about a few areas that i have been paying particular attention to: science and technology, for one; particularly related to energy, energy policy; second, border security and law enforcement; and also education. to me, this is not a question of whether there should be cuts in our federal budget. clearly, there should be cuts. but the real issue here is whether we shou

reid of nevada, inohe, whitehouse, conrad, hagen, boxer, franken, feinstein, and bingaman. >> i ask thathout objection. >> i now withdrawal my motion to proceed. >> the senator has that right. >> mr. president, when an american family sits in the kitchen at their table and sorts through their finances as they often do, partisan politics doesn't figure into that equation, and the families we represent calculate their own budgets. when they add up the cost of gas and groceries, tuition in some instances, and other necessities, they ware more about the bottom line than news headlines. when i family desperately counts the number of weeks before the unemployment insurance runs out, that family doesn't have time to keep track of the political points during the given week. that's because when you have to make the tough decisions on any budget, the decisions are practice call, not political. they are realist realistic, not ideological. we have to be as responsible as the american people. as their representatives, we absolutely must be sympathetic to the challenges outside this chamber, and we ne

senators bennet, coon, menendez, bingaman, coburn and kirk have all contributed. i thank them for working with us. i thank our ranking republican on the committee, the comanager of this measure, senator grassley. his staff, colin davis and rita laurie for their dedication to this effort. i want to thank my friend from utah, senator hatch, for having stuck with this bill for so many years. the two of us have been through more markups and more hearings and more meetings than we'd like to think. and senator kyl who has worked with us both in the hearings but also has helped us put together bipartisan meetings and interest groups and those who have an interest in the patent legislation. i want to extend my personal thanks as well to senator klobuchar of minnesota. she was active during committee consideration and she has helped manage this legislation effort in the senate and she has been outstanding, and of course like so many times the senate's action could not have been accomplished without the hard work of many dedicated staffers and individuals and companies. i'm

heather wilson is expected to announce today whether she will run for the senate seat democrat jeff bingamaning open. meanwhile, the democratic campaign committee is releasing a video today welcoming representative help -- but rep heather wilson to the race. their message says in part "she is a d.c. insider, and a republican, and a loser." the first edition of the hill pose a 2012 race ratings for puts five democratic seats in the tossup column. republicans need a gain of at least three seats to gain control of the senate. those are some of latest headlines on c-span radio. >> you are watching c-span, and you politics and public affairs. every morning is "washington journal" our live call-in program about the news of the day, connect you with elected officials, policymakers and journalists. and weekdays, the house of representatives. and weeknights, supreme court oral arguments. on weekends, the communicators and on sundays, newsmakers, q&a, and prime ministers questions from the house of commons. it is all searchable at our c- span video library. c-span, washington your way. in public servi

chairman bingaman, a ranking member murkowski and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the nuclear accident in japan, the department of energy's response to that situation and relevant research development and deployment programs within my office of nuclear energy. let me briefly recap our current understanding of the still evolving events at the fukushima power plant with its six nuclear reactors albeit with many gaps in knowledge. when the earthquake on march 11th struck, the three operating reactors shut down in accordance with operating procedures. backup diesel generators started but were damaged by the tsunami. the operating units used battery power to continue to run the cooling pumps until the batteries were trained or the pumps failed. as a reactor heat from radioactive decay steam was produced. the pressure build up from the steam required venting which released some radioactive material. it also lowered the water level in the three reactor vessels reducing the cooling of the core. it appears that all three reactor cores a

and i now -- now senator bingaman is here to speak. mr. bingaman: mr. president?he presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. bingaman: mr. president, i appreciate the chance to speak as if in morning business. mr. president, i wanted to take a few minutes to discuss the increasing oil prices that we are observing each day and the evolving situation in the middle east and in north africa. from an oil market perspective, the turmoil in the middle east changed course just over a week ago and it changed course when libya joined the group of countries that are witnessing historic popular uprisings. libya is the first major energy exporter in the region to experience such an uprising. at the moment, as much as a million barrels per day of libya's total 1.8 million barrels per day of oil production is currently off-line. if continued political turbulence -- with continued political turbulence threatening to take even more oil off-line before order is restored. it appears that international oil companies, which are responsible for over 40% of libyan oil producti