[laughter] >> i'm turning to senator carper. >> mr. chairman, thanks for convening the hearing. madam secretary, we appreciate your being here to talk about the budget request and we look for to your testimony. unanimous consent that the balance of my remarks be placed on the record. >> thank you, senator carper. again, madam secretary, thanks for your leadership. kathleen sebelius became the 21st secretary of the parliament of health and human services on april 29, 2009. in 2003 she was elected as governor of kansas and served in that capacity until her appointment as secretary. she was the kansas state insurance commissioner, a graduate of kansas western university and the university of kansas. >> thank you very much, chairman harkin and senator carper and members of the subcommittee, i am glad to be back to discuss the 2011 budget for the department of health and human services. this budget builds on many of the themes that president obama laid out in his state of the union address this year, strengthening our health-care system, laying the foundation for future growth, rooti

carper: mr. president, reserving the right to object.would the senator from iowa modify his unanimous consent request to provide that once all time has been used on this grassley amendment, that the amendment be set aside until a time designated by the leaders? the presiding officer: does the senator from iowa so modify his request? mr. grassley: i'm fine with that. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from iowa, mr. grassley, proposes an amendment numbered 3564, at the end of sub title a -- mr. grassley: stop reading. the presiding officer: without objection, so orded. the senator from delaware. mr. carper: one of the things that senator grassley and i have endeavored to do in working on this legislation in the finance committee is to try to figure out what works to rein in the growth of health care costs and improve outcomes. i think we will agree one of the best ideas that is in our bill is the idea of large purchasing pools, really modeled after the federal employee healt

carper: thank you. we're in full mode here on health care reform, and i'm -- i'm going to stick to that subject here this afternoon. i have heard my colleagues just say really a couple of things that i'm going to emphasize but i'm going to have a different take on some of this as well. in the last, gosh, week, i should have been writing down what some of my constituents in delaware have said to me about health care, their concerns about our legislation that we may or may not pass, but among the things i have heard are we have the best health care system in the world, why mess with it? i have heard concerns that what we're going to do is going to be government run, it will be government funded and the government doesn't do anything well. i have heard concerns about the size of our budget deficit and how this is just going to add to those budget deficits and make them worse. i have heard folks who express concerns about we're going to be robbing medicare to provide health care to illegal aliens and other

i'm tempted to make a joke about senator carper, but i think we'll only get me in trouble. >> i thought it was giving a good opportunity. >> i would say one is enough. the senator will be a great addition to this committee and along with senator brown really strengthens our membership. >> thank you. today's hearings focuses on two fundamental questions. why was the christmas day bomber allowed to travel to the united states and why wasn't his name included on the terrorist watch list? we know it's the chairman has pointed out that abdulmutallab's father had informed the american embassy in nigeria of his islamist extremist connection in vietnam more than a month before he boarded the flight to detroit. we also know that his name was included in the broadest terrorist database known as tied. but despite this alarming information, the system failed to bark transfix from boarding a flight to 53 to america. as i look at this case over and over again, i see missed opportunities from my perspective, the state department rarely have sufficient information to revoke abdulmutallab bbv said. stat

>> reporter: before the professionals got there, the dive teams and water rescue specialists adam carper and jodi caravallo hopped into a dingy and raced out on to the river. they were told a small plane had crashed. >> once you got in the water, you couldn't see the plane. it had already sunk and we noticed the guy actually just his head was sticking out of the water like a distance. so we rode over to him. and, you know, made sure he was the only one there and that he wasn't injured. we ended up pulling him up on the boat. >> reporter: this is the rescued pilot richard drier. he's 76, alive and doing well enough that he refused medical treatment. >> i'm doing fine. >> reporter: glad you made it out, sir. maryland state police investigators say drier had just taken off from nearby lee airport southwest of annapolis when he experienced some sort of engine trouble. >> at first i thought it was just somebody horsing around, flying low intentionally. then i saw that the engine was sputtering. i heard it was sputtering. >> reporter: the plane came to rest just west of the route 2 bridge over

