speaking on the for the senate yesterday grassley attacked president obama's nights. circuit court judge nominee goodwin lu wrote an op ed six years ago about how corporate interest groups use the word free enterprise as a code word for policies that can harm workers in the environment lou was a respected law professor of berkeley extremely qualified for the job also happens to be asian american snatch really grassley rich resorted to an ethnic attack. does he think for the communist run china that the government runs everything that's how out of place this guy is when he talks about free enterprise private ownership or private and limited government being something somehow if they are but if you get government born like they do in china is somehow a better place. doesn't think that at all senator but since he has an asian last name republicans like chuck grassley believe he must be a communist operative these guys are way too paranoid and little too racist to be in government and the very very ugly south carolina state senator mike fair here is the chief sponsor of a

is on the hill and so senator grassley is asking the same questions of the attorney general. jon: that agent, dobbins, whose house was burned down with his family in it, did they get out okay? >> >> reporter: they got out. he was not there at the time. his son heard the glass breaking, got his mother and sister out, and the dog out of the house, but it was burned to the ground and that is -- they are asking for protection and never really got it. back to you. jon: what a mess. william la jeunesse, thanks. jenna: well, talking a little politics now, the latest job approval numbers show the president after the killing of usama bin laden, look at politics and this administration and as they move towards the 2012 election. how long do they stay around? what does this say about the biggest topic -- topics yet ahead. >> firefighters rushing to save a man from a massive attack by insects? an incredible story for you, just ahead.

doesn't think that at all senator but since he has an asian last name republicans like chuck grassley believe he must be a communist operative these guys are way too paranoid and little too racist to be in government and the very very ugly south carolina state senator mike fair fair is the chief sponsor of another one of these anti shari'a law bills that are sweeping the nation and on the record this week to say this in defense of his legislation. but most. honestly most. ninety percent. of the. acts of terrorism around the world says. it least the. the killing of the two hundred plus marines and. other harm or. have occurred how these acts of terrorism occurred in. the eastern. half of the islam. evidence of islam. so how is banning shari'a law in south carolina going to solve in the last ten years by the way in the united states there have been twice as many terrorist plots by non muslims. so maybe state sen fair should look into banning some other religious laws too but that's unlikely because politics pays off at the polls right now it's very very good. can you imagine an america

, senator grassley said, we know it goes to his office.e know there were many of his most key lieutenants involved in this. what we can't understand is why they don't come clean and tell us what they thought they were approving versus what actually happened so we can make sure this process is not repeated the ever again in america. martha: in order to prove this case in a compelling way, you would need to produce the evidence that those murders were indeed directly linked to this. you said we do. what do you mean by that in terms of having corn crete evidence that these guns weather fast and furious code on them were indeed used in those murders? >> we went and met with on a voluntary basis the gun dealers and the atf agents and other federal officials involved in these programs. we have their testimony, voluntary testimony. these people are hearts broken that they were involved in what ultimately has led to guns being loose. and again we are not investigating murders. we are not investigating drugs corruption. congress has a sovereign and

grassley: okay. mr. president, it's not going to surprise any of my colleagues or the public at large that a lot of times i come to the senate floor to speak about agriculture and to speak about ethanol. and what brings me to the floor today is the ongoing crusade by the "wall street journal" to, in an intelly dishonest way -- intellectually dishonest way put out fact that resident true. and the latest -- way put out facts that are not true. and the latest barrage that occurred last saturday in the "wall street journal" interview with c. larry pope, c.e.o. of smithfield food. and in this article, there's a lot of misstatements about ethanol and about ethanol causing the price of food to rise dramatically. and i take the floor now to rebut some of those misstatements and also to set the record straight so that when a very fine c.e.o. like mr. po mr. pope, even though i disagree with him on this article, he is a decent person and he is a good corporate executive. but so next time he speaks, he won't speak.

