pipeline is back the house energy and commerce committee revived the pipeline this week and even to bring that up is like really nasty i mean that's that's just the highway bill if i if i heard you right well in any case the house energy and commerce committee revive the pipeline this week passing legislation basically if i don't need to read the stuff the republicans are going to hold the the infrastructure bill hostage to to get the x.l. pipeline pushed through which is you know fast transport of oil from canada to refineries in texas where they can be export our number one manufactured export right now in the states as gasoline so this is more more gasoline for export more money for exxon mobil china in the last decade and a half has built five thousand miles of high speed rail we have none why are we having a national debate about high speed transportation of oil from one end of the country the other and nobody's talking about high speed transportation of people. give you want one of the great answers because it doesn't work and you can talk about high speed rail going from tampa to o

co-chair of the pro-choice caucus in the house and a member of the energy and commerce committee. first call for her comes from bought mo. frank, on our republican line. go ahead, frank. >> caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. the first thing that i want to say is, i think that the congresswoman is very wrong ligion.t comes to the freedom of no y, no congresswoman, no president, has the right to force me to support something against my religion. it is unconstitutional. the other thing is, when it comes to the susan komen institute donations, my donations to cancer, which is different than abortion, my donation should not go towards funding of abortions, and the last thing i want to say is, there are a lot of conservative women in the congress who can be invited to speak on this issue. so i think to bring up a male conservative congressman to -- i mean, it's not a good match against a liberal woman. so you should invite some other congresswoman who is conservative, and who has -- >> frank, thank you for that suggestion. representative? >> well, i -- you know, when it co

now, though, we're going to take you back to testimony from earlier today in this house, energy and commerce committee. this began at 9:00 this morning. >> committee will come to order. at the conclusion of openings statement call up hr 3538, north american energy access act. i would note because of the conference committee on the payroll tax expense, i want to thank members for getting here to start this morning. we're intending to stop temporarily at 10:00. and resume, it's my understanding, our understanding, that the conference is going to meet from 10:00 until noon. we will then come back at noon here and work until it's done. we expect votes will occur at 1:30, so we'll maneuver around that. so anyway, the chair would recognize mr. terry for the purposes of offering an amendment in the nature of a substitute. >> mr. chairman, i appreciate you bringing up the amendment and the nature of a substitute. i introduce 3548 -- >> if the gentleman will suspend, call up the amendment. >> call up the amendment. >> clerk will report the amendment. >> amendment in the nature of the substitute to hr 3538 offe

. >> we're taking you back next to the house energy and commerce committee. they are marking up a bill that was designed to force approval of the keystone xl pipeline and they'll grant a decision to the federal energy and regulatory commission. that is fred upton, chairman of the committee. live coverage resuming here on c-span3. >> yeah. and the rest now will proceed. and so what i'd like to do, i'm still told that we're expecting votes about 1:30, 1:40. so what i'd like to do, i know the gentle lady from california has an amendment. and the gentleman from pennsylvania has an amendment. so though this will have to wait until mr. waxmane can roll aud together. but if not, we will start with the gentledy california's amendment go from there. and the gentle ladyhe amendment. we'll ask unanimous consent that it be considered as read. the staff will distribute the amendment. and the gentle lady is recognized in support of her amendment. >> thank you. [ no audio ] all right. working now? there it is. we were worried about the two-hour rule earlier today. but we're

. >>> the powerful house energy and commerce committee have scheduled a meeting today to discuss subpoenaingfficials from the office of management and budget over the solyndra scandal. the subpoenas if they came would have marked the first time congress had subpoenaed people in the controversy. it had subpoenaed documents in the past. the whole threat turned out to be nothing after the obama administration said you don't have to subpoena anyone, the omb is free to come testify anytime you wish. back to you. >>> thank you, scott. tomorrow, the world will look on as friends and family say their final good-bye to whitney houston. at 9:00 our time, that's pacific time, mourners will gather at houston's childhood church in her hometown of newark, new jersey, for a private funeral service. among those invited houston's ex-husband bobbi brown, kevin costner, her co-star in "the bodyguard" and oprah winfrey. clive davis will speak at tomorrow's funeral. houston's god mother, aretha franklin, will perform. the service will be live stream on the web at 9:00 pacific time. we'll have a link to watchç i

