it's important to note that today there is no segregation of federal funds in any federal health care program. for example, the medicaid program receives both federal and state dollars. there is no segregation of either the federal medicaid dollars or state medicaid dollars. with that, i know i have some colleagues who asked to have time to speak. i will yield the floor. mr. vitter: will the senator yield? madam president? mr. specter: the senator from utah has not yet answered the question. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. vitter: i strongly support the senator from utah's amendment and along with senator nelson and senator casey. i think that this exchange and colloquy is very helpful. in fact, i think it proves the point and the senator from pennsylvania's participation in it. the only folks defending the language in the reid bill are folks who are strongly and clearly pro-choice an proabortion. -- and proabortion. folks who have a problem with that say that the underlying language in the reid bill has huge loopholes. and that includes the people who want to s

it's important to note that today there is no segregation of federal funds in any federal health care program. for example, the medicaid program receives both federal and state dollars. there is no segregation of either the federal medicaid dollars or state medicaid dollars. with that, i know i have some colleagues who asked to have time to speak. i will yield the floor. mr. vitter: will the senator yield? madam president? mr. specter: the senator from utah has not yet answered the question. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. vitter: i strongly support the senator from utah's amendment and along with senator nelson and senator casey. i think that this exchange and colloquy is very helpful. in fact, i think it proves the point and the senator from pennsylvania's participation in it. the only folks defending the language in the reid bill are folks who are strongly and clearly pro-choice an proabortion. -- and proabortion. folks who have a problem with that say that the underlying language in the reid bill has huge loopholes. and that includes the people who want to s

it's important to note today there is no segregation of the federal funds in any federal health care program. for example, the medicaid program receives both federal and state dollars. there is no segregation of either the federal medicaid dollars or the state medicaid dollars. for that i know i have some colleagues who asked to have time to speak. so i'm going to yield the floor. >> will the senator yield? >> i yield the floor. >> senator from utah has not yet answered the question. >> senator from louisiana. >> thank you madame president. i strongly support the senator from utah's effort along with senator nelson, senator casey. i think this exchange in this colloquy is very helpful. proabortion. -- and proabortion. folks who have a problem with that say that the underlying language in the reid bill has huge loopholes. and that includes the people who want to support the bill otherwise. as senator brownback mentioned, representative stupak wants to support the underlying bill, supported it in the house, but he was very clear in his efforts on the house floor that that underlanguage

of health care to federal beneficiaries in the state of alaska. "(c) membership.-the task force shall be comprised of federal members who shall be appointed, not later than 45 days after the date of enactment of this act, as follows: "(1) the secretary of health and human services shall appoint one representative of each of the following: "(a) the department of health and human services. "(b) the centers for medicare and medicaid services. "(c) the indian health service. "(2) the secretary of defense shall appoint one representative of the tricare management activity. "(3) the secretary of the army shall appoint one representative of the army medical department. "(4) the secretary of the air force shall appoint one representative of the air force, from among officers at the air force performing medical service functions. "(5) the secretary of veterans affairs shall appoint one representative of each of the following: "(a) the department of veterans affairs. "(b) the veterans health administration. "(6) the secretary of homeland security shall appo

lastly, do you believe that -- that the federal reserve bank, say the federal reserve of new york andrichmond and san francisco, so forth, that they basically are the regulator and that you, as the chairman of the board of governors have outsourced that to the reserve banks? >> absolutely not. >> why haven't you? >> the board of governors has the legal authority and responsibility to manage that super vision. they function as operational arms of the board of governors the. we set the policy, do the quality control, reviews, we set the budgets so your earlier criticism, to the extent you're correct, the buck stops here. we are responsible for that. we are, if anything, continuing to strengthen centralized and continueding to work to make sure that that supervision is as strong as possible. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much. senator johnson. >> welcome to the committee, mr. bernanke. i want to join chairman dodd in voicing support for confirmation. while i certainly think transparency is important, it is the fed's independence and its ability to carry out day-to-day decisio

by the federal government. but i just want to say -- let me say that i disagree -- >> i just want to say, let me just say that i disagree. mr. chairman, going through that period of that time, when they were talking about the bonuses, virtually no reporting on the county party issue, and the fact of the matter is that we allowed 100 cents on the dollar, with little or no negotiation, it just is -- i have raised the issue with others before. i do not understand that, and most americans do not. it is billions of dollars b and it is hard to imagine that we could not negotiate with any of the counterparties. >> we did not have any leverage. they would say, "you are bankrupt." >> aig, if they would not have done that, they would have been in trouble. >> that is all true, but most of the firms were foreign. we had no authority or leverage over them. >> you are the chairman of the federal reserve. >> i do not abuse my supervisory powers. >> certainly not, not in that case. power. >> apparently not in that case. senato

