hutchison: thank you.adam president, i want to join my colleague, senator tester, and an increasing number of cosponsors to support our amendment which will ensure that banks of all sizes pay their fair share in deposit insurance for the risk they pose to the banking s our amendment is intended to level the playing field for our safe community banks who for if a too long have paid -- for far too long have paid assessments into the fdic insurance fund above and beyond the risk they pose. the fdic levies deposit insurance premiums on a bank's total domestic deposits. but domestic deposits are not the best means to analyze the safety of banks. financial assets other than deposits create risk in the system, nondeposit assets are held disproportionately by largerrer, noncommunity banks and can be more complex and asse assets that are more likely to show a bank's skphoe sure to -- skphoe sure to risks -- exposure is to risks. the meltdown was caused by bad mortgages which were packaged into risky mortgage-backed

hutchison: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from text section recognized. -- from texas is recognized. the senate will come to order. mrs. hutchison: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas deserves to be heard. the senate will come to order. the senate will come to order. the senator from texas is recognized. mrs. hutchison: i ask to be notified after 30 seconds to that my colleague, senator klobuchar can speak. the presiding officer: the chair will do so. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, this is the amendment that reinstates the federal reserve as the regulator for small banking companies and small chartered banks much the state banks and the smaller banks have asked to stay with the capability to be members of the fed. they want their input into monetary policy. over half of the federal reserve bank presidents have also weighed in saying this is essential. for instance, in the dallas fed it would go from over -- the presiding officer: the 30 seconds is expired.

hutchison: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i rise to speak on the hutchiso hutchison-tester amendment. this is an amendment that will help our community banks. it will level the playing field for them. and i think it's something that i've been working on for several months during all the process that this bill has gone through in committee, this was one of the first things that i wanted to attack. and i'm very pleased that we are going to get a vote very soon on this bill either a voice vote or a record vote. but i know with the bipartisan support that we have, that we will pass this amendment. i would just like to thank the cosponsors of the amendment, senator conrad, senator murray, senator burris, senator brown of massachusetts, senator harkin, senator shaheen, senator cornyn, senator johanns, senator nelson of florida, and senator nelson of nebraska. as well as, of course, senator tester and myself. we are trying to level the playing field for our community banks. and the reason is that there has been a -- in th

hutchison: mr. prede? the presiding officer: the senator from texas is recognized. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i appreciated hearing the senator from vermont describing the amendment, and i haven't seen the text of the amendment, but i am a cosponsor of the bill that would do exactly what he says. i think transparency at the fed is something that we can agree on, so i look forward to seeing the rest of the amendment, and if it's just that, i would be very pleased to -- to work with him for passage. mr. president, i am rising to speak today on the hutchison-klobuchar amendment. my colleague, senator klobuchar, from minnesota is also on the floor. we want to take a moment to talk about our amendment that is going to assure that community banks have a more level playing field than could be the case if the bill that is before us, the dodd bill passes without our amendment. our debate to reform our financial regulatory structure should focus first and foremost on filling the gaps in regulation that le

hutchison: mr.president, madam president, i just say there is certainly one thing we can all agree on, and that is our assessment of the media and what they really like to write about, but i do hope that we can make progress on this bill and do something good for our country and the economy because i think that we have the same goals, and if we just really work for the next three weeks or so trying to get all these amendments through, that would be great. thank you. mr. dodd: let me, madam president, say something if my colleague would yield. one of the important points about this amendment, there will be amendments offered in which we will take things out of the bill or put things in. this is an idea which has great value as a free-standing idea in many ways. it's -- and that's why it has great value. this is something that we clearly need to do. and talk about the other parts of the bill, what we try to do, but this is an idea that brings value to this bill, significant value, in my view, in light

