corker: thank you. mr. president, you know, the dodd bill attempts to deal with orderly liquidation. i know there's been discussions about some of the pros and cons there. the derivatives title -- my sense is there may be a chance that may work out well. i think it is an -- we've overly dealt with consumer protection and hope that somehow in this body we'll bring that back into balance, but, mr. president, this bill glaringly does not deal with some of the core issues of this last crisis. we just voted on g.s.e., an amendment that would have dealt with that over the next couple of years in a way that doesn't prescribe exactly a solution but makes sure we dealt with it. we just voted it down. and, mr. president, even more glaringly, the dodd bill does not deal with the essence of what created this last crisis. at the base of this crisis an inverted pyramid was the issue of the fact that we had a lot of loans in this country that were written that should have never been written. those loans were done by compa

2006, and i think bob corker kind of reflected that. he did not say he was upset, but he did mention it. host: yes, but you go on to talk in your book about a meeting he eventually had, and he saw something in the president up close that bothered him. guest: this was in the height of the discussion of iraq, and he was a republican, and republicans in the senate has essentially been the last bulwark against doing what democrats wanted to do, which was bringing troops home, passed resolutions to a stable -- establishing a timetable. it absolutely against that -- pass revolutions -- resolutions establishing a timetable. he got the sense that they did not exactly have a handle on what they were doing in iraq. he was concerned about that. host: you say it 44 men have been elected president, and 16 of them have served in the senate -- you say 44 men have been elected in the president. only three have come to be president. what do this figure is -- have been elected president. only three have become president. what do these figures mean to you

corker went to see the president about iraq. he got the sense that they did not exactly have a handle on what they were doing in iraq. he was concerned about that. host: you say 44 men have been elected president, and 16 of them have served in the senate. only three have come to be president. only three have become president. -- directly. what do these figures mean to you? guest: they wanted to be president, so this senate is one of the places they go to check that box, and history kind of does this over and over again, but the senate is not a good place to become, to prepare you for the presidency, not immediately anyway. that is why we see so many governors elected. in the senate, people are literally talking to no one, and they kind of lose this sense of connection to people, and there is too much back and forth. tom daschle describes it as, one, you establish a record where people can use it against you, and you gain a lot of enemies that do not forget, so that makes it harder for you to be president directly from the senate

bob corker, the on the republican. i want you to pick any one of those and telesis story about somebody that you followed in the election. >> that is an easy one. the montana senate election was kind of wrapped up in everything that was happening. this was the end of the bush presidency. the big question was, conrad burns to have been a republican incumbent had gotten wrapped up in this jack abramoff story. suddenly he was being challenged by the guy who least looked like the united states senator. he was a farmer from montana. he is from the outskirts of big sandy. he had lost three fingers in an accident when he was a child on his farm. it became a question of whether democrats could take this seat. ipad a lot of attention to that race. i even julie went to montana. -- i paid a lot of attention to that race and eventually went to montana. one of the stores in the book is that he likes to say saved my life and i acknowledged that in the book because i left his farm and tried to get back to my hotel on a snow day. i we

corker: mr. president, i think everybody in this body knows that the core of this last financial kraoeufgs was there were -- crisis was there were a lot of loans written in this country people couldn't pay back. the dodd bill deals with a lot of things, but it doesn't deal with that basic core issue of loan underwriting. this is an opportunity for people on both sides of the aisle that is a commonsense amendment that requires a 5% down payment, fully documented credit income including credit history and employment history, which i think all of us would like to see and a method of determining borrower's ability to repay, put in place by bank regulators -- this -- mr. dodd: the senator cannot be heard. i can't hear. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. mr. corker: -- this commonsense amendment which should be supported by both sides of the aisle excludes, gives the ability for habitat, for enterprise, those organizations that use sweat equity to be excluded. this is something we al

mentioned senator corker. corker has the knowledge that he irritated some in the republican conference, in particular senator shelby. did you ever take his side to give him -- did you ever taken him aside to give him advice? >> the answer is no. senators are individuals. bob corker and i are good friends and we have known each other for a while. our staffs are almost interchangeable, but we both have our own minds and act in our own ways. we are accountable to the people of tennessee. i do not tell him what to do and vice versa. >> he mentioned checks and balances about the election. do you think senate republicans can and gain control -- can gain control of the chamber? >> i feel the same mood in the country that i felt in a year most of your viewers will not remember. it was 1974. i was a young republican. it was the year of watergate. and in tennessee, people were so mad at republicans that they came out of the mountains to find out who the republicans were to vote against them. i think people will come out

