franken: thank you . mr. president, i rise today to talk about climate change, but i first do want to say how pleased i am that we just got cloture to move to debate on the marketplace fairness act . i'm a strong supporter of the legislation, as i said; i'm a cosponsor and look forward to the upcoming debate on this, and i plan to speak on this legislation -- the presiding officer: the senate will come to order . mr. franken: i plan to speak on this legislation further tomorrow . but now i'd like to turn to talk about climate change, more specifically, i rise to suggest that we in this, the body talk more about climate change so that we can agree on taking action to address it . we need to address the environmental impacts that are -- that we are currently facing and the future impacts that will only become exponentially worse if we fail to act . 2012 was the hottest year on record in the continental united states . in fact, it beat the previous record by a full degree . now to give you some idea about how re

thank you so much, bob franken. >>> other news going on around american.hicago store owner brought a bat to a gun fight and won it. he repeatedly swung even as the gunman continued to fire at him. the violent struggle ended with both suspects running off. >>> in texas, lightning called an oil tank to ignite. it shot flames several feet into the air. it lasted 15 minutes before firefighters put it out. >>> two oregon teens put on an extraordinary show of strength after their dad accidentally flipped a tractor on top of himself. >> i was saying, god help me over and over. i obviously could not lift it myself. it was heavy. >> with no time to waste, the 14-year-old and 16-year-old rescued their father by lifting the the 3,000 pound vehicle just enough for him to wiggle free. >>> finally, a hawaii man nearly became fish food while he was fishing in his kayak. a tiger shark leaped from the ocean and stole his catch as he was reeling it in. it sent shock waves throughout the fisherman. he was more happy to be the one that got away this time around. >>> in sports

i want to concur with which senator franken said.rought is one of the manifestation we're seeing in term of climate change, flooding, extreme water disturb, heat waves that are take people's lives all over the world. i have to say, mr. chairman, i think when history looks back at the particular moment, our kid and grandchildren, great grandchildren are going ask where were we? why we were not moving aggressively to prevent the problems existing today that we know are only going get worse in the future. it's one of the important issues that have not gotten the attention. >> we are going to change that, senator sander. thank you for your leadership. we are going to our witnesses now. you can see the enormous interest here in the panel. you also have the good fortunate of having senator not a member of the committee. but member of the environment and public works. thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, member of the committee. i'm mike, commissioner. i'm pleased to provide testimony. on a personal level it's a pleasure and privilege to

. >> senator franken? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i just want to take a moment to respond to those who say that immigration is such a complex problem that we can't address it with a comprehensive approach. i believe the complexity of this problem and the connectedness of the issues involved in immigration speaks to the need for a comprehensive -- for comprehensive reform. take, for example, border security. i know that border security is critical, and that is why i am very happy to see the strong provisions in this bill are in it. but if all you did was secured the border with a 10-foot wall, if there is still a market for undocumented labor, you would create this huge market for 11- foot ladders. so, you need to verify -- you need to be able to verify workers. mr. connor, mr. rodriguez, first of all i want to congratulate you on working with each other. mr. connor, one of the aspects on this bill is the delayed phase-in of the employment verification requirements. aquaculture employers are not required to participate in the e-verify

senator franken? >> i am sorry secretary napolitano cannot be here today, but i want to thank her and the department of homeland security, the fbi, atf, the boston police department, all the professionals who are working on this tragedy in boston. my wife and i met almost 44 years ago at a freshman mixer in copley square. our hearts, all minnesotans' hearts, are with the people in boston. turning to the subject of our hearing, i want to thank the senators on this committee for their works, senator schumer, senator graham, senator durbin, senator flake, senator feinstein, senator hatch. i think that we need a comprehensive approach to this. i do not think you can do this piecemeal. everything is complex and related and that is why you have to do -- to fix this deeply broken system, you need a comprehensive approach. i think we have had a broken system. it has been a drag on our economy. mr. holtz-eakin, thank you for your testimony. it will help minnesota businesses and families alike. i want to think

thank you. >> thank you, senator franken. nobody in this committee on the climate change then you how we are happy to champion. >> thank you, mr. chairman. madam vice chairman. i do think that climate change is a world phenomenon, not just the united states. they're totally responsible. if they wrote contributor if you will. i like to start acknowledging how much we've been to have a relative abundance of drinking water. it's one of those things all of us can take for granted until it's taken away from us. we have an abundance of good water. when we were without water for weeks due to the storm and you would not think about that, when i thought about that, but could not have a higher plants up running. it had a tremendous effect and is sure to bring issues like the availability of water to the forefront and has been missing him like never before. there were two types of water usage often discussed. we have water withdrawal and water consumption. it's important to understand the difference because power plant in west virginia

