republican senator sax by chambliss of georgia and mark warner, democrat of virginia, are heading up an effort to tackle the hardest fiscal challenges. senators, thank you both for being with us. senator warner, to you first. i assume you agree these are the hardest challenges. if so, why are you taking this on? >> well, judy, i think the question is not if we're going to do deficit reduction and take on the national debt, it's only a question of when are we going to do in the a bipartisan orderly way that will give us a few years to phase in these changes rohr we going to wait until the markets say they no longer have full fifth and credit in the american debt and dollar and we are forced to do it the way we've seen certain european countries have to take on this challenge. so i think the time is now. there is a plan that's out there that both does deficit reduction and actually simplifies our tax code and deals with the revenue side of the ledger as well. it's not perfect. there's probably things in it that everybody would dislike but it's a starting point. senator chambliss and i,

have to get together and it's begun to happen in the senate, with more mark warner and sacks by chambliss and they need a bill that's too big to fail. >> let me this. wisconsin and $3.6 billion deficit. >> these are unions that historically for years have never had anyone challenge them. >> who that, the governor. here we go. >> a major showdown between wisconsin union workers and the wisconsin state government. thousands of workers, students and union supporters picketed the capital on madison. they are opposed to governor scott walker's legislation, he's a republican remember, that would require union workers to pay more money into their state pensions and health care plans. he also wants to curb the union's collective bargaining rights. union members say the governor walker wants to bust up the union. on wednesday president obama stood the wisconsin pot by describing walker's actions as a assault on the union. on friday, speaker john boehner weighed in on facebook, saying the president attacked governor walker for attempting to rein in state spending, then he said, call off th>> right

chambliss: mr.president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. chambliss: i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. chambliss: mr. president, i rise today along with my colleague from georgia, senator isakson to commend to this body the confirmation of two judges that have been nominated by president obama for the northern district of georgia. first of all, amy tottenberg -- totenberg, is an atlanta lawyer who has the academic credentials that have prepared her we will, being a graduate of radcliffe college of harvard and also the harass vrd law school. she began law school in atlanta in 1977 with the law project and then went out on her own for 20 years. during that time, as a solo practitioner, she specialized in constitutional rights and also became a we will-known arbitrator and mediator and particularly in employment and civil rights cases. she served as a court-appointed monitor and mediator for the u.s. district court for the di

having served here in the 105th congress.note thasenator also want toco congratulate senator saxby chambliss on his voice chairmanship. we've worked together on this wo committee since you joined, h senator, in 2002, and i look woh forward to a close, good, positive working relationship, and all i can say is 2002. all i can say is so far very good. >> there are that provides an opportunity to present to the committee and the public their assessment of current and projected national security threats to the united states. three important authorities under the surveillance act. the business records, roving wiretap and loan wolf provisions will sunset. that's three weeks from now. the attorney general and the director of national intelligence have written to the congressional leadership in support of legislation that i have introduced to extend these authorities to december 31, 2013. the whole pariot act comes up for review at sunsets in 2013. that's really the time to look at the entire act and make some decisions. >> i am very concerned that these flee sections which are really vital for ongoi

it is led by the big six which are chambliss and warner and the rest. that is a real cross section from the left to the right. i think we have a real chance to have this thing introduced in legislative language in the senate. in the house, paul ryan is as smart and quick and facile with numbers as anybody i have ever worked with. in the public or private sector. he has told us that we can expect to see 85% of the recommendations on the spending side that we may end up in his budget. i am encouraged there. dave camp is another terrific guy, the head of ways and means. he fell in love with the zero option which was about the tax code. it was about simplifying the code and eliminating the $1.10 trillion worth of tax expenditures many of which you in this room light. by doing so, we took 92% of the proceeds down to reduce tax rates. we got the rates down to 8% of $70,000. 14% is the next bracket and 22% was the maximum tax rates that anybody would pay and the top corporate tax rate was 26%. he likes that. we used $1 trillion of the $1.10 trillion to reduce