for a year corker did to try to make a contribution toward financial regulation. and basically the white house pulled the rug out and said we don't need the republicans. we've got the votes. so we have seen no real effort on big issues to be bipartisan other than sort of a shooting gallery approach. let's see if we can pick off this one or this one. >> house republicans are working on another contract with america type of document. they're going to release later this year. are senate republicans working with house republicans on that document? will you have a document on your own to lay out your agenda in the fall? >> we're very interested in what they're doing. and senators and house members are different. senators are used to operating in an organization that operates by unanimous consent. but we've consensus on a number of issues. for example, on clean energy last year, all 40 of us agreed on a clean energy policy of 100 new nuclear plants elect if iing half our cars and trucks. doubling energy and offshore exploration. on health care we've said we've got steps

i'm working on some with senator corker. but i'd like to let this play out and see what the chair bhen come up with. i know one of the areas that senator corker and i have talked about and i think they're going to correct already is trying to make sure that angel investors, people who invest in startup companies and i was a venture capitalist in my earlier life. i think the ability for young folks with ideas or not so young folks with ideas, entrepreneurs to get access to capital and get a chance to get started, that we ought not put barriers in place to those activities. there were is certain parts of the bill that restricted the ability for angel investors to invest. i think chairman dodd has heard those concerns and is going to change those so we continue to allow entrepreneurs to live out their own version of the american dream. so i'm hoping that some of these other things -- i don't ware who offers the amendments, i just hope we get them in. >> you talked about unintended consequences. are you comfortable with where it

i'm working on some amendments with senator corker. i would like to see this play out and see what the chairman comes up. one of the areas we have talked about and i think they are going to correct already is trying to make sure that angel investors, people who invest in start-up companies and venture capitalists, i think the ability for young folks with ideas, entrepreneurs, to get access to capital and get a chance to get started. that we ought not to put barriers in place to those activities. there were certain parts of the bill that restricted the ability of angel investors or put a deal put it up too long for a review. chairman dodd is going to change those things so we allow entrepreneurs to live out their own version of the american dream. i'm hoping some of these other things -- i don't care who offers them. >> you talked often about unintended consequences. are you comfortable with where the legislation is? >> i'm never going to be comfortable. particularly folks in the financial sector who comes in and say, if you do this, he

i see senator corker and senator kyl here and would be glad to yield time to them. mr. corker: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee is recognized. mr. corker: mr. president, i thank you. i want to thank my colleague from alabama for the work that he's done in trying to craft a bankruptcy title that more fully suits financial institutions. this body's an interesting body because you don't have the chance to do anything but vote "yes" or "no" on particular pieces of legislation. a couple weeks ago, or just last week the republicans -- all republicans -- had a filibuster while they waited for the leaders on each side of the banking committee to reach a compromise. and it was supported, i think, 94 or 96-1. and that compromise was on title 2, the orderly liquidation title. and so, here we have an amendment that basically is to strike something that this body, in essence, adopted 96-0. i spent a lot of time on that title myself, working with mark warner. i appreciate greatly the partnership that we had working on a resolution title. i thank senator shelby and

seemed to be working on -- or then accepted what senator corker seemed to be working on? >> i will not get into hypothetical. we are where we are. i think this bill started going south in the area of being a constructive piece of legislation to improve our financial industry to make it safer, sounder, and less risk prone so that americans can get credit at a reasonable price. it went south when the white house decided to pull people back from negotiations on the democratic side who were negotiating in good faith with many of us on our side of the aisle because they decided they wanted a populist issue. you said the president go out and write -- like the wild fires in the populism. >> center, one of the most ambitious parts of this bill that senator dodd put together -- senator, one of the most ambitious parts is how banks are supervised. he has backed away from that proposal in a series of steps. yesterday when the senate voted to keep small banks under the federal reserve's supervision, what did you think of the proposal to begin with and what has become of it? >> i neve