joining me now is bob franken.nks for being here. >> caller: good morning. >> democrats and republicans may be working on a deal to exempt themselves from obama care mandates. why do they want to do that and what is the blowback? >> caller: the blowback is people would have another reason to be disgusted with congress. they want to do it because if they have to live under the same conditions of the exchange programs, there would be a brain drain on capitol hill. many people feel that happened a couple centuries ago. the larger issue is that congress keeps on exempting itself from the requirements of others. take the stock act that was minimal effort to address complaints. they have done away with that. >> later today, president george w. bush will be joined by his dad and other former presidents. his approval rating is 37%. why has time softened the public's view here? >> caller: time always does. the american people have the attention span of a gnat. they forgot the criticisms of the bush administration when he wa

i can't help but ask you if you were not influenced by al franken, now a congressman -- maybe not better -- i don't know. he has the characters start small on "saturday night live", all that stuff. >> there are a lot of people that have sun satires and parodies about self help. my character only says things a speaker really would say. i am not getting all silly and over the top with it. i am playing it very straight and letting you be the judge. >> okay. and you targeted this so sometimes things are certainly a true word said in jest. are you really critical of this particular industry or is it just pure fun and nobody has done it in a while is this. >> well, i pay tribute to it as well as tweaking it. i have had a couple of personal coaches -- >> you went for the coaches, more money! [ laughing] >> yes. it has done some good for me in my life and help me make change that is are helpful, and over time you hear the same cliches over and over. you feel the manipulation to take more courses and buy more books. we all know there are abuses and manipulations as well. >> i heard something once

i mean, you had al franken and elizabeth warren and some-- very liberal democrats voting to repeal thisis this a sign that the coalition, the democratic support is leading the frey? >> yeah, i mean, these were the guys who -- some of the people were demanding a single payer system at the time and now they're worried to what it's doing to market competition and that device tax was one example and we've had the hhs recently, totally reverse itself on the decision to cut more than necessary from medicare advantage, part of the medicare program where seniors used private insurers, a popular program that they would gut and more money than the law called for until there was a bipartisan revolt of democrats and republicans who wrote letters and now restoring funding. why? because seniors like it. so you have a lot of democrats themselves who are having second thoughts on this. >> and what does it tell us about the popularity of the law overall? has it changed? we have a poll that results recently. it doesn't look like it's any more popular now than it was when it passed, which is almost unhear

and president obama's 5% giveback, joining me is bob franken.ing, bob. >> good morning. >> problems are escalating. the u.s. is paying close attention to all of this. is this something -- where are we headed with this with this hard waer being moved around. >> caller: the hardware is a defense system. it's a mobile defense system which they are planning to move to guam because of the threats. all of this is signaling sophisticated diplomatic signaling. you have the defense secretary talking clear and present danger. clear and real danger, which is diplomacy. the problem is, you have heading up north korea, a kid, somebody who is really getting his footing. the big problem everybody worries about is a miscalculation by him. >> the president made a personal gesture toward the sequester giving back 5% of his $400,000 salary. is this a good idea or a pr stunt? >> caller: it certainly is a pr stunt and he would be the first to admit it. the only difficulty is there might be ridicule attached to it when you consider the fact he gets all kind of benefi

we have a lot of discussion, senator franken and others have introduced bills in the united states senate to address precisely the questions that you are asking, governor, and we have supported them and we continue to look forward -- as a prosecutor i always want more tools. you know, i see a problem out there and i want to have the tools to fix it. we passed a hate crimes law in 2009 that enables us to work with local law enforcement in much more effective ways to combat hate crimes including but not limited to lgbt motivated violence. so we'd love to have more tools. but, you know, with the tools that we currently have, we're doing as much as we can and i think ruslyn's point about the uptick in the number of complaints we're both receiving, i'm not sure that necessarily reflects, as ruslyn correctly pointed out, that there's an uptick in violence. the doctrine of futility often resulted in less complaints being seen. i think there's a commitment in the federal level to doing our level best on these issues. >> tom, you talk about tools. ruslyn, what kind of tools, part of this is raisin

