one of the of the things about klobuchar is that she actively -- one of the things about klobuchar is that she actually likes raising money, which many do not. host: how did she win? guest: there was a congressman, again, and just could not put together enough -- she just could not together a campaign -- could not put together a campaign to overcome the drag from george bush, and klobuchar was the prosecutor in one county, and she was on television all of the time and well-known, and she ran an energetic campaign that beat him by 15 points. host: how close did that get to virginia's jim webb? now is senator? >> i got to know him -- guest: i got to know him. i did not go to jim webb's house. extroverted, and accident a senator, only one because the incoming republican at the time -- an accidental senator. who only won because the incoming republican at the time made some mistakes. we got into a writing discussion, books, and he is not the classic politician who wants to talk about, you know, returns in districts. he is aware of all of those things, but he is much better. in the senate

i went to the minnesota state fair with klobuchar. i went to montana. those are the four. and then i talked to cardin in washington after they had been elected. host: what about claire mccaskill or bernie sanders? guest: having come from the house and was talking about the adjustment, the trick with the senate was simply a matter of learning how to use power. it had come down to that for him. host: he obviously wins in the state of vermont, and why does he win? how many people vote for him because he is a socialist? guest: not many people would say he is a socialist, but their rhetoric, bernie sanders, the little guy, not being a member of either party, a registered independent, wanting to take on both sides of the aisle when necessary, i think that is really appealing to people in vermont. he won huge. host: so how did you go about this book? here we are, almost to the 2010 election. guest: on some days, i have described it as more alligator wrestling than writing, but the book started as, like i said, this idea that the senate and the government at large is a personality

but right now i'd like to yield five minutes to senator klobuchar. ms. klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: thank you very much, senator merkley. thank you for your leadership on this issue. i was proud to work with you. thank you as well, senator dodd. i wanted to mention my good colleague in the house, ms. el dandyson, we worked on this issue and this bill together. complex and deceitful lending practices were at heart of the financial crisis. and as we work to reform wall street, mr. president, we must ensure that the homes and home equity of americans are not put at unnecessary risk. with one in seven homeowners -- one in seven, who would have ever thought that -- delinquent are in foreclosure. it has been estimated that each year predatory mortgage lending results in a loss o of $1.9 billion for american families. it is critical that families have access to safe, fair, and affordable mortgages. i see my colleague from illinois, senator durbin, who has seen this firsthand in his state. firsthand people losing their homes.

klobuchar. mrs. 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. mrs. hutch

klobuchar: mr.president? -- mrs. mccaskill: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mrs. mccaskill: mr. president, i rise this morning in the cause of common sense in how the senate works. we have had so many delays on nominations this year, just as a quick review of where we stand, we've had over 51 roll call votes on president obama's nominations to serve in government under his presidency. of those 51 votes, over 80% of them were by overwhelming margins, yet they sat on the calendar for more than three months on average. overwhelming support, sitting on the calendar for three months on average. for comparison here, at the similar point in the bush administration, there were eight nominees on the calendar. right now we have 107 nominees on the calendar. as i look at the list, i am confused because most of the people on the list, we don't know why they're sitting there. we don't know who's making them sit there. enter stage left, the anonymous hold. or as i like to call it,

hutchison: thank you, senator klobuchar. and, madam president, i appreciate the bipartisan nature of this amendment. i think when people look at this amendment, both sides of the aisle, that it will be clear that the community banks need this amendment to keep a level playing field and to assure that there is no concept left in this country of too-big-to-fail. and i thank my colleague from minnesota, senator klobuchar, and yield the floor. mr. shelby: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama is recognized. mr. shelby: mr. president, as drafted, the bill before us we're considering this week, allows for bailouts, i believe. as a result, what my friends on the other side like to call "wall street reform" is actually a wall street dream and a main street nightmare for all of us. i have over the last several weeks clearly articulated what needs to be changed in the underlying bill because we must do everything that we can to create a credible resolution regime, mr. president, that protects not only our fina

i want to drill down on something miss klobuchar said. sometimes as i asitting here and watching the press, i can imagine them putting up a headline -- "the unemployment te has gone up 0.2%." people who came back into the system. is that right? >> that is correct. >> do you call those reentras? >> i talked about the increase in the labor force, which includes new and re-entrants. >> how many were there? >> about 800,000. >> that is a huge number. so, if we did not have these reentrants and new entrants, you would have our rate tt would be lower than 9.7%. -- you would have a rate that would be lower than 9% -- 9.7%, is thacorrect? >> that is correct. >> i was listening very carefully to my good friend, mr. brady, who was talking about the govnment jobs. but then i looked and saw that manufacturing added 44,000 -- private jobs? >> they are. >> factory employment was up 1,000. with those beep private jobs? they are. >> construction. is that federal or private? 14,000 jobs is a lot of jobs. >> they are all private. >> nonresidential andther

senator klobuchar. >> congratulations to both of you. dean kagan, when the senator introduced to, he did not emphasize your university of chicago background. it is not easy to survive there. i congratulate you. i was reading an article here. how did you manage to get a standing ovation from the federalist society at harvard? after i listened to your exchange was senator coburn, i think i understand. it is very important that we restore a belief in aloft over politics to the justice department. i think your background -- your ckground in reaching out to people of different views will be helpful. i was going to ask a more specific question. you talk about how you respect so many of the other solicitors general for their roles in how they have a public law and argued for the law, even when they did not believe in it. talk about very narrow exceptions when it impinges on the executive power. is there anythingou change about the solicitor general's role? -- theisten in general solicitor general's approval is always needed in an appeal. it doe

