landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i am pleased to come to the floor this morning as the chair of the small business committee with several of my colleagues from the committee that have been hard at work coming up with ideas, drafting and passing legislation in the small business committee over the last three months particularly to get ready for this time. mr. president, p tofs time that this senate and congress move the third jobs bill. and as a focus on small business in america. i want to acknowledge the members of the small business committee. two of them will join me this morning and we will all, hopefully, be on the floor over the next couple of days and weeks talking about the importance of focusing on small business job creation in america. my ranking member, of course, is the great senator from maine, senator snowe; john kerry, former chair of the committee; chris bond former chair; the senator from michigan carl levin, evan bayh, roger wicker, mark pryor, james reich and ben cardin. jeanne shaheen is also her

landrieu, proposes amendment number 3335 to amendment number 3336. ms. landrieu: madam president? the presiding officer: senators please take your conversations out. the senator from louisiana. ms. landrieu: thank you, madam president. i spoke at length about this amendment today, so it's not necessary for me to go into a great deal of detail. but i offer it on behalf of several senators from the gulf coast in order to help extend the placed in service state for several thousand low-income housing units along the gulf coast. we're not asking for additional authority. we're not asking for new tax credits. just to allow us to use the tax credits that have already been allocated. without this date extension, we will lose thousands -- literally thousands of affordable housing dwellings and approximately 13,000 jobs. so, since we're really focused on jobs and focused on economic growth and development, we thought this would be an appropriate amendment for this bill. so i'd like to call the bill up now. of course it has been, and then just allow the leadership to decide when the appropr

mary landrieu said that now.e first of many of these occurrences that will happen on the senate floor today possibly going all through the night. like i said before, get your popcorn ready. it's going to be exciting. >> it is certainly entertaining for sure. nbc's luke russert on capitol hill, thanks as always. we appreciate it. >> take care. >>> coming up shall the reverend al sharpton weighs in on a new report on the state of black america. that is ahead. [ female announcer ] sometimes you need tomorrow to finish what you started today. for the aches and sleeplessness in between, there's new motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. new motrin pm. [ male announcer ] the cadillac laurel sales event. featuring the acclaimed cts sports sedan. a car & driver 10best for the third year in a row. ♪ with a direct injection v6 engine. see your cadillac dealer soon, because while there is no expiration date on achievement, on rewarding it, there is. for qualified curre

landrieu: thank you. mr. president, i rise to speak for just a few minutes while we're in a quorum call in trying to decide how to proceed -- the presiding officer: without objection, the quorum call is terminated. l.a.n. -- with how to proceed -- ms. landrieu: with how to proceed on this bill, to speak about a very important bill that hopefully at some time, as this debate moves forward it could be considered. it is an extremely important amendment, not just to the people of louisiana but to the people of mississippi and alabama as well. three states that were very hard hit by a natural disaster four and a half years ago when katrina, one of the largest hurricanes ever recorded, slammed into actually the gulf coast and hit the state of mississippi directly and then parts of louisiana, and then three weeks later we were hit by another category 4 storm hurricane rita. we are four and a half years into that disaster, catastrophe, and the gulf coast is still struggling to recover. now, people are very familiar w

. >> four people accused of trying to tamper with phones at senator mary landrieu's office may cop a plea deal. prosecutors filed charges against them for lying to get into a federal building. that's a misdemeanor. face felonies charges when first arrested. james o'keefe is one of the people arrested. he was the person behind the acorn videos shot in baltimore. >> world two largest nuclear powers cutting the number of nuclear weapons on both sides. u.s. and russia expected to walk away with 1500 war heads apiece. secretary of state hillary clinton is confident that the u.s. congress will approve the terms. of the proposal. president is expected to sign the deal in prague april 8. >> wide spread violence in peru. between police and i will have agers losing homes. judge ordered the illegal 10ments destroyed. fire tear gas to disperse the crowd after they tried to stop bull dozers from destroying homes. >> 150 families affected. many living in the homes for more than a decade. >> a grassroots movement to legalize marijuana in california is one step close to being put to a vote. the bill

