hutchison: mr. president, what is the time allotment at present? the presiding officer: the minority has 12 1/2 minutes total. mrs. hutchison: thank you. the presiding officer: and the majority has 12 minutes. a senator: mr. president. mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: thank you, mr. president. i'm pleased to be here to join those of my colleagues who are urging that we come together this afternoon and i'm pleased to we're -- pleased we're going to see votes on the violence against women act to reauthorize the legislation as it has passed through the judiciary committee. as we all know, domestic violence continues to be a serious problem across our country. in new hampshire, nearly one in four women has been sexual assaulted. at least a third of new hampshire women have been victims of a physical assault by an intimate partner. more than half of all women in my state have experienced sexual or physical assault over the course of their lifetimes. all

i'll turn to senator kay bailey hutchison. >> thank you very much, mr. mueller, for coming before our committee. i'm happy to say that last year we thought it would be the last time you would appear before our committee, and i was very pleased that the president offered and you accepted an extension of your term, because i think what has happened at the fbi during your term is exponential. i think the changes that have taken place and the responsibilities that you have had have been more transformational than probably any time since the beginning of the fbi. i do want to start my remarks just very briefly by recognizing also the chairwoman of this committee who will on saturday become the longest serving woman to serve in congress in the history of the united states congress, and we're going to make a big deal of that because we're really proud of this little pint-sized mighty mite who has outlasted them all. so mr. fbi director, let me just state a couple of points. think that senator mikulski has really outlined the big picture. there are a couple of a

the southwest border, my colleague, senator hutchison has worked acidulously in that area. i want to know that this is not only a bipartisan support, we think it ought to be nonpartisan to support our border. i'll let her raise those questions in there. in the area of cyber threats, our nation faces a growing and pervasive threat overseas from hacker, cyber spies and cyber terrorists. we need safe and resilient networks. we worry about online banking and commerce, the safety of our power grids, air traffic control systems, digitized records. yesterday the congress held, with the administration -- the senate held a cyber exercise. the majority of the senators were there to listen to an exercise on an attack on a major city's power grid. it was chilling. it was terrifying to know what happened there and what we could do to protect it. so we need to know about cyber. finally i want to know how the justice department is improving its accountability to taxpayers. you know you've gotten a bad rap, some of them about lavish banquets, cost overruns, the ig doing its audits, and if

i want to follow on to senator hutchison's questions regarding the prosecution of senator ted stevens. i think so many of us were absolutely shocked. i was horrified as a friend and as an alaskan to read judge sullivan's comments that this ill-gotten verdict not only resulted in the loss of senator stevens losing his seat, but in his word tipped the balance of power in the united states senate. pretty powerful in terms of what the department of justice did to a great man. i appreciate and i recognize and i thank you for your actions in dismissing that case and in your decision to not attempt to retry, and i join senator hutchison with that. there are questions that still remain. you know that. i have a long series of them. what i would like to do is submit them to you today and ask that you respond to them prior to the release of the report which is due to come out next wednesday, the 15th of march. i would appreciate your attention to that. i have a question regarding what is happening now with the release of this report. the "usa today" reported that the department of justice has sp

hutchison: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas is recognized. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, it's my pleasure to ask unanimous that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the hraoefrbd. under the previous order -- the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will resume s. 1925, which the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 1925, a bill to reauthorize the violence against women act. the presiding officer: the senator from texas is recognized. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, it is my pleasure to be able to introduce joel osteen, the pastor of lakewood church in houston, texas. he is a native texan and attended oral roberts university in tulsa, oklahoma. for 17 years, pastor osteen worked behind the scenes for his father john who founded lakewood church in 1959. in 1999, his father passed away, and pastor osteen accepted god's call to service in the church and took over the reins as senior pastor desp

senator hutchison, what's your reaction to mr. van hollen? and senator, i want to add one point. look, i like most tax cuts, but this one's only one year and it only covers companies of 500 employees or less, that's a little bit gimmicky as the "wall street journal" pointed out this morning. >> well, larry, all of us would rather see real tax reform. we would rather see the corporate rate lowered in general, we want to try to protect the individual tax cuts as we can. but i think anything we can do to help small business keep their head above water with the regulations that are being thrown at them by this administration with the constant talk of increasing taxes on our job creators. and with the obama health care staring them in the face is another big cause. i think what eric cantor is trying to do is to say to the small business people, we do want you to hire people, we're going to give you a break, and your payroll and i think it will help for the economy. >> chris van hollen, look, i don't have any trouble with successful people getting incentives. my problem with this story