that is what the tester/hutchison amendment does by requiring the fdic to change the assessment to a more accurate measure. a total assets with tangible capital parker would broaden the assessment base and what better measure the rest gave bank poses. a bank's assets include the loans outstanding and security one only need look back to the last two years to know that that is more likely to show than just the pauses. >> it was not the deposits, it was caused by matt -- bad mortgages are packaged into risky mortgage-backed securities to create derivatives. >> the use of large institutions are what led to our financial crisis. our amendment is particularly timely because the fdic has now said the banks will have to prepay into the insurance fund for three years and all of that will be due this year. the three year assessment due at the end of this year it is so important we have a fair assessment ratio and that is what this amendment will do. it will have a ratio for rather they zero in to the deposit fund. but so i am pleased to be the sponsor of this amendment to the merged group that

hutc hutchison: well, mr. president, we could certainly have 30 minutes equally divided on the hutchison-klobuchar amendment, and do we agree to vote 30 minutes after we come? , whatever timwe -- after we come in, whatever time that is? mr.ed toedmr. dodd: let me say y colleague from texas, we'll work this out. why don't we get to the vote here and we'll take care of it. mrs. hutchison: thank you. the presiding officer: without objection, the pending request is agreed to. mr. dodd: so the senator from colorado? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: thank you, mr. president. i'd ask to reserve two minutes for senator tester from montana. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bennet: mr. president, as i mentioned earlier this week, we have before us an important opportunity to safeguard our economy from the conditions that drove our country into -- the presiding officer: can we please have order in the senate. take your conversations off the floor. the senator from colorado. mr. b

chairman. >> thank you, senator hutchison. senator cantwell not being here, senator snowe.t inform my colleagues that after senator snowe and senator cantwell, then everyone will have a chance to speak, but we have to exercise will recall three minute restraint. otherwise our witnesses will get up and walk out. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you for convening this hearing on this catastrophe that has tragically claimed 11 lives and it devastating of our active system for decades. it is an abundant of failure of staggering proportions. as the chairman that oversees the coastguard and noaa, is astonishing that the two key agencies, the most knowledgeable and the most expertise in a variety of areas in marine and biology, had not had a mandatory statutory role in this process with offshore oil and gas development. unfortunately this process was relegated to two agencies which was an egregious mistake that some of -- that could ultimately averted this catastrophe. the minerals management service, the federal agency, rubber- stamp since january 2009 and claimed one for th

. >> senator hutchison i think that is a good point. space is a very unforgiving kind of environment, and nasa has always run the programs being built by contractors, not contractors running the programs with oversight by nasa. that is a new way of doing business dr. holdren. needless to say, there are some people who question the wisdom of that, but the fact is that, if it doesn't work or if it gets extended way out, then we don't have a backup system safe for our partners, the russians. but they have a limited capability of getting stuff up and back with the size of the soyuz. i want to get into-- i want to get into the normal decision-making process, because normally what happens is nasa sends to the office of management and budget by november their budgets, their suggested budget, and normally omb then send it, their iterations, back to nasa for nasa's commentary, but that didn't happen this year. instead, the pass back from omb came right at the time of the announcement of the president. and as you go, the president had to go down

. >> senator hutchison i think that is a good point. space is a very unforgiving kind of environment, and nasa has always run the programs beg built by contractors, not contractors running the programs with oversight by nasa. that is a new way of doing business dr. holdren. needless to say, there are some people who question the wisdom of that, but the fact is that, if it doesn't work or if it gets extended way out, then we don't have a backup system safe for our partners, the russians. but they have a limited capability of getting stuff up and back with the size of the soyuz. i want to get into-- i want to get into the normal decision-making process, because normally what happens is nasa sends to the office of management and budget by november their budgets, their suggested budget, and normally omb then send it, their iterations, back to nasa for nasa's commentary, but that didn't happen this year. instead, the pass back from omb came right at the time of e announcement of the president. and as you go, the president had to go down to t

