i think senator franken did not say when there's a hearing or whether there's another hearing. in the house, there's a lot of letters back on forth on the issues. i think we can probably expect hearings in both houses this year. >> host: was there any talk, paul kirby about the shape of legislation to come from this? >> guest: well, one of the issues is and the other thing we're waiting for is the obama administration is coming forth with a cyberplan. the department of justice said at the hearing and another recent hearing saying it will have location based technology service in it and other aspects to it. it's much broader than just location based so there's that. senator leahy wants to update the communications act, and he wants to do that in fairly short order order, so, i mean, there's several things floating around if you will to be expected. there are some broader data breach legislation that's been introduced that has been introduced in the past as well. again, those are broader pieces, but certainly location based and mobile could be a part of those bills as well. >> ho

senator franken has not said there will be future hearings. i think when -- i think we can expect hearings in both houses this year. >> was there any talk about the shape of legislation. >> the other thing we are waiting for is the obama administration coming forward. they just said in a hearing there will be technology aspects to it. much farther than just location based. they want to update the electronic communications privacy act. they want to do that in fairly short order. there will be data breach legislation introduced. again, those are location based and mobile. >> is there a mood in congress. -- is there a mood in congress? >> emitted is the deficit. -- the mood is the deficit. what't like to predict they may do, but it is definitely a hot topic. there is pushed back from the apples and googles of the world. >> members of the house committee were asking what were you doing, and guess what? we do not have control of all the things people download onto their phones. i guess there is pushback, but some companies realize. there is no nati

this is senator al franken. now, as as lil soy been burns reports, whether -- alison burns reports, they are investigating whether they are secretly tracking users' locations. >> reporter: let's get back to the hearing room. this hear something chaired by democratic senator al franken. the tech company executives are gonna be on the third panel. first up are representatives from the justice department and the federal trade commission. they are gonna be facing some tough questions about how far privacy laws go. the committee is investigating whether google and apple are investigating personal information through their androids and their iphones. it was revealed that users' information could be tracked. >> our cell phones are becoming spy phones that are collecting information about everything we do, every purchase we make, every place we go in our lives. when that information is added to, our privacy is at risk. >> reporter: and we're gonna keep watching the hearing this morning and have more for you here on the

which is why minnesota senator al franken is so concerned about protecting mobile privacy. what today is about is trying to find a balance between all of those wonderful benefits and the public's right to privacy. >> reporter: senators homed in on apple software that researchers say collects location data and stores it for up to a year on an iphone or ipad. apple says the data helps iphones find locations faster than using gps. apple software executive bud tribble adds the location data is also anonymous. >> apple was never tracking an individual's location from the information residing in that cache. furthermore, the location data that was seen on the iphone was not the past or present location of the iphone, but rather the location of wifi hotspots and cell towers around the iphone's location. >> reporter: but franken also called as a witness consultant ashkan soltani, who says, if mobile phone data can be used to find criminals, it can find individual consumers, too. >> it's really difficult to call this stuff anonymous. making those claims is not really sincere. >> repo

i wanted thank chairman franken for having this hearing. i think it has been very interesting, significant. at think it is an issue where we have a lot of work to do ahead of us, and i want to appreciate the participation of all of you. we bring different perspectives. no one's perspective is ideal, but together and working hard on this i think that we can get something accomplished that will make the internet safe for and make people less vulnerable to abuse and make sure that it is more clear that you're getting what you pay for war when you load up when you choose to take on these applications. much appreciation to the chairman for leading his. >> thank you, senator white house. i apologize to the witnesses. i had to step out for a meeting on the the menace of the flooding. senator schumer has stepped in. >> let me thank you, mr. chairman, for having this very important hearing, and there are so many different types of issues and questions that have come up because we are in this brave new world where information is available much more f

when it comes to smart phone apps and personal privacy, senator al franken says it's pretty much thest out there. some apps don't have privacy policies. some have policies that are so long users usually just click "accept" without reading them. that's why senator franken is now calling on both apple and google to adopt a universal privacy policy that would spell out to users exactly what data is being collected and how it's being used. it's a simple idea. it may not be that easy. two weeks ago at a senate judiciary committee hearing, apple's vice president of software technology bud trible said that they do require that their app makers get consent from users before collecting their data but they don't have a technical means to enforce it. >> when you start to do that for every little piece of information, uhm, the screen that the user is confronted with in terms of yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, potentially becomes very long and complex. >> reporter: apple and google is had no comment on this latest request from senator franken. he says that he is most concerned about recent requests th