. >>> in a few moments, the house energy and commerce committee would markup a bill to give the regulatory commission 30 days to approve the keystone xl oil pipeline. in four hours, the confirmation hearing with the ambassador to india. then david grossman. >>> my most important point on who should run and who the republican leader is, we can't tell them. i think it would be better if a month before the election we announce who was running for president because the media's obsessive desire to know who is your leader? is it michael steele or glenn beck? they want us to tell us who our leader is so they can fixate on them and destroy. >> this year's political action conference begins thursday and c-span will cover it. watch it online at the c-span video library at c-span.org. >>> this is c-span3 with poll continues and public affairs programming throughout the week and every weekend american history tv. 48 hours of people and events telling the american story. get our schedules and see past programs on our web sites. join in the conversation on these social media sites. >>> the house commerc

. >> the comments of congressman lit literary, a member of the house energy and commerce committee opposing the dingell amendment. the committee trying to allow the ferc committee, which is an energy regulatory committee that would have the responsibility for the keystone xl pipeline. a note that the senate at the moment has no plans to take up the pleasure. an environmental group giving its own scorecard, assessing members of the house and senate democrats and republicans on just what kind of performps they have when it comes to greenishes, the environmental scorecard today, sayre rare chiefo spoke to reporters earlier in the day. here is her assessment. >> the national environmental scorecard is scored on the number of pro environment votes cast divided by the total number of votes scored. an absence is counted as a negative vote. for over 40 years, the national environmental scorecard has been an important source of objective factual information for the public about the most important legislation considered and the corresponding voting records of all members of congress. includes 11 vote

he serves on the house energy and commerce committee.for being with us this evening. >> judge, thank you for having me on. >> judge jeanine: why did the president reject the keystone pipeline project? >> i think he rejected it for political reasons. he was playing to part of his political base. frankly, i don't understand. if we think back a couple of years i can't believe bill clinton would have rejected this same deal had he been in the same situation with rising gasoline prices and an opportunity to bring them down via the approval of the keystone project. >> congressman, jay carney, a white house president secretary this week said the fact is the republicans essentially forced the administration to deny the permit process because they insisted on a timeframe within which it was impossible to appropriately approve the pipeline and then says this is all the republicans fault and says the process ended the way it did, it is wholly the responsibility of republicans who insisted on playing politics with the payroll tax cut extension at th

and will not stand. >> welcome back to "hardball." that is of course house speaker john boehner today just hours before it was announced that the house energy and commerce committeehold a hearing march 1st. hss secretary kathleen sebelius expected to testify about the role he just described requiring religious organizations to provide free birth control in their employee health insurance plans. the white house pushed back today referring to reporters to this petition in support of the hss contraceptive proposal and signed by over 600 doctors including 70 catholic doctors. the fight has only gotten hotter with lawmakers on both sides speaking out loudly today. will either side buckle? that's the big question. linda writes for "the washington post." melinda, i've been reading your columns on this. why did "the post" call you melinda one day instead of melinda hennenberger in that column? what was that about? >> it's a production error, chris. it's funny. i got some irate mail from people saying at least have the guts to sign it with your last name thinking i was attempting to be semi anonymous. or maybe it was a hat tip to madonna ahead of the super bowl. >> i kept

a new report out was compiled by the house energy and commerce committee. it says that many tanning salons downplay the known health risks associated with indoor tanning. officials say investigators who identify themselves as fair-skinned teenage girls were given misleading and false information by most of the 300 tanning salons they contacted. every year 28 million people use tanning beds. most of them are young women ages 16 to 29. >>> more testing is under way in upstate new york where 15 students are suffering from a mystery illness that causes uncontrollable tics similar to touret tourette's. environmental specialists are testing a super fund cleanup site on the outskirts of le roy. a train derailed in 1970 dumping toxic chemicals causing water and ground contamination. the site is four miles from where the students go to school. officials are now trying to determine if there is any connection to the mystery illness. neurologists initially said the teens have conversion disorder previously known as mass his tear ya. >>> it is a clims into nelson mandela

