joining us now, republican congressman darrell issa. he's the ranking member on the judiciary committee in the house. he has just requested that the fbi conduct an investigation of speaker pelosi's claim that the cia misled her. also, democratic congressman adam smith, who serves on the intelligence committee, who is among seven house democrats who say cia director leon panetta misled them and who has requested that he recant that statement. we appreciate you gentleman being with us. let me remind everyone watching as to how the incipient point here. it begins with speaker nancy pelosi and what she had to say about harsh interrogation techniques or what some call waterboarding torture. >> i was not briefed that. i was only informed that they were briefed, but i did not get the briefing. >> but you were aware -- >>we well, we'll find out. they mislead us all the time. >> well, then cia director panetta fired back in a letter to the cia personnel saying, let me be clear, it is not our policy or practice to mislead congress. that is agains

issa. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. our previous two testimony, witnesses, obviously, chairman bernanke found himself in an odd situation of saying, although mr. cuomo had said that the threat that you had said, and i'll quote it as best as i can from his letter, secretary paulson has informed him that he made the threat at the request of chairman bernanke. now, that came from cuomo's office and i apologize that his work was a little sloppy. we get a letter, but there's no transcript, there's no written record, so we have to take his interpretation of your statements and that's one of the reasons you're here today. we also dealt with ken lewis who came here in which he had received a threat by your own statements and yet he had to say that the threat was not the reason that he went through with a bad deal for if he had said that, then the ohio pension funds and others that have sued saying that the merger diminished their asset value in bank of america would have, in fact, had their lawsuit go forward much more readily.

the answer on the issas, ll, we will have to look at the waist to fraud and abuse issues, which of course, and insult to our intelligence. and looking at preventi ises. there is udy after study tha shows prevention is nice,t saves yo a life, it produces -- reduces mbidity and pain t it does not save mon. it increas in expenses. they have no serious answer on hoto conol costs and that i why theyave tond up with huge increases. >> therere serious answers b they are not bitinghe blet. >> you don't have some of my dan rostkowski fro ways and means or mls, who pushed these issues. >> and it doesn't ha tom dasce, eier. >> need tput wosn it -- we live in a free lunch. . tax creases of any kind to be avoided the reality is they are going to have to be, anacross thboard. >> we hava problem with mon for healthare. but let me point out, goman sachs h its best quarter ever. we put $ billion in to what, we taxpayers does it mean we t somethi back? >> just think about the political dynami. we have financial and enomic crisis in thountry, created inarge part by t excesses', the greed, anprobably crimali

issa. the speaker pro tempore: the -- the chair: the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. mr. issa: my amendment does not reduce by one penny m.i. -- n.i.h. funding at all. it simply prohibit what is is clearly becoming an endless stream of repeating and repeating and repeating studies of h.i.v. at ever greater costs. it deals with the $325,000 to research they sex workers who also -- thai sex workers who also use drugs. we've already gone into extensive legislation to deal with that criminal activity on a worldwide basis. it also deals with prostitutes in china and alcohol and drug users in russia. we're simply looking at just $5 million, $5 million over three grants. i think when we look at this $5 million, we have to consider this. a flight to bangkok is $9,000. a ride on bart, across town is $3.10. on the government rate for less than $200, people who want to study the growth of h.i.v. can come here to washington, d.c. where we have a 25% rate. mr. chairman, we have studied t

issa: today is july 7, 2009. today would have been the 24 birthday of my own nephew william louis issa. last week i attended his funeral. he had a connection to this house because he worked both in cleveland, his home, and here in washington for his congressman dennis cues -- kucinich. in his passing, i lost a nephew. cleveland lost somebody who cared about the environment, passion nationality about the wilds, who has graduated from college and going on to law school to be an environmentalist, to seek what liberty allows us in this country, which is the right to feel and do what you think is right for your country. i speak from this side of the center of this body and i speak about somebody who i disagreed with on many policies. as a young man while he was summering here and staying at our home, he wanted me to know that the eating of meat was wrong and if i wasn't a vegetarian then i wasn't getting it and he admired dennis kucinich and he felt strongly on a host of other issues. but mostly he felt strongly about

didn't join the na on the program would otheleop on the program would have to pay for not not e th issahe same guntme t isnsth foolish plan. stay outof health care. he goes on to say, senatoyo are a hypocrite. >> on the other side is e sue,on issue, one wrote, the private s. mrance e mps ancoiear mpeythwill kill you and meeyfol ge vera ithf nying health coverage if th with it. this with it. this a is tr obyia ngis trying stop the ma murder of millions of americans r for fo prof tng ddmi taking the ddlemi adddroby saying, if this is so importan and needto s be dowhney are s let's read the final draft and te ivot onas an amendment. i don't k inthe thngha s ha any ea an i'm pretty sure this ain't it we can weigh in on this health care debate by going to wusa9.com. andrea. >> all right. we will be talking more about this especially after people hear the president tonight. >>> right now we say good morning to howard bernstein. no debate here. he has everything under control. >> exactly. even the shower earlier in virginia came through the potomac and tried to get in to charles county and kin