chairman, senator corker, my name is sean penn. in haiti since the first week quake as go director and c.e.o.. pe have live ii the tent camp adjacent to and administratoring aid to the largest in the coontry. designnted camp manager of thhs site locclly called terrain degauf by the organization of migration. from our first days in haiti, my team and i witnessed amputations without anesthesia hospitals and clinics throughout the city nd country. in spontaneously raised tent 3- mosquito ridden. pimbs severed froo childden with tools more familiar too it is true that this stage of %- post-quake trauma and drama has largely subsided. only two weeks ago, however, a less tangible, visible orr fundibbe emergency raised its + head. our camp clinic diagnosed what becamm the first confirmed case of iihtheria. i rode in the ack of the ambulance while the patient was refrused from several hospitals diagnosed with a disease for which those hospitals had no treatment capability. in this city of ruins, five fully functional hospitals have been al

corker, senator corker, wall street lobbyists and others in recent days have somehow argued that by pushing out risky swaps from the nation's largest banks, like j.p. morgan and bank of america, wells fargo, goldman sachs and citigroup, that somehow swaps will no longer be regulated. this is just plain wrong. just because these swap desks will no longer be overseen by the fdic does not mean that they will not be subject for this will's strong regulation -- this bill's strong regulation by the market regulators, the f.t.c. and the cftcn. short, they simply ignore -- cftc. in short, they simply ignore the strong provisions included in the rest of the underlying bill. that's convenient for their argument but not so convenient when seeking the truth. let me reiterate, mr. president, every swaps dealer and major swap participant will be subject to strong regulation. wall street lobbyists have also argued that this will prevent banks from using swaps to hedge their risk. again, completely false. banks who have been acting as banks will be able to continue doing business as they always have. commu

corker from tennessee tried engaging with senator dodd. there was an idea that republicans passed up opportunities to really cement a deal with senator dodd that would have been much more to their liking than what this bill will end up being because of in fighting and misreading the signals of how the politics of the issue being against them. they may have been better off to strike a deal will be for this got to a floor. >> victoria mcgrane and kevin drawbaugh, thank you very much. >> in the relentless revolution, you seem professor joyce appleby describing why this is a cultural situation. >> south korea -- south dakota senator john thune spoke at the annual meeting. he remarked on the and state of the country and the nation. senator thune is introduced by rnc chairman michael steele. >> i want to welcome all the view and thank you for what has been, we hope for you, a wonderful day and a half so far of the business and information. we really appreciate everything that the staff has done to put together this event for us. sarah, thank you

or should they have accepted what senator bob corker was working now the? >> at that is monday morning quarterbacking and i want get into it. is the way it is. we are where we are. i think the bill started going south when the white house decided to pull people back from negotiations on the democratic side. because they decided they one of the populist issue. then you saw the president go out and like the wild fires of populism which are still burning. >> one of the most ambitious parts of the bill put together was to reorganize how banks are supervised. he backed away from that proposal and a series of steps, the last yesterday when the senate voted to keep small banks under the federal reserve's supervision. what did you think of that proposal to begin with, and what has become of it the? >> i never thought we should take away the responsibility from the fed for the bank holding companies. the federal reserve is as good a regulator as any others. you're moving deck chairs around by doing that. the fed has the resources and expertise to be and has been, a

he said he would meet with bob corker. that took one month and could not reach an agreement. they said, let's take it to committee and see if we can reach an agreement by the debate and amendment process. republicans filed 400 amendment and refused to call any of them to be considered. 20 minutes after the banking committee got together, the final vote sensible -- sent the reform to the floor. now after a week of filibuster, the filibuster is broken and we're seeing some cooperation on amendments. i have just described a four- month process that should have taken just a matofeeks. they have dragged out the process. we are now seeing an element of cooperation. if we're going to do that on every important issue, we will not get much done. we have to show good faith and try. if we fail, as the american's think we have been faithful in our efforts, they may follow up. >> there is a piece on thursday -- obama and mcconnell are perfect strangers. it talks about them not having that outside the public meetings that they have had with public leadership. i am wondering if president ob

corker: i thank you.did want to mention that i hope very soon that the administration will work closely and i'm sure they will because i know they're very understanding of what's happening in tennessee. t-but we obviously have quite a disaster under way. we have people who've lost their lives, people who've lost their homes, people who've lost their lives work. and i appreciate so much the work of our governor, the many makers especially the mayor of nashville, but also mayors across our state. i appreciate the response that all of them have given in coming to the aid of our citizens there, and again i know this administration will begin to work very closely with them in the same remarks and i thank them for that in advance. mr. president, i came down to speak specifically today about the comments from my friend from delaware delaware regarding the fact that because large institutions in this country have a funding advantage over some of the smaller institutions, we ought to break them up. mr. president,