in federal prison. this criminal activity also interferes with the ability of regular voters to participate in the election. acorn has a habit, as the secretary has pointed out, of dumping huge numbers of voter registration forms on local election officials just before the deadline for voter registration for upcoming elections. so while officials are trying to process the registration of legitimate voters, they have to spend a disproportionate amount of limited time and resources sorting through thousands of fraudulent and invalid forms submitted by acorn. one state audit alone in india not found that 83% of the registrations filed by a acorn and its affiliate, but private vote, were invalid. in the internal report, it said that the tight relationship between project but an acorn make it impossible to document that project vote boss money had been used in a strictly non- partisan manner. there appeared to be numerous violations of federal law by an organization receiving millions of federal tax dollars

but the budgets of these federal agencies, and of the federal government itself, keeps expanding. 33% increase of spending for foreign operations. a 23% increase in transportation, housing, and urban development. one of the worst things that this spending is doing is creating tremendous uncertainty, both here at home and other places like china, which are buying our debt, about whether we are ever going to get serious about our fiscal responsibility. the president asked last week why job creators were not stepping up and creating jobs. well, the fact of the matter is people are watching what we're doing here in congress, and they don't know what the rules will be six months from now or a year from now or whether congress will ever recover from this binge its been on when it comes to spending. but it's clear we cannot spend -- we cannot spend our way out of this recession. job creators are scared. they're scared. and they're sitting on the sidelines because all of the spending, all of the tax increases, all of the government takeovers coming out of washington, d.c., these days, leave t

it preserves existing federal law.women have fought this nation's -- since this nation's founding to have full rights under the law, including suffrage, including many other things, but unfortunately this amendment would force them to take a step backwards, and i don't want to see it happen, and i urge my colleagues please use your judgment, make your own choices about your own families, make your decisions as to what you would recommend to a daughter or a wife, but for god's sake, let the woman choose what's best for her. and i urge my colleagues to vote against it. with that, i yield the time. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: mr. president, thank you very much. i rise in strong opposition to the nelson-hatch amendment. and let me start off by saying that i support a woman's right of choice. it's a constitutionally affirmed right. and i understand how difficult and divisive this issue is. that is why the underlying bill that we have before us carries out the compromise that has already bee

which is what the constitution expects the federal government to do. but even there, under this administration, we're not doing as well as we should, although i commend the president for deciding to send the people to afghanistan and for standing up on these issues. once he saw the -- the intelligence and the other information, that brought reality. i give him credit. i'm one who believes that he deserves great credit for the decision that he made. but even in that decision he had to be very careful about how he characterized when we're going to leave. he did leave it flexible. and that alone, he deserves a lot of credit for, because he knows that there may not be enough time to really do all that we have to do, to create the police and security forces that are necessary to keep afghanistan free and to keep the world from allowing the taliban and al qaeda to obtain nuclear weapons. well, that's another subject for another day. i just want to end by saying that i don't -- i don't believe anybody on the other side is an evil person or a person that doesn

it is funding abortion with federal taxpayer dollars and premiums that will go through federal taxpayerinsurance plans or proposals. that is morally reprehensible, fiscally irresponsible, and we do not have the money to do this with. here we are on saturday morning, getting the bill, and people are saying what is in it, what is not in it, and rushing to pass it. if it were a traditional bill, it would be one that would work through the process that everybody has a chance to look at and at the end of the day we >> at the end of the day, we'd probably have somewhere between 70-80 votes. this hide the ball process and then throw it out at the last minute and vote at 1:00 a.m. in the morning is the very sort of process that we hate seeing take place. this should be put off until after christmas. people being able to scam init instead of it being done in the dark of the night when washington is jammed in with a snow storm. >> i think today signifies an important think for the american people. this is not about differences between republicans and democrats when it comes to policy. this is abo

to you how federal officials operate. they are afraid, with good reason of the gao, they are afraid our committees. and it is, excuse me, cover your butt notions. it takes a very independent and tens upon doing his job, strong administrator. and i have to tell you, as a member of the homeland security committee and a member of this committee, i think what we have seen in federal bureaucrats does not give me comfort to believe that regardless of the bureaucrats, the person will understand, go ahead. that's why we come even looking at the president, somebody's got a signal that it's all right so that when the fingers begin to point responsibility, we know where it lays. for example, when mr. fugate says don't send anything else here, if more was needed, he would have had to step up and say i asked the secretary not to send more resources. anytime when i did not think they were necessary, even if it turns out he was wrong, would have to be risk being wrong sometimes. but i tell you, mr. decker, in light of existing experienc