and months before the full loan was granted, but the white house maintains that was disclosed in earlier e-mails and show no evidence of any political pressure. republicans on the house energy and commerce committeeending to the solyndra, reads in part. it's wrong for the white house to continue to charade, insisting that those advisors closest to the president were not involved in solyndra when documents clearly show otherwise, nearly west wing official in the orbit. carol browner, ron klain. valerie garrett and others, were all part of solyndra. and they had the layoff announcements to say and what role did the white house play in approving the initial one and later restructuring that loan, harris? >> we've seen several fridays where the document dumps happen. i'm curious where does the investigation go from here? >> republican promise they will continue the investigation demanding more documentation and threatening the white house with contempt of congress if it doesn't come forth. the administration' view of all of this summed up in a letter that white house lawyers reads in part the committee continues to engage in a wide ranging, fishing expedition. demanding that the white house provide mo

we are going live now to capitol hill where a house energy and commerce sub committee is holding a hearing on the obama administration administration and the keystone pipeline. >> like many people i was dwas disappointed when the president decided that the keystone pipeline was not going to be pr approved because there was not enough time to do the research for the application. we know that the application was filed in september of 2008. that was almost 3.5 years ago. as a matter of fact, as far back at march 2010, second of state hillary clinton in response to a question said she was inclined to approve the permit based on the information she had for keystone pipeline. i want to public to know, and i'm sure they are aware of five major unions support the building of this pipeline. in an article the author reported some of president barack obama's biggest supporters are fuming over the decision. the construction workers that would benefit from building the pipeline, as he said in his article, feel stabbed in the back by unions that joined environmental groups to kill the project. labor's i

her uncle is republican congressman fred upton, the chairman of the house energy and commerce committeeserry for setting off an angry sea lion. she says that the animal tried to attack her in a vacation in south africa. she posted these pictures on line. she says they must have thought her shiny smart phone was a fish. she says it roared at her and jumped out of the water, coming within a foot of biting her. the star says her brother stepped in to save her, but she suffered scratches on her hand, as she climbed to a rock to safety. the top five things. police investigating a colorado man they suspect of selling phony meteorites. his own testing he says proves the rocks are real. the detroit red wings are close to the record for most consecutive home wins in an nhl season, but they have to beat dallas tonight. number 3, north korea unveiling a massive bronze statue of lovieanne kim jong il. and congress could be close to a deal to extend the payroll tax credit, set to expire next month. on this day, around the year tw 70, yes, 270, legend has it that clauduous the cruel ordered the death

. >>> the house energy and commerce committee will talk about taking a big step politically, subpoenaingeople in the investigation in fremont's solyndra. up until now the committee has only subpoenaed documents. the people testified voluntarily. i talked with committee members. while subpoena is not a sure thing, they say if they'll come they'll start with the office of management and budget which was the first to see solyndra's loan applications. >>> and washington state is considering taxing electric car owners for not using gasoline as much as $100 a year. it sounds kind of crazy, but when you stop and think about it, it might someday be necessary. the roads you drive on this morning on your way to work are maintained in large part through state gasoline taxes, but if everyone were to use the roads but nobody used gasoline, you'd have a major problem, a real pothole. back to you. >> i don't think you'll fit in one of those little cars. he's got legs up to here. >> i'd pay money to see that. i'm going to get a smartcar probably sometime next week, we'll park it out in the back and we'l

. >>> other news, the house energy and commerce committee will meet tomorrow to talk about taking a bigtep politically, subpoenaing people in the investigation in to fremont's solyndra. up until now the committee has only subpoenaed documents. the people testified voluntarily. i talked to committee members and while subpoena is not a sure thing, they'll start with management and budget which was the first to see solyndra's loan applications. >>> and washington state is considering taxing electric car owners for not using gasoline. as much as $100 a year. this sounds crazy but when you stop and think about it, it may be necessary someday. the roads you're going to drive on this morning on the way to work is maintained in large part through the state's gasoline tax. if everybody uses the roads but they don't use gasoline, laura and john, you'd have a real problem. >> uh-huh. thank you very much, scott. >>> 5:26 right now. still to come on "today in the bay," back to the bargaining table, pg&e and san bruno trying to figure out how much is enough money to pay for the deadly pipeline explos

about a year ago, the energy and commerce committee had an opportunity to hear from secretary khu testifying before the house and -- energy and commerce committee, what is the united states doing to relieve the pain at the pump for millions of americans who are trying to get to work and help their families ends meet? after hemming and hawing, he said, in 10 years from now -- i stopped and interrupted, the administration's plan is something we can count on 10 years from now and as we have seen with gas prices that have risen $1.66 since the president took office, their plan is still not in effect. permitting agencies across the federal government need to work to streamline, speed up the permitting process in order to close the production gap on federal lands. energy exploration can lower energy costs while driving the economic recovery. economic recovery and job creation is the number one priority of this congress and it's time that the president and our friends in the senate get on board. creating jobs and getting people back to work is not a partisan issue and past time that we get wins in the fight against

