senator franken. >> thank you mr. chairman and as the chairman just pointed out, general kagan, i'm last. and that's because i'm most junior. but senator byrd was always kind to me. even though he was a giant of this institution and i was moved that he always came in when we needed him. even during the deep snows of late december. i would have to serve till i'm 118 years old to serve as long as senator byrd. i very much doubt that will happen. and or that i will have a legacy as permanent as his. i would also like to extend my condolences to justice ginsburg and her family and she's in our thoughts and prayers. every senator who has spoken before me has sworn to support and defend the constitution of the united states, and so have i. there are a few things that we do that are more important to fulfilling that oath than making sure that the justices of the supreme court are brilliant, humane, and just in individuals. but these hearings are also a learning experience for the people in minnesota and for every american. b

. >> reporter: and along those same lines, minnesota democrat al franken sought kagan's views on giving deference to congress. >> general kagan, we spend a lot of time in hearings and on the floor debating legislation. how much weight do you think a judge should give to the deliberations of congress and the reasons why we passed a law in the first place? >> well, senator franken, the most important thing in interpreting any statute-- in fact, the only thing that matters in interpreting any statute-- is congress's intent. congress gets to make the laws, under article i of the constitution. and what the court should be doing in applying those laws is trying to figure out what congress meant and how congress wanted the laws to be applied. and that is the only thing that the court should be doing. >> reporter: the long first- round of questioning finally wrapped up in the late morning. and then, it began again, with each senator having a second go at the nominee. when his term came again, utah republican orrin hatch returned to the campaign finance case -- known as "citizens united." >> of

senator franken. >> thank you, mr. jones. and all of us appreciate your being here and express our condolences to you and your dad and your entire family. mr. coleman, as i understand from your written testimony, you're saying if we change our liability laws it's going to place an unacceptable prohibitive cost on oil companies. but someone needs to bear these costs. what you're saying is these costs should be born by mr. jones and his family, by the fishermen, by oystermen, by the homeowners along the coast. don't you think that the oil companies who make such huge profits should be the ones bearing these costs? >> senator, i appreciate the question. as professor galligan mentioned, the question of the loss and the claims of the family are not involved in the issue that i was addressing which is of damages liability cap under the oil pollution act. however, of course, loss income by fishermen and other activities is involved in that. certainly i'm very concerned about the -- and extremely concerned about the loss of income, n

should we adopthe franken ovisns in the senate bill which would say that when secting rating agencies,hey should be selected by the sec? what kind of radical surgery, had it been performed early enough, would have helped in the sense that the spreading agencies would not have enabled this flood of toxic mortgage securities? >> as the chairman, i hate issue are pay. we pay a lot of money and we have no negotiating power. >> i deeply resent the model myself. >> it makes for a wonderful economic model but as a practical or model, i have no negotiating power. i need a rating. it is required in many cases. if they say that it is $1 billion and i say it could be 900,000, there is no guy on the street. that is the nature of that. if you go to something other than user pay, it get carried tricky. if i will buy a $10,000 municipal-bo, she will hear the ratings someplace published. >> united bs is a nonprofit model. you do not have the profit pressure. consumer reports doeit. is this a broken model? if they wanted to rate bonds and people would accept them, i suppose it could happen. it would r

senator franken, go ahead. >> thank you. >> you will have the last question. >> i take up amy's point never seen a solar panel or a wind turbine kill 11 people, 12 people. i have never seen a 50-day ethanol spill. and i think that we have to rethink our entire energy portfolio and how and what we're doing to drive the demand for oil. i think that this is a wakeup call. you say that the american people, in your testimony, this is from your written testimony, that the american people continue to strongly support offshore oil and gas drilling. there's a cbs poll that says 51% oppose it. you say a rasmussen poll that 58% of the american public supported offshore drilling as of june 1st. did the survey ask if they supported deep offshore drilling? >> i'm not certain. >> the one you cited? >> i think the question was do you support continued offshore oil and gas drilling. >> and do you hear the president saying we should suspend all offshore drilling. >> he's suspended everything except in 900 feet of oil. most of the oil we have yet to get is beyond that. he's saying he's putting 92% offli

mitchell, i was interested in hearing some of the comments that you had in response to senator franken. we've got some very serious challenges as you know, in the state of alaska as we try to reach out to our students that are very, very remote and very rural communities. and i'd be curious. you kind of joked, you know, that's why i don't want to be a principal anymore. one of the problems -- one one of the challenges that we face in our state is that we just can't get the administrators. we're doing a little bit better with our teacher recruitment and retention, although that's a serious challenge in some areas. but if all of these turnaround models really revolve getting a new principal, what do we do in finding these new principals particularly if their looking at it and saying, well, i'm going to be the first one on the boat out of here. how difficult is this going to be in -- in rural states? >> well, as you probe -- probably know it was difficult before we started this process. and we've got people to check report cards and to see where a school is that. in south dakota we'll do

should we adopt the franken provisions in the senate bill which would say that when selecting ratinggencies, they should be selected by the sec? what kind of radical surgery, had it been performed early enough, would have helped in the sense that the spreading agencies would not have enabled this flood of toxic mortgage securities? >> as the chairman, i hate issue are pay. we pay a lot of money and we have no negotiating power. >> i deeply resent the model myself. >> it makes for a wonderful economic model but as a practical or model, i have no negotiating power. i need a rating. it is required in many cases. if they say that it is $1 billion and i say it could be 900,000, there is no guy on the street. that is the nature of that. if you go to something other than user pay, it gets carried tricky. if i will buy a $10,000 municipal-bond, she will hear the ratings someplace published. >> united labs is a nonprofit model. you do not have the profit pressure. consumer reports does it. is this a broken model? if they wanted to rate bonds and people would accept them, i suppose it could ha

should we adopt the franken provisions in the senate bill which would say that when selecting rating agencies, they should be selected by the sec? what kind of radical surgery, had it been performed early enough, would have helped in the sense that the spreading agencies would not have enabled this flood of toxic mortgage securities? >> as the chairman, i hate issue are pay. we pay a lot of money and we have no negotiating power. >> i deeply resent the model myself. >> it makes for a wonderful economic model but as a practical or model, i have no negotiating power. i need a rating. it is required in many cases. if they say that it is $1 billion and i say it could be 900,000, there is no guy on the street. that is the nature of that. if you go to something other than user pay, it gets carried tricky. if i will buy a $10,000 municipal-bond, she will hear the ratings someplace published. >> united labs is a nonprofit model. you do not have the profit pressure. consumer repts does it. is this a broken model? if they wanted to rate bonds and people would accept them, i suppose it could ha

if you heard al franken's speech on thursday night, he talked a great deal about the role of congress and the court. and what the court has been doing. we will talk about that. if you went to the session yesterday about issues of access to court under procedural rules as interpreted by the supreme court, you got a taste of it. if you went to the session yesterday on the future of health care reform, you may be got a taste of the debates of the future. so, here we have a panel of real experts to have been living some of these issues on the ground. we'll get their perspective. before i introduce them i have a few duties of the moderator. turned off yourself phones. that also goes for the panelists. [laughter] we think our sponsor of this session. this is a cle-approved session. if you are interesting in obtaining credit, be sure to sign in at that table. ok, you have cards in your registration packet. we will save the job of time for questions. we will touch on so many different subject areas that we expect a lot of questions. do not wait until the end. hold up your card and ushers will