he then said, ok, i'll meet with bob corker. he seems to be more open. they spent a month together. they couldn't reach an agreement. dodd said let's take the bill to the committee and debate these things out. let's see if we can reach an agreement by the debate and amendment process. the republicans filed 401 amendments. they refused to call any of they refused to call any of them to be considered. 20 minutes after the banking committee got together, they took a final vote, sent the financial regulatory bill to the floor. now, after a week of the republicans filibustering the bill, trying to stop i, the filibuster was broken and we're seeing some cooperation. i've just described a four -month process that should have taken a week. so now we're seeing some element of cooperation. but if we're going to do that on every important issue facing on every important issue facing us, we're not going to get much done. we have to continue to show good faith and try, and if the american people feel we've been fair, then they may hold the republicans accountable. >> as you indicated, we're talk

corker: just as far as other amendments, i just have an inquiry. as far as other amendments, i have a number of what i would call surgical amendments, some of which -- some of which may be -- i think -- i'm -- i just have an inquiry as to other types of amendments. i know we're going in order, republican, democrat, i just thought we might talk for a minute. i have a number of surgical amendments that improve the bill. some of them i think are going to be taken in a managers' amendment. but i would inquire as to what the manager of the bill, what his thinking is as it relates to time limits and how we might move through some of these other amendments that are here strictly to try to improve the bill and may have strong bipartisan support. mr. dodd: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut's recognized. mr. dodd: i have yet to meet a member who offered an amendment who didn't think it would be included in the bill. first, i appreciate him raising the issue, because it is an important question. i've raised with my colleague a

i know he tried and he tried hard with senator shelby, the ranking republican, with senator corker, a member of the committee, also a republican. he came and held a committee hearing, if i'm not mistaken, at the committee hearing the republicans offered 400 amendments, something of that nature, and when the time came to call the amendments so there would be an open debate and the bill could be changed one way or the other, they made a decision not to call any amendments, not to offer any changes to the bi bill. so i would say on behalf of senator dodd, he has shown a good-faith effort to try to make this a strong, bipartisan effort. it's not too late. as we start the debate this week, we have a chance to reach i hope some agreement and make this a strong, bipartisan bill at the end. but when i listened to senator kyl of arizona talking about the goals of this bill and what we want to achieve, i'm worried. you see, the republicans issued their summary of their substitute bill, a bill that they want to offer to replace this. and within that summary, there's one thing that stands out. th

i wanted to give a brief report on what we know about that, what nor corker and i and congressman cooper and the other members of congress from that region are doing working together so that the people of our area can know what -- what to expect. there is a telephone number to call, and i'd like to -- i can -- if i can find it here, i'd like to give it. 615-862-8574. that's a telephone number for the people in the nashville and middle tennessee area who are concerned about what to do, who have an emergency who want information about what help may be available to them. 615-862-8574. the cumberland river and the harpith river are the two rivers that are causing most of the problem. we have been waiting all day for the cumberland river which runs through nashville down from clarksville -- on up to clarksville to -- to crest. that crest hasn't happened yet. the latest predictions are that it might happen around 7:00. it may be later. in the meantime, the corps of engineers with whom we're working are trying hard to minimize the damage from the lakes that they are responsible for. there are t

. >> thank you senator corker. senator gillibrand? >> thank you mr. chairman for calling that hearing. thank you for being here to talk to us about your work in haiti. i was able to travel with senator lan drew earlier this year and got to meet with you, ambassador and thank you for all of your hard work. obviously we have extraordinary challenges in haiti. one of the greatest areas of concern are the children of haiti. one of the greatest concerns i have is the education level. half of the children in haiti are not being educated and those that are are paying for school in a community that has so little available to provide for their families. haiti has a 52% ill literacy rate. these are some of the great challenges. i understand that the u.s. is not heading up the education pillar and i understand the need for donor coordination but i would like to hear from you what role you think we can play in the development of quality public education. >> senator, thank you for your question. when i talk to haitians, education is one of the top priorities and i

the resolution, title is a title that the presiding officer, senator warner of virginia, senator corker of tennessee were the principal authors of on a bipartisan basis back in november or december. i asked a number of my colleagues if they were interested in working on various sections of the bill, and senator warner and senator corker had a strong interest in the resolutions section, title 1 and 2 of the proposed expldges how we could -- proposed legislation and how we could end the too-big-to-fail concept, something which i believe every member of this chamber endorses. none of us ever again want to see the situation that unfolded in the fall of 2008 when we saw a check for $700 billion be written out to stabilize a number of large financial institutions in the country. the good news is at the end of all of that, we're getting money back, but obviously it was traumatic to go through all of that, to watch institutions that should have been far more cognizant of the difficulty they were getting into that when they got into deep trouble, obviously in order to stabilize the economy or ha