at this time i yield time to the ranking member from the great state of california, congressman issa.> thank you chairman and thank you again for this the eggers oversight brick osu utt said so often all we ask for is transparency. today we will hear that all were not getting is transparency. mr. chairman because i'm going to include them in my opening statement i would like to ask unanimous consent that three pieces be put in the record. the first mr. chairman is your letter to tim geithner asking that he specifically include the recommendations of the special ig, something i'm not sure there's an answer but it is from february 5th. the second is yesterday's new york or i guess today's "new york times" that says they guesstimate worth little on bailout and i suspect that will be referred to many times today. in the third, because it is related to t.a.r.p. and to a case recently settled against the government, i have a letter in response to a letter from myself from which the chairman has been copied from more reece hank greenberg, concerning his continued willingness to arbitrate rat

issa's website and soon will be on mine. i have here the executive summary. it's 88 pages long, i've read carefully through the first 2/3 of it. it has in it a list of 361 affiliated corporations. i've listed 174 in the amendments that i've offered, that were designed to eliminate federal funding to acorn. acorn has received at least $53 million in taxpayer funds to operate their criminal enterprise. and i have the executive summary here and just to go into it a little ways, mr. speaker, this executive summary of this report of the government ro reform, house of representatives that asks the question, is acorn intentionally structured as a criminal enterprise, july 23, 2009, the executive summary reads in part like this, the association of community organizations for reform now, acorn, has repeatedly and deliberately engaged in systemic fraud. both structurally and operationly acorn hides behind a wall of painer, of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors to launder federal money in order to pursue a parti

the dying issa chique dumping standing gravel over. eventually they melted to form pawns arqeutte lakes which gradually became edge and then choked with cranberry and labrador n.t. and gave way to black spruce. as the men stepped into the cold dark water the color of tea, each step proved uncertain. 1 foot might gain could purchase in the next think above the ankle or the need. of mergence in branches. black spruce needles rates stumbling bodies. daemond being centring in the desert habitat became conscious only slow the of the sheer magnitude. the glow of yellow eagleson verse blunder did little to temper them. rogers earl number three instructed that troops marching over soft ground should go up to prevent the enemy from trafficking as they would do with the marched in single file. rogers had outfitted the force into pairs of moccasins of peace but under such punishment footwear deteriorated quickly so some probably stripped them off and walked barefoot. that way the cold, the water most of the way. ausley proving difficult because w

and at that hearing that you mentioned representative darrell issa of california said the size of the deficit shows -- and the unemployment rate shows that not only is the stimulus not working it's bad economics. >> in fact, i believe that the discredited keynesian economic theory behind the effort is misguided, and i'm con vinced that it won't work. unfortunately, recent economic data has validated my opposition. the u.s. economy lost 433 net jobs in june, bringing the unemployment rate to 9.5%. >> reporter: now, that's tricky political argument for democrats to responds to. governor ed rendell, a democrat from pennsylvania, was on cnbc this morning, said in fact the stimulus has prevented things from getting worse. but he was forced to acknowledge that the economy may now need a booster shot. >> without the stimulus program every state budget in this country would be in far worse shape. tons of state workers, county workers, teachers, police would have been laid off. but i think there was too little of basic infrastructure. the projects we can start right away, the shovel-ready, fix

both democratic senators say that congressmen issa never contacted them for their side of the story. representative pete sessions says on his web site at earmarks have become, in his words, "a symbol of a broken washington to the american people." yet in 2008, he steered a $1.6 million earmarked for research to an illinois company whose president acknowledges having no experience in government contracting or building plans. new york democratic senator kirsten gillibrand has a new state director. he replaces the former director, who is join her former boss, secretary of state hillary clinton, at the state department. the new director was previously chief of staff for don edwards' presidential campaign. the case of a guantanamo detainee goes before a federal judge today. the judge has expressed impatience with how the u.s. has handled the case of a man who has -- rolled a grenade at an interpreter. of what a statement from the taliban buttons to block roads to polling stations and mocks the august 20 presidential vote as part of what it calls a failed american strategy for the country.

