i was sitting with beautiful woman, actually two beautiful women, melissa maxfield from comcast and rachel cockswestockd i got a call saying that david obie had decided to make some moves on the house floor that upset our republican friends so i had to go there. so i missed dinner. but tom vilsack would not feel nearly as badly if earn he were here with me now. i have to speak after the film, after tom, after bill and after everybody but al from has gone home. al from is here on the theory that i'm going to say some nice things. which is why all of us stayed when somebody is going to speak about us. i have known al from for four decades. he and i started to work on capitol hill together. he for a senator from maryland and me for a senator from maryland. he for senator joe tydings and me for senator daniel brewster. it was an extraordinary experiences for us bothment we were young men who were interested in politics and in policy and in our country's well-being. al from and i went operate ways for a while. i went to the maryland state senate. al did work in other places. but then in 1981 i

., hand set exclusivity, like computers and the internet, your dell does not explicitly work with comcast. i think there are plenty of other places where the device itself is divorced from the carrier, and that's represents more choice and provides lower- cost. >> i apologize, but may have had a moment to respond? i have to say candidly he could not be more wrong. there are some many reasons why hand set prices are what they are. while we hear examples of other countries where we have -- what is left out of that debate is the effect on prices of the telephones, the effect on the innovation that is engendered by this arrangement. prices of phones are cheaper than anywhere in the world and for a simple reason, because carriers subsidize those prices. they do so because they had exclusive of arrangements with the vendors where they have the ability to drive down the cost of the funds that they buy. we have one of the more popular phones. -- drive down the cost of the phones that they buy. it was recently announced apple could announce -- apple announced it was $99 for a new iphone. that coul

do you think, not just bailout funds but large aspects of the economy, investment in clean energy, comcast. do you think there should be stronger restrictions on how members of congress -- is it a conflict of interest and should there be stronger restrictions? >> no, i don't think there should be restrictions on investments. when it became a company that was receiving funds, we divested ourselves of that. but for a long time, a.i.g. was a thriving company. but when there's any thought of conflict of interest, yes, then we should do divest. we don't know what that's going to be in advance. who would have ever thought that a.i.g., this jipet of an industry, would come to the place where the united states -- giant of an industry, would come to the place where the united states would have to bail them out. >> madam speaker, the conference will meet on the supplemental. can you talk to us for a moment -- later today there will be the conference committee on the supplemental. >> yes. >> there's been a lot of debate about the photo language from the senate. >> right. >> has a final decision been

i was sitting with a beautiful woman, actually two beautiful women, melissa maxfield from comcast and rachel stockwell who used to work for david mccurdy, who now is my policy director, and i got a call that david obey decided to make some moves on the house floor and i had to go there. i missed dinner. tom vilsack would not feel nearly so bad now, because i have to speak now after the film, after bill, and after everybody but al has gone home. he only stayed because i said i'd say nice things. i have known al from for four decades. he and i started to work on capitol hill together, he for a senator from maryland, and me for a senator from maryland. he for senator joe tidings, me for senator daniel brewster. it was extraordinary experiences for us both. we were young men interested in politics and in policy and in our country's well-being. al from and i went separate ways for a while. i went to the maryland state senate, al did work in other places. but then in 1981, i had the good fnch to be re-elected to the congress of the united states. one of the member theefs congress of the uni

they cited comcast last year, but yeah, this is one of the examples of this senator asking a question on behalf of an industry that employs a lot of people in her state, and i agree with andrew, this was a very deft response. i know he termed a question about network neutrality and openness into a question about competition and he didn't actually use the term openness. so come a very nicely done. >> host: senator klobuchar, a democrat from minnesota, was also there. she talked about interoperability with julius genachowski. >> the cochair of the caucus, a former prosecutor. i did that for years and saw first-hand some of these interoperability issues. when we had a bridge collapse and had done a very good job of interoperability because of our shariff and others and then i have seen difficulties in the past and some of our rural areas with that and it seems to me that is just one of the areas of our nation's information for infrastructure, that may continue to luby's, absent some federal action and federal involvements in terms of making our emergency services more interval. is it in

- not just bail you the funds but in large aspects of the economy your investment in cleaner ery, comcast. do you think there should be stronger restriction on how members of congress -- is it a conflict of interest and should there be stronger restrictions? >> no. i don't think there should be restriction on investment. when it became a company that was receiving funds, we divested ourselves of that. for a long time a.i.g. was a thriving company and a concern in our country. but when there's any thought of conflict of interest, yes, then we should divest. but we don't know what that's going to be in advance. who would have ever thought a.i.g., this giant of an industry, would come to the place where the united states government had to bail it out? yeah. nobody's happy about. that yes. -- happy about that. >> madam speaker, later today congress will meet -- the conference committee on the supplemental budget. >> yes. >> there's been a lot of debate about [indiscernible] from the senate. has a final decision been made on that? if the decision has been made to strike that then the house bil

some of those companies such as verizon and comcast are large companies. they're regulated in some parts of their business model. and i think they are trying to act appropriately. there are other companies, so-called isp low cadeers, that we don't -- locaters that i personally don't even know their name. then you have the in between companies, the so-called edge companies like yahoo! and google. put together, it still is a little bit of a wild west out there. and i think it's time that congress begin to look at that and try to bring some law and order into that particular wild west area. i see that my time has expired, mr. chairman. so i'll submit the rest of the statement for the record. suffice it to say that i'm glad that you and congressman boucher are working with the republicans in taking a serious look at this. i also want to commend the private sector that's here today. it's my understanding that you're working together to come up with some voluntary rules. and it is always preferable in my opinion to do it through a voluntary market-based approach

they've got some principles that they're looking at, they cited comcast last year, but, yeah, this isone of the examples of the senator asking a question on behalf of an industry that employs a lot of people in her state. and i agree with andrew, this was a very deft response. i noted that he turned the question about network neutrality and openness into a question about competition. and he doesn't actually use the term openness which is a buzz word of the obama campaign, so very nicely done. >> host: senator klobuchar, democrat of minnesota, was also there. she talked about interoperability with julius genachowski. >> co-chair of the 9/11 caucus, i'm a former prosecutor, i saw firsthand some of these interoperability issues, the good when we had our bridge collapse, an area in the metropolitan area did a good job of interoperability, and then i've seen difficulties in some of our rural areas with that, and it seems to me that's just one of the areas of our nation's information infrastructure that may continue to elude us absent some federal action and federal involvement in terms of