in testimony, the commission's co-chairman, brent scowcroft, said nuclear waste storage is an area far too important for congress not to address. he added that the status quo is no longer acceptable and reforming policies is in our national interest. senator tom harper is chairman of the subcommittee and senator john baraso is the ranking member. this is just over two hours. >> one of my heroes and mentors from my time in the house. i appreciate that. today's hearing is really one of several that we hope to hold on the work of the blue ribbon commission on america's nuclear future as our committee starts to deliberate on how we move forward on what i think -- i think what we all believe is a very important issue of nuclear waste disposal in this country and really in the world. specifically today, we'll be focusing on the consent-based side and recommendations made by the commission. our senators will have five minutes for their opening statements and we'll recognize our first panel of witnesses. two members of the blue ribbon commission, itself. general scowcroft and dr. peterson will

he was their open, he was the model of what they wanted to be which was brent scowcroft is the first to say this in his belief is what happens inside of the country's border is none of our business. it's a coherent school of thought but it's not one the democrats always embrace. first year obama and essentially embraced those beliefs and kept his hands off completely as there are hundreds of people in the streets of tehran. a couple years later you get the error of the spring and he sees the value of promoting space change, and oddly enough to years later it's all but encouraging people to take the streets of tehran as they had in egypt. then he changed his policies from his first day in office counterterrorism that means he was going to close guantanamo. he didn't. counterterrorism are nowhere near voters expected and as he suggested they spend a good part of the campaign denouncing the idea of a global war on terror and they've called it a war and acknowledges in fact they've widened the scope the definition of terrorism al qaeda but there's been less difference than people thought

most especially, i want to welcome lieutenant general brent scowcroft, the co-chair of the blue ribbon commission. so thank you for your service to our country and for agreeing to testify today. thank you, both. mr. chairman, the issue of the storage of nuclear waste is vital to maintaining and expanding affordable nuclear power in the united states. all of us here know that congress took action 30 years ago to begin addressing the problem of the buildup of nuclear waste stored in nuclear plants throughout the united states. the nuclear waste policy act passed by congress laid out a process that looked at three possible long term storage sites. yucca mountain was deemed the best by the department of energy after a thorough technical analysis. congress has voted a number of times to retain yucca mountain as the national site and $15 billion has been spent on the project. $19 billion is the estimated taxpayer liability to be paid out of the judgment funds to utilities because the d.o.e. has not yet removed the nuclear waste as promised. $30 billion is the total amount of ious. it must ev

and brent scowcroft.ght really what counted was a balance of power among nations, and that the united states should not be promoting democracy overseas. they were reacting against george w. bush. and so when the green movement hit in 2009 in iran, they really kind of kept their hands off. so what changed was that they began -- first of all, they weren't getting what they wanted in iran. and second of all, they came to see the movement in egypt as particularly important. to american foreign policy. and they really came to the conclusion they just couldn't just stick with mubarak, a dictator. it just wasn't going to work. >> well, the book is called "the obamians: the struggle inside the white house to redefine american power." james mann, thank you so much. >> thank you. >>> just ahead, a pennsylvania city running out of cash. $5,000 in the bank. hundreds of employees opening their paychecks to find out they have been reduced to minimum wage. can the mayor get away with that? >>> and loving the bad man. ac

was a straion hatnon finallguin hu ge lngn ofi pltoy ni i tlt a as ne tirce tti s named brent scowcroft got this assignment. and i guess that tells you how i found t about the ty teybaslye ruwnnh isÉa sq es s acerests can be and stay organized, till today. it's recently been reovate i did recenygtde. frso tnctou onu'averye ylf cakinw lyrpo that. i should tell you that the thread count on the sheets is like a good trillion. [laughter] there is a ovelytle elo thveovheref wap henind re swhhed wau lw dgo edbesi oe edt is is what of my favorite stories is. we all love reading presidential biraphies. wer oer kwllad e'tsoatga ogie ey fraady are treasured to sit down and curl up with. one of the things we wanted to do is pull the two men together and lookt relationship becae tiip wherttti on te hngerd bykit liy otares tie o mi wre friends and allies long before reagan w president and long after ike was. so much so thati 6ad6 go rd gawa beins rer eld cirug gooriia a diynkg abt th presidency once he was elected senhower and getting to pennsylvania is watching it. never met him. 's rding evethinh

brent scowcroft heard about this and sent a raider a car to pick up 19 family members and took them to the airport to fly them back to the states. he is here in the united states today. we did not leave our men behind. that is because of robbie. it will be placed in a proper place in the leadership paul to remind her this man is and is outstanding leadership. [applause] i would like to tell you another story. there is a big statue for lance. thank you for being with us tonight. he graduated in 1965. he won the congressional medal of honor. he began a pilot training. he was assigned to the 366th fighter win as an f-4 phantom pilot. he was tasked with a bombing mission over north vietnam. his plane was engulfed in flames. he ejected from the aircraft. broken leg and a rough landing. he had no food. he evaded his enemy for 46 days. he was finally captured by the viet cong. he was severely tortured. he lost 100 pounds. he somehow overpowered a guard and escaped into the jungle before being recaptured several hours later. he was put in prison in the hanoi hilton. the men were planning an es

most especially, i want to welcome lieutenant general brent scowcroft, the co-chair of the blue ribbon commission. so thank you for your service to our country and for agreeing to testify today. thank you, both. mr. chairman, the issue of the storage of nuclear waste is vital to maintaining and expanding affordable nuclear power in the united states. all of us here know that congress took action 30 years ago to begin addressing the problem of the buildup of nuclear waste stored in nuclear plants throughout the united states. the nuclear waste policy act passed by congress laid out a process that looked at three possible long term storage sites. yucca mountain was deemed the best by the department of energy after a thorough technical analysis.