chairman of the house energy and commerce committee.e will be our newsmakers guest today at 10:00 eastern. at 6:00 p.m., he told reporters that the debate about the payroll tax would lead to broader efforts on tax reform. here is a look. [video clip] >> maybe these provisions that expire will provide the oomph to get to the finish line. yes, they expire december 31, but for most americans, the impact does not hit until april 15 of 2014 because the tax hike kicks in january 13 but you do not pay until the end of the year, so that still allows you time. i would like to see the rates come down. i like them to be simplified and a number of different things. host: fred upton on newsmaker sunday at 10:00. 6:00. top on the last few minutes about rick santorum and many different headlines coming out of a higher yesterday on what he had to say. go ahead. caller: i think people will doubt of the cities because they have less trouble in the schools. they have in a lot of cases better pay, and there is less crime. as far as santorum goes when a wom

and the white house are bickering again over cilindra, who turned over what and when. >> congress subpoenaed documents from the white house were due yesterday. the house commerce and energy committee issued the subpoenas november 3rd. the committee is not specific p what documents are missing. in fact, it didn't ask for exact names of documents. so whether or not the white house actually failed to give the committee what it asked for is up for debate. and no doubt they will debate that. comcast is roaring out a netflix competitor, they're going to call it stream flix. it's down about 5% this morning on the news. i should point out, comcast owns this tv station. and san mateo-based sony computer entertainment started selling this early this morning. the sony veda launched at midnight. you recall we had this gadget friday a few weeks back. it's sony's latest hand-held game machine, does all kinds of interesting things. will play media as well, everything but a cell phone. but it does have a cell phone chip inside. it's the latest answer to the iphone, which has just played games amazingly. sony's got its work cut out for it. >> scott, always ahead of the game. >>> right now, time to

reaction by e-mail from one member of congress, congressman morgan griffin, on the house energy and commerce committeehe's deeply disappoint ed because in effect the taxpayers are now footing the bill for bonuses for the seoul ind are employees, and of course, there is an ongoing investigation in this very committee on capitol hill into how they got that big loan guarantee in the first place. martha: that's been going on for some time and we expect it will continue. thank you, stef creen tani. bill: there are new developments in the meltdown of the securities firm being investigated over $1.6 billion now missing. mf global was once headed by john corzine, the former democratic head of new jersey and top fund-raiser on wall street. investigators looking into two money transfers from customer accounts during the firm's final days as they try and figure out what happened to more than a billion dollars in client money. good mystery. martha: this breaking news just crossing moments ago. and we can now confirm from the u.s. official, this is coming across from a.p., that the two nato troops who were killed

new jersey democrat frank pallone, sits on the house energy and commerce committee and is involved inhe investigation. i guess that's where we should start, congressman. how did this come about? why is congress involved here? >> there were a lot of reports that there were false and misleading information that was being given out at tanning salons. that's why we asked that the committee do this undercover investigation. and frankly the report was jarring. i mean the fact that very rarely was anything mentioned about the health risks. we know that incidents of melanoma are increased by 75%, you know, if for people who use, who use indoor tanning salons. there were even suggestions somehow you were going to benefit. you were going to get more vitamin-d for example, if you tanned in an indoor salon. so it was pretty jarring that there was a lot of false and misleading information. jenna: so the indoor tanning association does have a statement about this and they did mention vitamin-d which you mentioned as well. they quote a recent study by harvard says 77% of the american public is vitam

possible that fred upton, the chairman of the house energy and commerce committee could have some weight in the discussion of legislation. bill writes that john boehner said the issue has primary jurisdiction in that committee, and that the committee will take the lead on the issue to find an effective and appropriate solution. he specifically, the chairman fred upton to find a legislative solution. next up is pat in cincinnati. next up is pat in cincinnati. i think we are done with phone calls. thanks for all of them. we want to remind you that if you want to weigh in on the issue we have opened up a pull test your thoughts on who should take the lead, who is right in this situation, the obama situation or john boehner proposing a legislative solution to the issue. facebook dot com / c-span as per you go. also, this afternoon at 4:00 democratic senators are expected to hold a news conference. you will have that live for you you will have that live for you at 4:00 here on c-span2. next up, the entire news conference with jay carney at the white house earlier this afternoon. [backgrou