we have a lot of discussion, senator franken and others have introduced bills in the united states senate to address precisely the questions that you are asking, governor, and we have supported them and we continue to look forward -- as a prosecutor i always want more tools. you know, i see a problem out there and i want to have the tools to fix it. we passed a hate crimes law in 2009 that enables us to work with local

franken: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota is recognized. mr. franken: mr. president, i -- the presiding officer: the senator is advise that we are current any a quorum call. mr. franken: i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. franken: thank you. i rise today to discuss the confirmation of mary jo white. ms. white has had an impressive career from prosecuting terrorists and white-collar criminals as u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york to heading a large litigation department in private practice. there is little doubt that ms. white has the wall street expertise necessary to navigate the complex issues before the s.e.c. but i come to the floor today to discuss a critical problem that i've asked ms. white to prioritize as chair of the s.e.c. currently when a bank issues a structured finance product, it needs to get the product rated by the credit rating agencies and the banks pays them for the ratings

senator franken. >> thank you mr. chairman. i just want to take a moment to respond to those who say immigration is such a complex problem that we can't address it with a comprehensive approach. i believe the complexity of this problem and the connectedness of the issues involved in immigration speak to the need for a comprehensive reform. take for example border security. border security is critical and i'm not very happy to see the strong provisions in this bill are in it. but if all you did was secure the border with walls if there is still a market for undocumented labor you would create this huge market with 11-foot ladders. and so you need to verify, you need to be able to verify workers. mr. connor and mr. rodriguez first of all i want to congratulate you in working with each other. i think it's a great thing. mr. connor one of the important aspects of the bill is the delayed phase-in of the employment verification requirements, add culture employers aren't required to participate in the e-verify program. four years afte

so what happened i'm on 83 franken street two houses up. when the ban was lifted we t kind of consult a neighborhood and family friends on center street sch is parallel to franklin street. we saw a flooding of vehicles and there is they told us get in the house we took refuge in our friend's house. and as walking in we heard pop, pop, pop. sounded like thousands of guns going off. it leads me to believe something like what we saw at the marathon bombing, those pressure cookers and i cannot count how many s.w.a.t. teams, i mean not s.w.a.t. team,, you know armored vehicles with just helicopter as above. we're on the ground trying to stay away from windows now. >> yes. please do stay away from windows now. give me a sense that have house and again, i'm not, whoever lives there we're not suggesting that this was -- they were playing a role in this, give me a sense of what that house is like. >> basically it's two doors down. you know they've been neighbors forever i'm 23 years old now. and you know they've -- it's a couple they have a boat par

take a listen to al franken. >> the industry is being punished for its innovation and growth.al device tax is cutting in to the proceeds that go towards research and development and workforce training and by taxing companies on the first first of sales, they are they're hurting the small companies, start up companies which may not be in profit yet. on this point i disagree with the obama administration, did from the beginning. >> bret: so liberals with republicans in both the house and the senate repealing the medical device tax. >> yeah, pretty significantly too. it passed the senate 79-20. requires a good number of democrats to join with them. here is what it interesting about this debate and many others like it. when you take the parts of obama care one by one by one and ask members of congress and ask the voters to judge them on their own merits, on their individual merits, people like obama care. the only way they sold it was as one package based on a lot of promises that we now see going unfulfilled. you know, it is the case that premiums are going up. it is the case tha

. >> franken fish. >> exactly. when you go into a supermarket today, how do you know what's gno and what's not? >> it's not the labeled, 64 kuntz trees require labeling but not the united states. there is a bill that's going to be introduced for congress this week, senator boxer and congress defazio. there is a ballot initiative in washington state 26 states introduced labeling. 26 states that introduced labeling bills this year. some are still active and may pass. but we have a situation now where if you go into the store and you are looking around you have to take a shopping guide to see what the at-risk i need greenedients are. i was there doing research in wal-mart last week. been you can buy spag etty sauce from the same company that's ragu lite and chunky that's gmo. the chunky has high frock on this corn syrup and lite uses olive oil. it takes a little detective work to figure out which i need greenedients. >> that's a lot. >> a lot of detective work. looking for, you know, tomato. >> once you get the brands

