lautenberg: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nother. lts will the mr. president, i hope it's -- mr. lautenberg: mr. president, i hope it is noted that i stand here as the male member with my colleagues who comprise the significant part of the women members of our -- of the united states senate. they do the mothering, they do the family raising, but it's pretty obvious to all of us that we -- that fathers, grandfathers have an active interest in what happens with our children, what it takes to make sure that they grow up healthfully, that they grow up with the tools that they'll need in their future lives for them to contribute to themselves, their families, and the country at large. mr. president, what we're witnessing in america today is an assault by house republicans trying to ram through a reckless, unhealthy spending plan that will ultimately bring shame to our country. -- as it causes pain now for little children who come from families that don't have the means, that don't

lautenberg: five minutes was my understanding. what happened? well, i was told originally that it was five minutes. i ask unanimous consent that the rest of my speech be included in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: thank you, madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island is recognized for three minutes. mr. whitehouse: let me first thank chairman boxer for pulling us together on this. i want to make three points in the brief time. the first is the house bill cuts $2 billion out of clean water and safe drinking water infrastructure at a time when e.p.a. calculates that we have a $600 billion water infrastructure deficit. we are behind on rebuilding america's clean water infrastructure, and yet they cut it. we need the infrastructure. we could certainly use the jobs. this is a very misplaced cut. the second, from a clean air perspective, the bill cuts $60 million from state and local grants that ensure clean air and clean water and attacks clean air programs. in 2010 the clean air act is esti

senator lautenberg from new jersey is here with us as well.nd i think senator snowe may want to say just one word -- okay, senator snowe is here to offer an amendment, but why don't we turn to senator murkowski. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mr. boxer: i would like to be recognized when senator murkowski is through. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. ms. murkowski: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: mr. president, thank you. and to the chairman of the small business subcommittee and the ranking member, thank you for your work on this legislation. senator landrieu, you've spoken about the necessity, particularly in this environment today as we're coming out of a recession, the need to ensure that we have that conducive environment for our small businesses to thrive. it's not just about incentives and opportunities. it really is that -- that business environment, and one of the things that i think that is important for us as policymakers to lo

senator lautenberg, welcome. would you like to make a brief statement?> yeah, i would like to make a longer one but i will make this brief. just to say, madal chairman, this is not only obviously timely but we are pleased to have him here. i had a chance to meet with him yesterday and i think we -- the review we had was very productive and i will also attest to mr. jaczko's depurblet he came in from jab and i was half asleep coming from japan. we welcome you here again to both witnesses and look forward to hearing from them and i thank you for hiring them. >> thank you. thank you both for being here today. you have both been intimately involved with the crisis and senator lautenberg said i understand you just returned from japan so we would be most interested in your observations and an update on that situation but i also want you to be looking forward to and talk a little bit about the issues the united states should consider in learning from this events. your formal statements, gentlemen, will be made part of the record so please summarize in your oral

lautenberg: i will just take that half minute and i ask unanimous consent that if i go over the half minute, that i get two minutes more. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lautenberg: madam president, i served in world war ii, a long time ago, but i've been around a long time. and when i went into the army, i enlisted when i was 18. my father was deathly ill with cancer. my mother was 37 years old. and the prospects for our family was grim. and i went to the army. my father with a condition arranged with the recruiters that i be allowed to stay home until my father passed away. he was 43 years old. my mother became a 37-year-old widow. and things were tough. money was owed. the doctors and pharmacists and hospitals. why do i talk about this now? it's because i was given the benefit as were eight million others in uniform to get my college education. i went to columbia university. it was so far distant from my vision when i graduated from high school and enlisted in the army. it turned out to be the greatest generation that america has ever seen. it was because the governm

just a seniority basis, i would call on senator lautenberg and senator phil and if he's here and thenator cantwell who is the chair of the aviation subcommittee and senator demint should he be here so senator lautenberg. >> thanks very much mr. chairman and welcome mr. secretary. our country's roads, rail and runways are to keep our economy moving but much of the infrastructure is now on the cony state and house republicans aren't the least bit interested in rebuilding it. instead the seek billions of dollars of cuts, reckless plans to leave the transportation support to despair. this risky approach would send pink slips to hundreds of thousands of transportation workers including more than 3,000 of them in the state of new jersey and will also slash funding for amtrak, a vital nation, national transportation service that takes 8 million cars off the roads and keeps 50,000 flights out of the sky each year and we don't need more congestion on the roads. we don't need more delays with the airports and we don't need more job losses. we should be focused on rebuilding our economy, creatin

