minnick of idaho. page 6 after line 9 insert the following -- b, nonowner occupied commercial real estate loans. the chair: is there objection? without objection, the amendment is modified. the gentleman from idaho. mr. minnick: mr. chairman, this amendment, while short in length is extremely important to the commercial banking industry and to small business and my state and all of the -- all of the united states. what it does is adds commercial real estate to the category of assets that can be covered by small business loan guarantees. . and increases the amount of those assets up to $10 million. this is -- this allows a category of assets that is now being held by small business men throughout the country, a category that is very large that needs to be refinanced because commercial real estate loans are short-term -- short term and banks simply do not have the capacity in the current market to finance all of the -- and process all of the commercial loans that need to be reprocessed over the next thre

minnick from california -- excuse me -- the gentleman from idaho for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from idaho is recognized for two minutes. mr. minnick: madam speaker, i thank the gentlewoman from california and extend her an invitation to come to idaho anytime, madam chair. you'd be a good addition. madam speaker, i rise in support of house resolution 879, celebrating the goals and ideals of american education week. public schools are the backbone of america's democracy and the key to our continuing competitiveness in the 21st century global economy. in 2010 the 89th american education week will take place november 14 through november 20. each day will spotlight the importance of providing every child in america with a quality public education from pre-k through college. as federal legislators, we must continue to support american public education and make it the very best in the world. dedicated american educators, teachers, principals, administrators and the trade organizations work tirelessly to serve communities throughout the nation wit

we were always working in coordination with the college republicans, but they weren't idaho logically conservative -- a ideologically conservative enough for us. until jack abramoff became involved. then they became ideologically conservative. >> in vermont -- abramoff. >> abramoff is a little older than i am, but i was a college republican in the early 1980's. when the college republicans took that sharp turn to the right, that's the same direction i was going in. a lot of the same heroes. i thought ronald reagan was the greatest man who ever lived. >> in thisspresent crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. government is the problem. >> where do you find things like that clip of karl rove or dan roorabacher? >> oh, man, we just dig and dig and dig. our eyes when we saw those things. that's one of the fun things3 you start looking and you start believing that stuff is out there that hasn't been seen something. you usually find >> how do you find it? if i were sitting in your shoes, who would you call to find something like that? >> well, the first place you start is you

fix the vulnerabilities, which was graphically demonstrated in a much more realistic fashion at the idahoational labs two years ago in a project called "aurora." a group of scientists and engineers at the department of energy facility wanted to see if they could physically blow up and permanently disable a 27-ton power generator using the internet. >> lewis: if you can hack into that control system, you can instruct the machine to tear itself apart. and that's what the aurora test was. and if you've seen the video, it's kind of interesting because the machine starts to shudder. you know, it's clearly shaking, and smoke starts to come out. it... it destroys itself. >> kroft: and what would be the real-world consequences of this? >> lewis: the big generators that we depend on for electrical power are, one, expensive, two, no longer made in the u.s., and, three, require a lead time of three or four months to order them. so it's not like if we break one, we can go down to the hardware store and get a replacement. if somebody really thought about this, they could knock a generator out, they co

larry joins us from cameron, idaho. caller: i am enjoying this very much, but i do think that this gentleman is very articulate and unfortunately is speaking somewhat over my head. i am not a very learned man. i served in vietnam and i tried to stay abreast of what is happening in this country. when i went to vietnam my attitude was my country, right, wrong, or indifferent. unfortunately that was a very stupid outlook. not seeing the overall picture of what was going on in washington with the economy and with spending, with the reasoos we have gone into vietnam in iraq, the reason we went into afghanistan, i do not see the big picture of what is going on behind the scenes and causing all of this. frankly, i do not really care. i am just concerned about myself and my family. i am concerned about others in this country that are struggling trying to make it. i believe that it is because so many of the people are not considering the people like me who are not very learned. we are to can and others to represent us in a way t

course we have in our house -- >> we have in our house, a congressman from idaho has this legislation. he said anybody who wants to sign on to the bill to please call my office. it is very important legislation. he is collecting sponsors for its and it will have support in the house -- sponsors for it and it will have support in the house. we will see how it goes, but it is certainly something i support. >> the five chairman of the oil companies are going to -- the five chairmen of the oil companies are going to be there next week. [unintelligible] >> well, what we want to hear is the truth. our focus has been on integrity, the integrity of the environment and ecological system that is there, the integrity of the economy and also the integrity of what they tell us. bp represented at this deep water drilling have the technology to succeed, to have a blowout prevention, and if something went wrong, to have clean up. the fact is, it was not good enough. this is a big challenge. it is a big issue. the federal government is responding in a bigger way than it ever has two and environmental

this begins with senator might crapo of idaho. >> the financial regulatory reform legislation will directly affect how small and large businesses operate. it will dramatically expand the government's involvement in the economy, restrict the availability of credit and limit theechoices available to consumers. as we know and our insistence -- our constituents experience, the financial crisis continues to recap threat economy in communities across the country. access to credit, access to jobs, and in many cases, faith in the ability of washington to do any good whatsoever all remain lacking. we should examine all of this legislation very thoroughly and take only the very best part in order to make sure we reform our financial markets without harming access to credit and job growth. as many of our olleagues have stated, we are not starting on a good note. since we just received a base text a few hours ago. we are told this is largely the senatt version, yet as i understand it, there are 300 new pages not in the senate version. it's hard to be sure because it is not identified. there is no red l