al franken says there needs to be a balance of the companies and privacy rights of customers. >> they are beginning the way we think about privacy to account for the massive shift of personnel information into the hands of the private sector because the fourth amendment doesn't apply to corporations and freedom act doesn't apply to silicon valley. >> they say their devices only record information on wi-fi hot spots. >>> president obama is making his first trip as president to the u.s.-mexico border to reaffirm his stance on immigration reform. he went to el paso, texas where he'll deliver a speech and visit the border crossing. he has supported legislation which also offers a path way to shape for certain illegal immigrants but he has received strong opposition from house republicans. immigration is shaping up to be a hot political issue in the upcoming elections where more latinos than ever are expected to go to the paul. >> arnold schwarzenegger and his wife are separating after 25 years of marriage. couple says they are going through a great period of transition. the marriage has c

al franken says there needs to be a balance of the companies and privacy rights of customers. >> they are beginning the way we think about privacy to account for the massive shift of personnel information into the hands of the private sector because the fourth amendment doesn't apply to corporations and freedom act doesn't apply to silicon valley. >> they say their devices only record information on wi-fi hot spots. >>> president obama is making his first trip as president to the u.s.-mexico border to reaffirm his stance on immigration reform. he went to el paso, texas where he'll deliver a speech and visit the border crossing. he has supported legislation which also offers a path way to shape for certain illegal immigrants but he has received strong opposition from house republicans. immigration is shaping up to be a hot political issue in the upcoming elections where more latinos than ever are expected to go to the paul. >> arnold schwarzenegger and his wife are separating after 25 years of marriage. couple says they are going through a great period of transition. the marriage has c

. >> senator al franken called for the hearing after users reported storing information about a user's information. both google and apple are making changes to address the issue of location tracking. >>> the san francisco municipal transportation agency is defending its light rail system. in february, the california public utilities commission announced it was considering fines for lingering problems like trouble for an automatic train, control system at the dubose street intersection. state regulators could decide to fine muni this friday. >>> painful budget cuts are coming for the mount diablo district. the district may finalize layoff notices for 182 teachers and employees. gary innerhart tells -- eberhart tells ktvu the school board may have to make additional cuts defending -- depending ong the governor's -- depending on the governor's budget. >>> ahead, a car crashed down an elevator shaft. >>> you will also hear about the mental state of one driver today. >>> warmer? cooler? both? rosemary orozco will have details. >>> also -- >> when you step out into inuncertainty, it's not a

thank you both. >> senator whitehouse. >> thank you, chairman franken. a quick question, both of you have had a chance to look into you might call it the dark side of the internet, the dark underbelly of the internet, and you were also -- you use it and have families who use it so you have the experience of the regular american dealing with the internet and a certain measure of confidence in it and have a heightened awareness based on your professional obligations. based on that, how well informed do you believe the average american is about the danger and hazards that lurk out there on the internet, and is it significant in terms of things as simple as willingness to download patches and get up to date with commercial technology to protect yourself, setting aside other responses the public might have if they were well informed. can you quantify a little bit how well-informed you think the average american is that these risks. >> we believe that consumers have no idea of early years of sharing that go on behind the scenes. so, for example, many consumers

. >> reporter: senator al franken chaired a senate subcommittee hearing on technology and privacy issueshis morning that aaccount traed, among others, represented from apple and google. >> several privacy users that require the government. >> gathering and transmitting users' location information had senators' attention. >> does this data indicate anything about your location or doesn't it? >> that data does not actually contain in our data bases any customer information at all. >> reporter: also under scrutiny, third party smart phone app providers. >> would your companies be willing to commit to requiring apps in your stores to have a clear understandable privacy policy? >> i will take that issue back to our leadership, i think it's a very good suggestion. >> what we need to do, because people may not read a privacy policy, is put things in the user interface that make it clear to people what is happening with their information. >> reporter: today's hearing comes as at least four online privacy bills have been introduced. and included in some of those proposed bills, requirements that