>> thank you, senator grassley. well, one of the problems is that it's difficult here and it's, i think, difficult period to really account for all the many ways that the criminal laws that we draw up for the united states might apply to otherwise authorized national security operations. so that has to be very carefully studied. that's why the previous administration and i believe this one supports leaving those questions for another day and finding an intelligence carveout that protects those activities. if you, if you had an intelligence carveout that focused on authorized intelligence activities or authorized national security operations, you would avoid the situation that chairman leahy pointed out in his initial statement where a, where a security contractor that claims he was protecting somebody in the intelligence community but went off the reservation on a frolic and, clearly, serious misconduct would not be covered by that. um, that's the key. the key is that it has to be sufficiently simple that the intell

i know senato senator grassley . i assume the senator from new york and the senator from rhode island. i wonder if we can reach a unanimous consent agreement that would allow five minutes for each of us to speak. i would pose that as a unanimous consent request that that -- for the senators who are currently on the floor, the five of us, that we'd be given up to five minutes to speak preceding the cloture motion. mr. schumer: might i ask a question of the chair? what is the status, the time status? there's 35 minutes until noon. is that divided? the presiding officer: the democrats -- the time's equally divided. the democrats control 19 minutes, the republicans control 18 1/2 minutes. a senator: reserving the right to object. ms. landrieu: this isn't the only debate on the floor, we're having a cloture vote on sbir and we'd like some time to close that debate a as well. so i'm open to work with you guys. a senator: madam president, reserving my right to object. mr. reed: i would suggest that the senator from new york

>> thank you, senator grassley. one of the problems is that it is difficult here and i think it is difficult period, to really account for all the many ways that the criminal laws that we draw up for the united states might apply to otherwise authorized national security operations. so that has to be very carefully studied. that's why the previous administration and i believe this one supports leaving those questions for another day. and finding an intelligence -- that protects those activities. if you had an intelligence carve out that focused on authorized intelligence activity or authorized national security operations, you would avoid the situation that chairman leahy pointed out in his initial statement where a securities contractor that claims he was protecting somebody in the intelligence community but went off the reservation on a frolic and clearly serious misconduct, would not be covered by that. that's the key. the key is that it has to be sufficiently simple that the intelligence community continues only

i would yield to senator grassley. >> fine. and i know we are keeping the other nominees quite a time, but we will try to be quick in your hearings. i think you've probably seen that this is a very interesting hearing for this particular candidate. >> madam chair, i would offer for the record -- [inaudible] or fester painters letter that -- professor painters letter, he responds exactly to this criticism. >> that was quick. it will go into the record. senator, would you like to -- say, wipe the slate clean as to your academic ratings and career, what is left to justify your confirmation? >> senator, i would hope that you wouldn't wipe my slate clean, as it were. i am what i am. my resume is a scholarly resume. and all i can say about that is that i appreciate the distinction between the roles. i think there are important facets of being a scholar that are very beneficial to being a judge. the village of a broad knowledge of the law, the ability to see arguments and counter arguments, and to be fair to the arguments. and also th

medalist in the men's sixty six kilogram category and was made to wait before throwing opponents palash grassley least the home crowd the moscow tournament is a major event of a calendar six olympic champions are in attendance looking to score enough points to qualify for next year's games in london. finally i saw his k.h. all season ended only a month ago but the clubs haven't wasted any time strengthening for next season the third annual draft has taken place with the details his constant input of. with four months to go before the park drops on the new season the collapse only really strengthening their rose to his with some young blood attitudes towards the kids showing through draft years and the ceremony doesn't appear to be as important as the one in north america but the league is working hard to make it more popular even for hockey fans this year the ceremony was held on the ice rink of land where just a month ago all the moscow region side were battling in the going cup finals and now hundreds of spectators attended to watch the draft pick a child teams choose a total of three hundred

grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: we're on the nomination, is that right? the presiding officer: the senator is correct. mr. grassley: i rise today to speak in opposition to magistrate judge chen, the president's nominee for northern district of california. before i address judge chen's nomination, i want to say a few words about our progress on judicial nominations. at the beginning of this congress, i told the chairman that i would work with him to process consensus nominees at a fair and reasonable pace. thus far this congress, i have worked very hard and in good faith to do just what i promis promised. we've confirmed consensus nominees with a particular focus on nominees in so-called judicial emergencies. i made that commitment to the chairman and i've kept it. the senate has been in session for only 46 days this congress. in that short period, we have confirmed 20 judges. we confirmed three judges last week. in fact, thus far, we have taken positive action on 43 of 71 nominees that have been submitted

leahy or the senato senator grassley. mr. mcconnell: i suggest the absence of a quorum and i ask that the time be charged to both sides. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will call the roll. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. a senator: thank you. madam president, i rise today -- the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. blumenthal: i am sorry, madam president. i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed wsm. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. i rise today to voice my strong support for the nomination of susan carney to serve as an appeals court judge on the second circuit court of appeals, one of our most distinguished appeals court panels among the federal circuit. and i hope that the united states senate will move swiftly to confirm her to fill one of the open seats on this critically important court. ms. carney has truly impressive credentials for appointment to the federal benc

grassley and you get the immigration reform so you know you the political season is stuff that we have called us president obama was you're taking full measure of a person but do you think that he really put in a good effort during these first two years of course the dream act is something that he tried to get past he invited eva longoria to the white house they increased border security but was that enough. yeah it wasn't enough and many many many people in the hispanic community are very disappointed because the president campaigned specifically was reaching out to hispanic voters by promising that he was poor excuse they were british or during his first year obviously we're now at the third year that it happened so there's a lot of people with a lot of this work that out there and the president is now going to have to reengage that because i'm going to lose that vote in the two thousand election so that's it was a bit of a political that it was a highly partisan speech. well you know one thing the president said today is that one of the main problems why comprehensive immigration re

grassley: mr. president, i know we're in morning business. i ask to speak on the nomination of james coal to be deputy attorney general. james cole to be deputy attorney general. i rise in opposition on the nomination of james cole to be deputy attorney general at the department of justice. i oppose proceeding to a vote on the nominee for a number of reasons. i've been concerned regarding mr. cole's qualifications and am troubled by president obama's recess appointment of mr. cole to this position. i have been consistent in my opposition to recess appointments over the years that i was chairman of the senate finance committee under a republican president. i had the same rule in mind. when the president bypasses the senate by making recess appointments, such nominees will not receive my support. we have a process in place for nominations, and if the president isn't willing to work with senators to clear nominations, the nominee shouldn't get a second bite at the apple. in addition to my general opposition to recess appointments, i have consist

grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: today the senate continues its very rapid pace to confirm another of president obama's judicial nominees. the judiciary committee's workload has not slowed since this congress has convened. i'm pleased to report that we're ahead of the paves of the 108th congress. with this vote, the senate will have confirmed 22 nominees in just 47 days. that is a rate of one judge almost every other day of senate session. we have confirmed 32% of the president's -- of president obama's judicial nominees this congress compared to only 2% of president bush's -- 29% of president bush's confirmed during the same time period. we have also reported out of committee another 11 nominees. we have reported out of committee 46% of president obama's nominees sent to the senate this year. that exceeds the 38% of president bush's nominees reported out during a comparable period. furthermore, we have held hearings on ten nominees. some of those, i expect, wil

grassley: thank you, madam president. i come to the floor to speak on the nomination that's now before the senate, the nomination of goodwin liu to be circuit judge of the ninth circuit. i've said many times over the past two weeks and maybe even for a longer period of time than two weeks, by any fair measure, removing judicial nominees at a very brisk pace -- we're moving judicial nominees at a very brisk pace. this month alone we confirmed seven judges in ten days. in the short time that we have been in session this year, we've confirmed 24 judges. that's a rate almost of one judge every other day. this year the committee has favorably reported 51% of president obama's nominees. yet, it seems that the more we work with the majority on filling vacancies, the more complaints that we hear. furthermore, as we work together to confirm consensus nominees, we're met with the majority's insistence that we turn to controversial nominees like the one before us today, goodwin liu. because this seems to be the most controversial of