the mandate and the federal reserve act for the federal reserve was to maintain the value of the dollar and to have full employment. and maintaining the value of the dollar means stable prices. well, they failed. they flaunt, they didn't ask. they're destroying the value of the dollar and we perpetual increases in cost of living. they say no it's not about inflation, where only destroyed the money 2% per year. [laughter] but it's a lot worse than not. 2% is evil, too. the value of your money goes up, costs go down. cost of living goes down. you get more and that's how we become more prosperous. but they have totally prepared and maintained the value of the dollar, giving a stable prices. nobody wants to talk about the inflation in medical care. yes, people are unhappy because they can't afford it good that they can afford it because their dollar doesn't buy as much. you say we don't have inflation they see the cpi is going up one, 2%. the cost of medicine goes that much more rapidly. but when you create your money, the cost goes up differently for different areas. and if everybody's wag

under our plan no federal dollars will be used to fund abortion and federal conscious laws will remain in place. both of those, he say, look i want to clear up this misunderstanding, this is not the case. well, let's go through what's in the manager's amendment. we just got the manager's amendment recently, so this has been feverishly where we've had to go through what is actually in the manager's amendment. and what you will find is all the major pro-life groups are opposed to the manager's amendment because it does fund abortions. and i'll go through the specifics of th-fplt bart stupak -- specifics of this. bart stupak has been the lead guy on the house side to say we should continue with the hyde language. there's disputes about abortions. there is not disputes about funding of it with taxpayer. bart stupak led a group of democrat members on the issue overall and said we're going to pull it out. it isn't in the house bill but now it's in the senate bill. here's what bart stupak says about the senate bill. not acceptable. a dramatic shift in federal policy that would allow the feder

the federal reserve bank of new york? why did the federal reserve save a.i.g.? he made that decision? [laughter] in my paper [unintelligible] [laughter] >> when you thought the former member was called that he was some kind of plant? we, as you know, the federal reserve and the treasury spoke to the president, spoke with congress whenever possible and attempted to avoid the systemic collapse of our financial markets, our financial system. we were extremely concerned that the collapse of these connected for -- connected firms in a disorderly way would have a greater effect on the broad economy. the collapse of these forms -- these firms is destructive. we did our best to save, protect, the system from the collapse of these firms, all of them. reason we did not save lehman brothers was not chores, but as i have said, given the look very limited powers we had was the lending authority against collateral. we were unable but it did not have the tools. it was not a conscious choice but it was something we could not do within our legal authority. that is why it is so e

federal regulation -- federal legislation establishing a public option that provides abortion coverage federal legislation allowing states to opt out of the public option that provides abortion coverage eases the restrictions established by the hyde amendment. our amendment would prohibit federal funds from being used for elective abortion services in the public option and also prohibit individuals who receive tax credits from purchasing a plan that provides elective aboargses. abortions. madam president, i've always been pro-life, and i have a strong record opposing abortion. as governor or nebraska in the 1990s, i signed into law the parental notification law and the ban against partial-birth abortion. in the senate i've co-sponsored and voted for legislation that prohibits taking minors across state lines and voted for legislation creating a separate offense for harming or killing an unborn child in utero during the commission of specified violent crimes. aside from my personal views, however, i think most americans would prefer that the health care reform we are working on remain n

why did the federal reserve say i g n two made that decision?laughter] in my paper, i have tried to respond to [unintelligible] >> could you repeat that question? [laughter] [applause] >> i thought you bet he was some kind of plant, right? [laughter] governor bremer, the federal reserve and the treasury in consultation, we spoke to the president and congress whenever possible, attempted to avoid the systemic collapse of our financial markets, our financial system. we were extremely concerned that the collapse of these large firms in a disorderly way would have very adverse affect on the broader economy and the broader global economy. the evidence is baldwin brothers is that we were right, that the collapse of these firms is very destructive -- the evidence is, with lehman brothers, is that we were right, the collapse of these firms is very destructive. the reason we did not save lehman brothers was but a conscious choice. given the limited powers that we had, the only power we had was the lending authority against collateral, which were unable a

when we talk about the federal budget, two-thirds of the federal budget is beyond the control of this congress. two-thirds of the federal budget is on autopilot unless this congress changes entitlements. somebody says, well, what does this word entitlement mean? why do you talk about entitlement? entitlement means by law these individuals are entitled to this money whether we have it or not. the federal government has made a contract with them. all right, it's a social contract rather than a legal contract, but it's just as binding politically, where the federal government has to spend the money whether it has it or not. and, indeed, that is what we have seen in 200 -- fiscal 2009. pardon me, fiscal 20 106789 the budget that -- 20106789 the budget said that

