inouye: mr. president, before i proceed i ask unanimous consent that henry williams and jessica martinez of senator bingaman's office be granted privileges of the floor during the debate of travel promotion bill. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. inouye: mr. president, i find it very difficult to be on the opposing side to my dear friend from new hampshire. there's been a lot of discussion on the premise that the conferees did not pay for the cash for clunkers bill. mr. president, technically, that is correct. but i believe my colleagues should be advised that under the congressional budget office, the c.b.o. scoring, the conferees are scored with a savings of $1.47 billion in discretionary spending in this bill. in title 14 of the bill, the conferees included a provision which mandates that more than $1 billion in discretionary spending in rescissions shall be allocated as savings to the bill not used as an offset. while the conferees were required to designate the cash f

inouye: i'll speak after you. mr. gregg: i'm happy to yield to the chairman if he wishes to go before me. first off, this is a very important piece of legislation. i congratulate the chairman and ranking member, senator cochran and senator inouye for bringing it forward. it is critical that we adequately fund our troops in the field. this is the first responsibility yeas a government when we have troops in the field in harm's way to give them the resources they need in order to protect themselves and defend our liberties. and so this is a very, very important piece of legislation. it must pass. it simply must pass. however, ironically, the hedges legislation that occurs around here, this legislation had air dropped into it by the house of representatives something that has no -- nothing to did with our troops fighting in the field. and that is a bill called the cash for chunker bill. now, -- clunker bill. i have -- purchasing automobiles that are high-mileage vehicles that use a lot of gas and exchanging them for lowe

inouye: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. inouye: madam president, today the senate begins its consideration of our annual spending bills, and we start with the legislative branch appropriations bill. madam president, i'm pleased to announce to my colleagues that, as of this moment, the appropriations committee has reported out four appropriations bills. it may please you to know, madam president, that all of these bills -- legislative, homeland security, commerce, and interior -- passed the committee unanimously, and all of the bills represent a bipartisan approach. and the bill before this body deserves the support of every member of this body. it provides for the essential services to fulfill the functions of our legislative branch. it is a clean, free bill of unnecessary dividers. it is $300 million below the amount requested and within the funding allocation provided to the supplement. madam president, i strongly recommend its approval, and may request unanimous consent that my whole statement be made a part of the recor

inouye: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. inouye: mr. president, i rise in support of the conference agreement on the bill h.r. 2346, the supplemental appropriations bill. the compromise agreement which has been worked out in a full and open conferences between the two houses represents the hard work of our conferees. as has long been the tradition of the appropriations committee, the compromise package before the senate reflects the deliberations of our 12 subcommittees. each subcommittee has items in this measure and i'm pleased to note that all of our subcommittees were able to reach agreement with their house counterparts. the house has agreed -- as such, the bill before us represents a balanced compromise between the issues and funding recommended by the house and by the senate. as in any compromise, neither body nor individual member received everything he or she sought. the house has agreed support funding for the international monetary fund and the senate has agreed compromise language on how we deal with the detainees at guantan

inouye: i do. mr. reid: the oath shall now be administered by the presiding officer to all senators. is it an appropriate time for all senator who has cause to be excused. 6 the presiding officer: is there objection? the chair hears none. it is so ordered. senators shall now be sworn. do you solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of samuel b. kent, judge of the united states district court for the southern district of texas, now pending, you will do impartial justice according to the constitution and laws, so help you god? senators: i do. mr. reid: any senator who was not in the senate chamber at the time the oath was administered to the other senators will make the fact known to the chair so that the oath may be administered as soon as possible to the senator. the secretary will note the names of the senators who have been sworn and will present to them for signing a book which will be the senate's permanent record of the administration of oath. i remind all sen

>> i don't know what the precise response will be in a letter form from secretary to senator inouye or if there will be a call. allah can tell you is, when this question has come up in the past and frankly, it came up in the secretaries polis side with the japanese defense minister when we were in singapore. the answer has always been the same. right now there is legislation, there is a lot, the ob of amendment which prevents us from exporting that technology to any one. so, as good an ally is japan is and as much as we may like to provide that capability to allies such as japan, the fact is it is prevented, were prevented from doing so according to the ob amendment so unless there's some sort of legislative remedy to this, unless it will repeal, our hands are tied on this issue. that is why the secretary made the further point to his japanese counterpart that, that the of 35 is the plane which we are pursuing and it plain that we would recommend the japanese focus their efforts in terms of procuring in the future. >> some reports say the air force did estimate 200 and 50 million each,

