[no audio] [gavel] >> senator blumenthal? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for answering all our questions, for your extraordinary service, and for your very powerful and eloquent testimony today and your very responsive answers to all of the issues that have been raised. i want to second the sentiment that has been expressed by senator gramm, which is, i cannot wait to vote for your confirmation and i appreciate your willingness and patriotism to take on this very tough assignment. and also to second his views, and i think they are widely shared, that we need fundamental and far-reaching reform in our methods of acquiring and terminating weapons programs. would you agree with that? >> senator blumenthal, i think director panetta would probably also agreed that secretary gates forot wait for us to gvote director panetta's confirmation. [laughter] >> thank you, mr. chairman. and speaking of secretary gates, i hope and assume you would agree with him that the second engine for the f-35 is unnecessary and should be terminated. >> i support that. >> an

blumenthal: i ask also, mr. president, i have eight unanimous 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 to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator is recognized. mr. blumenthal: on my way here, mr. president, i had the great pleasure of running into the redway family just a few minutes ago visiting from the state of connecticut. jack redway is a former public servant in the state and he's here with his family, his wife sue and other members of the family. and when i told him i was on my way here to talk on the floor of the united states senate, they asked me what was subject was. when i told them that the senate is debating the debt and the deficit and the budget, one of them said, same old, same old. we are here on the same

represent hud -- or the environment protection agency, who has been a great partner here, jared blumenthal. [applause] >> thank you all for coming out. it is great to have a mayor that does not care about politics but cares about getting stuff done. [applause] that is what we need. that is what we need. i remember back in the dark days when we were trying to get rid of hunters point power plant, he was the city administrator. he was pushing. he got it done. now, it is time to get something good. environmental justice is something we talk about a lot. it makes a case for not only getting rid of the bad stuff like hunter's point power plant, but also making sure that you get the good stuff first, and that is what this project is about. it is about a new concept called green infrastructure. we think about our streets. we think about our sidewalks, our street lights, it is now part of a system that provides a service. we had two things that have been neglected. one is the bayview. the other is the day. since the gold rush, 90% of the wetlands in the bay have been filled in. those wetlands act

. >> senator blumenthal? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for answering all our questions, for your extraordinary service, and for your very powerful and eloquent testimony today and your very responsive answers to all of the issues that have been raised. i want to second the sentiment that has been expressed by senator gramm, which is, i cannot wait to vote for your confirmation and ippreciate your willingness and patriotism to take on this very tough assignment. and also to second his views, and i think they are widely shared, that we need fundamental and far-reaching reform in our methods of acquiring and terminating weapons programs. would you agree with that? >> senator blumenthal, i think director panetta wld probably also agreed that secretary gates forot wait for us to gvote director panetta's confirmation. [laughter] >> thank you, mr. chairman. and speaking of secretary gates, i hope and assume you would agree with him that the second engineor the f-35 is unnecessary and should be terminated. >> i support that. >> and that

. >> senator blumenthal? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for answering all our questions, for your extraordinary service, and for your very powerful and eloquent testimony today and your very responsive answers to all of the issues that have been raised. i want to second the sentiment that has been expressed by senator gramm, which is, i cannot wait to vote for your confirmation and i appreciate your willingness and patriotism to take on this very tough assignment. and also to second his views, and i think they are widely shared, that we need fundamental and far-reaching reform in our methods of acquiring and terminating weapons programs. would you agree with that? >> senator blumenthal, i think director panetta would probably also agreed that secretary gates forot wait for us to gvote director panetta's confirmation. [laughter] >> thank you, mr. chairman. and speaking of secretary gates, i hope and assume you would agree with him that the second engine for the f-35 is unnecessary and should be terminated. >> i support that. >> an

>> senator blumenthal, i think director panetta would probably also agreed that secretary gates forot wait for us to gvote director panetta's confirmation. [laughter] >> thank you, mr. chairman. and speaking of secretary gates, i hope and assume you would agree with him that the second engine for the f-35 is unnecessary and should be terminated. >> i support that. >> and that we need to continue the sub building program a the rate of two per year, which is fairly noncontroversial. >> that's correct. >> would you also agree with that theill wmullen greatest threat to our security today is the national deficit? >> there's question in my mind that the size of the threat we are confronting. >> and we need to address that problem without excessive cost cutting in the defense budget. >> obviously, defense needs to play a role. when you are facing that size deficit, everything has got to play a role. >> i want to talk for a moment about one of the causes of those costs in both our defense budget and our veterans programs. they are a cost that is t necessarily in the headlines or even reporte

blumenthal: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: i withdraw my request for a quorum and i yield to the senator from california. the presiding officer: morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, central intelligence agency, david h. petraeus of new hampshire to be director of the central intelligence agency. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be two hours for debate equally divided and controlled in the usual form. the senior senator from california is recognized. mrs. feinstein: thank you very much, mr. president. i come to the floor as the chairman of the collect committee on intelligence to speak about the nomination of general david petraeus to become the director of the c.i.a. i want to thank the majority leader for bringing this nomination to the floor in such a quick fashion because the committee earlier this week, tuesday, unanimously approved th

therefore, today i have introduced legislation along with senators blumenthal, merkley, franken, whitehouse and bill nelson to end excessive speculation once and for all -- once and for all. the american people cannot continue to be ripped off by wall street, who are artificially driving up the price of oil and gas. i am very pleased to also announce that congressman maurice hinchey will be introducing this piece of legislation in the house. this legislation mandates that the chairman of the cftc take immediate actions to eliminate excessive oil speculation within two weeks -- two weeks. one, our bill requires the chairman to establish speculative oil position limits equal to the position accountability levels that have been in place at the new york mercantile exchange since 2001 -- 2002. 2001. this bill requires the chairman -- so that wall street investment banks back their bets with real capital. three, under this bill, goldman sachs, morgan stanley and other investment banks engage in proprietary oil trading would be classified as "speculators" instead of bonafide hedgers. and, 401(k)'s