federal reserve act.tion 13-3. economic analysis regarding need for effectiveness of unconventional policy facilities and finally, other relative documents the bail out of aig, bank of america, citigroup, bears sterns. lehman bros. and general motor, chrysler. c i.t. and gmac. instead of those documents, what i got in return was a folder full of paper that printed off the fed web page. just in case anybody was wondering those documents did not provide any new or useful information. that kind of response is not only disrespect full to the senate but it raises the question of what they are trying hide. i think we should know the answers to that question before we move forward on this nomination and every member of this commitment should demand the same. well, it turns out we actually may have an opportunity to find out some of the information. i hope every member of the committee listens to this. early this week i was informed that in spite of the fed's refuse toll provide individual senators, or the public

dallas federal law, and it seemed to me in a case like that were under federal laws somebody would not have capital punishment administered to them about what was there, weighing in on the amendment us speech and circumstances, there was not a great rule in that case. and it is particularly important for whoever the administration not to take a position that is not just a stretch but is actually contra to long-term interest of the government. the government is likely to be a taker of property. for the government to take a position that there ought to be a clause, the federal government tends to be an establishment of religion, not and establish she. if you allow my license with the praise. therefore, even though it might be attractive to take the position that certain things are an establishment, i think that it's hard to justify, because it goes against the interests. another important job is to appear in this courtroom and present oral arguments on behalf of the states. so let me just touch that briefly and ask whether you felt any different healing arguing as solicitor general. was

federal regulations. we seek to ensure that states will now have the manpower and training and the enforcement tools to conduct meaningful oversight in states that choose to opt out. -- enforcement tools to conduct meaningful oversight. any state agency would be financially independent from the transit system it overseas. i have informed congress that we would establish a transit rail by azeri committee to develop new recommendations for fta's consideration. the advisory committee will be made up of safeties bands -- specialists, -- safety specialists. we will encourage agencies to use risk analysis to identify loder billy's and take action. safety remains our highest priority. we have established a safety council that will tackle crosscutting safety issues across all transportation modes. our transit safety legislation proposal was brought before our council and approved through the input of safety experts throughout the entire department. i believe our proposal offers a critical and necessary step to pr

voluntary contributions by a political subdivision to the non-federal share of expenditures under the state plan under this title or to the non-federal share of payments under section 1923, shall not be considered to be required contributions for purposes of this subsection. the treatment of voluntary contributions, and the treatment of contributions required by a state under the state plan under this title, or state law, as provided by this subsection, shall also apply to the increases in the federal medical assistance percentage under section 5001 of the american recovery and reinvestment act of 2009." (d) section 1108(g)(4)(b) of the social security act (42 u.s.c. 1308(g)(4)(b)), as added by section 2005(b), iamded by striking "income eligibility level in effect for that population under title xix or under a waiver" and inserting "the highest income eligibility level in effect for parents under the commonwealth's or territory's state plan under title xix or under a waiver of the plan". (e) (1) section 1923(f) of the social security act (42 u.s.c. 1396r-4(f)), as amended by section

in the alternative, the federal government can simply exempt a federal insurance mandate for existing federal legislation protecting religious freedom. considerations: to avoid a heightened level of security to any judicial view, the fell government should articulate -- the federal government should articulate its rationale from mandating health insurance during the legislative process. then it goes on probably too lengthy for me to read. i might say, professor hall, who wrote this, is a professor at wake forest university. i'll just read the conclusion. "the constitution permits congress to legislate a health insurance mandate. congress can use its commerce clause powers or its taxing and spending powers to create such a mandate. congress can impose a tax on those that do not purchase insurance or provide tax benefits to those that do purchase insurance. if congress would like the states to implement an insurance mandate, it can avoid conflicts with the anticommon dearing principle by -- my anticommandeering principles by conditioning federal laws on state compliance. a federal emplo

"(b) no additional federal cost.-a requirement by a state under paragraph (2) that benefits in addition to the essential health benefits required under paragraph (1)(a) be provided to enrollees of a multi-state qualified health plan shall not affect the amount of a premium tax credit provided under section 36b of the internal revenue code of 1986 with respect to such plan. "(4) state must assume cost.-a state shall make payments- "(a) to an individual enrolled in a multi-state qualified health plan offered in such state; or "(b) on behalf of an individual described in subparagraph (a) directly to the multi-state qualified health plan in which such individual is enrolled; to defray the cost of any additional benefits described in paragraph (2). "(5) application of certain with respect to a multi-state qualified health plan that is offered in a state with age rating requirements that are lower than 3:1, the state may require that exchanges operating in such state only permit the offering of such multi-state qualified h