. >> host: let's look at al franken's opening statement. >> now, today in this hearing we're looking at a specific kind of really sensitive information that i don't think we're doing enough. to protect. and that's data from mobile devices, smartphones, tablet and cell phones. this technology gives us incredible benefits. let me say that. let me repeat that. this technology gives us incredible benefits. it allows parents to see the kids and wish them good night even when they're halfway around the world. it allows a lost driver to get directions and that allows emergency responders to locate a crash victim in a matter of seconds. but the same information that allows those responders to locate us when we're in trouble is not necessarily information all us want to share all the time with the entire world. and yet, reports suggest that the information on our mobile devices is not being protected in the way that it should be. in december, investigation by "the wall street journal," into 101 popular apps for iphone and android smartphones found that 47 of those apps, 47, transmitted the sm

and new kid on the blog move donald becomes the third english months ago so all we call franken is following his win at the b.m.w. p.g.a. championship. the russian to premier league first where's the need to last spark talk in durban and style in one of sunday's highlights the champions schooled three without reply at the big stadium that burst dawning of the thirty six minutes when dunkel a song they dispatched the spot kick. now in twenty minutes after the break in the searching proles found them all in russian alexander gets a call from last gnomes in the second and there's a one hundred stop fly go. and finally five minutes from time the same five hold their chief dedicated to thirty two year old but they point out chavez jonas politicize the second in the table would spot me. is the most go meanwhile have returned to the top of the premier league standings despite they want all joy at home to go by so much that said open for the hosts after sixty seven minutes with a well placed finish there but with ten minutes to go. again we both sides were going home to give the visitors one point a

evening, the speaker of the house, newt gingrich walks out of this hotel thinking, you know, that al frankenen i know i will have failed miserably. and let a lot of people down. if, on the other hand, the president leaves thinking, hmm, you know, al would make a pretty good council general to bermuda, mission accomplished. the correspondents' association was afraid of a repeat of the whole imus debacle so the board of governors had a meeting and drew up some ground rules for tonight's talk. for example, there are a number of subjects i've been instructed to avoid. white water, specifically web hubble, susan thomas, either of the mcdougals. i'm not to do jokes about any aspect of the president's personal life except his eating habits. evidently, sir, you eat a lot. and the correspondents' association seems to think that we could have quite a bit of harmless fun with that. other subjects to avoid, newt gingrich's first wife, bob dole's first wife, phil gramm's first wife, dick armey's first wife, rush limbaugh's first wife. [applause] rush limbaugh's second wife, rush limbaugh's third wife. no

end unfair deceptive and if you say abusive practices that it appears that apparently it's probably franken brad miller would say congressmen who are on the house banking committee but these are central to the value proposition of the banking industry and that's they can't be upset of course publicly but they've marshaled every lobbyist they can find to emasculate the consumer product the consumer financial product agency and they are. very worried that this soccer mom from oklahoma who happens to be a harvard law professor will actually do her job as opposed to the other regulators who apparently have been captured by the banking industry tragically. first of all to what extent could the obama administration prevent that from happening right now well they could some of us believe that the regulators had the power. all along to arrest the kind of practice is that led to the financial catastrophe we're learning from the financial crisis inquiry commission for example whose illuminists report was released in january that there was actual financial literacy by some of the leaders of our of our

so i thank senator franken. senator whitehouse, you're recognized, and i thank the members of the panel. this is a difficult thing, and you your experience is important. i understand, mr. edney -- [inaudible] but i just don't want to make it sense that somebody who happens to be guiding the outside of our station, our ci station might suddenly be able to go off and do whatever they want and get that immunity. and i'm sure that's not what you're suggesting by any means. >> no, not at all, senator. i think there are very helpful ways to deal with that particular problem. >> i agree with you. thank you very much. >> may i proceed, chairman? >> yes. >> mr. edney, your concerns regarding the consequences of application of the statute to the intelligence community will depend to a significant degree on what the offense is at issue, will it not? >> yes, it will, senator. >> so, for instance, our intelligence community is engaged as a matter of ordinary day-to-day business in trying to break into places, steal things, g