we just went through the tester-hutchison amendment to actually lower the assessments on community banks. what a great irony that the next amendment, those having supported the earlier amendment to reduce costs, this amendment sets assessments. community banks have assessments on the nonbanks out there in order to pay for their consumer bureau within the fdic. so i -- those who are concerned about the burdens on community banks -- and i think a legitimate concern, one that i think the hutchison-tester amendment did a great deal to alleviate -- they're going to turn right around on these institutions that are struggling to stay alive to serve their communities and add a financial burden to them. for all of those reasons the senator from oregon mentioned plus that one, the shelby amendment deserves to be defeated. i yield the floor. mr. enzi: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming is recognized. mr. enzi: i thank the chair, and i want to point out that you've just seen an example of why there isn't bipartisanship in this chamber. you cannot denigrate the other party

ask unanimous consent that the following be the next first-degree amendments in order: rockefeller-hutchison, the f.t.c. amendment; senator crapo, the g.s.e. on budget amendment; senator mark udall of colorado number 4016 regarding credit scores; senator shelby of alabama's amendments consumer bureau; senator whitehouse of rhode island, the state usury laws; senator vitter number 4003, the manufacturing amendment; senator cantwell and senator mccain's stkpwhras steagall -- glass-steagall amendment. 3986. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. dodd: mr. president, i believe the senator from illinois -- mr. durbin: it's my understanding that under the unanimous consent request -- the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be ten minutes of debate equally divided. the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask that the chair inform me when i have one minute left of my five minutes. i think this is an amendment that's well known to my colleagues. i've spoken on the floor several times. it is about the interchange fees charged t

some of you may remember that kay bailey hutchison and i introduced a bill on immigration.s endorsed by someone who said that if you are being attacked equally on both ends of the spectrum, you might be onto something. the president invited me to the oval office. i know how these things go. i note some staffer probably pulled him aside and told him i was taking a lot of heat on this issue and needed encouragement. the reason i know that is that i walked in did the photo op. i sat on the cushy couch. he'd sat in the hard backed chair. he said, "i asked you over here because i wanted to ask you about your bill. but i also wanted you to be encouraged." he said, "i would like you to see me as an encourage-er. i do not want you to leave here without some encourage-ment. " he used the word about five times. i finally said, "mr. president, is sitting here in the oval office with the leader of the free world, i am encouraged." we have taken it to the internet. we got a golden mao's award for our website. that is a big deal, isn't it? you can imagine some of the early training sessi

senator rockefeller and senator hutchison's amendment dealing with the federal trade commission. senator bond, senator warner and myself dealing with angel investors as well. those are four votes that we may have recorded votes on. some are voice votes, but those are four we think we could have votes on on monday evening. so there will be -- we are planning to have votes. with that, mr. president, let me ask consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. dodd: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 234, h.r. 2711. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 234, h.r. 2711, an act to amend title 5 united states code to provide for the transportation of the dependents' remains and effects of certain federal employees who die while performing official duties or as the result of performance of official duties. the presiding officer: without objection, the senat

i turn now to my distinguished partner, senator kay bailey hutchison. >> thank you, mr. chairman.s hearing because i have been alarmed at the plans that have been put forward not the goal of the plans i agree with the goal. we should utilize safe science research that cannot be done as well in gravity conditions on earth and we need to be bold in exploring space so that we maintain our superiority in space exploration. i appreciate all vigorously the two of you. general holdren, you have a distinguished career and are the at the minister and dr. holdren from the white house council of science and technology policy and i am very pleased, mr. chairman we do have the first man who walked on the moon and the last man who walked on the moon in the second panel, neil armstrong and eugene cernan along with augustine taxed with the president to come up with options that would save nasa, space exploration and putting humans in space. i find serious flaw in the area where detailed information has been provided by the president's administration. there are good reasons to have reservations ab