kay bailey hutchison is basically leaving politics this year.tion of the senate. olympia snowe is not running for re-election in the senate. lisa murkowski is in the senate because she ran as an independent last year. she lost the republican primary to a conservative republican challenger. these are women that are liberated a bit from the political games that the rest of the republicans in washington are playing and have to play. >> i think that's so smart in looking at the individual circumstance of these women that feel like they can speak out. that goes right to, i guess, the most important pragmatic at least political question here which is whether or not this shift in position by the republican party, whether it's going to hurt them among republican women or whether this is only something that hurts them among independent women, potential crossover voters and potentially even some men who see themselves as being alienated by these issues and otherwise seeing themselves as in the center. is this something that's really only for independent v

kay bailey hutchison, other republican women have agreed that these attacks on women's reproductive health is bad for the party. it's bad for america. let's look at where ryan takes us and where romney goes. cutting day care. what do women depend on? they depend on -- working women. cutting education. what are women depending on to equalize this? >> that's not true. >> of course it's true. mitt romney wants to decimate the department of education. paul ryan -- that's exactly where mitt romney's taking pit p that's going to disproportion e disproportionately affect women. >>> more from our round table coming up. we're also going to hear from my colleague brian williams who's going to talk about his exclusive interview with president obama this week to mark the one-year anniversary of the successful raid in the killing of osama bin laden. >>> later, general election preview. on a lighter note, "saturday night live" style. it's all coming up. >>> "meet the press" is sponsored by ge. imagination at work. [ male announcer ] you're not the type of person who sets goals

. >> senator hutchison who is going to be next yields to you so then we'll go to murkowski and hutchison that way. okay? >> well, thank you. >> thank you very much. i wanted to take up where senator graham left off. and there has been an effort emanating out of the armed services committee to change the defense authorization bill to essentially put this country's detention policy under the laws of war. and under the laws of war, an individual can be held without charge or trial until the end of hostilities. the point made that america is a battlefield and i think that's the point that some have been trying to make. i'd like to ask your view of this. i am strongly opposed to it. i also know what you said during the worldwide threat hearing, that the fbi has interrupted or arrested some 20 terrorist plots in this country over the past year. you have the high value interrogation group, which you testified to the house committee has done 14 interrogations and i gather with some success. i would like to ask you to comment on whether you believe that permanently detaining americans without tri

clearly senator snowe, senator hutchison. those women really doll know. the reason that senator mckowsky apologized is she caught huge blow back from independent women and republican women when she went home for the weekend after casting that vote. >> can mitt romney afford to avoid this issue and let the sound chamber and people in the senate say it's all manufactured and it's no big deal? >> no. being in denial is not going to make the war on women go away. the republicans can make the war on women go away. here is how they can do it. first of all, they can take a birth control pledge and say i promise to do everything i can to enact policies that will make birth control available, universally to women throughout the country. every woman should have it. take the birth control pledge. take the pledge not to cut social security or increase the retirement age or be stingier with the cost of living adjustment on social security, which is still being murmured about inside the beltway in washington. take that pledge you're going to protect social security. we

i'll pick up followed by senator hutchison. we will recognize then members in order of arrival and follow the five-minute rule. senator shelby? >> thank you, madam chairman. good morning, mr. attorney general. >> good morning. >> two key department of justice facilities will soon be operating on red stone arsenal, the fbi's terrorist explosive device analytical center or tedac, and the a ncetar's national center known as ncetar, these two national assets will help law enforcement officials deal with the growing threat posed by terrorists in criminal use of powerful explosives. you and i have discussed these facilities previously. i believe you agreed then with me that the missions of ncetar and tedac are distinct but complimentary and that it made sense to co-locate them at red stone where there's a lot of property, a lot of land. for the benefit of the committee, mr. attorney general, can you describe how the department. of justice will utilize ncetar and tedac. >> -- run chiefly by the fbi deals with the examination of ieds w