if you look at a recent consent agreement where physicians in idaho had joined together, and what weeve to be an agreement of sec's -- agreement against the sherman act, they would not treat workers' compensation and also boycotting those insurers. we entered into a consent agreement. we are very active in the day today in antitrust applied to health care markets. the question that david says to us, what do we do when the of -- in the affordable care act era and we are thinking of new and interesting innovative ideas of the legislation put forth. from our standpoint, as mentioned, the exchanges are quite interesting. health insurance market, given what we have learned and the matters we challenge, we look forward to working with -- or i should say, continuing to work with, hhs on the issues to make sure the exchanges are competitive and offer high- quality products at the lowest prices, and competition is maintained. the other area from our standpoint is creation of aco's. no question that integrated health care -- as we see from pennsylvania -- is going to be very important as we go

out in idaho that melted nuclear reactors to see what would happen. they have a arsenal outside of denver. that is where they build the triggers for the atomic bomb. host: corning, new york. jim, democratic line. go ahead. caller: good morning. last week on the senate floor senator bernie sanders said that last year exxon mobil paid absolutely no income tax and actually got a rebate of $50 million. if there is a tax problem i think we should recommend something like that. thank you very much. host: next we will be turning our attention to a discussion about what is next beyond oil and petroleum with deborah gordon. she used to be an engineer for chemicals and regulatory engineers. she wrote a piece about moving beyond petroleum. we will talk to her about that. first we wanted to show you a little bit of what our crew shot in louisiana recently, caught up with environmental science, talking about studies of oil contamination sites on the shoreline. take a look. >> my name is yvonne adeffy. >> you are with? >> in a technical specialist from california b

i appreciate the courtesy of covering us on our votes. " the senator from idaho. >> thank you. i think there is probably broad agreement that this legislation should and bailouts and the legislation should aim at the excesses and the economy because the collapse we have seen in the mortgage industry and the credit markets. yet i am concerned it does not do that. the financial regulatory reform legislation that the conference will consider and will directly affect how small and large businesses operate. it will dramatically expand the government's involvement in the economy, restrict the availability and limit the choices available to consumers. as we know and our constituents experience on a daily basis the havoc from the 2008 crisis, access to credit and jobs and in many cases, fate and the ability to washington to do any good all remain lacking. we should examine all of this legislation very thoroughly and take only the very best parts and ordered for to make sure we perform our financial markets without harming access to credit and job growth. as many of our colleagues have

but the gentleman from idaho, mr.nick, is presiding over the house for this special order, and when you talk about commercial real estate, he's got a plan. he's put together some very bright people to help avert what he sees and what everybody in this chamber should see, if they don't see, is that we're headed for this big fall off the cliff on commercial real estate that will make the housing market, the residential housing crisis, really -- you're talking about millions and millions of dollars per building. go ahead. mr. tiberi: will the gentleman yield? mr. latourette: i'd be happy to. mr. tiberi: just last week as we were home for the memorial day recess week, it to your point, i convened a meeting -- to your point, i convened a meeting, i'm a recovering realitier, we had real estate folks on the commercial real estate side, we had small businesses, we had building managers, building owners and managers, and bankers in a meeting. and to your point, they said that the commercial real estate market, if congress does

i appreciate the courtesy of covering us on our votes. " the senator from idaho. >> tnk you. i think there is probably broad agreement that this legislation should and bailouts and the legislation should aim at the excesses andhe economy because the collapse we have seen in the mortgage industry and the credit markets. yet i am concerned it does not do that. the finaial regulatory reform legislation that the conference will consider and wildirectly affect how small and large businesses operate. itill dramatically expand the government's involvement in the economy, restrict the availability and limit the choices avlable to consumers. as we know and our constituents experience on a daily basis the havoc from the 2008 crisi access to credit and jobs and in ma cases, fate and the ability to washington to do any good all remain lacking. we should examine all of this legislatn very thoroughly and take only the very best parts and oered for to make sure we perform our financial markets without harming access to credit and job growth. as many of our colleagues have stated, we are not

you have a lot of people in idaho who used to be public sector employees and collect pensions. that shapes the coloration of politics. if we look in northern virginia where many people have migrated over the years, we think those are state that had been read that are purple. it also means that perhaps certain states could be more susceptible at the margin in certain terms. this is an area will -- or economic life looks very different. what identification do they have? does that sharpened some of the political conflict that we have now? these are low-cost regions. sectional conflicts is really intense could become that intense as boundaries overlap. >> this question is best for him. we talk about hispanic votes. they have tried to mobilize hispanic voters in the past. certain states like colorado and california are seen voters vote on how they view immigration. say the republicans do not act and it managed to pass immigration reform? how long before these voting ?atterns crystallize t ninth >> i think they -- crystallized? >> i think they already are. it is now a 2-1 democratic