grassley: okay. my objections to this nominee can be summarized with five areas of concern: his controversial writings and speeches, an activist judicial philosophy, his lack of judicial temperament, his troublesome testimony, and a lack of candor before the committee. mr. grassley: i would hope that the president would withdraw the nominee and send up a consensus nominee. we on this side have demonstrated over and over again our cooperation in moving forward on consensus nominatio nominations. the president needs to nominate a mainstream individual who understands the proper role a judge. nominees who would bring a personal agenda and political ideology to the courtroom will have great difficulty in being confirmed. i have troubles with a statement that's been made that the court of appeals is where law is made and we need the finest minds in the world for that. first, intellect is an important element that we ought to consider in any confirmation process. this nominee has an outstanding academic re

damaging e-mails to the atf from a gun shop owner in phoenix, and recently obtained by senator chuck grassleythe owner wrote that he wanted to help atf investigation, but not if it risks the safety of the agents that protect our country. >> i have never let a gonna walk. a lot of people will get hurt with these firearms between the time we let them go, and the time they're recovered again in a crime. >> atf agents confronted their bosses over and over again about the strategy could no longer remain silent and spoke with cds news. >> i knew it would not end well. >> then, on december 10, 2010, their worst nightmare came true -- border patrol agent brian terry was gunned down. >> it was crushing. >> two assault rifles atf lott walked were found at the crime scene, and all of these agents want is for the family of agent bryan. to know the truth. >> i have done everything i can for them to get the truth. after this, i do not know what else i can do. >> the truth has been hard to get to read all the documents confirm whether the agents and other insiders are saying, that the strategy was approved

senator grassley. >> professor liu, i will take off from where the chairman just left off.our last hearing, and i quote, whatever i may have written in books and the articles would have no bearing on my role as a judge, end quote. i want to focus on that, as it relates to the book he co-authored, "keeping faith with the constitution." as you say in the book itself, your entire purpose is to propose and defend the theory of constitutional interpretation. so it is a bit difficult for me to understand how you can now say that they would have no bearing on how you would rule as a judge. so, my first question should be fairly easy, yes or no. today, do you still stand by your book "keeping faith with the constitution"? >> senator, i do stand by that book as an expression of my views as a scholar. but i recognize at the same time that the role of the scholar is very different than the role of the judge. and so when i confronted the ninth circuit i be a dropping the role of the judge which as i was trying to express not to follow any particular theory that i might have, but rather

level of the administration's call appointees. >> i think it's a case of stonewalling. >> senator grassleyany claim by the justice department that atf never knowingly approved or allowed the sale of assault weapons to purchasers is simply not credible because of new evidence he's obtained. >> they wanted to prove there were guns flowing to mexico, so they set up an illegal pipeline. when does it stop being law enforcement and start being a criminal enterprise? innocent people are dying. >> i'm not surprised given it's the atf. it has always been a rogue agency. look at what they did in waco. >> i think this instance is probably one of the darkest days in the u.s. history. >> we love this country. we respect its leaders. respect requires truth, and the straightforward, simple truth is this: when it comes to the obama administration, we have had it. we've had it with eric holder -- [applause] we've had it with hillary clinton and the rest of this administration. [applause] and lord knows americans have sure had it with the arrogant, sanctimonious, gun-hating liars who call themselves the nat

grassley: i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president?rise in support of invoking cloture on the motion to proceed to s. 1038, the patriot sunset extension act of 2011. in four days on may 27, three fisa provisions, the lone wolf, roving wiretap and two section 315 authorities will expire unless congress acts to reauthorize them. the house has been working on a bill, h.r. 1800, that would make the lone wolf provision permanent and extend the other two provisions until december, 2017. senator feinstein and leahy have sponsored bills that would, among other things, extend all three provisions until december, 2013. it seems to me that 1038 with its extension of the three sunsets until june 1, 2015, is a reasonable compromise. although i believe that each one of these two should be made permanent, this bill will ensure that our intelligence professionals have the tools they need to keep our nation safe. there is little disagreement that these provisions should and must be reauthorized. f.b.i. director robert mueller has testified repeatedly t