senate kay bailey hutchison expressed concern for planned parenthood, who her party wants to defund. lisa krakowski from alaska -- >> it makes no sense to attack women. if you don't view this as an attack on women and you need to go home and talk to your wives. you need to talk to your daughters. ask them. >> so can we come to the conclusion that the leader in the republican party doesn't want to sit there and listen to his own caucus? is that what we're going to do? are we going to sit there and believe these three republican women are certainly totally off base and have no clue? well, let me tell you, senate rt olympia snowe has called the battle a retrofit. fortunately for mitch mcconnell the republicans party true leader threw him a lifeline and echoed his talking points. >> they're trying to manufacture, for example, this phony republican war on women. >> the republicans attack on women is extending beyond health care as dnc chair debbie wasserman schultz points out the gop is taking aim at women's economic security. >> the policies that have come out of the republican party say

. >>> speaking of "hunger games" josh hutchison is working on a new movie. we caught wupt direct tore talk about the new film and working with the hot new star. >> josh hutchison has blown up in "the hunger games." tell me about working with him. >> he is the coolest guy on the planet. he is like thisd kid th 19-year-old kid that -- it is like a 30-year-old man in a 19-year-old's body. it is the weirdest thing to work with him. he has also done like 50 movies. this is my second movie. he actually kind of produced it with me. he would do weird things. i set it up and and it is like a weird sense of being onset so many times. >> it is known as a music video director. >> i think we have music videos. >> ♪ say my name >> all right, you worked with a lot of superstars. [applause] tell me what it is like working with stars of that magnitude and how youde ane with that kind of superstardom, the britney spears, the beyonces. >> when i worked with each one of these people that you have seen, they were not necessarily famous at the time i shot them. the whole point of

our bill includes the provisions that senator klobuchar and senator hutchison had suggested, introduced as the stalkers act of 2011. that provision is new to vawa. now, it would not have been included if we simply put in a one-sentence reauthorization of vawa rather than a comprehensive bill. we did a comprehensive bill because it makes many improvements like the bill senator klobuchar and senator hutchison, the stalkers act of 2011. now, in the spirit of national crime victims' rights week, our vawa reauthorization bill takes steps to recognize victims whose needs are not being served, helps us find ways to help them. now, that approach is not radical or extreme. the fact that the bill reaches more victims shunted be a basis -- should not be a basis for partisan division. it's something we ought to celebrate. you know, i've said on the floor, a victim is a victim is a victim. mr. president, when -- in my earlier career when i'd go to a crime scene with the police as the chief law enforcement officer of our county and i'd go there at 3:00 in the morning, you might have a badly battered

i wanted to say the comments of senator mikulski and senator hutchison. i think the -- died before he knew this was a faulty prosecution. that elevates this to a new height. so i think this investigation is really important, and i think that actions have to be taken, and i just wanted to express that. what -- i wanted to follow-up on senator brown's comment. it's my understanding that more -- there's more oil available in the united states than demand calls for. and as a matter of fact, surplus is being sold outside. this, i think, would bring to special attention the issue of speculation, and i hope the study that you're doing is going to take a good look at the financial marketplace with regard to its ability to impact price in this way. >> well, as i said, the oil and gas working group that we formed last year as part of the president's financial fraud enforcement task force has been meeting. it just happens that they are having a call today, meeting, either tomorrow or on, the full committee will be getting together to look at the full issues you've r

hutchison: mr. president, i rise to talk about the violence against women act, and senator leahy, the distinguished chairman of the judiciary committee, has a bill that has many good parts, and i was listening to the things that he said about it, and i agree with many of them. because there are some areas of disagreement, i have worked with many of my colleagues to have a substitute that has the same coverage but is better in other ways also, and i think we should have the ability to look at both , and from that i would hope that we would be able to pass a bill out of the senate to address the violence against women that is in our country, and our bill, like senator leahy's bill, actually covers men who we know now are also subject to this kind of violence and our bill covers men who have the same victimization as the women have had and for which we covered 16 years ago. mr. president, i just want to say that i have been championing this issue for a very long time. when i was in the texas legislatur