. >>> four pedestrians hit by a carper we will have the latest. >> a senate funding fight could affect

carper, you are the recipients of -- there are 78 high-speed, so-called high speed and passenger railrants and you were the recipient for amtrak participated in a belt over 70. i think it's somewhere in the 76 range right? >> of the 78 you're going to participate in '76. according to the committee staff evaluation we do have an evaluation of those i would like to be made part of the record. >> i can't give you an exact number >> the committee staff will submit the for the record. if you have a dispute like until you did is 76 out of 78. >> okay. >> the strange thing is you mentioned transparency at least twice and i don't know where i can even as a member of congress get the transfer of information. the d.o.t. puts there is online. i know you're on the recipient in the and should be the fra's obligation to put them on line but they are not on line and i want them on line and want you to put them on. can you handle that? >> we will do our best. >> i can't understand why we couldn't and i will get back to you to make sure that happens. >> i think there should be transparency in that pro

conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> thank you very much, senator carper peerk specifically, i am dr. christian jensen and i'm the ceo of quality health strategies, or qhsr which is a nonprofit corporation peerk specifically, health integrity is one of qhsr's subsidiaries and has a manic or medicare drug integrity contract peerk specifically, i written test money contains many more details on our experience with medicare program and integrity contracts, but i wanted to note that we are also the holder of the zone program and integrity contract for region for which includes southwest, and for task orders one in five of the audit, medicaid and integrity contract the history of these contracts has been well covered by mr. apple, and cms as the program has evolved has taken some important steps to try to improve the integrity of medicare and medicaid peerk there are two some unique differences between deeper service and medicare managed care programs and medicare part d, and that was alluded to by mr. blum, the complexity of medicare part d., the data systems

tom carper of delaware chairs the governmental affairs subcommittee on federal financial management.e and all, specially to our witnesses who have joined us, to those who went to high school in delaware and those who did not. to those whose last name rhymes with the word that legislators fear, that his veto and in the congress or in the state legislatures, to those in our audience we are glad that you are here. today we are going to hear from several witnesses about the medicare prescription drug program. something i voted to create and we are going to hear about not just the good that it is doing and i understand it is a program that roughly 85% of the folks who use it think it is a good program and a program coming under budget for the last four years and that is all well and good. it is not a perfect program. to a certain vulnerabilities to waste fraud and abuse has two other programs of this nature. the witnesses today will tell an important story. i was surprised when i first heard about the gao inspector general report showing that the critical and basic antifraud safeguards fo

senator carper?the heels of a we heard, in a major proponent of expanding independence on nuclear power. in a country where we have more coal than saudi arabia has oil, it does make sense to use those resources. one of the best ways to help fund expansion of nuclear power and expanded use of clean coal is through putting into place market bases but unlike those when bush was president with respect to sulfur dioxide. i want to go into the record with unanimous consent a statement from the folks who publish the journal science. i will read the first sentence. "has reaffirmed the position of the board of directors and leaders of 18 organizations who concluded based on multiple lines of scientific evidence that global climate change caused by human activities is now under way and is a growing threat to society." it is not just a question of whether the planet is growing warmer. we see a distortion of weather patterns. it is made perfectly clear by the enormous snows in the mid- atlantic and by the dearth

you are recognize that. >> thank you very much, chairman carper.me here today to talk about cms's efforts to improve the performance to improve the quality, to elevate the overall, they can't build of the d program. the administration as cms is very much committed to ensure that we have the best possible program possible, the strongest program possible. we understand that we have a tremendous responsibility, and jacob and his obligation to ensure that we provide benefits consistent with the law, protect taxpayers dollars, and ensure beneficiaries have a high quality program that they expect. i want to highlight just a few points from my testimony, but be happy to answer any question that you may have. the first one of what to highlight is the part d program is tremendously complex. we have 4000 different contracts that provide part d benefits. these are plans that are standalone drug programs, comprehensive hmos, but the part d benefit is delivered by 4000 different private entities. that requires cms to develop many different strategies, many diff