blumenthal: mr. president, i'm honored to follow that very articulate colloquy between my colleagues from arizona and south carolina, and certainly draw inspiration from the consequences abroad that they have outlined in that colloquy, the consequences internationally and at home in this very, very important week. i rise to call attention to developments in an area that are among those consequences. the price of gasoline, the supply of fuel internationally and at home. i rise to commend the president of the united states for release ing today some 30 million barrels of oil over the next 30 days, which already have brought down the price of oil by about $5 per barrel on the new york mercantile exchange. this consequence certainly cannot be the end of the campaign that we must continue to weigh, and i commend the president for heeding the calls from myself and my colleagues to address the pain felt across connecticut and the country as prices remain too high at close to $4 a gallon. the drop that we ha

senator blumenthal. >> thank you: mr. chairman. i want to join in expressing my thanks for not aeration for your great service to the country, the extraordinary sacrifice and services that the men and women who serve under you and your family and look forward to your confirmation encoding. i want to pursue the line of questioning that senator hagan began on the assumption that the packet danny's are not cooperative because they have not proven cooperatives in the past. what additional measures can we take to destroy the source says of ammonium nitrate that has proved so absolutely and horrifically distract kids to the men and women is there our armed forces in afghanistan? general alan, i'd like respectfully to ask you to begin a month at merrill mcraven, if you can follow through with what you expect to happen. >> senator, that an important question. the posturing of our intelligence gathering apparatus, capabilities, isr capabilities, posturing potentially a special operators on the western side of the border to detect infiltrati

women in uniform, it introduced the protecting servicemembers act cosponsored by senator baucus, blumenthal, boxer senator hagan platenburg, leahy, merkley kolsky, senator nelson, pryor, reid of rhode island senators sanders of another test repeatability of the next noncriminal double penalties for violations of current foreclosure protections. it would also extend the make permanent foreclosure coverage after military service offended. current laws amendment to protection under military service. order provision is due to expire in december 31, 2012. servicemembers will make it 90 days of foreclosure protections. my bill would permanently extend foreclosure protection beyond nine months. i hope senators on both sides will come together and join me in supporting legislation and a thank you again for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. unfortunately chairman murray, and members of this committee to pass legislation from which i believe will discourage phone service from further violations and hope protect the financial and emotional well-being of our military families. >> thank

senator blumenthal. >> thank you: mr. chairman. i want to join in expressing my thanks for not aeration for your great service to the country, the extraordinary sacrifice and services that the men and women who serve under you and your family and look forward to your confirmation encoding. i want to pursue the line of questioning that senator hagan began on the assumption that the packet danny's are not cooperative because they have not proven cooperatives in the past. what additional measures can we take to destroy the source says of ammonium nitrate that has proved so absolutely and horrifically distract kids to the men and women is there our armed forces in afghanistan? general alan, i'd like respectfully to ask you to begin a month at merrill mcraven, if you can follow through with what you expect to happen. >> senator, that an important question. the posturing of our intelligence gathering apparatus, capabilities, isr capabilities, posturing potentially a special operators on the western side of the border to detect infiltrati

rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable richard blumenthal, a senator from the state of connecticut, to perform the duties of the chair. signed daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 6:00 p.m. with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. heller: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i would also ask unanimous consent that i be allowed to enter flew a colloquy with -- into a colloquy with senator johanns. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, tomorrow the se

in fact, i note akaka and blumenthal and levin and inouye, sanders, shaheen, senator whitehouse and senator wyden, and i imagine many more will join us. i encourage my colleagues to support fundamental fairness, single point of contact and the foreclosure dual track and have a third-party review so homeowners have a chance, like mr. colette, to stay in their homes. thank you, madam president. mr. levin: madam president? madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and call up amendments 411 and 412. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: i reserve the right to object. mr. merkley: i reserve the right to object. the presiding officer: the consent request is pending. mr. mccain: madam president, i would is it ask unanimous consent to call up both amendments. it's my understanding that amendments are allowed. if there's some amendments that are not allowed, i think we ought to understand that. i understand the strength of the ethanol lobby, but there was an agreement that amendments that

rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable richard blumenthal, a senator from the state of connecticut, to perform the duties of the chair. signinged daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: following morning business, the senate will be in morning business. senator sanders will be recognize the in morning business for up to 90 minutes at 4:00 p.m. there will be no roll call votes today. the first vote will they ca tom. we hope to confirm petraeus tray to be director of the c.i.a. this week. mr. president, we have an idea of what we need to get done this week but it is up to members as to when we get it done. it is not magic that we don't finish thursday night. we should be able to finish thursday. if we don't, we're going to have to have this bill over until friday. if not, we'll finish the presidential appointment efficiency act. we need to do that. we have a number of nominee neighs we have to -- we have a number of nominations we have to vote on. we have to do petraeus tray. we'll need the cooperation of senators to get it done. mr

i'm proud to introduce this bill with my friend from connecticut, senator blumenthal. i'm equally proud that the bill has the support for the center for democracy and technology, consumers union, consumer action, the national association of consumer advocates, the national consumers league, the national women's law center, the national center for victims of crime, the national network to end domestic violence, and the minnesota public interest research group. and i ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be included in the record. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. franken: thank you. this bill will bring us back to a better balance between the benefits of smartphone technology -- and they are wonderful -- and our right to privacy, which is basic. it was written with input from consumer advocates and industry alike. but even after today, i will continue to work with these groups to make sure that our bill is getting that balance right. i look forward to those conversations. i thank the presiding officer, madam president, and i yield the f