senator franken led off the meeting by saying he wants to find a balance between personal privacy and technological invasion. they detailed how smart phone users can turn off location sharing software. and an apple executive explained why it's important to know where their users are. >> our customers want and expect their mobile devices to determine their current locations for specific activities such as shopping, travel or finding the nearest restaurant. >> reporter: both google and apple assured lawmakers they're not abusing the information. >>> google found a way to get into the music business without the okay of record labels. the company announced plans during a conference at the mosconi center today. the users will be able to up load music which will then be accessible on smart phones using google's android software. >>> a major detour on the road to tahoe. and it's going to add an hour to your >>> as of tomorrow, if you take highway 50 toward lake tahoe it'll take you an extra hour to get there. ken pritchett shows us where there will be a significant detour in place for the ne

senator al franken is holding the hearing on subcommittee on privacy and technology.t begins in just about 45 minutes from now. senator wants to more about the technology that secretly keeps track of user locations. it's growing concerns over online privacy. more and more americans own a smart phone. representatives from the federal trade commission and the justice department will also testify. apple has already taken steps to address privacy complaints. last week it updated the software to reduce the time that it stores information about the user's whereabouts. >>> and track you to the newsroom so we knew your location. 6:14. you didn't need an iphone for that. >> all the sophisticated equipment where the clouds will be if there are any today. >> beautiful picture. you can see some of them gathering along the coast. that is where i think we'll be cloudy today. a very summer looking pattern with clouds at the coast and sunshine and warmer weather for the bay shore. you guys did a great job this week of showing beautiful pictures. it tells the weather story. take a loo

senator franken led off the meeting by saying he wants to find a balance between personal privacy andhnological invasion. they detailed how smart phone users can turn off location sharing software. and an apple executive explained why it's important to know where their users are. >> our customers want and expect their mobile devices to determine their current locations for specific activities such as shopping, travel or finding the nearest restaurant. >> reporter: both google and apple assured lawmakers they're not abusing the information. >>> google found a way to get into the music business without the okay of record labels. the company announced plans during a conference at the mosconi center today. the users will be able to up load music which will then be accessible on smart phones using google's android software. >>> a major detour on the road to tahoe. and it's going to add an hour to your commute. what's being done on highway 50 and what's being added. >>> and our chief meteorologist bill martin has the five day forecast. >>> as of tomorrow, if you take highway 50 toward lake

senator franken? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you. mr. secretary, the house passed a bill last week and we're considering a bill with a similar provision this week in the senate that would set a 60 day limit for processing off shore drilling permit approvals. after that the permit would be deemed automatically approved. to me, i think this ignores the number one lesson from the golf oil spill. can you also -- if you can't get it done in 60 days, instead of being approved, you just say no. it's probably also a bad idea. can you talk about the impacts of such a policy on the agencies ability to ensure safety of offshore drilling operations? >> i think what it would do, senator franken, it would pull out the rug that we are trying to do here and that is have a safe development of oil and gas in america's oceans and you can't do that when you have essentially the physician where you have forced to do approvals in 60 day time frame. that would be good. it's good to talk about the permit process so that we can any the 60 day period and how it w

franken: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. franken: i rise to speak in support of the confirmation of professor goodwin liu to the united states court of appeals to the ninth circuit. as a member of the judiciary committee for the past two years i've had the opportunity to meet with professor liu and vote on his nomination on several occasions. he is a singularly talented individual and i want to associate myself with the remarks that all of my colleagues have made in support of his confirmation. but the strongest arguments i've heard in support of professor liu haven't come from my colleagues. in fact, they haven't come from a democrat. the most persuasive arguments i've heard for conforming professor liu have come from the chief ethics lawyer from the administration of george w. bush, a gentleman named richard painter. professor painter, a republican, is now a prominent law professor at the university of minnesota. earlier this year professor painter wrote a lengthy article that systematically cataloged professor liu's stren