mchenry will control the balance of my time. >> thank you, ranking member issa. mr. lewis you've been with bank of america and its predecessor companies for how long? >> september will be 40 years. >> 40 years. how many mergers or acquisitions have you personally been involved with in your career? >> i would have to take a few moments and count them up. but, obviously, probably more than one, less than 10. >> okay. okay. would this be the largest merger or acquisition that your company and the predecessor companies have taken? >> no. the nation's bank, bank of america, acquisition, probably would have been -- i would have to think back to the market caps and that would be the biggest and this would be one of the biggest certainly. >> in terms of how you analyze these deals, do you have a process within your bank to analyze appropriate growth measures and acquiring other institutions or merging with other institution isn't it so >> we do. >> you do. and did you conduct that same method with this merrill acquisition? >> yes, we did. we used the same methodology. >> oka

>> congressman issa is entitled to his opinion and he can take our report and use his own words.used the word obstructing and i haven't used that word. >> all right. neil, we thank you for your time today. neil barofsky, inspector general for t.a.r.p. we hope to see you back here again soon. we know you'll be presenting this. >>> merck, one of several dow components, just starting up their conference call and mike huckman is listening in. we'll update us if there are any surprises. the numbers have been pretty good all morning long. revenue has been a different story. let's get more insight from our guest host, former federal reserve board governor rick mishkin, a professor at columbia university. your take on how corporate america is reporting in this quarter? >> i'm not an expert on corporate earnings so that's not what i do for a living. >> but i guess, are you paying attention to what they're big about the outlook or the outlook for business spending? >> clearly what has changed is that the big tail risk that indicated we have a disaster has really diminished tremendously. an

i would like to give the closing statement to ranking member issa. >> i look forward it to the oversightnd the reform, i would like to consolidate the questions for the minority and the majority, so that we can not overburden them and can get an answer. i personally want to thank you as a private citizen for giving us so much time and insight into what happened at this difficult time. there are unanswered questions, and there are questions that we will never know. we will never know if merrill lynch stayed on their own, if they would be a viable concern. with the plans envisioned by the treasury and the fed in case they backed out, would they have worked? we will never know. i want to thank you for your attempt to make it so that we would not have to do this. i am a critic of expanding the role of the fed beyond the monetary supply, and giving them a direct role in the wrist questions. i believe the fed has a primary obligation as an economic modeling organization. you have a long history in understanding a good merger and a bad merger. this is not a talent that we expect to see. as we e

listen to republican congressman darrell issa, he's highlighting one of the chief concerns and criticismson's implementation of this act, accurate reporting and transparency is where the money is going. >> aren't the american people in this day and age in which we can google and find out what the neighbor's house is worth, when it last sold, what it's appraised at, why are we not in fact able to see when money was spent, no matter how spent, by the state or local or federal governments. >> reporter: republicanss are hitting the obama administration on its claim of saving or creating 150,000 jobs so far. republicans accused administration of, quote, rigging the game by using what they consider an impossible measure of tracking that effect i haveness, verifying how a job is either created or saved. now, this hearing follows what republicans say are some mixed messages coming from the administration. vice president joe biden telling abc there was a misread of how bad the economy truly was, and then president obama have been to clarify that to nbc while in russia, saying they received incompl

let me begin by thanking chairman towns, ranking member issa, and the staff of the oversight and government reform committee on both sides for making this a bipartisan effort and for helping to bring this resolution to the floor today. thank you very much. i would also like to recognize many of my colleagues on this side, congresswoman donna christensen, congresswoman yvette clarke, congresswoman sheila jackson lee, congresswoman waters, congressman rangel, chairman john conyers, many, many members of congress for their tremendous leadership on issues relating to the caribbean. congresswoman christensen, who you will hear from in just a minute, from the virgin islands, has led health care reform efforts to ensure that any health care reform bill address -- must address strategies that deal with the disparities and communities of color. and for this, congresswoman christensen, dr. christensen, we are deeply grateful. i'd like to thank all the caribbean american organizations in washington, d.c., and across the country, that have worked so hard to make caribbean american heritage month 2009 a

-- their own behavior, lamar alexander, trying to achieve the same result, the education efforts, issaon the parts of the bill that affect my decisions down the road, john mccain, in his efforts on prescription drugs, or hatch with the small business concerns and interests, and this had an impact on the decisions that we made regarding the small employers. tom was endless in his discussions, i knew that tom coburn will have something in his pockets. and my democratic colleagues, obviously, with tom harkin working on the issues in the bill, holding a hearing to develop the ideas, murkowski about improving quality, bingaman serving in the kit -- both committees, pat roberts on coverage, with an idea on the pay or play for the employers, making certain that everyone will be covered, murray made a contribution on the workforce, we will get people the health care that they need, the primary health care of the nation. jack reed made a number of contributions that have been worthwhile, and you are working on the biological issue and he was able to achieve what he wanted despite the difference

