>> as george mitchell said, we want to get back into formal negotiations. we are working harder in a decree the conditions that will allow that to happen. we recognize that positions held today and those held by the palestinians today may be at odds. all we're asking israel to do and the palestinians to do is to live up to the obligations that they themselves have committed to. >> there was a report today that said secretary clinton would like a stronger stand. this administration should be coming out more strongly in favor of their activities. >> i do not think there is any daylight between the position of the daylighpresident and the pon of the secretary. >> does she think they should be putting more public support? >> clearly, we are watching what is unfolding here. this is not a static situation. what is clear is our interest. about the election itself, this is really about the iranians and the relationship with the iranian people and its government. this is not about the united states. what is clear also is why we are focused on iran, why the president

i have asign signed -- i have assigned george mitchell, my special envoy, who has met repeatedly with all the players in the region and who is going to be going back next week in the wake of my aappearance in cairo to follow up with each of the individual parties on a whole host of negotiation points and powtenks tension confidence--- and potential confidence-building measures that can be taken. i have already met with prime minister netanyahu. our governments are in close contact with how we can move forward on some of the items that might be inhibiting restarting talks. you have probably seen more sustained activity on this issue in the first five months than you would have seen in most previous administrations. the reason we are doing that is because not only have talks ground to a halt, but there was a sense that all sides were getting so dug in and so cynical that you might reach a point where you could never get the parties back at the table. i think given what we've done so far, we've at least created the space, the atmosphere, in which talks can restart. now, i just have to sa

that was issued by former colleagues and former leaders bob dole, tom daschle, howard baker, george mitchell, until he became special envoy, called really crossing the divide, i believe. and many of their recommendations you'll see follows their outline promoting high quality and high value. i'll refer to that later on in the debate. but i think everybody would really like to read how we could get to solutions on a bipartisan basis. there is a fairly agreed-upon consensus in the area of quality. but let me move on now to the hard work of the day. the first thing i'd like to do is offer two technical amendments and i seek unanimous consent to adopt the mikulski technical amendment and the dodd technical amendment. my understanding, it's been reviewed by the enzi staff. they incorporate limited technical clarifications to title 1. they're minor changes. they don't affect substantive policy. they're like typing, editing typos. there's note able clarification which is includes corrections to the definitions of a patient-centered medical home. it includes senator dodd's clarification regarding ev

my special envoy, george mitchell, will be returning to the region this week and we are going to systematicallyk through as many of these issues as possible. one last point i want to emphasize, the arab states have to be a part of this process. it's not sufficient just to point at the palestinian problem and then say we are not going to engage, we're not going to take responsibility. they are going to have to step up as well because the arab states not only are important politically, they're also important economically, and to the extent that they put their shoulder behind the wheel, that can move the process forward in a significant way. >> it is not me to speak of the minister of the foreign affairs of iran. i can tell you what i told him. i said to him, number one, he has to take the hand stretched out by barack obama and set a meeting so the group of six, the six-party talks start again. secondly, we all were aligned if iran wants access to civilian, nuclear energy, it's entitled to that. but if it wants nuclear, military nuclear, the answer is no. and you have to understand this fair and s

as the president mentioned this morning, george mitchell will be departing for the region on sunday. he starts with a stop in norway and will travel to the region for talks with israeli, palestinian, jordanian, and egyptian officials. you will ask me, what about syria? that is a possibility. the arrangements are still being worked on. i know you were on that trip, but finally, you will probably ask about the current situation with the trial of the two journalists. we have no further information to provide as far as we know. the trial is continuing. we have had no further access through the suit -- 3 the swedish embassy, but we remain in regular contact with the families. now i will stop, the floor is yours. >> i was on a trip, but did they get their visas? >> they do. >> does he have any plans to meet with anyone related to hamas? >> no. >> you say that the trial in north korea is continuing. how do you know that? >> is started yesterday. >> we did not even know of the trial has occurred. >> we were told this trial started yesterday. as far as we know, is continuing, but i did not of

reopening of the ambassador is a very positive sign, positive sign that envoy former senator george mitchell was visiting. and this, i think, bodes well. the article i wrote in the washington quarterly some time ago sets forth in greater detail my views on the issue of dialogue. i note my colleague has come to the floor, so i will conclude my statement and yield the floor. the presiding officer: morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of state, harold koh of connecticut to be legal advisor of the department of state. mr. specter: madam president, may i regain the floor for a unanimous consent request? i've been asked on behalf of the democratic leader to ask consent that caroline mcneil, nay can keefer and stephanie -- nathan keefer and stephanie lewis be allowed privileges of the floor for the remainder of the debate on the nuclear option of dean koh to be legal advisor to the state department. prosecute. the presiding