it cuts the deficit of the federal budget. but we know, and this has come out this week, that this is just gimmickry, because the taxes start before the benefits. for four years we pay the taxes, and then the benefits don't start until 2014. so four years of penalties without any benefits. and this is like if you were to go buy a home and you went to go buy the home and you said, okay, we're going to live here for the next ten years, and the real estate agent said to you, well, that's fine. you're just going to pay for the first four years, but you don't get to move in until 2014. now staepls sitting around their -- now families sitting around their kitchen tables, that's not how they balance their budgets, but that's this strange world that washington is, that you can set up this budget gimmickry in order to get it to so-called budget-neutral. and the actuary of c.m.s. recognizes that. he says on page 2 of this report, "most of the coverage provisions would be in effect for only six of the ten years of the budget period. the

by congress when it created the federal reserve. leaders who serve on the boards of the 12 reserve banks in 24 branches provide insights into economic and financial institutions. the structure ensured our policy-making is informed not just by a washington perspective for wall street perspective, but by a main street perspective. our reserve banks and branches have deep roots in the nation's communities and do much good there. they have to give a couple examples, assisted organization specializing in foreclosure mitigation and worked with nonprofit groups to help neighborhoods hit by high rates of foreclosure. they, as well as the board, are involved in financial economic education, helping people to make better financial decisions and understand how the economy works. the federal reserve's actions in combination with those of other policy makers here and abroad, have helped restore financial stability and pulled the economy back from the brink. because of our programs, auto buyers can obtain loans and college students are financing

generally, these are cases that impact the federal government, but the federal government has not been which you do not see this special relationship. they did not call for the views of anyone else. >> i agree. i thought the justices were asking for the views of the united states, but that is not what it says. it calls for the views of solicitor general. so my personal credibility was on the line responding to the court when those requests were made. the other thing about the idea is that the solicitor general and people on his or her staff are repeat players. if you are a private lawyer with the case before the supreme court, you will argue and you may make missteps, you may push over hard on things that perhaps are not entirely accurate, but it is not likely that you will let the heavens fall on your head the next time you appear, because they're usually will not be a next time. but for the solicitor general and staff, having credibility with the court is critical. it is key to the effectiveness of the office before the supreme court. Ñi>> i was just going to add tht in light of the

and the mandate and the federal reserve act wore the federal reserve was to maintain the value of the dollar. and to have full employment. and maintain the value of the dollar means stable prices. well, they failed. they flunked. they get an f. they are destroying the value of the dollar. and we have increases in the cost of living. they said, no, it's not bad. we're only destroying the money. it's a lot worse than that. 2% is evil too. you know, under money, your value of the money goes up. but the cost of medicine goes up much more rapidly. but when you create new money, the cost goes up differently for different areas. if everybody's wages went up at the same rate as the money supply would go up. and everybody's cost doesn't work that way. they come up with the figures. they say, oh, prices went up 2% last month. if you exclusion full food and energy, they only went up half a percent. so it wasn't so is bad. food and energy prices went up. it means a whole lot. that's important. whenever the government is involved, you will see the money gravitating. as we put more money into medic

and there are some things the federal government can d

i think government agencies historically, the federal with the federal communications commission has always been that it is federal meaning government can be a couple of steps behind the industry. i think the new leadership has brought an excellent team into the fcc where we are trying to get out to see what is actually going on outside the walls of the government agencies and i am encouraged that we will have the relationships to actually deal with the realities as they exist as opposed to what our proceedings at the fcc blogs are allowed his comments in our proceedings now. i think we are working towards becoming a new media agency and because that entails an awful lot of education that we are working towards that. >> host: the structure of the commissioners themselves, you are really not allowed to meet with each other, is that correct? >> guest: because of the sunshine rules we do not meet together. >> host: do you think that is helpful? >> guest: i think it would be nice if instead of empowering our staff we could do it ourselves. >> guest: you will also been, judging from the n

according to the catalog of federal assistance we have 14 departments within the federal government and have 49 independent agencies that implement exchange and study abroad programs. we have 49 programs instead of 1. i have tons of other examples just like that. we have failed to do our job. and the easiest thing in the world is to spend somebody else's money. and increasing the debt limit without having a rescission to get rid of programs just like this and have one program that's effective and efficient, that has metrics on it that measures its goals and is accountable instead of 49 or 72 or 64 through a large number of different agencies, we can do that. but there's no will here to do that. and as a consequence, what we do is instead of make the federal government more efficient, we just raise the debt limit. and i'm not about to be a part of that anymore. and i know my colleagues get upset with me as i come to the floor year after year talking about what we do and the fact that we don't affect the real problems. i have been rather hard to get along with by my colleagues in term