corker: thank you, madam president. i'm here today to speak about the consumer protection title in the dodd bill, but i do want to say that while i disagree with my friends from connecticut and ohio in their approach, i certainly appreciate the way they've conducted themselves. and actually, i think the debate we've had on this floor over this bill, i will say to the senator from connecticut, has been of the highest level i can remember in a long time. and i want to thank him for setting that tone. i want to thank my caucus for i think offering nothing but constructive amendments. and people on both sides of the aisle i think have tried to do that. i think, you know, it took awhile to get here but we're on the floor, and obviously there are a lot of improvements that people would like to make to this bill, but i think people are really focused on doing that. and, again, i want to thank you for setting that tone. at the same time, i do want to talk about the consumer protection title. that is one i would like to see vast

corker: thank you. mr. president, i know there will mr.gether in order to create the bill we think is solid to stand the test of time we hope that spirit continues on. one of the things many members have been talking about on the floor is the size of the institutions we have in this country. there has been some movement to arbitrarily decide what the institution ought to be. i think everybody is frustrated by what occurred a couple of years ago a lot of ideas to try to prevent the same types of things that occurred a couple of years ago even one year ago from happening again. what i help people keep in mind is the reason our large financial institutions are the size that they are is because we have companies in this country that need a large institutions in order to be competitive pressure are like to start with the fact that obviously would you are a large company in this country what you want to ensure is you have a financial institution that covers the entire geographic map of our country to be able to do business in every state in this

senator corker? >> thank you for your service to our country.dam secretary, what recourse to the countries have in the case of violations in the treaties? >> senator, there are several approaches. one, there is a bilateral commission that exists to a near knout differences, solve problems -- to iron out differences, solve problems. each country may seek recourse if there is a violation or perceived violation. >> what kind of recourse? >> you know, we have a long history with these treaties where at presenting information that we believe might violate the spirit or letter -- letter of the treaty leads to changes. this treaty is not a static document. it goes into effect, like the previous start treaty and others, and then it becomes implemented. under the treaty, we are not kidding -- if we believe under the tree, we are not getting access to what -- if we believe under the treaty, we are not getting access to what we need to get access to, we measure that. senator lugar is the expert in the room, along with secretary gates. but the history has b

corker: thank you, mr. president. mr.president, i knee john mccain from arizona has come down and offered an amendment on fannie and freddie, or g.s.e.'s, as we call them. and i want to come down today and speak on that amendment. i know that i've worked with our presiding officer on big pieces of this bill, and i very much appreciate the spirit with which we've worked on this bill. i think that all of us know that there are pieces of this bill that are very, very appropriate, the orderly liquidation title that the presiding officer and myself and senator dodd and senator shelby and i have been involved in is an important piece of this lesmtion i think all of us realize secondarily that the derivatives title, once it getted corrected and in the right form, is a very, very important piece dealing with what we have just dealt with over these last couple of years. certainly some elements -- consumer protection -- are very important. hypocrite that we're able to get tbhak in balance. i -- i hope that we're able to get that ba

senator corker and senator alexander both came to nashville. i visited with them.city. we set up five or six local disaster assistance offices where fema will be working with us. so far so good. we are totally committed to getting the city cleaned up and moving forward. obviously, this has been tough on everybody. we have a long ways to go, it will take some time but we're going to get it done. >> mayor karl dean, appreciate you being on. thanks. >>> country singer and songwriter kenny chesney lives in nashville. he rushed back to the city to check on his family and friends only to find his own home flooded. he took video of that destruction. we'll show you that video shortly. he joins me on the phone. thank you for being with us. have you ever seen anything like this in nashville? >> caller: never, anderson. i've been here 14, 15 years now. i've never seen anything like this in my life, much less nashville. there's a lot of people in this city that's really hurting now. i've never seen anything like it. i was out of town when it happened. as i was flying back home