i yield the remainder of my time to senator landrieu. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i join my colleague in supporting this amendment. we've modified it from the original version. no environmental laws will be ignored. the process will be followed. but this amendment will simply expedite getting money to the gulf coast states and to other states that benefit from this program. and i ask my colleagues to be supportive. the presiding officer: who yields time? a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. bingaman: mr. president -- the presiding officer: the senate's not in order. the senator from new mexico. mr. bingaman: mr. president, this amendment is completely unrelated to the f.a.a. reauthorization legislation. it deals with a matter that's in the jurisdiction of the energy committee. it would make, in my view, inappropriate changes to a program that provides assistance to six coastal states. i oppose the amendment. i urge my colleagues to oppose it as well. in my view, it will dilute the authority of the secretary of interior t

i truly appreciate chair landrieu's approach in building a collaboration on the committee on these key issues, and most of the provisions i'm championing here tonight originated from the work that we have accomplished together in the committee as well. now, mr. president, when it comes to this jobs agenda, i would have preferred a different approach to advancing it, one that was more comprehensive and robust, frankly. this kind of piecemeal strategy is not one that i would embrace. it's not one "the new york times" approves of either, for that matter. in fact, an editorial this week contained the following observation, and i quote." the danger is with stop-gap measures boosting the headline job numbers, congress and the administration will avoid the heavy lifting that is required to clear away the wreckage of the recession." end quote. so it's not enough to say jobs, jobs, jobs as the new mantra. they must be the new singular mission of this congress that deserves rigorous action, not just in dribs and drabs, but as a full tilt agenda of this institution. make no mistake, mr. president

> they reduced charges against a group of conservative activists accused of breaking into marry landrieu'sey now face misdemeanor charges for sneaking into the democratic senator's office. they said they were investigating complaints of constituents when protestors were unable to get through. the new charges state the foursome were going to pretend to test the phone system. originally they were charged with felonies and trying to tamper with the phones. >>> the top officer in the marine corps says he won't make straight marines bunk with gay ones if don't ask, don't tell is repealed. in a military post, james conley says an overwhelming majority said they wouldn't want to bunk with someone who was openly gay. >> i would not ask our marines to live with someoneosexual homosexual, if we could possibly avoid it, and to me that means we have to build beq's with separate rooms. >> retired army colonel jack jacobs is an msnbc military analyst. edward, let me begin with you. back before the armed forces were integrated, i'm sure the argument sounded very much the same. well, if you integrate the

which fixes or deletes the best aspects of the original senate bill like nelson of nebraska and landrieu of louisiana essentially to buy their votes. if that reconciliation bill passes that b bill will be sento the senate for it's approval. once they passed the same amended bill then the president will sign it into law later this week. et insurance reform will take it's place along with social soe security and medicare as defining the social contract that binds the fabric. to democrats that's a giant step forward for republicans tae the beginning of a trillion dollar government takeover. it's being paid for by a government already broke. whenever you stand on this issue it is one of the most stunning political come backs in american history. it's the resurrection of the massive legislation from the graveyard of frustration and futility at languish the last year and a half. fox news senior congressional correspondent karl cameron joins us. no it is major garrett. major, how are you doing? >>> oo i am good geraldo. >> is the president going to stick around to sign the senate bill? will he

>> oh, yes, they have problems with the energy state democrats and mary landrieu and also people likebyrd and jay rockefeller and others on call. the house energy bill did make some concessions to those cold state democrats and i think you're going to see the same thing in the process with the bipartisan senate bill, if, in fact, it moves. but they, because of those fractures within the democratic party, that's why you need more republicans. lindsey graham believes he can bring six to ten republicans for some sort of pricing mechanism for carbon to offset the loss of some of those cold states. >> what are we talk about here, john? a lot of people thought cap and trade was dead and clearly now, as you're suggesting, the obama drill, drill, drill initiative is suggesting, it's not.ç what is the timetable, john? we're in easter recess and we have to come back and they have to do financial regulation and then what happens? >> larry, i still think it's uphill. i don't believe it's dead, but i think it will be a very difficult challenge and i think the likelihood is that a pricing mechanis

that constituents couldn't reach the democrat senator mary landrieu. his name is o'keefe. a national figure, as you may remember, after he dressed up as a pimp and shot undercover video of acorn workers. acorn has since announced plans to disband nationwide and is expected to close all of its remaining offices by the beginning of next month. and we said that he was in a pimp costume which he led us to believe at the time which now we have learned that's not true either the arizona senator john mccain and former running mate sarah palin former fox news contributor back together not only on the campaign trail but also, jonathan see them there? >> they look lovely together. >> in the cube. >> in the cube? >> shepard: they are in the cube so you know it's a big deal. get you details of their reunion straight away. hi there. looks like you found your car insurance. yeah, but, wow! it looks like you guys have everything. we sure do -- we help millions of people save. look -- we're number one in motorcycle insurance, a leader in boat and rv, and -- oh, wait, let me guess. you're