. >> chairman and ranking member issa and members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the department of justice's important role in the administration's overall strategy to address the threats posed by the rise of mexican drug cartels, particularly along our southwest border. the justice department's goal is to@@@@@@@ y) @ m@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the flow of illegal drugs and their illicit proceeds across the southwest border and to reduce the associated crime and violence in the region. i look forward to working with the director and assistant secretary berson and are many partners to ensure success of the administration's strategy. the department reviewed the justice department plays a central role in supporting the strategy. the department's approach to the mexican drug cartels is to confront them as criminal organizations. to do so, we employ extensive and coordinated intelligence capabilities to target the largest and most dangerous mexican drug cartels and focus law enforcement resources. our intelligence and based, prosecutor led, multi ag

i appreciate the work and courtesy of chairman ed towns, ranking member darrell issa, chairman stephen lynch and ranking member jason chaffetz for bringing up this -- bringing forward this resolution and for seeing to it that the resolution was marked up at the earliest markup meeting of the committee on oversight and government reform. let us begin, mr. speaker, by allowing each of us to take a moment on the floor of the house today to remember the nine people who were lost as a result of this tragic accident. i ask for a moment. thank you, mr. speaker. seven of the nine were from the district of columbia. one was from maryland and another was from virginia. marcia fudge -- mary doolittle of the district served the american nurses association by spread spreding its work globally. veronica dubose of the district was a devoted mother of two who was on her way to nursing class. ana fernandez of high it's aville worked tirelessly often working more than one job. dennis hawkins of the district was on his way to the district to teach vacation bible school at bethesda baptist church. lavonda

we've had congressman issa on and we've knocked this around a little bit. >> what did he say to you?he fed needs to be investigated, what does that entail? beyond these hearings? >> yeah, i think we need to make sure all the facts are out on the table because there's been so many allegations that have been out there. you couple that on the one hand with what paul and i know is what's coming down the road in the next several weeks and that is total reform of the marketplace and the proposals by the administration with regard to the fed, which they want to just take the fed, which has so much power today and expand it so greatly. before we do that, we should really have a clear insight as to exactly what they've been doing and just bottom line that he answers these allegations. >> former treasury sretary paulson will be in front of the committee this week, thursday, if i'm not mistaken. do you hope to get more out of him than ken lewis and bernanke going back to he said/he said. >> it's like he said/she said and, yes, get more people out on the table and get the questions answered, why

. >> chairman and ranking member issa and members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the department of justice's important role in the administration's overall strategy to address the threats posed by the rise of mexican drug cartels, particularly along our southwest border. the justice department's goal is to systematically dismantle these cartels which threaten the national security of our mexican neighbors, pose an organized crime threat to the united states, and are responsible for much of the skirt of illicit drugs and the increase in violence in mexico. this commands priority at the highest level of the department's leadership. as you know, on june 5, attorney general holder, department of homeland security secretary napolitano, and office of national drug control policy director released president obama's shall southwest border counter narcotics strategy. the strategy is designed to stem the flow of illegal drugs and their illicit proceeds across the southwest border and to reduce the associated crime and violence in the region. i lo

. >> chairman and ranking member issa and members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the department of justice's important role in the administration's overall strategy to address the threats posed by the rise of mexican drug cartels, particularly along our southwest border. the justice department's goal is to systematically dismantle these cartels which threaten the national security of our mexican neighbors, pose an organized crime threat to the united states, and are responsible for much of the skirt of illicit drugs and the increase in violence in mexico. this commands priority at the highest level of the department's leadership. as you know, on june 5, attorney general holder, department of homeland security secretary napolitano, and office of national drug control policy director released president obama's shall southwest border counter narcotics strategy. the strategy is designed to stem the flow of illegal drugs and their illicit proceeds across the southwest border and to reduce the associated crime and violence in the region. i lo

i thank the chairman of the committee chairman towns and ranking member issa, government and oversight, all of those who worked along with my 61 co-sponsors who recognize the value of the songs sung by the likes of mahalia jackson and singing "precious lord," sandy pat at this, the work that elvis presley did when he sang his gospel song, kirk carr with "this old light of mine." and reverend greg patrick who is both a producer and singer. we have a wide vast of musical talent in this nation. i'm glad we are celebrating gospel music. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from north carolina rise? ms. foxx: permission to address the house for one minute, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. the american people are hurting and losing jobs at alarming rate. the president and democrats in congress promised their trillion dollar stimulus bill would create jobs immediately and keep unemployment blow 8%. since the presiden