. >> kay bailey hutchison who is living and mel martinez is going to leave. >> that's true. it could be up to six. 1945-1946 there were 13. >> 13? >> 13. and i think one of the answers to this is better medicine. longevity. it was -- during a two-year congress it was not unusual for as many of eight members of the senate to die just of old age. that all changed in the late 1960s with the improvements of medication. >> senator byrd, november the 19th of this year, will be the longest-serving human in history in the united states congress. how's he doing? we haven't seen much of him. saw him vote in the sotomayor vote. >> right, right. that's the last time i saw him also. i don't know. >> how important is it? you know him. how important is it making that milestone? >> vastly important. vastly important. i would say he's going to hang in for that -- for that milestone. he's got a long list of milestones that he's succeeded over the years and that's, of course, the ultimate. >> more than anything else, what do you want to do in retirement? >> continue to write history. history r

that came with a link to a video of a lovely young woman or a -- singing a song to this actor josh hutchison asking him to go to the senior prom. anthony, are you in luck. we would love to show the video in hope of getting you on "ellen" or" the today show." roll it. >> wow, i'm sorry. i guess we had one of the rare malfunctions on the show. it was so sad. i wanted that guy's dream to be on ellen or the today show to come true. i wanted his video to go viral. i really did. from the heart i did. this was a complete malfunction and i am going go speak to somebody in the control room. and i may suspend them from my ceiling. anyway, we will close things out with a post game wrap up from my -- from tv's andy levy. i'll just keep going. clips of recent shows go to fox news.com/red eye. >>> back to andy levy with the post game wrap up. hi, andy. >> hi, greg. kemele, what do you have coming up? >> all kinds of stuff. programming in dc both this month and next, and our gala is coming up at the end of may. so you can grab tickets now. >> tuxedo? >> no tuxedos. yes, wear a tuxedo. where should people g

mexico governor susanna martinez, south carolina governor nikki haley, of texas senator kay bailey hutchison and new hampshire senator --. >> the dow jones will start the day above 13,000 again today after wall street had its best day in months on tuesday. analysts credit the rally on easing worries about europe. all eyes will be on berkshire hathaway stock today if one day after businessman warren buffett announced that he has stage one prostate cancer. the 81-year-old told investors the condition is not life- threatening. we will have more on the company's future coming up in today's america's money report. >> athere have been two fires on a particular metrobus model. >> this was a long route 50. more than 90 buses are out of service now. brianne carter is live in falls church with the latest. >> metro says they are looking into exactly what is causing this problem. in the interim they have pulled 94 buses off the roads while they try to figure out exactly why the two buses burst into flames. yesterday one bus burst into flames along route 50. last thursday the same thing happened on a bus

kay bailey hutchison, other republican women have agreed that these attacks on women's reproductive health is bad for the party. it's bad for america. let's look at where ryan takes us and where romney goes. cutting day care. what do women depend on? they depend on -- working women. cutting education. what are women depending on to equalize this? >> that's not true. >> of course it's true. >> not what we're doing. >> mitt romney wants to decimate the department of education. paul ryan -- that's exactly where mitt romney's taking it. that's going to disoptionately fect women. >>'moi tcuaith rtf e ba. want tgea eainer > reroourod bl congp. wee sooi t fm gog tk oulis e siba ma bin laden. >>> later, general election preview. on a lighter note, "saturday night live" style. it's all coming up. >>> "meet the press" is sponsored by ge. imagination at work. you think you take off all yr make-up before b. but doou really? [ fe announcer ] neutrogena® mp remover erases of your stuorn makeup with oneowelet n youreup r do t femannounc] utr® mup r >>> wre bacwi o rnd tae. wreoi tgoo w rk noto brian wlis

there is no issue senator kay bailey hutchison and susan collins and olympia snowe from main and lisawe don't see any evidence of this. >> mitch mcconnell calling it a manufactured issue and if you don't believe it, ask a lady republican. ask senator kay bailey hitchison about this. ask her. >> planned parenthood does mammograms. they do so much of the health care, the preventive health care. if they are doing that, then we need to provide those services. absolutely. >> she spoke out against her own party's attack on planned parenthood. a big part of the republican people say the republicans are waging war on women, those attacks on planned parenthood. she was not backing up mitch's point there. how about olympia snowe. he was on the list of women that would debunk this war on women myth. last month she voted with the democrats against the blunt amendment to roll back access to contraception and just last week at a women's campaign fund event in new york, she said this about the birth control battle being waged by her party. she said i feel like it's a retro debate that comes from the