the issue of national freight mobility and working on tsp with the subcommittee chairman senator lautenberg and senator murray we introduced in the act last year. this recognizes the role of the courts play in moving freight that obviously necessary in the infrastructure that goes along with it and obviously it is something that creates jobs and very much needed boost to the economy. i know that i will have a chance to address some of these issues but the gao or important in 2003 cited specific barriers to inhibiting the intermodal transportation, limited federal funding, targeted projects, limited collaboration, limited ability to evaluate the project so i hope we will hear from you today about the department in the current rate strategy orientation on the highway corridors and will sign a little where the coordination with the administration lies on such issues and the department's intentions are to create and freight mobility programs. i think these types of prioritization have worked well for our economy and the needs of the key infrastructure improvements tied directly to the jobs so i

lautenberg: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that further reading of the roll be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lautenberg: mr. president, everyone is aware of how deeply concerned the american people are about staying in their homes, about having adequate health care, and about providing education and a better path for the lives of their children. but everyone also knows that there's a group calling themselves the tea party and they're busy trying to eliminate those opportunities. in wisconsin a tea party governor is trying to take away workers collective bargaining rights to be represented. it's like going into a courtroom without a lawyer. in florida, another tea party governor has killed a critical high-speed rail project by rejecting federal grants o of $2.4 billion to move it along. threw it away. threw it back, $2.4 million. and here in congress, tea party activists have seized control of the republican side of the aisle. and it's a far for the tea party fo

but what senator lautenberg is talking about is a new way to make sure that before the chemicals are introduced, even more chemicals that the burden changes so that the person -- the company, person or the group who wants to introduce the chemical must prove it's safe before introduction. that is a very different and important move and i, of course, will support you 100%. but these are different approaches to the same issue, but they are come le men tear. senator boozman, thank you for being here. >> this is a very important problem and i guess it's one because of the nature of communication being so much easier now and the ability top perhaps keep track of things, so much easier, it is something we can address. . i believe very strongly we need to deal with the problem. i believe some of the things we have in place, the registry program evidently is not doing a good job and also i guess i'm concerned that we're talking about it being under e.p.a. as opposed to -- i guess my question would be, why not the c.d.c. or n.i.h. or f.d.a.? all these groups have things that they're involved

i want to associate myself with my colleague senator lautenberg when he said do not compare what happened in japan to a problem on an airplane. >> i was not comparing the problem. i was suggesting in the way that older vintage airplanes often get updated and continue to fly. nuclear power plants are the same that they have been modified and upgraded. i was not comparing the situation in japan. i apologize for the confusion. >> thank you. you said something -- dealing with a reactor like this, i assumed the one in japan is straight forward. you have to cool it down. why were they not able to cool it down? what went wrong? >> i do not want to speculate. my responsibilities are to the u.s. nuclear power plants and the facilities in this country. we have looked at these scenarios and looked to see we could provide the kind of systems and procedures that would allow us to do with these very unlikely events. i do not want to speculate on what happened in japan. >> i am making a point. you brought it up. dealing with a reactor like this is straightforward. either you're criticizing japan because

i listened -- listen to senator lautenberg all the time talk about how it is with his -- he has a grandson with bad asthma. and the mother, every time she takes him to play a baseball game or she's away from home, she has to make a run to, where is the nearest emergency room? this -- this isn't a benign situation. it's a serious situation for children. and adults. so that's why the american people are smart. they're saying, well, wait a minute, we want the e.p.a. to clean up the air and we don't want congress involved. look what they say. 68%. now, mind you, this was taken february 14, february 16. this is the height of the politics in our country, fighting this side, that side. 68% believe congress should not stop e.p.a. from enforcing clean air act standards. and 69% believe e.p.a. scientists, not congress, should set pollution standards. people are smart. if you're -- if you've got a problem with a tooth, you go to a dentist, you don't go to a member of congress unless they're a dentist. people know scientists, doctors, they're the ones who should guide us on the clean air act, not poll