senator hutchison and senator rockefeller on the federal trade commission as well have -- we've reachedwe've got consensus. then obviously there are going to be amendments that will come up that are controversial, that are going to require a good debate here on the floor. hopefully not an endless one, but a debate on those matters; and want to get to those soon. i know my colleagues who have those ideas want to be heard, and i certainly want to give them the opportunity to do so. my hope would be that we reach time agreements and have up or down votes on them. we could avoid filibusters and those that want to extend the debate even though they're not happy with the agreement, don't like the outcome, i think we'll serve our interests well, with the exception of those that deserve some sort of attention like that, but the overwhelming majority of these issues ought to be debated antivoted up or down -- voted up or down. so that's sort of the game plan as i see it, mr. president. but i'm obviously not going to make any unanimous consent requests regarding time agreements until my colleague

there's a hutchison-tester proposal that i've endorsed and i think all of us have. so in the next couple of hours, my hope is that we'll move forward and start the process. and then there are more controversial amendments that members want to raise. they should have an adequate time to debate those ideas. i think people are exhausted. it has been a long congress, one that's been -- we've taken on some major, major issues. and so people are understandably tired, and that tired situation can lead to frustrations that people feel. but i noticed this morning's headlines in the papers, the market declined by 2% yesterday, not because of something that happened here but it happening thousands of miles away in the small country in the mediterranean. again, an indication of how global our economic situation is, how precarious it is, where events in one part of the world can affect all of us. so it is all the more important that we try to establish some sound rules for the 21st century. the last time that we established in a broad sense any rules for the structure of our fin

i turn now to my distinguished partner, senator kay bailey hutchison. >> thank you, mr. chairman.i'm very pleased we have this hearing because i have been alarmed at the plans that have been put forward not the goal of the plans i agree with the goal. we should utilize safe science research that cannot be done as well in gravity conditions on earth and we need to be bold in exploring space so that we maintain our superiority in space exploration. i appreciate all vigorously the two of you. general holdren, you have a distinguished career and are the at the minister and dr. holdren from the white house council of science and technology policy and i am very pleased, mr. chairman we do have the first man who walked on the moon and the last man who walked on the moon in the second panel, neil armstrong and eugene cernan along with augustine taxed with the president to come up with options that would save nasa, space exploration and putting humans in space. i find serious flaw in the area where detailed information has been provided by the president's administration. there are good rea

president, i ask unanimous consent that senators burr, hutchison, roberts be added as cosponsors of this amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: and i apologize to my colleagues for giving them false information a couple of days ago. it isn't $125.9 billion that we're now pouring into fannie and freddie. it's up to $145 billion that's now being poured in. $145 billion. i would remind my colleagues again that last -- last christmas eve at 7:00 p.m. was when the treasury department decided to lift the cap which had been at $400 billion. it is now up to $145 billion. so here we are addressing "financial regulatory reform" and not looking at $5 trillion of toxic assets. that's already spent $145 billion off budget, off budget. incredible. now, my distinguished friend from connecticut pointed out yesterday, he says i want a little revisionist history. he says the house financial committee passed bipartisan legislation. it stalled in the committee over here despite the support for it. the republican control committee then passed a bill and never filed it, never brought

cardin, chambliss, coburn, cochran, cornyn, crapo, demint, dorgan, feingold, gramm, grassley, harkin, hutchison, isakson, landrieu, leahy, lincoln, mccain, murkowski, risch, wicker and wyden. this is a very broad cross section of ideological opinion in the u.s. senate. mr. president, in the house of representatives, a similar process has taken place, and this concept has been cosponsored by 320 members of congress. that is a lot. that very rarely happens. and that legislation was authored by republican congressman ron paul and democratic congressman alan grayson. the amendment that i will be bringing to the floor of the senate has 15 cosponsors, republicans and democrats alike, and i very much appreciate their support. mr. president, this amendment is simple and it is straightforward. at a time when federal reserve has provided over $2 trillion in zero or near zero-interest loans to some of the largest financial institutions in this country, this amendment requires the fed to tell the american people who got the money. now, i don't think that's a very radical concept. this amendment would simpl