senator kay bailey hutchison and kelly ayotte and susan collins and olympia snowe from maine and we don't see any evidence of this. >> the problem with rebutting the whole war on women thing saying it's manufactured, these women that you're citing might agree with you on it. but the problem is the woman when who say agree with him on this do not agree with him on this. >> if you do not agree this as an attack on women, you need to go home and talk to your wives, talk to your daughters. ask them if they feel that this is an attack. >> so at this point we have three strikes, which under normal circumstances would mean the end, it would mean you're out. but the republicans are still out there swinging away. they have to. they will lose the election with numbers among this bad on women. the idea that republicans are acting contrary to women's interest and women are turning away from them is polls is not going away. so yesterday the romney campaign convened a conference call to talk about how a romney presidency would be for women and the economy in particular and how awful president obama was

out their a facilitys for gay weddings and parties if a proposed ordinary ordinary is passed in hutchisoncity council there is considering adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the protected classes in its human relations code. it would apply to churches that rent their buildings to the general public. church leaders say the law would override religiousr the ws "abortion" and "prayer" you automatic think about the pro-life community. but correspondent shannon bream shows us tonight the other side has its own ideas. >> prayer and the battle over abortion are sometimes linked. but not often in the way that one planned parenthood clin sick now suggesting. the california clinic teamed up with a group clergy for choice offering a pamphlet outlining 40 days of prayer. including day 27, today we give thanks for the providers around the nation whose concern for women is a driving force in their lives. day 40, today we celebrate abortion is still safe and legal. >> prayer should be invited under all circumstances, even at the circumstance of abortion [ reaction from the pro-life communi

senator kay bailey hutchison and kelly ayotte from new hampshire and susan collins and olympia snoweould be the first to say, and lisa murkowski from alaska, we don't see any evidence of this. >> lisa murkowski of alaska would say you don't see any evidence of this. the problem for senator mcconnell that the republican women who he say would agree with him on this issue do not agree with him on this issue. >> this is not only discussion in congress, but you've got presidential wannabes that are talking about whether or not contraception is good, bad, indifferent, wrong. women feeling that the party that i have chosen to affiliate myself, the republican party, is ignoring their concerns. is, is causing them to feel like the rights that they believe were settled a long time ago are now being threatened, possibly eroded. it makes no sense to go down this road. it makes no sense to attack women and if you don't view this n women, then you need the to go home and you need to talk to your wives, you need to go talk to your daughters. ask them if they feel that this is an attack. >> yeah, s

. >> olympia snow, kay bailey hutchison. >> those are the people who do the deals. >> you were crying over dick, i know you were. >> i'm not touching that. it's not only the candidates, it's not only the outside groups, it's spending, right? crossroads is going to drop 17 million on these congressional races. that is certainly going to have an effect on the landscape, the positions people feel they can take. i look forward and it is a bleak picture in terms of how congress is going to function, especially given the fact that everybody's constantly running for constant re-election. >> hugo makes a fair point. there's a lot of generallization especially in congress counsel races of the specifics of what happens. there are also a lot of local factors at play in every single one of these races. that's worth something worth keeping in mind. there's general trends. interesting to see whether what happened in 2010 remains an upward swing that way for the tea party. you have a lot of people, orrin hatch is another race, obviously not the same kind of thing. somebody who's been in the senate f

he points out that gloria steinem was dismissed kay bailey hutchison as a female impersonator. this goes on both ends. guest: women can be as brutal to women as men. focus on the issues that everybody cares about. host: margaret is on the phone from new jersey. caller: you have yourself in a pickle this morning. i would like to concur with the lady from chicago. if you listen to hillary's it was thatonsents, women of means have an easier time deciding whether or not to stay at home as opposed to those women who have to work outside the home and care for their children. i have another comment, if i may. this fellow from north carolina, i would like to know if he commentss ted nugent's reflected of romney's views. thank you. host: thank you, margaret. guest: the obama campaign did that this time. host: please ask, the first families have been poor. the president talked about this week, a growing up in a single family. laura bush broke up central texas and a middle-class family. guest: a great number of them. abraham lincoln. his wife tried to prove to the country and prove to the