i got the call went out franken went run for senate in minnesota. but you may remember his victory came down to 312 votes. i know because he counted them all. the very close race with lots of attorneys involved, by the way. i know i said mary's was one of my first really the first campaign i ran were my own. these were serious campaigns waged in the very competitive political environment of butte high school. i ran for class president. i lost many times. i decided i needed a new plan. my junior year, i thought i should run for student body president. it was not to my class building -- note entire school. just my class voting but the en tier re scvhoohool. i set out a campaign plan that solely targeted freshman and sophomore voters. this is key, i even got the younger sister of one of my opponents to join my campaign. and i won. and i learned my first campaign must then -- never underestimate the power of a younger sister. there is a sister then there is sisterhood. we leverage that sisterhood every day at emily's list and we were to elect more women

when you had the number one podcast amazing, rachel maddow and he had a show with public enemy, al frankenarr aftero in the evening, we had a lineup of people who are very successful now. >> i know you're raised catholic, and you must have thoughts on the pope, and do you hope -- >> when you said that? much of your ears are going, i could have sworn she was a jew. so let's let that soak in for a minute. >> one moment. not a jew. >> interesting. okay. >> now go on to catholic girl. so the pope though, do you have a lot of hopes for him, or because you're a comedian and you can be cynical do you just kind of think it's going to be more of the same? >> yeah, i don't know. i mean, it's pretty awesome to see a pope, you know, washing the feet of prisoners, and women. i mean that's pretty -- any time there's a jesuit i have more hope than normal. i don't see the catholic church embracing my basically life philosophy on, you know, marriage equality, or you know, reproductive rights. i -- i just don't see that, you know. every religion was founded basically by a man. so i'm not sure what they're l

franken: i ask the consent for debate only be extended until 8:30 p.m.and that at 8:30 p.m., the majority leader be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. franken: thank you, mr. president. and now i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that it be in order for the manchin-toomey amendment and rule 715 be set aside. the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. reid: we are. one of those rare occasions. i ask consent the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that it be in order for the manchin-toomey amendment number 715 be set aside, the following amendments in order be called up. grassley substitute amendment consistent with the summary which is at the desk, leahy-collins 713 trafficking, cornyn 719 concealed carry, feinstein 711 assault weapons, clip bans, veterans guns. that's numb

franken: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. mr. franken: mr. president, rise today in support of legislation that will level the playing field for brick-and-mortar retailers in minnesota and across our nation. i've joined my bipartisan group of friends, including senators durbin, enzi, heitkamp, and alexander in support of the legislation we're debating this week, the marketplace fairness act. it will simply allow states to help their brick-and-mortar retailers including the mom and pop shops on main street stay competitive in a marketplace be with online sales have become a fact of life. this legislation is a commonsense measure that brings our sales tax laws into the 21st century. in minnesota, the retail industry includes nearly half a million workers, about one in five jobs in our state, and those retailers need to compete on price and on service every single day. but the current sales tax system makes it impossible for them to compete on an even playing field. take michael norby, who hones a department store in downtown detroit lakes, minn

. >>> ted cruz and franken found themselves agreeing with each other.ite house on their use of drones. cruz has only been there since january but he's already making his mark. he's being called the most hated man in the senate. jan crawford has more. >> good morning, charlie and norah. you kind of expect the new guy to stand back and not make waves. that is not ted cruz. on immigration reform you can be sure that cruz, who's a latino and from a border state would have a lot to say about the proposed compromise, president obama, the republican party. well, let's just say ted cruz has a lot to say about a lot of things. >> i would like if possible for you to try to answer the question i asked. >> reporter: ted cruz isn't is someone who goes along to get along. he's objecting to a so-called compromise plan crafted by four of his republican colleagues and four democrats. >> they have been working together to reach a compromise that the eight of them agree with. >> reporter: because it includes a pakts to citizenship which he says is not only deeply unfair t

senator franken. chairman.ou, mr. i want to thank you for your department's response to the boston bombings. arethoughts and prayers with you. you did an outstanding job in quickly tracking down and capturing the perpetrators. thank you for your work. i will focus on some things that i'm worried about in the bill. is a giantl package step forward. ringtone] sorry. i believe this is going and long way to fixing a broken immigration system. it will help minnesota of businesses and families. my first question is about the e-verify mandate in the bill. will hurtat errors small businesses. big companies have the resources to deal with this. smallm worried about the family business were the human resource department may also be the accountant and sales force and your spouse. you don't have the time to deal with a system that is not working 100% properly. businesses in minnesota employs 20 people or less. the department says one legal authorized worker is wrongly rejected, at least temporarily. that rate is lower than the la