those amendments are the underlying substitute amendment, senator landrieu's amendment on the go zones, senator murray's amendment on summer employment for youth, senator coburn's amendment on transparency, senator webb's amendment on executive bonuses, a feingold-coburn amendment to rescind unused transportation earmarks, an amendment by senator reid of nevada on geothermal receipts, a mccain amendment on the use of budget reconciliation, and a lincoln amendment on energy disaster assistance -- excuse me, on emergency disaster assistance. now, a piece of legislation like this is a long distance run. it starts out with a lot of energy and a lot of activity. after a while, it reaches its stride, plateaus, moderates its pace. then the pace picks up again near the finish, that is, if we have much energy left. with this bill, most of the activity is behind us, the bill has reached its stride, we see the finish line ahead. it's tuesday, and we expect a final push then. we will work today to clear as many of the pending amendments as we can, and if senators have other noncontroversial amendm

. >>> federal authorities reduced charges for four men from entering senator mary landrieu's office,ames o'keefe is among those facing misdemeanor charges. they were originally faced with felonies. the two men entered the office dressed as telephone repairmen and recorded conversations with staff. if convicted, they face the maximum term of six months and a fine of $5,000. wolf? >> lisa, stand by. >>> he has the most powerful job in the united states senate, but the majority leader, harry reid, may be in deep trouble back home. can republicans take advantage? >>> plus, you'd think they had their 15 minutes of fame when they snuck into the president's state dinner, but now those white house party crashers are heading to prime time. woman down from nasal allergy attack. but we've got the ammunition she needs: omnaris. (troops) omnaris! to the nose. (general) omnaris works differently than many other allergy medications. omnaris fights nasal allergy symptoms that occur from allergic inflammation... relieve those symptoms with omnaris. side effects may include headache, nosebleed and sor

also, i called mary landrieu when she was wavering. it looks like she will be for it. the other thing i wanted to say was, in my situation, i wgot sick in 2000 and then got kicked off of insurance near 2001. i continue to go to the clinic and to get care. it added up. it goes on your credit report. the bills of it up to $25,000. the average person cannot pull themselves out of that kind of a hole. host: in this spoke earlier. i said if you wanted to go to the hot line to read their whip count -- the website for this nationaljournal.com. georgia, tommy on the republican line. caller: good morning. all right, i have been discussing phone-wise with my congressman and my a senator. evidently, everybody down here, we are all against the healthcare debate. the deal. host: why are you against? what are you doing about caller: it several things online. been meeting with both congressmen and the senator. but we're just all against the taking over one sixth of our economy. host: are right. let me show you a couple of opinions. here is "usa today" with their lead editorial. talki

when they put it in there back in december that's how had he got senator landrieu's vote.schultz to explain it. >> there is no more special treatment for louisiana or for nebraska. we have provisions in those bills that treat states the same and that's as it should be. so to say that we're passing the senate bill and so those sweetheart deals are there, that's baloney. >> that's the opposite of what republicans are saying and as you mentioned republicans say we are going to remember all of these deals come november, back to you guys. >> yeah, they're going to say there's 100 million in there for chris dodd of connecticut to build a hospital and montana getting kickbacks, there are a lot of deals and they're not going away in 2010 like you pointed out. >> other news, here are your headlines. iraq's parliamentary elections, showing prime minister alawi. leading maliki. the election commission says final results will be announced in coming days. tragedy as two air national guard soldiers were helping with flood prevention in fargo, north dakota. police say a woman driving a m

to what extent did you discuss the creation of this map with senator warner in virginia, senator landrieuin louisiana? was there a back and forth prior to this? >> on actual process figuring out places where it made most sense to explore for new places to drill i would direct you to the department interior. peter? >> yesterday the president's statement on iran with president sarkozy, weeks, not months on sanctions resolution. can you give us more understanding why he is saying that or what makes him think he can get it on that time frame, what's happening in terms of discussion about the chinese at this point? >> for starters as the president expressed yesterday there is real sense of urgency as it relates to working to apply pressure to iran. and, there's some, very intense conversations happening with the united nations right now that we're able to make real progress on. and, the president feels like we have more support within the international community for sanctions than we've ever had before. he feels very confident this spring we'll be able to move for word an agreement with those