of mortgages which weren't properly underwritten -- and there will be a later amendment by senator corker which i'll support in the area of underwriting -- but which weren't properly underwritten and which were securitized and basically insured, for all intents and purposes, by freddie and fannie, you ended up with a situation where they own a lot of paper which doesn't have the value, doesn't have the value it's supposed to have and which isn't being paid back at the rate which it's supposed to be paid back at. and unfortunately the -- there was a tacit understanding that grew up in the markets that the american taxpayer was going to stand behind that paper. now, it was never explicit but it became tacit and people expected that and then when the actual event occurred, as these defaults started to accelerate, it became real and the american taxpayer is now having to stand behind all this debt. it's certainly going to come to a shock to most americans that they own -- that they owe approximately half a trillion dollars here. half a trillion dollars because of very bad decisions that were

senator corker. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank each of you for your service and what you do on behalf of our country. madam secretary, what recourse do each of the countries have against each other if there is violations in the treaty? >> senator, there are several approaches. one, there is a bilateral commission that exists to iron out differences, solve problems to which each country may eke recourse if there is some kind of violation or perceived violation. >> what kind of recourse? >> well, we have had this -- we have a long history with these treaties where presenting information that we believe might violate the spirit or the letter of the treaty leads to changes. this treaty is not a static document. it goes into effect like the previous start treaty and others, and then it begins to be implemented. if we believe under the treaty we are not getting access to what we have signed up for under the treaty, we raise that and we get the access. so it's a constant effort to make sure that both sides are complying with their

were several months when both senator richard shelby, the ranking republican, and later senator bob corker from tennessee tried to engage in negotiations with senator dodd. there was an idea that republicans passed up of the charities to cement a deal with senator dodd that would have been much more to their liking than what this bill will be. that is true in fighting and misreading signals. the republicans might have been better off to have struck a deal before they got to the floor. >> thank you both for being on "newsmakers." >> in the relentless revolution, this is a ucla professor describes what capitalism is a cultural system, not just an economic one. tonight on c-span. >> watch this week's hearings on the gulf of mexico oil spill, or look back at the exxon hearings from 1989. it is washington your way -- search is, watch it, share it. every program since 1987 available free, on-line. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> now a house hearing. this portion is two and a half hours. >> there are several issue

senator gore of tennessee, who states that the senator corker -- senator lugar, senator kerrey -- it will pass the u.s. senate unanimously, and then it will go to the house unanimously. and how many american jobs are going to be lost? they do not know, they do not care. that might be free trade to corporations, but it is not free to haiti and it is not free to the united states. and if i could say one other thing -- polaris just fired every employee they have got in wisconsin. they have 500 employees. they made a 90% increase in profits last year, but they are moving to mexico where they will be able, even though they made a huge profit in the united states, paying a living wage, in mexico the salaries they pay will be much less. they will have very few environmental controls. they will be able to ship those goods duty-free into the united states. as long as they stay in mexico, they will pay no income tax. host: caller, i will let you go. there is a picture of rand paul in "the new york times," who just won in kentucky last week john harwood writes that ron emmanuel has a vision of

each of you wearing a name badge or a ribbon identifies you as a surviving family member for corkers life must go on. you are surrounded here by thousands who share in your grief. most importantly, we offer support to u.n. your family's. when an officer dies, we are informed across the nation that we have lost one of our own. there is an ache in the hearts of others but the thin blue line stretches across the u.s. supporting and offering prayer. strangers will line the streets waving flags. law enforcement is a respected profession. one officer dies, thousands more -- to serve and protect. i share with you a poem entitled -- "like the officers in a television show or the sheriff in the wild west to shoot their foe the officers' shoes to work for a greater good and they stand tall. each day, they have to do is to fulfil. when the call goes out that one of them is down, with loyalty and amazing speed, the fraternity will gather around. they protect us from ourselves, they protect us from each other. no finer service can be performed bantustan in harm's way for another. it is impossible

i supported an amendment along with bob corker to provide emergency windows.nd this amendment expand that to other sections of the fed but still provide protection for the direct monetary policies. i think it was a well done thing. host: next phone call. yvonne, what would you like to ask? caller: this money he is talking about going to congress -- is this for small business or big business? guest: i am not sure i understand the question. caller: is this going to help small business or big business? here in indiana, whirlpool went over to mexico. guest: this will benefit small and large individuals. you will get their underwriting and will not be steered into bad loans. "the wall street journal" did a study and found that 60% of families who got subprime loans qualified for prime loans. how did they get into that product? their mortgage originator said that i will serve as your adviser. this loan process is good, there are a lot of choices. what the customer did not know is that originator was getting bigger bonuses if they sign up for a subprime loans that ha