bipartisan efforts by senators durbin and gillibrand and clirk and klobuchar and -- kirk and klobuchar and franken, blumenthal, shaheen and kaine. our law is helping to give more bipartisan tools. our judiciary committee vote by the stop illegal trafficking in firearms, s. 54. and provisions are included in the safe community schools act, s. 649 that majority leader reid placed on the senate calendar and which he's now moved to proceed. straw purchasers get around the purpose of the background check system. straw purchasing of firearms is then taken -- undertaken for just one reason, to get -- to have somebody who can legally buy a gun but to get those hands into the hands of somebody who's legally prohibited from having one. we know that many guns used in criminal activities are acquired through straw purchases. it was a straw purchaser who enabled the brutal murders of two brave firefighters in webster, new york, this past christmas eve. it was a straw purchaser who provided firearms to an individual who murdered a police officer in plymouth township, pennsylvania, last september. mr. president,

senator franken is not here. >> thank you, chairman leahy. just wanted to at the outset thank you very much, secretary napolitano, d.h.s. has a complicated, difficult, broad-ranging mission and that's just one department. it's responsible for a vast array of important goals at the same time and i'm grateful for your doing your very best and for everyone in the department doing your very best, particularly at this time when we opened this hearing with reflections on the tragedies in boston and in west texas. we're reminded of how grateful we are for everyone in law enforcement and public safety who helps protect us. i'm from the midatlantic region with many ports and with the significant allocation of additional resources under this bill to the southwest border, what assurance can you give us that crehence -- comprehensive immigration reform won't further degrade c.b.p.'s ability to perform its customs inspection mission at some of our vital ports around the country? >> i think it's important, and as i review the bill and the intent behind the

. >> senator franken, this gets to the heart of what is trying to get at in my testimony.once you have answered the question that it is legal to do a strike and that it is good strategy to do a legal strike, when you are then selecting the platform a remotely piloted aircraft actually gives you better precision with a small warhead with persistence over head and the to abort at the last minute. if the whole chain of command is watching and intel analysts are not getting shot at. once you decide to actually conduct a strike they provide unprecedented persistent oversight. when we are using ground forces, special operation, fighter aircraft, which i have done many times, you do not have the same oversight. you often have individuals on the ground talking with aircraft overhead who have just been shot up and their perspective is skewed. you are making decisions in the heat of battle. are talking, you about counterterrorism operations and having to choose the platform, often times we are talking about places where we do not have american forces and we have to decide whether we

we take care of apple pickers but then we have dairy farmers and senator franken and i noted that you can't tell the cows belle back in six months to milk you again. they don't react well to that. and so how would the proposed agricultural work visa legislation help seasonal and year-around workers? >> sir, i think it would definitely help in many ways. allowing for the workers not only be here around year, milk the cows. i think when you face both visa whether they come for one employer or the ability to move between employers. all of that seems veried a venn teenage use and take care of dairy farmers. when i look how the h2a works today and i see that poultry, some of the farms are year-around they have the ability to get h2a seasonal workers only because it's seasonal work they're doing. however the milking of the cows does not weigh. >> we -- we see a lot of dysfunction in the current program. do you think we should be giving the department of agricultural a greater role in the visa program. >> absolutely. i think most agree on that. i have a prime example of u.s. department of la

and i also got the call when al franken wanted to run for senate in minnesota. and while you may remove or senator franken's victory ended up coming down to 312 votes. yes, 312. i know because we counted them all. [laughter] it was a very, very close race with lots and lots of attorneys involved by the way. i know i said was one of my first, but really the first campaign i ran were my own. these are serious. campaigns waged in the very competitive political environment of butte high school. see, i ran for kleist -- class president many times. and i lost many times. so i decided i needed a new plan. so my junior year, i thought i should run for student body president. because it's not just my class voting but the entire school. so i set out a campaign plan that solely targeted freshman and sophomore voters. and, this is key, i even got the younger sister of one of my opponents to join my campaign. and i won. and i learned my first campaign lesson. never underestimate the power of a younger sister. there's a sister, and then there's the sisterhood. we leveraged th