grassley: okay. my objections to this nominee can be summarized with five areas of concern: his controversial writings and speeches, an activist judicial philosophy, his lack of judicial temperament, his troublesome testimony, and a lack of candor before the committee. mr. grassley: i would hope that the president would withdraw the nominee and send up a consensus nominee. we on this side have demonstrated over and over again our cooperation in moving forward on consensus nominatio nominations. the president needs to nominate a mainstream individual who understands the proper role a judge. nominees who would bring a personal agenda and political ideology to the courtroom will have great difficulty in being confirmed. i have troubles with a statement that's been made that the court of appeals is where law is made and we need the finest minds in the world for that. first, intellect is an important element that we ought to consider in any confirmation process. this nominee has an outstanding academic re

grassley: i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. chambliss: mr. president, i rise in support of invoking cloture on the motion to proceed to s. 1038, the patriot sunset extension act of 2011. in four days on may 27, three fisa provisions, the lone wolf, roving wiretap and two section 315 authorities will expire unless congress acts to reauthorize them. the house has been working on a bill, h.r. 1800, that would make the lone wolf provision permanent and extend the other two provisions until december, 2017. senator feinstein and leahy have sponsored bills that would, among other things, extend all three provisions until december, 2013. it seems to me that 1038 with its extension of the three sunsets until june 1, 2015, is a reasonable compromise. although i believe that each one of these two should be made permanent, this bill will ensure that our intelligence professionals have the tools they need to keep our nation safe. there is little disagreement that these provisions should a

now, senator grassley has gup to ask some serious -- begun to ask some serious questions of a.t.f.ir botching of the fast and furious operation. the justice department and attorney general holder has initiated its own independent investigation. we don't know the outcomes yet of those investigations. i think they are very important ones. obviously if a.t.f. violated the law or did anything that was unethical, they should probably be held accountable. host: the democrats line. caller: i would like to ask you one question. you know what the facts are. congress allocates money for the drug war, $46 billion. what i'd like to know is how much of that goes to defense contractors in our country for profit? that's where it really goes. host: mr. olson? guest: i don't know the exact breakdown. the gentleman is partly correct. a certain percentage of it goes to contractors. that are primarily focused on

thank you. >> thank you very much, senator grassley. we would like now to introduce our panel of witnesses. our first witness to testify says mr. randall stevenson. he is the chairman of the board and ceo of at&t. next, we will hear from mr. philip hum. he has served as chief reason officer and executive committee of t-mobile international. next, we will hear from daniel hennesshessey. he is chairman of the wireless association. our fourth witness will be few nihugh mina. he was recently elected chairman of the board of the rural cellular association. next, we will hear from gigi stone. -- gigi sohn. finally, we will hear from larry cohn. we thank you all for appearing at our subcommittee hearing to testify today and we ask our witnesses to rise and raise their right hands as i did minister the oath. do you all confirm that the testimony you are about to give before this committee is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? thank you. mr. stephenson, we will begin with you. we asked that the panelists limi

grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: madam president and members of the senate, i have the privilege of, over most of my tenure in the united states senate, serving on the senate finance committee and working with a good senate leader like senator baucus. i now have the privilege of serving on there but not as ranking member or chairman, but just as a member. but i compliment senator baucus for his leadership on this whole business of tax reform and holding hearings that he's hearing, having held, and today a very important one is being held on the question of is the distribution of tax burden and benefits equitable. the topic of today's hearing is very appropriate, whether the distribution of tax benefits and burdens is equitable is a very important topic. however, i would argue that there is a more important question that we should be debating and we should be answering this question: what is the purpose of the federal income tax? we can't talk about whether taxpa