the republican nominees will be saxby chambliss, bob corker, mike crapo, judd gregg, and richard shelby. in a few moments, a house republican initiative for public input into their congressional agenda. in about 40 minutes, the hearing on the gulf of mexico oil spill to consider raising the liability limit for those responsible. after that, senate republicans spoke with reporters about their meeting with president obama. and later, president obama at a fundraiser tonight for california senator barbara boxer. >> this holiday, non-fiction books and authors on "book tv." sebastian younger and his newest book "war," imbedded with the 173rd in afghanistan. and john hofmeister. get the whole schedule at "book tv".org. >> house republicans have began an effort to create a policy agenda of republican input. this will be led by california representative kevin mccarthy. he the other g.o.p. leaders held a 40-minute briefing at the museum in washington. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to today's event. inscribed on this building are the words of the first amendment which guarantees americans the

bob corker and others had tried to work on anbar partisan basis.y made progress, were having meetings, reached agreement. then christopher dodd comes in and he has gotten word from the white house that they want their bill now. they do not want any republican input in it because it would compromise the issues. so they forced it through committee and passed it, basically with democratic votes and a handful of republicans. it was in the aftermath of that where the president says now we need to be bipartisan and work on these other issues i have coming down the pike. i thought that was a little disingenuous. host: next phone call. caller: good morning. i loved the show that you were on "law and order. sorry to see it go. not as sorry as i was to see you lose along with all the other republicans. my question goes back to 2001. richard clark was trying to meet with dick cheney and he said that he was meeting with oil companies to relax oil regulation to create insidious policy. do you think the republicans have any responsibility maybe you can give us t

we didn't pass underwriting methods in the corker amendment. but we have a chance to address the issue of the rating agencies. because but for their failure to do their job, we may not have had this debacle that destroyed, as some estimate, $600 trillion worth of wealth. now, where i differ with my friend from minnesota is i don't think he has gone far enough. i appreciate his efforts to go after conflicts of interest. i believe there are conflicts of interest. you cannot have the people whose products you rate pay you. he's right about that. but i would go further. my amendment writes these organizations out of law. why should we reward them and allow them to continue to have what, in effect, is a government-sponsored monopoly? federal law says that creditworthiness will be determined by these rating agencies. why should we reward them by allowing them to continue in any fashion to have the sanction and permission and basically a monopoly granted by federal law? that doesn't make any sense to me. so what -- the amendment that i'm proposing, an

fact that we've established on a bipartisan basis -- and again our colleagues, mark warner and bob corkeralong with other members, did a great job, in my view, in crafting that part of the bill. i think we've done a good job there and i see very little dissent about it. the fourth piece -- the consumer protection -- is the one we're engaged in. and this isn't debate that i believe is worth having over the next hour or two and then vote. let me say to my friend from alabama, the author of the amendment, and thinks cosponsors. we've got to come and debate this stuff. i'm here and i will a.b.a. glad to engage in the debate. -- and i'll be glad to engage in the debate. but i've got one other colleague here right now engaged in this question. this is a major part of the bill. people have told me overed and over again, this is a big issue for them. i'm willing to accept their determination. i think it is a big issue, too. but we've got about 100 amendments that people wants to omplet we've got about -- that people want to offer. we've got about 39 legislative days until the end of this congress

at that point senator dodd said, well, i'll reecht out to senator -- reach out to senator corker of tennessee, a republican, and see if i can reach agreement with him on a bipartisan bill. he's on my committee. they are worked for a month and could not reach an agreement. senator dodd said, you know, there comes a point where we have to move this legislation. he called this bill before his senate banking committee an invited the republicans and democrats on a committee to come in, give us your best ideas. how would you change this? improve it? what would you do to this bill? the republicans filed over 400 amendments to this bill. it's a lot of work. then came the day of the actual hearing on the bill and the decision was made on the other side of the aisle not to offer one single amendment. not one. 20 minutes after it convened, it voted to pass the bill out an adjourned. so when senators from the republican side of the aisle come in and say, you know, there's just not enough bipartisanship in this bill, i have to tell you it isn't because of lack of effort by senator dodd and members of the