it is franken, lee, coburn, blumenthal, sessions and cornyn.n, you are up next. >> thank you, madam chair. mr. luke, i had the opportunity speak to you in my office and read your writings. and i really believe you're one of the finest minds of your generation, and i hope that we as a nation can be lucky enough to have you as a jurist and a public servant. what i think is remarkable about your nomination is not its strength but its diversity of support. a lot of people mentioned ken starr -- ken starr's letter supporting your nomination, and i will get to that in a moment. but the one that caught my eye was a lengthy blog post that went up today from the university of minnesota professor, richard painter. this guy is a great law professor, and he is no liberal. he works to support the confirmation of john roberts and samuel alito, and served as president george w. bush's chief ethics officer. and anyone who has any doubt about your nomination should i think read this article. so, madam chair, with your permission, madam chair? with your permissi

minnesota senator al franken sent letters to the two bay area tech giant asking them to require all developers making apps for mobile devices to adopt formal privacy policies. the policies would tell users the personal information that the app collects and how it's stored or shared. >>> facebook founder mark zuckerberg says his company played a minor role in the arab spring uprising. >> i think that facebook was neither necessary nor sufficient for any of those things to happen. the thing that was both necessary and sufficient was population of people who felt strongly that change needed to happen. >> zuckerberg was speaking at a conference in paris. many of the arab spring protests were organized on facebook and other social networking sites. but zuckerberg says the movement would have spread even without social networking. >>> another social networking site credited in playing a role in the arab spring uprising made a huge purchase. twitter bought tweet deck, a third-party app developer that serves the twitter power users that allows brands, marketers and celebrities and other users to track

apple and fwogoogle back in the hairs of al franken.ber of the senate judiciary committee today sent letters to the two tech giants asking that all mobile apps come with clear and understandable privacy policies. this comes as mobile devices come under scrutiny for the data they collect about their users. no comment yet from apple or google. and, speaking fl google, the south san francisco second grader who won the doodle for google contest last week will be honored by his hometown. that is 7-year-old mateo lopez. he'll get the key to the city at tonight's city council meeting. lopez's drawing called space life took first place among 107,000 entries. lopez is not the contest's youngest winner, he pulls in a $15,000 scholarship which, he says, he plans to use as stanford. >> good for him. thank you, scott. >>> a new $500 million federal grant competition is handing out cash to states which improve their preschool programs. the obama administration's early learning challenge is a third round of its race to the top state competition which

that is the question that senator franken asked, even if an operator submitted a permit application that totally failed to comply with safety requirements and failed to show the ability to contain a blowout, the statute would require that we would approve that permit. >> basically you the right to approve it or disaprover it. but you have to act on it. the frustration is that it is not getting acted on. not just in gas and oil. it is no coal. every permit we do natural resources, people are so frustrated because the time limit is so long. they have no certainty whatsoever and they can't plan anything. just a yea or a nay would help. what timetable do you believe it would take to evaluate that and give an up or down? >> with respect a permit? >> somebody can say could be six months, could be 12 months. >> the fact is our people have absolutely no incentive to slow down the process of permits. most of the people who review and approve permits are residents of louisiana so it is their neighbors whose livelihoods are at stake. i think giving us adequate resources so that we have the personne

chairman franken says company need to be sensitive to the privacy rights of the customer customers. >rst group to reach out to my office was the minnesota coalition of battered women. they asked how can we help because we see case after case where a stalk error an abusive spouse has used the technology on mobile phones to stalk or harass their victims. >>reporter: apple says it addressed customer privacy complaints last week by updating the i-phone software reducing the amount of time the did he vyes stores information about user whereabouts. >> google today unveiled the new music service and new vision for controlling your home appliances. but the collate east innovation comes with privacy concerns as well. david lou has the story. >> geeling is trying very hard to encourage innovation so it will go after app well a music service of its own with a twis twist. no wires. no painful thinking. >>reporter: music data will allow to you store up to 20,000 songs in the cloud. in this case on google server not on your hard or flash drive. the sock song can be extreme to any of the internet co