grassley: on february 14, president obama delivered his budget to the congress. i often describe to my constituents that washington is an island surrounded by reality. nowhere is this more apparent than with president obama's february 14 budget. in presenting and defending his budget, president obama and his staff have said his budget -- quote -- "lives within our means." and an additional quote -- "that it will not add to the debt." and an additional quote -- "that we're not going to spend any more money than we're taking in." well, obviously all you have to do is study the budget and you come to the conclusion that these astonishing statements don't equal the facts. the congressional budget office recently projected the deficit for fiscal year 2011, the year we're in, will exceed $1.5 trillion. this is on top of a trillion-plus deficit in 2009 and 2010. today of every dollar spent, more than 40 cents is borrowed. our country is on an unsustainable path. but you wouldn't realize that by looking at the president's budget proposal. it doesn't recognize the serious

senator grassley. >> as i said in my opening comment, my state is rural and there's some parts of my state where receiving consistent telephone service is questionable. and when they do their services and often as fast as someone in a larger city would receive and since announcing the merger, at&t has said it would be able to bring faster network to rural areas, so for mr. stephenson and maybe someone else would like to comment on this as well but for sure mr. stephenson, how will this merger help rural constituents like mine get faster mobile service and, secondly, rural carriers have to pay fees to the national providers when customers travel outside the rural coverage area. what affect would the merger have on prices consumers in rural areas have to pay? >> i'll take that one. >> either one of you. >> ok. first, at&t has the ideal spectrum today to serve rural areas. they have played a significant holding of 850 which is a lower band spectrum. anything less than one giga herts is considered low band spectrum. they have significant holdings of 700 megahertz. there's nothing in the

grassley: today, the senate will confirm two more of president obama's judicial nominees. i continue to work with the chairman of the committee to ensure nominees are afforded a fair but thorough process and in a timely manner. today's vote marks the 19th nominee to be confirmed in just 42 days that the senate has been in session this congress. the judiciary committee is holding nominations and their hearings on wednesday, and on thursday, we will report additional judicial and executive nominees to the floor. thus far, we have taken positive action on 43 of 63 nominees submitted this congress or 68% of all nominees. now, let me repeat that because i'm going to say something that makes it very disgusting to me, some things that are coming out of the white house. thus far, we have taken positive action on 43 of 63 nominees submitted to this congress or 68% of the nominees. with this progress, i was then surprised at the recent remarks of the white house counsel before the american bar association members. this past april 14. this council addressed the group and complained a

. >> we now turn to senator grassley. >> thank you for holding this hearing.ttention as time goes on. i appreciate the arguments i have read on both sides. there is much to learn. i think people are beginning to take notice of this. in three of my 33 town hall meetings during the spring recess, this issue came up. people ask me what i thought of it. it was just announced that particular time. and characteristic of me, i have not answered most of their questions -- i did answer most of the questions but not that one. i asked people whether they were for or against it. none of them venture to guess whether there were for or against it. i did not learn from them either. anyway, this is something that is going to get attention. i look forward to the testimony we will receive today on the proposed merger. i hope witnesses can explain the impact the combination will have on consumers, prices, competition, and access. there are many rural areas of the united states that are concerned about service, particularly in my state of iowa. a want to hear how the proposed acq

chuck grassley, six-time u.s. senator. first african-american principal in iowa, walter kungingham, nancy powell, director of the united states foreign services. and nancy ossi. nancy grew up in cedar rapids dreaming of far-away countries and people. she got her b.a. and her mba at u.n.i. in the early 1980's and took a job selling phones. she went out to california where she heard about a small start-up non-profit called international medical corps, an organization that worked in some of those far-away lands responding to emergencies, helping local residents become self-reliant. she asked if they needed a volunteer and as it turned out they needed a c.e.o. so nancy listened to her heart she took over and iamseed took off. all told, they directed more than $1 billion in assistance and training worldwide. they've touched millions of lives from somalia to the balkans to haiti and japan and that c.e.o., nancy, has earned awards that put her in the company of presidents and generals nobel prize recipients and oscar winners. now