senators corker and warner worked very hard on those two provisions of the bill, as other members of the committee did. and i want to briefly describe why those provisions are important and why they should remain intact and of course we voted as a senate 93-5 in favor of the shelby-dodd amendment codifying the perfections, as senator shelby described them, in those two titled. well, mr. president, i oppose the sessions amendment to strike the amendment creating an orderl liquidation authority, language that i said senator shelby and i crafted together in order to end the too-big-to-fail argument once and for all. most nonbank financial firms, including large and complex ones, will go through the normal bankruptcy process if they fail. and they should. that's the presumption in this bill. the new liquidation authority that senator shelby and i crafted should be used very, very rarely. it is a painful process to go through. it would certainly not be the avenue of choice given the implications. we have put in some very high hurdles to trigger its use, including judicial review before th

each of you wearing a name badge or a ribbon identifies you as a surviving family member for corkersife must go on. you are surrounded here by thousands who share in your grief. most importantly, we offer support to u.n. your family's. when an officer dies, we are informed across the nation that we have lost one of our own. there is an ache in the hearts of others but the thin blue line stretches across the u.s. supporting and offering prayer. strangers will line the streets waving flags. law enforcement is a respected professi. one officer dies, thousands more -- to serve and protect. i share with you a poem entitled -- "like the officers in a television show or the sheriff in the wild west to shoot their foe the officers' shoes to work for a greater good and they stand tall. each day, they have to do is to fulfil. when the call goes out that one of them is down, with loyalty and amazing speed, the fraternity will gather around. they protect us from ourselv, they protect us from each other. no finer service can be performed bantustan in harm's way for another. it is impossible for u

and the ranking member of the banking committee and members like the presiding officer and senator corkerd senator gregg for their work on this very complex issue. more than a year ago i introduced a financial regulatory reform bill. i had the pleasure of dcussing the bill with the chairman of the banking committee. and i am pleased with my much of what is within his bill at this point in the debate. i hope we can continue to make further changes, such as, the amendment i have proposed with senator shaheen. but i do want to salute the members of the banking committee. i know this is an enormously complex and, at times, a thankless task. but it is so important. in fact, mr. president, i argued that we should have dealt with financial regulatory reform last year. i think it's that important to the future of our economy. we realized that we were operating with regulatory block holes that a -- black holes that allowed, for example, trillions of dollars of credit default swaps to develop with really no one having oversight or visibility as far as their impact on the financial markets. they wer

and senator isakson and i and a number of other people, senator corker, are going to put forward an amendment in that area. but one of the core areas here that needs to be addressed and hopefully it will be included in this bill and improve the bill in this area, but one area of this bill that simply has to be changed if it is going to be effective in doing what it has to do is in the area of derivatives -- the language of derivatives. now, most americans don't understand derivatives. it's understandable. they are complex products. but basically try to think of it this way. if you're on main street and you have got a business, usually a fairly large business, and you're making a product, you want to be able to sell that product to somebody at the price you quote that person and make the profit that you expect at that quoted price, but there are a lot of things that affect that product that you can't control. if you're selling it to another country, you can't control what the dollar is going to do in relationship to the currency of that country. for example, if you're selling it to brazil, whe

cosponsoring the amendment, senator brownback, senator cantwell, senator cornyn, senator wyden and senator corker. all of these senators have cosponsored the amendment that we filed last night. i'm grateful for their support and the hard work of their staffs in developing the amendment. the bill currently before the senate has several important objectives. it improves accountability in the financial system. it provides much-needed protections for american consumers of financial services. it also expands the scope of the commodity futures trading commission's authority with respect to regulating commodity markets. i support all of these objectives. i'm very glad to see them included in this bill. however, i believe a small but vital addition to the bill is needed to ensure that america's consumers of energy products are adequately protected, and that's the issue that the amendment that i'm discussing addresses. we need to be sure that both under existing law and under the expanded authority being given to the commodity futures trading commission in this bill, there is no compromise of the role tha

speak today, because i have again -- so many friends on the other side of the aisle came up and said "corker i would have supported your amendment but it had that one phrase in it about risk refengs. kings-- about risk retention." i've taken it out. i see my friends oner side friends on the other side of the aisle smiling. i'm looking forthe it income. they'll haveir income, will to see that pay the loa my sen realsterscome to today, my f any because they want to mako to on co if soow i'm offering for help with this. mr. president, i yield t . durbin: sena ders. and printed in the record.tion?. president mr. president, on behalf of senator bingaman i ask unanimous the privilege of the floor be granted to kevin eyler, a fellow on the committee of natural presourcessources for the pendency of s. 3217 and any votes thereupon. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: thank you. and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. barrasso: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. p