-- senator franken? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. secretary. the house passed a bill for processing offshore drilling permit approvals. after that, the permit would be deemed automatically approved. so, it seems like this is a bad policy on a number of rounds. first and foremost, i think the number-one lesson from the gulf oil spill, that you cannot assume there are adequate safety measures are in place. can you also -- if you cannot get it done in 60 days, i guess i instead of being automatically approved, you just say no. that is probably also a bad idea. can you talk about your agency's ability to ensure safety in offshore drilling operations? >> i think it would pull up the rug from what we're trying to do here, which is to have safe oil and gas drilling in america's oceans. we are in the position where it would not work. i think it would be good for director bromwich to talk about the process. >> i agree with the secretary and with you, senator. it would be a bad idea to of arbitrary time limit within which you would have to approve permit

determined -- >> thank you senator franken. i want to commend you for holding what is a very timely hearing on the privacy implications mobile devices. there was the first hearing before the subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law. i think senator frank and for his dedicated leadership on consumer privacy issues as chairman of the subcommittee and i think dr. coburn for his commitment to such issues, too. i appreciate the both of them working together on this. throughout the three decades i have been in the senate, i have worked to safeguard the privacy rights of all americans, assuring that our federal privacy laws accomplish this goal but the same time addressing the needs of law enforcement and america's vital technology industries. that has been one of my highest priorities as chairman of the senate judiciary committee. that is why i decided to establish this new privacy subcommittee and was delighted when senator frank and said he would be willing to be the chairman. to update the technology privacy bill. the digit

franken: thank you. mr. president, i rise today in strong support of senator menendez's bill to eliminate subsidies to big oil companies. at a time when we have to make tough choices to address our budget dflt deficit, when queer cutting cancer research, at a time when minnesotans are paying $4 gallon at the pump and when oil companies are raking in record profits, twoaf stand up and say, enough is enough. it is time to end the subsidies. that's why i'm prou a proud cosr of the bill. we have had to make a lot of tough choices and there are plenty still to come. to avert a government shutdown, congress enacted billions of dollars in cuts. some were pretty hard for me to swallow, frankly. cuts like $182 million from job training, $650 million from community development funds that help communities provide basic services like roads and sewers and affordable housing; even pell grants for summer school. these are cuts that will be felt by working families and people who are still struggling to find jobs and make e

over 70%, including liberals like al franken, and the 29 democratic senators who voted for the war authorization bill, including senators chuck schumer, dianne feinstein, and john kerry. plus the future "new york times" editor bill keller and editor of the liberal magazine "the new yorker," david rennie. all supported the war. the times ran many bogus front-page stories about how saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction and he later apologized for their cheerleading. but the damage had been done. they had given bush the cover he needed, and the ability to claim in a liberal paper like the times says so, it must be true. it must be true. so here it was, the fourth night of a very unpopular war, and my film "bowling for columbine" was up for an oscar. i went to the ceremony but was not allowed along with the other nominees to talk to the press on the red carpet. going into the kodak theatre. there was fear that someone might say something and in wartime, we need everyone on the same page. the actress diane lane read the list of nominees for best documentary. the envelope was opened and she a

he won reelection in a state that had elected al franken as a senator.t is the untold story? what is the thing that people should be watching out for that may not be on the front page of the news as far as the 2012 election is concerned? guest: i think security will be interesting. obviously, economic matters are paramount right now, but traditionally has been get closer to the election, it has been something that the republican nominee has done. the have hammered on the idea that the republicans are the ones you can trust on national security. with the death of bin laden, will that be blunted some one this year? what kind of impact will the national security issues as we headed down to election day? guest: national-security and foreign-policy are getting the short trip. they're welcome to a robust debate about those issues. the killing of bin laden was a "gutsy call." in some ways it was an obvious call, but it is hard when you're putting words on the ground to make sure you're getting the job done. no one will take that away from the president. a lot o

deputy attorney general, signed by 17 senators as follows: reid of nevada, leahy, cole, feinstein, franken, coons, blumenthal, klobuchar, whitehouse, brown of ohio, udall of colorado, durbin, carper, sanders, rockefeller, shaheen, schumer. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask consent that the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the senate resume legislative session and then proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the republican leader, the senate proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 61, there be three hours of debate equally divided in the usual form, that upon the use or yielding back of that time, the senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on calendar number number 61, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table with no intervening action or debate,