grassley: i want to address the senate on the nomination for michael urbanski, u.s. district judge, western district virginia. since we have returned from the april recess, we've done very little else other than consider judicial nominations. this will be the third judicial nominee to be confirmed in the last three days, and the 23rd confirmed this year. in fact, after today, we will have confirmed six judges in just eight days. now, i know that the liberal interest groups have been pressuring the other side to consider more nominees, even though we have been moving at a very brisk pace this entire congress, but it is surprising to me, with all the issues facing the nation at home and abroad, that we would spend two weeks on the floor considering little else. our economy continues to struggle, millions of americans remain out of work and are unable to find jobs. the unemployment rate remains at approximately 9%. those who do have jobs are finding it more and more difficult to get to work as gas prices are over $4 a gallon and inching even higher. our nation is facing

senator grassley? for mr. stevenson and mr. mena, how will this help world constituents get faster mobile service and secondly, borough carriers have to pay fees to the national providers when customers travel outside the area. what effect with the merger have on places consumers have to pay? >> either one of you. >> at&t has the ideal spectrum to serve rural areas. they have a significant holding of 850. anything less than 1 gigahertz is considered low. they have concerns -- significant holdings. there is nothing in the t-mobile deal that makes building out rural more attractive in the future that it would be today. that speaks to the first part. as far as the fees, one of the biggest challenges we have faced is trying to get a roaming agreement with at&t. the data are roaming agreement at the 3g level. we have had -- not made any progress. april was just last month. we have been told the rowling person is under -- out of town. it is important for carriers to provide service that allows their devices to work anywhere the user

of these illegal drugs and prescription drugs are closely related and i have that bill, senator grassley and schumer have one on certain types of synthetics and i have one, something that actually killed a young man in minnesota and almost killed a number of others at a party. i just wondered if you you were aware of this problem, either of you and if we have your support in moving forward on this legislation? .. know that in minnesota as well as the other states where these synthetics have shown up. we are working with state and local law enforcement providing technical assistance training to do whatever we can to put a stop to that. >> estimate will the process is going on, the legislative process we use the bully pulpit of the white house to be able to bring to a lot of people's attention the problems of the things such as that salt, synthetic drugs etc. so that has been helpful and alerting people of the problem. thank you. >> along the line of the tools for all of you to use, and is that the administration plan prescription drugs make reference to the role of congress and if you cou

grassley: mr. president, i've been a longtime supporter of free trade. i believe it is always a good thing when american businesses and manufacturers and farmers have more market access for their products. i've also been a longtime supporter of specific free trade agreements that are waiting to be enacted on in the congress, the south korea, colombia and panama agreements. we've had too many years of talking about being longtime supporter of free trade agreements, yet we've not had an opportunity to back up our talk with votes because we can't vote until the president presents them to the congress. the time to present these free trade agreements is long overd overdue. the administration needs to stop moving the goal posts every time we're about to kick the ball through. take the panama agreement as an example. the united states and panama reached an agreement in principle december 2006. however, congressional democrats expressed concern regarding certain labor issues that existed in panama at the time and the bush administration negotiated a deal with th

grassley: i ask for the regular order. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of james michael cole of the district of columbia to be deputy attorney general, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, of the mandatory quorum call has been waeufpltd the question is -- waived. the question is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of james michael cole of the district of columbia to be deputy attorney general shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: vote: vote vote: vote: the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 50, the nays are 40. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is no

grassley: mr. president, we find ourselves again in the situation of extending key provisions of the patriot act. these three provisions are roving wiretaps, section 215 impis record orders, and the lone wolf provisions. these are all very important tools used to investigate and prevent terrorists attacks. they have been reauthorized a number of times, but it seems that in recent years we've been discussing only very short-term extensions of these critical tools. that is why i will support the cloture petition on moving to s. 1038 today. this legislation provides a four-year extension of the three expiring provisions without any substantive changes to the existing authorities, and i believe there does not need to be changes to existing authorities. regardless of my support for today's cloture vote and support for the four-year extension, i want my colleagues to know that i support a permanent extension of the three expiring provisions. having this debate year after year offers little certainty to a