in federal taxes. explosion in entitlement spending that is tied to the retirement of the baby boom generation plus interest on the debt, americans would have to pay taxes equal to 34% of g.d.p. to keep pace with spending 25 years from now. even if that were possible, the remedy would do tremendous damage to our economy. it would crush job creation, devastate our already battered small business community and dash the aspirations and can-do spirit of our citizens. thus, our decisionmaking must begin by reconsidering spending that although popular simply cannot be justified during this fiscal crisis. it is also wishful thinking to think that we can simply grow our way out of this problem. the safe commission act introduced by the chairman and senator voinovich and the bill introduced by senators conrad and gregg are thoughtful approaches to addressing this crisis. we'll hear more about that so i won't repeat in my testimony exactly their approach. let me say, however, that this examination is not merely

and made it clear no federal funds would be used.apparently i did not say mother may i in the process of writing about language because others took issue even though they cannot constructively point* out how it does not prohibit the use of federal funds or keep them segregated they did not like the language. if then the conference the stupak common nelson hatch casey language passes, i will be happy and so will congressmen stupak and also those who signed on to that legislation. it is unfortunate to continue to distort and misrepresent what happens in the body of the senate. it is difficult enough to have comedy and difficult enough to have cooperation and collegiality and when politics are put above productivity, this is what we get. am very disappointed and a somewhat disillusioned by the use of this message and technology and a purchase that would undermine the name of a company in nebraska hours while as the name of the state by associating it by some say that was not done or not intended. with that i yield the floor >> according

by congress when it created the federal reserve. the more than to touch -- 270 leaders who serve on the boards of the 12 reserve banks in 24 branches provide insights into economic and financial institutions. the structure ensured our policy-making is informed not just by a washington perspective for wall street perspective, but by a main street perspective. our reserve banks and branches have deep roots in the nation's communities and do much good there. they have to give a couple examples, assisted organization specializing in foreclosure mitigation and worked with nonprofit groups to help neighborhoods hit by high rates of foreclosure. they, as well as the board, are involved in financial economic education, helping people to make better financial decisions and understand how the economy works. the federal reserve's actions in combination with those of other policy makers here and abroad, have helped restore financial stability and pulled the economy back from the brink. because of our programs, auto buyers can obtain loans and c

in this subsection, the term "federal health care offense" has the meaning given that term in section 24 of title 18, united states code, as amended by this act. (2) review and amendments.-pursuant to the authority under section 994 of title 28, united states code, and in accordance with this subsection, the united states sentencing commission shall- (a) review the federal sentencing guidelines and policy statements applicable to persons convicted of federal health care offenses; (b) amend the federal sentencing guidelines and policy statements applicable to persons convicted of federal health care offenses involving government health care programs to provide that the aggregate dollar amount of fraudulent bills submitted to the government health care program shall constitute prima facie evidence of the amount of the intended loss by the defendant; and (c) amend the federal sentencing guidelines to provide- (i) a 2-level increase in the offense level for any defendant convicted of a federal health care offense relating to a government health care program which involves a loss of not le

the federal role will not be as necessary, with the exception of the federal land issue. >> you are aware29 states with renewable sectors, and my state is one of them. we are far ahead of these standards. we have markets for renewable energy, moving it into these markets very effectively. this is happening already. and i have people who tell me that the wind is being curtailed in the midwest because we do not have the adequate transportation. we have the need to somehow make certain that the transmission is built so they will be able to deliver this. >> you see that the states are not cooperating in the midwest, in the transmission? >> i am not saying that they with the federal government are not. but we have certain barriers, and these need to be looked at in ways that we can facilitate more transformation. >> you see that the federal government needs more authority because the states are not doing a good job? >> ultimately, we will need to do is make certain that the states understand -- >> i appreciate that. you say that they will leave this, and with the new law that we are passing, t

these strong protections which are currently federal law, currently federal law should also apply to the new programs created through the reid manager's package. the so-called abortion compromise does not stop there. the reid amendment also creates a state optout charade. as noted by cardinal daniel dinardo, the archbishop of galveston, houston, and the u.s. conference of the committee on pro-life activities, allowing, quote -- "individuals to opt out of abortion coverage actually underscores how radically the underlying senate bill would change abortion policy." excluding elective abortions from overall health plans is not a privilege that individuals should have to seek as an exception to the norm. in all other federal health programs, excluding abortion is the norm. and numerous opinion polls show that the great majority of americans do not want abortion coverage." unquote. additionally, this provision does nothing to prevent one state's tax dollars from being used to fund abortions in other states. in other words, tax dollars from nebraska or utah could be paying for abortions in