in an effort to create american jobs and move an energy supply from a friendly trading partner to the united states gulf coast, the house energy and commerce committee favorably reported h.r. 3548 to the full house. h.r. 3548, the north american energy access act, would end the waiting game that has lasted for over three years by pushing forward approval of the keystone x.l. pipeline. in his state of the union speech two weeks ago, the president promised to significantly expand production of oil and natural gas from offshore and onshore public lands. unfortunately, but not surprisingly, he never mentioned his decision to reject the keystone x.l. pipeline. while the president's comments about expanding oil and gas production in the u.s. were welcomed news to many, i'm not sure how many people took his pledge seriously given his decision on keystone x.l. i am hopeful that the president will follow through on expanding production. i just wish he would have helped our country reduce our dependence on middle earn oil while creating tens -- eastern oil while creating tens of thousands of jobs here in america by approving the pipeline application. the pres

house did turn over a number of document oevz the weekend. that same group of politicians on the house committee for energy and commerce wrote a letter to the federal trade commission urging the ftc to investigate google and the latest accusations against the company over privacy. recent missteps by a number of silicon valley companies have awoken washington's interests in privacy. back to you. >> scott mcgrew, thank you. >>> parents, if you want to help keep your kids in check there's a new app called pix checker works with your kid's cell phone. recovers every message and picture sent from their phone and shares them with you in real-time. some parents say this goes too far. others say it does provide a sense of security. >> definitely you know a good way to not spy but to keep track on what your kids are doing. >> it's currently available for most phone models that use google's android operating system but not available for the i phone or blackberry 3. it costs $3.99. >>> meteorologist christina loren is talking about 80s in some places of the area. let's check in with her for a look at forecast. good morning. >> good morning to you. not quite y

the house has decided to have cyber security legislation developed up to as many as nine different committees depending on what the issue is. for example, that's why you saw the house energy and commerceheir subcommittee today looking specifically about the issues. >> josh smith, one final point because james lewis from the csis put some of the blame on cable companies and other isps, saying they have a key responsibility when it comes to cyber security. what was his argument and what was the counter argument? >> the argument is somewhat that these companies that are -- form the pipe, so to speak that they are enables of cyber attacks. there's been a lot of argument and push for a more built-in security, meaning not using your personal computer to block things or your isp and other company that provides those services would take a more proactive in monitoring and identifying threats. >> you can read more online at nationaljournal.com. joshl smith is joining us live on the phone tonight, his piece on today's hearing. thanks very much for being with us. thank you for listening to "washington today" here on c-span radio. >> we'll have more coming up in a moment. first some other news fin

legislation repealing that went through the house committee today. the energy and commerce health subcommittee voting 17-5 to repeal this. no amendments attached. the ranking member frank palone, democrat from new jersey and adolphos town crossing the aisle. votes not scheduled but are expected to happen by the end of the month and next month in conjunction with the supreme court. franklin graham apologized to president obama for questioning his christian faith during an interview vm graham saying i regret statements which may have cast doubt on the faith of president obama. graham is the son of billy graham. he said, i apologize to the president and any i have offended for not articulating why i am not supporting him in this election. members of the naacp accused him of racial dischord. the number of mosques increased in the last decade according to a new study researchers found that the national count was 2,106 islamic centers compared to 1,209 back in the year 2000. and under a thousand back in 1994. the report was released today. the title is the american -- 2011 based

house to hand over all of the solyndra documents expires today. the whithouse did turn over a number of documents over the weekend. some of the same politicians from the house committee on energy and commercee sent a letter to the federal trade commission asking the ftc to launch an investigation into google's privacy practices. washington's been taking a strong interest in lately in silicon valley and privacy after a series of missteps by several companies almost as if they are daring washington to crack down. also we should see the dow cross 13,000 this morning in what, about five minutes. after that good news you were talking about earlier about with greece. back to you. >> sounds good. thank you. >> 6:25. still to come, students at one san jose school will return to a school cleaned up after vandals sprayed racist graffiti on. find out what the school plans to do next. >> and brace yourself, gas prices topping $5 a gallon could be just months away. a live report on this coming up. >> from near-record warmth to a round of rain, we have a lot to talk about in the weather department. starting today the warm-up is on. i'll take you through your forecast coming right up. >> drivers on 580 s