isakson: i thank senator chambliss. mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. isakson: i rise to speak on the two nominees. amy totenberg and steve jones. amy totenberg is an attorney of practice for many years, a judge, an arbitrator, mediator and educator. she brings a wealth of experience to the bench in many, many areas not the least of which is personnel law. in fact, during her term of service to the atlanta board of education in the mid-1990's, i was chairman of the state board of education and dealt with the major litigation pieces that went through the system of education in georgia. i know of her competence, her ability and the trust that her colleagues have in her, and i think she'll be an excellent appointee. steve jones is the real deal. he is a terrific individual who is one of those people who is so active in trying to make the community better. just one example is clark county in athens where steve has been a superior court judge for many years is one of the leading drug cases in america -- drug courts in america. people get caught for the f

. >> senator chambliss is next. >> is very much, mr. chairman.don't know although this conversation is about same great things about you because you're leaving. were planning on you both being around here for a while longer to help us make some very critical decisions. and whether it is voluntary in your case, secretary gates for your time is up, whatever, admirable in to both of you. you provided a very valuable service to our country over the flash short term and i am not even counting the years and years and years that both of you have given. the thank you rematch for that service and whether we've agreed or disagreed, you always responded to me in a very professional way and i'm very appreciative of that relationship. and i want to act out what graham said about this detention and interrogation issue. we've got a real problem there that needs to be addressed in the short term. i'm sure you've probably seen the way in which director pineda responded yesterday to a responded yesterday to a question i asked him about if we did capture bin laden

senator chambliss served as the top gun for the last six years. he is taking on the yeoman work as the ranking member of the intelligence committee. i want to thank sax before his tireless, especially during the 2008 farm bill. i could go down the line. former chairman and ranking members to continue to service to many, luther, cochrane, leahy , former secretary of agriculture. i feel compelled to pay homage to mr. conrad who has paid a very key role in every farm bill i have been involved with. the unprecedented depth of knowledge and experience on this committee i think it's unprecedented this time around. i think it will serve all of agriculture and rural america well. i also welcome two new members to the committee, senator levin from north dakota and senator bozeman from arkansas, the agriculture committee is not often the first choice for new members, but we are fortunate to have your enthusiasm and expertise on board. he made a wide choice. you will find this committee is a bit different than others and that he will work as much from member

chambliss: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. chambliss: i rise today to urge my colleagues to rethis highly unpopular health care bill. here's what repealing this health care bill will mean to georgians. the federal government will not be required to spend $8,470 on health care for every single georgian every year. 176,000 georgia seniors who are today enrolled in medicare advantage will not have their benefits reduced, and the $500 billion in medicare cuts will not be used to pay for new programs under this law. around $2.1 -- around 2.1 million georgia households making less than $200,000 will not have to pay higher taxes to fund this monstrous bill. 70% of small employer purchases will not face higher premiums. small businesses employing 50 or more people and 8,000 georgia construction companies with five or more employees will not have to pay higher health care costs or be subjected to new penalties due to government mandates. under this law, hundreds of thousands of additional low-income georgians will become eligible for m

it is led by the big 6 which are chambliss and warner and coburn and crapo and conrad and durbin. and i think goes from the right to the list and we have a chance to have this introduced in legislative language in the senate. in the house paul ryan is as smart and as quick and as facile with the numbers as anybody i have ever worked with in the public or private sector. he has told that we can expect to see 85% of the recommendations on the spending side that we've made end up in his budget. so i'm encouraged there. dave camp again another terrific guy. head of ways and means. really fell in love if you looked at our plan what we call the zero option which was again broadening the base of a tax code, you know, sim flying the code, eliminating this $1.1 trillion worth of tax expenditures, many of which you in this room like but by doing so, we took 92% of the proceeds down to reduce tax rates and we got to the tax rates down to 8% up to $70,000, 14% up to $210,000 and 22% -- 23% was the maximum tax rate anybody would pay and we got the corporate rate to 26%. and, you know, he reall