in federal prison. this criminal activity also interferes with the ability of regular voters to participate in the election. acorn has a habit, as the secretary has pointed out, of dumping huge numbers of voter registration forms on local election officials just before the deadline for voter registration for upcoming elections. so while officials are trying to process the registration of legitimate voters, they have to spend a disproportionate amount of limited time and resources sorting through thousands of fraudulent and invalid forms submitted by acorn. one state audit alone in india not found that 83% of the registrations filed by a acorn and its affiliate, but private vote, were invalid. in the internal report, it said that the tight relationship between project but an acorn make it impossible to document that project vote boss money had been used in a strictly non- partisan manner. there appeared to be numerous violations of federal law by an organization receiving millions of federal tax dollars

host: we are talking about the federal reserve, the power of the federal reserve. we mentioned that ben bernanke's nomination has cleared the committee and the next step is the floor. this next headline is from "the new york times." 75 obamof obama's nominees have gotten through committee. senators cleared 35 nominees by unanimous consent, far short of the 60 the administration had been hoping to get through by the end of the year. the next call is from alan in taxes on the republican line. caller: i sometimes wonder if i am the only person in the country who has a copy of something called a " committee on government oversight and reform. it is a commissioreport commissy someone in california. it came out july 7, 2009. it points out the culpability of fannie mae and freddie mac in bringing on the financial crisis. i hear about people wanting to beat up of banks, bernanke, and the fed. i think we should take a hard look at fannie mae and freddie mac. that is all i have. host: we talked a moment ago about the founding of the fed in 1913. this information is from the

host: we have a retired federal employees on the line.lley, arizona -- caller: no, you got the wrong line bridgette diebold? you got a lot -- you got the wrong line. should i hold? host: this is can in north carolina. caller: in it the worst times in our nation's economy, it surprises me that the federal employee health plan encompasses such a great service that it does to the federal employees. 8 million people who already have 10, 15, 20 days off. i did a little bit of research on the health plan, and you guys, if you of 25 to 30 health plans while the rest of america, quite a few of us, do not have any health plans to you get badging dollars from the taxpayers. -- you get matching dollars from the taxpayers. just last year, the new democratic congress voted to give the federal employees increased at some leave for family leave on -- increased absent leave for family leave on top of the days that they already have off with a paper to the comment -- the time that they already have off with pay. recently a survey has shown that some of th

this is the seventh federal agency when we have already too many. we need to have free enterprise succeed and that, mr. speaker, i appreciate it and i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise? mr. frank: i'd like to yield myself 15 seconds to invite members to show me the part of the bill where there's a bailout that goes to failed institutions and keeps them going? i will read the parts that make it clear that's not the case but maybe there's something i didn't read. so anybody who tells me there's a bailout that goes to continue business institutions -- the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. frank: i yield 15 more seconds. yes, i yield to the gentleman. i yield myself two more minutes and yield to the gentleman. >> i appreciate the gentleman yielding. mr. frank: two minutes. mr. sherman: the language of the bill says that -- mr. frank: what page? mr. sherman: i'm sorry? mr. frank: page. mr. sherman: i'm looking right now. the one section -- one second -- m

in a way, they are an extension of the federal reserve and the federal reserve is a key member of the president's working group on financial markets. we should get rid of it. we should believe in the marketplace, believe in a free- market economy, and that is when people make the decision. austrian economics teaches that business does not run the show and labor does not run the show. the consumer runs the show. the consumer votes every single day. and every single thing they buy when the market is working. when the businessman is not doing well or paying too much for labor, they go out of business and they have to be left to go out of business. today, people got of business and then we prop them up, you know, all the people that make mistakes. it does not serve the high cost of labor or businesses, but it does serve the consumer. host: talk more of your velocity on wages. people complain that they cannot compete and that -- talk more about your philosophy on wages. people complain that they cannot compete. guest: real wages are going down, but that is again back to the fed. if someone

it reduces the federal deficit. it lowers the cost of health care costs, provides quality affordable health insurance to millions more americans. and it is a net tax cut. net tax cut for american families, businesses, and workers which in these tough economic times means more than ever. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: thank you. you know, i stand confused from the chairman of the finance committee because we have all the reports of the bill you're talking about and the bill you're going to be voting on because you're totally changing what you're doing. what is out there now is we're going to expand medicare to those down to 55 years of age, and we're going to expand medicaid up to those up to 150%. we're going to add billions of dollars of mandates even at 90% co-pay by the federal government to the states over the next ten years. we have a medicare program that you've taken $465 billion out of and you're going to add 34 million new people to under the new plan