i want to drill do on something miss klobuchar said. sometimes as i am sitting here and watching the press, i can imagine them putting up a headline -- "the unemployment te has gone up 0.2%." people who came back into the system. is that right? >> that is correct. >> do you call those reentrants? >> i talked about the increase in the labor force, which includes new and re-entrants. >> how many were there? >> about 800,000. >> that is a huge number. so, if we did not have these reentrants and new entrants, you would have our rate that would be lower than 9.7%. -- you would have a rate that would be lower than 9% -- 9.7%, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> i was listening very carefully to my good friend, mr. brady, who was talking about the government jobs. but then i looked and saw that manufacturing added 44,000 -- private jobs? >> they are. >> factory employment was up 101,000. with those beep private jobs? >> they are. >>onstruction. is that federal or private? 14,000 jobs is a lot of jobs. >> they are all private. >> nonresiden

and senators durbin, harkin, an klobuchar have long established themselves as voices on behalf of consumers. over 20 of my colleagues cosponsored my amendment, including senior members of the finance and banking comoissments since i have filed this amendment, i've come to the floor several times to explain the different aspects of it. now that this amendment is up for -- or will be up for a vote, i want to step back and summarize it. i want to underscore the scope of this problem and i want to explain how this amendment is a simple investor-based solution to the problem. here it is in a nut shel. there is -- in a nutshell. there is a staggering conflict of interest aflecting the -- affecting the credit rating issue. the way it works now, issuers of security are paying for their credit ratings. they shop around for their ratings. selecting those agencies that tend to offer them the best ratings and threatening to stay away from rating agencies that are too tough on them. and because of this, the credit rating agencies are issuing ratings that are orders of magnitude higher than they should b

thank you very much. >> thank you senator klobuchar. i would like to say that all of our witnesses, we have a very distinguished panel today and we could spend a lot of time introducing them and going through all of their experiences and their degrees annul their backgrounds and it is a very impressive group but that is all part of the record so i i'm just going through go down the line introduce each one and ask each one to make a five-minute opening statement. what i would like for you all to do is pay attention to the light there in front of u.n. when five minutes is over we would love for you to wrap it up. first, i would like to introduce jessica rich. she is a deputy director at the bureau of consumer protection, federal trade commission. second is timothy sparapani, sparapani, i'm sorry, director of public policy at facebook. is mike hintze. he is the associate general counsel at microsoft. nexus katherine montgomery, ph.d.. she is professor of school of communications at american university. next is marc rotenberg, executive dir

i want to drill down on something miss klobuchar said.ometimes as i am sitting here and watching the press, i can imagine them putting up a headline -- "the unemployment rate has gone up 0.2%." people who came back into the system. is that right? >> that is correct. >> do you call those reentrants? >> i talked about the increase in the labor force, which includes new and re-entrants. >> how many were there? >> about 800,000. >> that is a huge number. so, if we did not have these reentrants and new entrants, you would have our rate that would be lower than 9.7%. -- you would have a rate that would be lower than 9% -- 9.7%, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> i was listening very carefully to my good friend, mr. brady, who was talking about the government jobs. but then i looked and saw that manufacturing added 44,000 -- private jobs? >> they are. >> factory employment was up 101,000. with those beep private jobs? >> they are. >> construction. is that federal or private? 14,000 jobs is a lot of jobs. >> they are all private. >> nonresid

i want to drill down on something miss klobuchar said. sometimes as i am sitting here and watching the press, i can imagine them putting up a headline -- "the unemployment rate has gone up 0.2%." there was -- there were some people who came back into the system. is that right? >> that is correct. >> do you call those ree ntrants? >> i talked about the increase in the labor force, which includes new and re-entrants. >> how many were there? >> about 800,000. >> that is a huge number. so, if we did not have these newtrants and entrants, you would have our rate that would be lower than 9.7%. -- you would have a rate that would be lower than 9% -- 9.7%, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> i was listening very carefully to my good friend, mr. brady, who was talking about the government jobs. but then i looked and saw that manufacturing added 44,000 -- private jobs? >> they are. >> factory employment was up 101,000. with those beep private jobs? >> they are. >> construction. is that federal or private? 14,000 jobs is a lot of jobs. >> they a

. >> as a minnesota-headquartered corporation, we have worked with senator amy klobuchar.ters in minnesota that are very concerned about this. she has given us a significant amount of time. i think she well understands our concerns. so we feel our voice is well represented in the senate ag committee. >> mr. page, just to lay things out, i think there's a lot of confusion among the public as to how derivatives are used, what it means. can you give us an example of how you might use a derivative and what it might mean for your company? >> at the farmgate level, a farmer undertakes a loan, as much as $400 an acre or more to put in his corn crop. he, in conjunction with his banker, want to think about that risk and how they can have revenue assurance. they would sit down with our farmgate support people, and we would go through a tailored and customized risk management program for them, taking into account whether they own their land, whether they rent their land, whether it's irrigated or not. and so the need for highly tailored products to mitigate these risks in conjunction

senator klobuchar. >> congratulations to both of you. dean kagan, when the senator introduced to, he did not emphasize your university of chicago background. it is not easy to survive there. i congratulate you. i was reading an article here. how did you manage to get a standing ovation from the federalist society at harvard? after i listened to your exchange was senator coburn, i think i understand. it is very important that we restore a belief in aloft over politics to the justice department. i think your background -- your background in reaching out to people of different views will be helpful. i was going to ask a more specific question. you talk about how you respect so many of the other solicitors general for their roles in how they have a public law and argued for the law, even when they did not believe in it. talk about very narrow exceptions when it impinges on the executive power. is there anything you change about the solicitor general's role? -- theisten in general solicitor general's approval is always needed in an appeal. it