it will win support from undecided senators, like lisa murkowski or mary landrieu. the senate is expected to take up time a bill in the next few weeks. jackson, tennessee, is now on the line. caller: i would love to see the day that we as a nation can come together on any proposal whether it be offshore drilling, health care, and stop all this name calling and bickering, work out some common ground and move forward as a nation. i think the decision is a correct one. i think it will benefit the nation. there will be some -- there will be some on the left that oppose this and there will be some on the right that oppose this. it should be the greatest good for the greatest number. host: mr. obama and his allies have made significant concessions on coal and nuclear power on the climate bill. host: jim, democrat, east ridge, tennessee. your reaction. caller: i just want to take you back for a second. we had all the big long lines in 1973, they said we will of the alaska oil opened and we will have the pipeline, all the way down to mid-america during the war. then what ha

substitute amendment, senator sessions' amendment to impose discretionary spending caps, senator landrieu's amendment on the go zones, senator murray's amendment on summer employment for youth, senator coburn's amendment on transparency, senator webb's amendment on executive bonuses, senator stabenow's amendment on a.m.t. credits, a feingold-coburn amendment to rescind unused transportation earmarks, an amendment by senator brown of massachusetts on a payroll tax holiday, and senator burr's amendment on a sales tax holiday. before senators offer additional amendments, we need to start processing the pending amendments. i have been advised that there will be objection to setting aside the pending amendments for senators to offer additional amendments until we have addressed some of the pending amendments. now some of the amendments appear to me to be the sort of thing that we could adopt by voice vote, and we are exploring that possibility in connection with at least two of them. on amendments that require roll call vote, i'm hopeful that we can schedule a number of votes at 2:00 p.m. this a

one, i think it will help key democrats, mary landrieu, people like that in key districts or key statesinistration is listening to their concerns. now, do i think that this measure here will help grease the path for a climate change bill and bring republicans on board? no. republicans i think in the congress have made a calculation that cooperating with this administration at this time is not necessary in order for them to pick up seats during the midterm election. so if this is more of a legislative maneuver in order to get a broader bill on climate change, unfortunately, i think it's going to come up short. >> jonathan capehart of the "washington post" has a question for you. >> dan, i want to ask you a question i asked congressman shadegg in the last interview a little differently. do you think the republican party has a responsibility to put forth a positive agenda for america rather and that completely focusing on the negative and hammering away at what's wronging with what the white house wants to do? >> well, john, that's a good point, as well. i think every party should feel com

landrieu: thank you, mr. president. i thank the chairman and want to add my compliments to him for his extraordinary leadership over the last several months in managing this very important piece of legislation through the process. a major piece of legislation that garnered 60 votes on the floor of the senate. mr. president, you know because you've worked on many pieces of legislation, even in your short time here in the senate but your longer time in the house, how difficult that is, and particularly on an issue like this, that has eluded our country time and time again. even though great attempts were made by extraordinary presidents and wonderful congresses in the past, this victory has eluded them. but we are close to capturing it now. and so i want to thank the chairman of the finance committee. he probably spent more time, except maybe for harry reid himself, on ushering us to this point. and i was in many of those meetings, and his patience was inspirational, and his steady hand when things got tough. so i want to

landrieu: thank you. mr. president, now i'd like to just set aside the pending amendment and to call up amendment number 3335 for purposes of modification only. the presiding officer: is there objection? so ordered. ms. landrieu: let me withhold for just one moment, please. ms. landrieu: thank you, mr. president. as we're waiting for the clerks to present the right form, let me just speak for just a moment about what this amendment is. i've already spoken about it at length. i've already submitted a lot of documents to the record about the importance of this amendment, so just to recap. the amendment that i'm offering actually on behalf of myself, senator vitter, senator cochran, is an amendment -- and senator wicker -- is an amendment that will help the recovery effort of the gulf coast particularly as it relates to louisiana, mississippi and alabama as well. the situation is this, mr. president, if we do not get this amendment on this bill or the next bill -- i'd prefer it on this bill -- we will literally