we have cosponsors in senator alexander, senator burr, senator mccain, senator isakson, senator chambliss, senator inhofe and senator kirk, and i want to thank them for joining us in this effort, and i hope that many more will do the same. mr. president, i spent a lifetime in business and i came to the united states senate not to score political points, not to be involved in messaging, but to solve our country's problems. i think everybody in this body understands that we have tremendous fiscal and financial issues to deal with in this country. this morning, i was happy to see that 3 senators met over at the visitor's center on both sides of the aisle to listen to people involved in the financial industry talking about the path that we're on and what that's going to lead to as far as the ruination of our fiscal situation in this country and our ability to borrow money at low rates as we are today, and all of us know what that will mean to citizens of this country. mr. president, i think there is no one in this country that doesn't understand how problematic our financial situation is. i k

distinguished vice chairman of the committee with whom it is a pleasure for me to work, senator chambliss. >> well, tanks mounted chairman and again it's a privilege for me to have a chance to work with you on this particular issue that is of such vital importance and maybe we have to start that chant, 10 more years. i'd be in favor of that. gentlemen, this is an impressive lineup we have this morning. thanks for being here. thanks for your willingness to serve our country of what each of you do. to get the represent the men and women of the intelligence community who work often in dangerous locations to ensure nations safety. and our thanks goes out to each and every one of those folks that work with you and put their life in harm's way every single day and we appreciate that very much. recent events in the middle east and north africa remind us how rapidly the world can change. the internet and social network media play a key role in this evolving the cape and can complicate our ability to understand and keep pace with the unfolding events. .. >> an essential authority, and we must make

. >> would you comment on the strategy of thechambliss -- of the chambliss proposal? i heard that it would increase revenue. woulde same time it reduce costs. >> they are putting forward what the fiscal commission recommended. let me talk about how their tax proposal works. a really impress the framework for talking about tax reform. it is a look at tax expenditures, which are the targeted tax deductions and exclusions that make the tax code so complex. they lead to a loss of over $1 trillion in revenue every year. it is basically a shadow budget that is run through the tax code. it looks like swiss cheese and is why none of us can pay our taxes. it allows you to have the benefit of starting from a bad tax code that does not make a lot of sense. many of these tax breaks are aggressive and would never pass muster when you put them as spending policies. they do not have the oversight that a normal spending program would. what the fiscal commission came up with is that it you wipe out these tax expenditures and start with none of them, you can bring rates down so dramati

kent conrad a leader in these issues all signed on to it and then two senators, senator warren and chambliss who said we're going to take this commission report and keep it alive and offer it in legislative language. what's happened in the senate, which has not been the perfect example of a functioning body in recent years, is you have a real bipartisan effort. and i look at this as step three. so if paul ryan got specific and then the fiscal commission plan developed a real comprehensive plan, the third step we're seeing now is bipartisan effort because this cannot be done with one party alone. whoever were to go at it alone would obviously be killed. we can all imagine the attack ads. they're sitting down and talking on a regular basis with more and more colleagues kind of joining support. i think the reason it takes long is you have to put it in legislative language but my understanding is they still plan to put this out there and have this be the starting point of the discussion. there will still be changes and opportunity for people to come out and say i think we should have more struct

signed by 17 senators as follows: hutchison, kyl, ensign, cornyn, ayotte, thune, chambliss, burr, isakson, moran, risch, shelby, paul, hoeven, mccain, graham and lee. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, the amendment that is now pending for which we have a cloture motion is -- what we are going to try to continue to work on and hope that we can come to a consensus on the issue of the perimeter rule that has caused so much of this bill to be held up. this is a good bill. this is a bill that is going to give america the opportunity to start the next generation of air traffic control systems. it is a bill that we must begin now if we are going to go to a satellite-based system, which will free airspace and make our air system work more efficiently for the aircraft that we need to put in the air. it has safety provisions. it has consumer protection provisions. it is so important that we also accommodate the needs of all of our country, the constituents that we have, to be able to have an airport system that works, especially