senator al franken, we can do it anywhere. [applause] it was not easy.h all due respect to other people in public office, some of them need a little encouragement. pushing them back up against the wall metaphorically matters. i had the first government shut down under my watch i minneso in the 150 year history of the state. i set record for vetoes in my state single season and won the most in history. the cato institute is a libertarian organization. they gave only four governors in the country an a. louisiana, west virginia, and minnesota. i am proud of that. [applause] i just want to share with you in the minute i have left, working in the mills was not easy. working in the meatpacking plant or driving a truck was not easy. of course, when you see those big plants shut down in manchester or south st. paul and the faces of unemployment in your communitynd disruptions to your family and community, you see things not as a budget number, but as a matter of a mily and of the bargain future. my mother died when i was 16. my dad lost his job for a while not t

i will say to senator franken's question, there's frustration with bureaucracy being given an appropriate amount of time but at that point, that the companies who submitted legitimate applications need to know one way or the other. the burden should be on the government to say why aren't we hufing forward? i know this bill would help in transparency that you're talking about. senator bingaman has a bill that would help. let me switch if i could for a second to another comment you made in the opening statement, you indicated there were three buckets the administration was looking at, oil, gas, renewables and alternative energy and efficiency as you may know, last week, legislation was introduced by senator shaheen and myself, energy savings and industrial competitives act, s. 1000 with regard to the federal government, and we would love to get your input on that legislation and we would hope to get your support on it. i wonder if you have any thoughts on that legislation today? >> i have not reviewed the legislation as 1000, but i would happy to do it along with my colleagues and secretary

. >> right, and that is the question that senator franken asked. even if we fail to show an ability to contain a blowout, that is the approval on the permit. >> and no, you have the right to act on it or not to. the frustration is that the time element is so long. they have -- people have no certainty whatsoever and they cannot plan anything. just a yea or nay would help them. i'm just trying to say, what timetable do you believe it would take to evaluate that and give it an up or down? courts with respect to the permit? >> the permit. >> i do not know if there is a specific time limit. >> it could be 12 months? courts are people have no incentive to slow down -- >> our people have no incentive to slow down the processing of permits. most of these people are in louisiana and it is their neighbors whose livelihood is at stake. i think being given adequate resources so that we have the personnel to do it, being transparent about where we are in the process and, therefore, how long it is taking, i think those are major steps forward. and i know the ho

communicate, our ability to do business and it's just mind boggling really from the days that senator franken was talking about,s i guess his grand father -- i guess his grand father, grandmother, and i remember the days when we got all of our days when we got all of our video communication off of channels, we've come light years from there. i remember those telephones and i for one don't want to ever go back to that model. but i don't think there's any danger of doing that. and just -- i think as we approach this and we recognize this is the beginning of a process that is not really part of what congress does, we legislate prospectively, not retroactively, we've written the law, the laws as it is and now we have the f.c.c. and the department of justice doing their job. and we look for this lengthy process where every side to this argument will be able to present their case and we look forward to reviewing that. but i think for myself, i feel like congress ought to be very humble about our ability to predict the sort of innovation that's going to be created, particularly in your sector of the

he won reelection in state that had elected al franken as a senator. what is the untold story? what is the thing that people should be watching out for that may not be on the front page of the news as far as the 2012 election is concerned? guest: i think security will be interesting. obviously, economic matters are paramount right now, but traditionally has been get closer to the election, it has been something that the republican nominee has done. the have hammered on the idea that the republicans are the ones you can trust on national security. with the death of bin laden, will that be blunted some one this year? what kind of impact will the national security issues as we headed down to election day? guest: national-security and foreign-policy are getting the ort trip. they're welcome to a robust debate about those issues. the killing of bin laden was a "gutsy call." in some ways it was an obvious call, but it is hard when you're putting words on the ground to make sure you're getting the job done. no one will take that away from the president. a lot

franken: mr. president, i ask that the quorum calling vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. franken: and i ask to speak in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. franken: madam president, i rise today to talk about the house's effort last nonts repeal the federal communication commission's knelt retralt -- net neutrality rules. net neutrality is the very simple idea that all content and applications on the internet should be treated the same. regardless of who owns the content or the web site. this is not a radical concept, in large part because it is what you and i see and experience everytime we use the internet. but the house wants to change all of that and effectively turn control of the internet over to a handful of very powerful corporations. i want to take a few moments today to tell you why i think the house's vote was a mistake. and why i am going to do everything in my power to make sure that we don't make the same mistake over here in the senate. but before i get into those details, i think it'