a house energy and commerce panel is marking up legislation directing the federal energy regulatory committee to approve the pipeline within 30 days. the senate finance committee will be meeting on the pipeline this afternoon. that house meeting is in recess roogt now. we do plan to bring you live coverage whether they resume. that will happen about 12:30, about 20 minutes from now. while we wait for that to get under way, we'll bring you remarks from earlier today from ben bernanke as he talks about the economic outlook for this year. >> on page four of your statement, you had testified that the current estimates of the longer run, normal rate of unemployment is between 5.2% and 6%. how does that compare to unemployment during the go-go years of the 1990s? unemployment did reach below that in the 2000s as well. we're concerned that over the past few years that there has been some modest increase in the sustainable rate of unemployment. one of the factors contributing to that is the fact that as i mentioned in my remarks that about 40% of the unemployed have been unemployed for six months or

camp: i yield 2 1/2 minutes to the chairman of the energy and commerce committee and a member of the house senate-house conference the gentleman from michigan. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for 2 1/2 minutes. mr. upton: i thank the gentleman from the great state of michigan for yielding. i rise obviously in support of this conference report. it's not perfect but it is srnl the right thing to do now. -- certainly the right thing to do now. our economy is still struggling bigtime. families are struggling in my home state of michigan, we know better than anyone else the pain of high unemployment and anemic economic growth. in extending the temporary payroll tax relief and unemployment benefits, it's not the way to fix the economy, but we need to do it now to offer a measure of relief to those in need. but our long-term goal is certainly much bigger. we got to fix the economy. we got to create jobs. we need to return america to a place where these temporary patches are not needed. in addition to the payroll tax and unemployment health extensions, this packa

he chairs the energy and commerce committee in the house of representatives, john, i think for todaybe better known as kate upton's uncle. >> i'm wondering why she didn't show a picture of fred up there? >> reporter: can't imagine. >> how would that have happened? fred upton is a soft-spoken guy from michigan. involved in sensitive investigations at the moment. we'll see how that one plays out. i bet he's getting a pretty good ribbing in congress tonight. >>> a series of explosions in bangkok, thailand and israel blames iran. we'll explain the connection after the break. >>> also whitney houston acknowledged battling addictions throughout her life. we'll speak to an expert about her struggles next. in the works package, we change the oil we change the filter... tire rotation, suspension, we make suspension checks... what we have here is the multi-point inspection. every time a vehicle comes into a ford dealership you'll be presented with one of these. we check the belts, hoses... brakes. tires and the pressures... battery, all your fluids... exhaust system, transmission... we inspect

and defend must. the house will approach this matter fairly and deliberately through the regular order and appropriate legislative channels. because it has primary jurisdiction on the issues involved the energy and the commerce committee has taken the lead on the legislative process necessary to enact an effective and appropriate solution. chairman upton convened a hearing late last year to begin laying the groundwork for the legislative action when this flawed rule was first proposed. i welcome his efforts to consider all possible options as his committee continues to proceed with the efforts. this attack by the federal government on religious freedom must not stand and will not stand. i yield back. >> the comments of the house speaker john boehner who is catholic from the cincinnati, ohio, area, reacted to the rule put in place by the department of health and human services after weeks of debate within the obama white house. a number of the aides to the president signaled a mutually agreeable way to put the rule in place to begin in august of 2013. the rule put in place last month does exempture churches, but it would affect catholic hospitals and universities and even though contraceptives are contrary to catholic

camp: i yield 2 1/2 minutes to the chairman of the energy and commerce committee and a member of the house senate-house conference the gentleman from michigan. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for 2 1/2 minutes. mr. upton: i thank the gentleman from the great state of michigan for yielding. i rise obviously in support of this conference report. it's not perfect but it is srnl the right thing to do now. -- certainly the right thing to do now. our economy is still struggling bigtime. families are struggling in my home state of michigan, we know better than anyone else the pain of high unemployment and anemic economic growth. in extending the temporary payroll tax relief and unemployment benefits, it's not the way to fix the economy, but we need to do it now to offer a measure of relief to those in need. but our long-term goal is certainly much bigger. we got to fix the economy. we got to create jobs. we need to return america to a place where these temporary patches are not needed. in addition to the payroll tax and unemployment health extensions, this packa