notwithstanding any other provision of law, a federal office of minority health or federal appointive position with primary responsibility over minority health issues that is in existence in an office of agency of the department of health and human services on the date of enactment of this section shall not be terminated, reorganized, or have any of its power or duties transferred unless such termination, reorganization, or transfer is approved by an act of congress. (c) redesignation of national center on minority health and health disparities. (1) redesignation. title iv of the public health service act (42 u.s.c. 281 et seq.) is amended- (a) by redesignating subpart 6 of part e as subpart 20; (b) by transferring subpart 20, as so redesignated, to part c of such title iv; (c) by inserting subpart 20, as so redesignated, after subpart 19 of such part c; and (d) in subpart 20, as so redesignated- (i) by redesignating sections 485e through 485h as sections 464z-3 through 464z-6, respectively; (ii) by striking "national center on minority health and health disparities" each place such t

this will remain a state, not a federal process. siting authority would rest but the states collectively would have more power, not less than they do now. their plans would govern the exercise of that federal authority. only if that planning process breaks down would they have the ability to respond to disputes. we have been gratified to see many of our recommendations on report. a system of interconnection wire transmission. >> you can help our common goal of a clean energy future become a reality and not be less strandid by the impediments. they deserve no less. thank you so much. >> next witness is joseph welsh. >> welcome and please begin. >> thank you and good afternoon chairman and members of the subcommittee. my name is joseph welch. i'm chairman, ceo of it holdings. the nation's first and only independent facilitator of connection of any sources of connection put before us and making sure we connected loads. we own and operate thousands of lines across the country. as we have worked through these various states each one diff

while medicaid is a state and federal shared program, the democrat majority saw fit for the federal government to pay 100% of the medicaid program in the state of nebraska under this legislation at the expense of taxpayers in the other 49 states who will now be forced not only to deal with the loss of their freedom under this huge government takeover, but to pay for special favors in other states. this state bailout is not only one of the down sides of the majority's health care proposal, there's a laundry list that we could go through. just a few are the working american taxpayers and their employers will be taxed $500 billion over the next ten years, and the congressional budget office has confirmed that nothing in this bill decreases the premiums for main street americans. seniors will see their medicare benefits changed as a result of the $500 billion in medicare cuts included in this bill, not to mention that this bill turns a blind eye to the physician payment system that is woefully underfunded and vitally necessary to maintain the medicare program and physician access for seniors. it d

as a condition of receipt of federal funds, the federal government should demand school districts giver kids at least their fair share of local funds and that states give poor kids at least their fair share of funds. as a condition of receipt of federal funds, the federal government should be cheer and unequivocal that the expectation of schools is to raise achievement overall and close the achievement gap. the assessments we might have might not be the best assessments. what i tell people, i could have a timex, a rolex, but the timex will tell me i'm late for the meeting. we know our kids are late. the current assessments we have do a good enough job to know we have a huge problem and we need to begin to solve them. so the federal government should expect big progress and know it doesn't measure everything, they need to be successful beyond high school. just because they don't measure everything doesn't mean the things they do measure does not matter. we expect them to raise the standards and close the gaps. when i was walking in, congressman scott was saying, and he was so right, tha

the federal reserve act section 13-3. economic analysis regarding the need for and effectiveness of unconventional monetary policy facilities or actions. and finally, other relative documents, the bailout of aig, bank of america, citigroup, bear stearns, lehman brothers, general motors, chrysler, cit and gmac. instead of those documents, what i got in return was a folder full of paper that printed off the fed web page. just in case anybody was wondering, those documents did not provide any new or useful information. that kind of response is not only disrespectful to the senate, but it raises the question of what they are trying to hide. i think we should know the answers to that question before we move forward on this nomination and every member of this committee should demand the same. while it turns out we actually may have an opportunity to find out some is of the information. i hope every member of the committee listens to this. earlier this week i was informed that despite the fed's refusal to provide individual sena

the fact is that the policy in this country today under no federal program or federal taxpayer dollarsr abortions. it's been that way for 32 years. that changes with this bill. and what will happen is as senator chambliss mentioned, as soon as fife states opt out there will be a legal challenge utilizing the row v wade press dense to say they can't do that. so consequently we will have the hyde language stripped forever. the numbers on those who don't think we ought to use federal taxpayer funds is capissive 75% o in this country. they're going to be paying for it. there's also no conscience protections in this at all as well. so we're also going to be going after those in terms of training systems and private hospitals where in fact when they may not want to offer that. >> [inaudible] >> we can't find it yet and that comes back to other point. we're going to vote on this at 1:00 monday morning. i think that's about 30-some hours from the time we first start getting to look at a 400-page amendment to a 2400 page bill. you can see why people don't have confidence in this congress becaus