carper, you said the 45% of amtrak contracts awarded to small businesses. >> yes, sir, mr.air. >> or the small businesses and what is the type of work that they're doing? >> well, i can't get into a great deal of detail, but i can give you an example. they range from maybe 1000-dollar contract in the tampa train station. and many of them are in our stations around the country that would lend itself very well to small businesses. i can get you much more detail on that, mr. chairman in the future. but i also think that other contracts are being led into this construction season, there's going to be lots of opportunity for small businesses as subcontractors on some of our large contracts, mr. chairman. >> well, we give you credit for a great deal of trackwork, of ties that are -- that are being -- 80,000 contract -- concretize are going to be replacing wooden ties. sixty amtrak fleet cars, 21 super liners, 15 locomotives. i give you all that credit at the outset of the hearing. what is the status of that work? >> well, it's ongoing. we turned a believe 15 cars out with 20 and

that was at the end of 2008, and here we are a good year pass that, and senator carper there has beend a lot of upward movement and a lot a lot of lot of successes since then. >> would you say we still have some to go? >> absolutely. in your own words, anything can be improved on. >> i agree. it is not enough to be good. we have to be great and continue to get better. >> we appreciate you being here today. thanks for your preparation and take us for your responses to her our questions. thank you for coming out of the audience to come to the witness table and some of our colleagues or unable to join us today and will submit questions in writing. i will be submitting a couple of questions in writing as well. members have two weeks to submit their questions to file conclusion of today's hearing and i would ask that when you receive those questions you respond promptly and again thank you. we do look forward to improved further work that is being done. thanks very much. the hearing is adjourned.>>>oo

. >> said letcher carper, welcome. senator coffman commented on the disproportionate representation that the state of delaware now house on this committee. >> our congressman wants to be on it, too, probably. that's for another day. [laughter] >> thank you. our accounting executive from delaware. we welcome ted kaufman. just came from a meeting with him and a bunch of folks from our state and ensure he will get here if he can. i want to welcome senator brown. delighted you are with us and looking forward to taking [inaudible] -- go to afghanistan and pakistan next month. sometimes our stuff go on staff notes and one of our staff, senator lieberman's stuff and senator voinovich's staff and the places they've visited where yemen and saudi arabia and they spend a little bit of time in holland and germany, and one of the things i will get into saudi arabia and yemen but one of the things they heard about in holland especially with respect to the amsterdam airport was the kind of behavior a system or profiling that takes pl

senator carper is correct. the senate is not in order. could the senate please come to order. the senator from washington is recognized. mrs. murray: mr. president, last summer, 313,000 young people were able to have a job. i personally heard the amazing stories of these young men and women who got a job and changed their lives and gave them the -- the presiding officer: the senator will please suspend. senator reid is correct. we cannot hear the senator. would the senator suspend. the senate please come to order. the senator from washington is recognized. mrs. murray: mr. president, i have personally heard the stories of these young men and women whose summer jobs changed their lives across the country. this amendment will provide provide $1.3 billion to create up to 500,000 temporary jobs this coming summer. it will invest in critical employment and learning programs that will help not only these young people but the businesses who hire them. the underlying bill today we are going to consider is going to help millions of families across the country who need a job. this amend

last year, we repaid $20 billion of carper investments.in addition, we paid the government $3 billion on dividends and another 5.3 billion on premiums on the asset to guarantee program that we have now and to the -- that we have now exited. citigroup pose a large debt of gratitude to the american taxpayer. -- citigroup owes a large debt of gratitude to the american taxpayer. we have reduced our risk exposures, the find a more clear strategy and we have made citigroup a more focused enterprise. at the end of 2009, we are one of the best banks in the world with a ratio of 11.7%. we had $36 billion in reserves. our leverage is 12 to one, down from 18 to one when i became ceo. we have cut the size of our balance sheet by 21% from its peak by half a trillion dollars and our riskiest assets have been substantially reduced. our cash liquidity is now a strong $193 billion and we have reduced our operating costs by more than $13 billion per year. perhaps the most important strategic action we have taken is to mandate a return to basics, and return

finally i would like to note that senator carper intends to move this bill to the senate floor once we pass it in the house. i thank my colleagues for moving swiftly on this issue and urge my colleagues to vote yes. thank you very much and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey. mr. garrett: i have no other speakers and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from missouri. mr. clay: thank you, mr. speaker. again, i encourage my friend from both sides of the aisle to join me in supporting this as amended and again i thank the gentlewoman from new york for her leadership on this legislation and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4621 as amended. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. mr. clay: mr. speaker. mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman will suspend. those opposed, no. in the opinion