this product is not something that senator inouye or i is especially pleased with, but it is our best judgment about the balance that needs to be achieved between various issues and various groups in order to finally complete action on this package and move on. . despite all of my misgivings about what the president is planning to do in the middle east, for instance, and some of the other people's misgivings about what he is doing, this is a new president who deserves a chance to see whether or not he can produce a better situation than we have today. so irge people to look at this proposition in that light. and to sublimb yate our differences and our preferences. i can vote for lots of things that i disagree with if i think that it creates a greater good. an what we're trying to do is to enable this president to forge a new direction both on economic policy and on policy in the middle east. and i would ask that you give us as much help as you possibly can. with that, i would simply ask the senator to proceed with whatever suggestions he might have. >> if i could ask the chairman, jus

signed by 18 senators as follows: reid, pryor, whitehouse, inouye, feingold, dodd, burris, durbin, murray, tester, udall of colorado, klobuchar, reed of rhode island, baucus, merkley, lincoln, cantwell, dorgan. mr. reid: i ask that the mandatory quorum be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. reid: i ask the senate resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask now that we proceed to a period of monk business, senators allowed to speak -- of morning business, senators allowed to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, let me just say a brief word on the cloture that was not invoked on the travel bill. i hope that everyone understands what obstructionism is. this is obstructionism at its best, and it goes along with what the republicans said they wanted to do and that is stop everything. as indicated in "roll call" newspaper last week. this is a bill that saves the government money, almost a half a billion dollars over ten years. it would create

and also providing a reliable resources for cms or inouye governance entity to into the development and the payment decisions to perform the technical functions is very important. i also think that limitations in private bear market power will have to be addressed. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, paul. that was excellent. now we will look at the state example where they are actually doing some very interesting things. the state of minnesota and read that we have paul geraghty who will discuss these recent initiatives that he is involved in. minnesota is well known for its low-cost care and high quality of care can really serve as a model for the nation and as we work toward those goals. >> thank you, nancy. some of you who are close to the front of the room the other is a fly buzzing over the podium here and a couple of weeks ago i would have just swatted it. [laughter] but we live and learn. thank you very much, is my honor to be here representing the state of minnesota and representing blue cross/blue shield and minnesota. the discussion we are having as a nation is really not jus

i think that the senate position as stated by every senator that spoke, including senator inouye, although he was going to vote a different way, i think was right on target. i think it's important that we don't appear to be giving the terrorists, those who threaten us, those who are our enemies, giving them more propaganda to lie about and spread their lies around the world. i think the granger amendment is in perfect order. i hope that the senate would -- that we would pass it, the senate will agree, as they have spoken out strongly, this is just more than an issue of releasing pictures. this is an issue of claiming the authorities and the responsibilities of the legislative branch of government which were created by the first article of the constitution. i hope that the members on the house side will vote for the granger amendment. >> could i ask my former colleague from the house appropriations committee if he'd yield for a question? is that appropriate? mr. young of florida. >> sure, absolutely. >> it appear it is me that we are facing a problem identified by the chairman and it's not

inouye, a senator from the state of hawaii, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: robert c. byrd, presidet pro tempore. mr. reid: at 10:00 or thereabouts we'll proceed with the impeachment matter. quorum call:

inouye, the senate chairman of the appropriations committee, from president obama. . he says, on may 13, i announced i would resist the release of additional detainee photos because i did not believe it would add anything to the past, and the only thing it would do is further inflame opinion. the second circuit granted the government's motion that will stay the court order to release the detainees' photos and we will move forward to the supreme court to appeal the case he goes on to say, i deeply appreciate the effort you have shown to support the troops, i will continue to take every legal and administrative remedy to ensure the photographs are not released. should a legislative solution prove necessary, i am committed to working with the congress to enact legislation that achieves the objectives we share. with respect, lastly, mr. whip, to the detainees, as you know, one detainee was in fact transferred to the united states, to new york, for the purposes of trial. that is not unusual, as the gentleman knows. many terrorists have been tried in the new york district c

but what i hear you saying is it could have labeling helpful walls inouye and unless the basic food is not changed its not going to change the problem. >> i am a very big fan of menu labelling. i strongly support congresswoman rosa delauro's bill, senator tom harkin's bill. we need to get that because it will change how we respond to the stimulus. we need a range of tools. i was giving a talk at google and went into the cafeteria and it was striking. there is either a red, yellow or green sign right in your face and i will tell you it has a real affect. red means eat small amount for taste, yellow, each a moderate amount common dream as much as you want. i was in charge of regulating food and i tell you it had a major affect on me. we have to change how we proceed stimulus and we have to have greater disclosure. we have to change -- we don't stop with just manual labor. what is served in the schools, with the vending machines -- parents, it's so hard you try as hard as you can and the kids are being stimulated with fat, sugar and salt. they have to change how we regulate advertising ma