if i may, senator franken mentioned the importance of energy resort. and would you be willing to work closely with senator coons as we work this next year with 35 republicans and 35 democratic senators and finally sponsored by the democratic leaders and to do so in a way that we reduce any program, duplications, and ensure that we are functioning as efficiently as possible? >> yes. you mentioned the tax credit. i believe that was about 10 years. do you think about still should be in place? >> well, it is not in the realm of the department of energy,. >> is that probably a good -- wouldn't it be a wiser use instead of having that tax credit in place for oil or gas or others -- when we want to double the amount of research and energy? >> well, i think that we are really focused on the research area and there is no question, as we said earlier, that we have substantial capacity to increase our research effectively. >> okay, we are talking about linkage in the blue ribbon commission. am i correct that the report, the concern and the commission was that it

senator franken. >> thank you, mr. chairman. before i turn to my question, i want to say i'm glad to see you here. dr. flemming, a lot of -- i know who support immigration reform do so out of see it as an issue of faith. at this point, mr. chairman, i would like to enter in to the record a list of three dozen tsh actually three dozen plus one minnesota faith groups that support immigration reform. if you look through the list you will see lutheran and muslim and catholics and jews, episcopal, methodist, you name it. thank you. a lot of minnesota people adopt just think it was a smart thing to do. they think this is the right -- morally right thing to do. mrs. lichter, the bill we are debating will make e verify mandatory for all employers. fortunately the last independent audit of the system revealed it wrongly we are jected the legal -- rejected the legal worker about one out of every one out of 10 times. it sound that time. it wouldn't be acceptable for you, your credit card errors or starting your car. i'm wondering how it af

they are in alphabetical order, richard blumenthal, senators boxer, cardin, carper, collins, durbin, franken, gillibrand, harkin, hirono, klobuchar, lautenberg, levin, menendez, mikulski, murphy, murray, reid, rockefeller, schatz, warren and whitehouse. i am very grateful for your and for their willingness to step up, show courage, and do what's right for america. mr. president, there are all kinds of issues that we confront as members of this great are senate. there are issues of national security, the economy, health care, immigration, all tough issues. people often ask me why i care so much about assault weapons, why i have stayed with this issue for more than 20 years now? the answer is this: in my view, the proliferation of this specific type of weapon goes to the heart of what kind of society in which we want to live. it goes to what kind of culture we're going to raise our children in. and that, mr. pres, brings us to the horrific massacre at newtown, connecticut, four months ago. sandy hook -- and a lot has been said about it, but i can't forget it. sandy hook was a safe school in a

senator al franken said you know you're in strange territory when senator cruz and i have the same questionsbsent from the hearing was anyone from the obama administration. senator durbin said he was disappointed they declined to provide a witness and senator rand paul who last month spent 13 hours on the senate floor filibustering is raising eyebrows saying he would support drone strikes on american citizens given the right circumstances? >> i've never argued against any technology being used when you have an eminent threat, active crime on. someone comes out of the liquor store and $50 in cash. i don't care if a drone or policeman kills him but it's different if they want to come fly over your hot tub or your yard because they want to do surveillance on everyone and they want to watch your activity. >> what just happened there? >> i got to say it's somebody that supported the filibuster i have no idea what just happened there. >> he doesn't understand due process. >> he's fine with -- he just said he was fine with a drone strike against someone who robbed a liquor store and had 50 dollars

of rg3, again in the interest of full disclosure, have him, bradley cooper, minnesota senator al frankensnl" cast member. that is our team. you messaged barbra streisand. kevin spacey, kate morrow from "house of cards". who else? >> psy. gangnam -- >> he is still big? 15 minutes isn't up yet? >> the biggest, a new video even more viral than the first. jon bon jovi is going to be there i think the criticism came because last year, lindsay lohan came and people had a big problem with that. >> just see her? people -- >> i interviewed her. but the problem -- it is what it is. it got attention. everybody was talking about the white house correspondents' dinner. the point is you're raising money, it gives out scholarships. all year, deal with d.c., bring glamour. let's loosen up a bit. >> the other side of this, my colleague, tom brokaw, talking to politico about the dinner. take a listen. >> there was more dignity at my daughter's junior prom than there is what i'm seeing on c-span here. then we got to the point where everyone had to bring in whatever page 6 celebrity happened to be around. f