>> with respect to the confidence-building measures or next steps, again, i will be bringing george mitchell back into the region. he will meet with the parties involved. i think i have said publicly and repeated in the speech some things that are going to have to be done. a lot of the tension has been given to my statement that the israelis need to stop settlement construction. i recognize that it has received a lot of attention in israel as well. keep in mind that all i have done there is reaffirming commitments that the israelis themselves have already made. i recognize the very difficult politics within israel of getting that done. i am very sympathetic to how hard it will be, but as israel's friend the united states has an obligation to just be honest with that friend about how important it is to achieve a two-state solution for israel's national security interests as well as ours and the palestinian's. that is an area where steps can be taken. they're not the only steps that israel can take and will need to take in order to advance movement towards peace. i mentioned some of the other

it involved a meeting between barak and george mitchell. good morning, welcome to the program. caller: with the unemployment as high as it is, it seems to be getting worse. we do not have a true picture. the only thing they report are those who sign up for unemployment. but for those for whom it has run out there no longer can. we continue to spend money overseas. when the talk about situations they do not ever mention putting a tariff back on things coming back into this country. if we can make things here as cheap as over there it would be different. but then we would become a third world country and our people would have nothing. it seems to be where we're going at the present time. host: thanks for the call. here is an article about jobs. this is the baltimore paper. its says their new factors that could make the problem worse. the talk about more layoffs which have been permanent in this recession. mass layoffs are continuing at a record pace last month as they cost nearly over 300,000 workers their jobs. instead of shrinking operations companies have shut down whole busin

my special envoy, george mitchell, will be returning to the region this week. we are going to systematically work through as many of these issues as possible. one last point. the arab states have to be a part of this process. it is not sufficient just to point at the palestinian problem and then saying we are not going to engage, we will not take responsibility. they are going to have to step up as well, because the arab states not only are important politically, they are also important economically. and to the extent that they put their shoulder behind the wheel, that can move the process forward significantly. >> it is not for me to speak for the minister of foreign affairs of iran. i can tell you what i told him. i said to him that he had to take his hand stretched by barack obama and set a meeting so that the group of six party talks start again. secondly, that we all are allowed iran once access to nuclear energy, to sit idle. but if he wants military nuclear , the answer militaryno. you have to understand this fair and square. -- the answer is no. if your

and george mitchell has done more than his share in his lifetime. he's very competent. i'm not going to the competence of any of these people. as far as i know all these czars could be ultimately alan the great, carolyn the great, gary the great, jay scott the great. just like peter the great. we don't know how great these guys are going to be. but they could be one of those, and let's hope none of them happen to be ivan the terrible because that would be terrible. persian gulf czar, sudan czar. now, we have an ambassador to sudan, i think. we have diplomats that work with sudan. we have a secretary of of state who has an office that sudan falls under. i'm sure she has got some of the best experts on sudan anywhere in the contry. just like she does on the persian gulf. just like she does on the middle east. the secretary of of state has the best people we can hire. some of these people have been working in this field forever. now we got a sudan czar. this means this is the absolute monarch of sudan experts? what does it mean? or is it just an associate of the administra

senate so senator dole, senator daschle, senator baker, senator george mitchell is working with is also. enough that a new job and is doing middle east peace and i am looking forward to asking which one is more difficult. but in that effort there was a major set of proposals related to health care delivery form which fits with a lot of the discussion that we've had here today, and this is not the right presentation, sorry. let me see if i can talk while we are getting the right one of there. it should be identified for nihcm, but the points are pretty basic. what i want to emphasize is that as part of bipartisan health care reform there's a lot of emphasis on getting better information through using health it to support decision-making, through developing better evidence on what works for particular patients and what kinds of policy work best for decision-making. those are important policy steps that in themselves are not going to be enough. they are tools, they are enablers but they are not going to be enough. to all of this that you have been hearing about today on reforming payments

senate so senator dole, senator -- well, senator baker and george mitchell working with us to the guy new job working middle east peace. and again for to asking which is more difficult, but in that ever there was a major set of proposals related to health care delivery form which fits with a lot of discussion we have had here today. this is not the right presentation -- soaring. the me see if i can talk all we are getting the right one up there. it should be identified in for nihcm but the point is pretty basic. what i want to emphasize is that as part of bipartisan health care reform there is an emphasis on getting better information for using health i.t. to developing better evidence on what works for a particular patients of what kind of policies work best for decision making. those are important policy steps but in themselves are not going to be enough. they are enablers and not going to be enough and so all of this emphasis hearing today on reforming payments to providers and moving toward paying for what we really want, better health, lower-cost as opposed to fee-for-service is