senators daniel inouye and sparks massa nothinga introduced resolutions asking the president to declare the first 10 days of may as asian pacific heritage week. the selection of the month of may stems from the fact that may marks the arrival of the first japanese immigrants in the u.s. in 1843. . president carter made asian pacific heritage week an annual event and in 1990 president george h.w. bush proclaimed the entire month of may to be asian pacific american heritage month. madam speaker, they've made great strides in the area of civil rights and public policy. led by such notable americans as patsy mink, the phishes asian american congresswoman. not to mention the current members of the president's cabinets, which includes three asian americans and an energy secretary steven chu, gary locke, and veterans' affairs secretary eric shinseki. in closing, let us take a moment to recognize the contributions of the asian and pacific american community and celebrate such a rich cultural heritage by supporting house resolution 435. i continue to reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pr

. >> host: waukee daniel inouye with sir david frost.good morning. >> caller: i heard on another tv station that nixon said he would agree to abortion if the child was conceived by an interracial couple. did you know anything about that? >> host: is that also from the latest recordings released by the national archives? >> guest: i was staggered by that. there were two nixon's of course, there was a good nixon and bad nixon and that nixon in the end went out but the thing that surprised me of course he did use sort of controversy words for italians and other people in the tapes and off the record things we had. the only thing that surprises me about that which obviously i'm sure it's true and that was a sign of nixon, but in fact his record of the enough on race was better than several presidents after him, which is rarely realized that if you go back on the progress he made but i think he had a fairly primitive view of race. i is sent -- the main thing about nixon that brought him down was his paranoia, nothing to do with race that his

inouye well deserved honor for his ultimately successful erie project and later canal and railroad work, but not an honor that his peers would have given a man who many perceive as a flatter her of his employers and a credit stealer from subordinates. with another area -- hydraulic cement. the true discovery of america in waterproof cement and that not a particularly sexy topic, but the masonry structures of the canal, the locks and waste waters and various other components of the canal made of stone that needed to be sealed with hydraulic cement, they could not have been built without the cement of the right kind of burned and pulverized limestone mixed with sand and hardens and water. the full story of the discovery was planted on wittingly in the erie bible bashing 1906 state authorized tuesday to commit to volume history, sort of a starting point for research of the erie canal. and the story in that book has been repeated ever since. and now it turns out that the offer of that book is well-respected engineer had picked up the cement story from an unreliable county history published

legislation that i have introduced here in the united states senate with senator ensign, senator inouye, senator klobuchar, senator reid, senator martinez, and many, many others. i believe in the last session of congress when we introduced this we had over 50 cosponsors here in the united states senate. let me describe what the purpose is, travel promotion. who can be against travel promotion? except here is what happened with our country with respect to jobs and economic growth that comes with foreign travel and destination in the united states. we have had a significant impact on our travel, that is, the travel to the united states by foreign travelers as a result of measure that's were put in place quickly after the 2001 attack on 9/11. we obviously wanted to be very careful about who we allowed into our country. we still do. but what happened following that is we sort changed what we did. instead of reaching out to the world to say: visit the united states. this is a great place. we encourage you to come here, to vacation here, to see what the united states is all about. we backed a

if you think about situations like chronic mesa interaction inouye know how you are going to be treated and go twice a year every time it is the same thing. they bring into the office because that is where they get paid for syria. if they told you this they don't get paid. online caris says you have that interaction on-line with the physician. they order the prescription the never show up. they spend their time on something important and is been a time on something more important, your employer is happy and there is a win for interactions that there in the system. it is not for everything but it absolutely can help take some of the expense of the system. and this is just a quick screen shot of what that looks like. we're talking about a video transmission from the patient and the opposition. we think it has a lot of application for the rural parts of our state, think about being interactive on the phone line. there is lots of opportunity for that to take off. in summary we have been tackling cost and looking at improving the care to collaboration. we see ourselves as a health company. i

inouye: i wish to associate myself with the remarks made by the senator from michigan. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. the clerk will call the roll.

madam president, as chairman of the legislative branch -- and i must say i was honored when chairman inouye asked me with this enormous responsibility. this committee funds the agencies that congress relies on, to provide them with timely information pertaining to the oversight of the federal government. for example, last year the government accountability office, the g.a.o., as it's referred to, received over 1,200 congressional requests and testified at over 300 congressional hearings. their work produced hundreds of improvements in government operations and produced significant financial savings for the american taxpayer. the congressional budget office, the c.b.o., also funded this bill, actually received emergency funding in the supplemental that passed recently -- last week -- to further strengthen their workforce, allowing for timelyer production of analyses for congressional offices. i don't know how these can be proposed to an agency that desperately needed this kind of help to do their job here so that we can do our jobs here in congress. it doesn't make sense. i know for a fact t