i want to bring back the counterterrorism analyst and an fbi profiler, and bob franken is a syndicatedght now on an international level. >> they're trying to take the information they've already gleaned from computers, from cell phone records from any of the materials or the pocket litter that was at the house where the brothers lived and then any information gleaned from interviews and they're taking that and talking to liaison services over seas to see if there are any links or relationships that can be identify. they're going into their interdatabase to lik up any of the information they previously had prior to monday with what they've learned and sharing that at well. right now the attention is focused on the russian federation an wlosht we'll be able to get cooperation from the foreign intelligence service as we begin our investigation as to whether there's any international linkage to what happened on monday. >> what are the interrogators most interested in trying to learn about the two brothers. >> they're trying to find out immediate intelligence. is there any chance any more o

newtown families and the latest in the gun control debate, we are joined by syndicated columnist bob franken, politico's ed with a ward isaac devare and the national journey's alad hay i zbladdy. thank you for being here. >> good to be here. >> bob, i want to start with you. the newtown families took washington by storm this week. yesterday, politico reportered this actually receiving guidance from political lobby pisses and d.c. insiders. one person told politico "these are smart, articulate people who don't have a scintilla of washington about them but they virtually cannot be denied a meeting." >> you have to be lobby and most effectively lobby to get what is gettable. so far, they have done that in a really admirable way. >> edward isaac that political article also mentioned an anecdote about meeting with maine's susan collins. the president was supposed to have dinner that night and unsure if she would make the meet egg with the familiesing w >> it is important. as former house chief of staff, i would say if a family member of a deceased came in looking for a meeting, we would take that

the governor and i and senator franken had to head down to southwestern minnesota where we have a disaster area where we have ice cycles taking down trees and putting out power. last weekend we got another foot of snow and today we have another half foot of snow in the middle of april. something unheard of. we thought the fargo area was going to be fine. the chances of a flood was low. there's now a 40% chance that this flood will set a new record and a 75% chance it will be at least the second highest on record. and if anyone remembered this was the point where we were so close to losing morehead, minnesota and fargo, which is in north dakota. i was just up there and met with the mayor, the mayor of morehead, to discuss what preparations -- flood preparations. local officials base their flood prediction and planning on predictions that come from the national weather service. i know literally in fargo and moorehead they're adjusting to resources according to how high they anticipate are the water to crest for this unforeseen problem of all this snow. they're well prepared, but, again, they

senator franken. >> i want to thank chairman for holding this important hearing. obviously drone strikes have changed the way we give rise to local opposition and public debate. you know we are dealing the new strange territory when senator cruz and i have the same questions. imminent unshared imminence was one i talked about were seems really broad, too, senator. i think this discussion is important, which is why i believe legal justification for these strikes that need to be made public and foreign. i went to the room and looked at some of these memos and after reviewing them, i do not understand why the expert redactor's at the department of justice couldn't have struck that the national security information, the sources and met ed that need to be redacted and made the legal analysis by the hurt i was disappointed the administration did not send a witness today, as was the chairman and ranking member. i have long argued the department should not a secret law and should make all of the office of legal counsel's opinion is available the public. transparency and a

senator franken? >> i am sorry secretary napolitano cannot be here today, but i want to thank her and the department of homeland security, the fbi, atf, the boston police department, all professionals who are working on this tragedy in boston. my wife and i met almost 44 years ago at a freshman mixer in copley square. our hearts, all minnesotans' hearts, are with the people in boston. turning to the subject of our hearing, i want to thank the senators on this committee for their work, senator schumer, senator graham, senator durbin, senator flake, senator feinstein, senator hatch. athink that we need comprehensive approach to this. i do not think you can do this piecemeal. everything is complex and related and that is why you to do -- to fix this deeply broken system, you need a comprehensive approach. i think we have had a broken system. it has been a drag on our economy. mr. holtz-eakin, thank you for your testimony. it will help minnesota businesses and families alike. i want to thank the senators

senator franken. > thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank you for your department's response to the boston bombings. our thoughts and prayers are with you. you did an outstanding job in quickly tracking down and capturing the perpetrators. thank you for your work. i will focus on some things that i'm worried about in the ill. this overall package is a giant step forward. sorry. i believe this is going and long way to fixing a broken immigration system. it will help minnesota of businesses and families. my first question is about the e-verify mandate in the ill. i worry that errors will hurt mall businesses. big companies have the resources to deal with this. but i'm worried about the small family business were the human resource department may also be the accountant and sales force and your spouse. you don't have the time to deal with a system that is not working 100% properly. ne if five businesses in minnesota employs 20 people or less. the department says one legal authorized worker is wrongly rejected, at least temporaril