he worked for senator lautenberg and he also worked in the private sector as the transportation consultant and was actually acted on the the legislative committee in the washington area of transportation industry representatives group. so mitch, if you can kick off the discussion and then maybe when we are through all of our panel members will have time for questions from the audience. agreed. >> thank you for having me. i think most of you are aware that the banking committee has been going through a transition over the past couple of months from our former chairman senator chris dodd to the current chairman, senator ken johnson. i think under chairman johnson you will continue to see the banking committee be very supportive of the transit industry trying to help all of you do your job and providing the transit service to the millions of americans who depend on it. senator johnson certainly has seen at home and in south dakota the importance of the public transportation in rural areas and the smaller communities. and if you look at the roster members on the committee, people like senator

proud you were here and we are proud of you in california and now is a pleasure to call on senator lautenberg. >> thanks very much. many of us in this room are, appeared in some grand parents and try to protect our children. hats off to you for the work that you've done. you are a living example of what happens when one has courage and determination and thinking for what you've done. no parent should have to be afraid to send their child into the backyard to a neighborhood because it might make them sick if this is the reality facing parents who live in communities where residents are under assault from diseases such as cancer. for example, in the 1990's a cancer cluster was discovered in toms river where children were being diagnosed with leukemia and brain cancer at an alarmingly high rates. toms river is the home of two from sites and a number of industrial facilities. and investigation of toms river by the state centers for disease control and prevention found in association between mothers who drank contaminated water and children who developed leukemia. as science tells us children on a

therefore, senator lautenberg is next to be followed by senator cantwell, then senator begich. >> thanks, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, as i said before, good work being done there. appreciate your effort and your skill and weaving your way through the difficulties and making sure that our transportation agenda moves along. in florida governor rick scott has said that he rejects $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail funds. northeast corridor could start putting these funds good use now to boost our economy, improve our existing high-speed rail service and create jobs. if funds are returned to d.o.t., will the northeast corridor be a priority for receipt of these funds? >> we have a request from just about every member of congress on both sides of the capitol for these funds, senator. >> for the northeast corridor? >> many of these senators and representatives are from the northeast corridor. and we will, we are working our way through how to process the reallocation. >> the bill proposed by the house republicans are slashed funds to replace the 100-year-old bridge in jersey. this bridge

yesterday with senators mikulski, boxer, sherrod brown, blumenthal, akaka, whitehouse, begich and lautenberg. this legislation halls the strong support of the national committee to preserve social security and medicare, the american med reagan administration of government employees, the paralyzed veterans of america, the military order of the purple heart, and the jewish veterans of america, among others. mr. president, social security is the most successful and reliable federal program in our nation's history. for 75 years, through good times and bad, when the economy was strong and when the economy was weak, social security has paid out every nickel owed to every eligible american. and while we take that for granted, that in fact is an extraordinary accomplishment, and it is all done at very modest administrative cost. social security has been enormously successful in accomplishing exactly what its founders hoped to accomplish. before president roosevelt signed the social security act into law in august of 1935, approximately half of our senior citizens lived in poverty. before social secu

it's very good, very strong with senator kerry, senator mccain and lautenberg. you have to show your support and for the council. and of course, you know what's going on in libya, the situation is very serious. the regime is using any kind of dirty tricks to keep the ball. now there's another wave of killing both the assassination. today we hear that a few people have been killed in police and security. that's what i want to say. and if there are some questions, i will be better to answer. >> thank you. to add what you said, the information that some elements of gadhafi's secret service and missionaries have started to pump some streets in benghazi. not to bomb them, it will explode as if he is not attacking civilians with a different way of attacking. ambassador, thank you for the years as decent libyans and he has shown in the united nations security council he is a true that be in. we welcome him and give him the glory. thank you. >> it is a pleasure to be at this gathering. all of us are completely aware of what is going on in libya. our people suffer. all o

and now it is a pleasure to call on senator lautenberg. >> thank you, madam chairman. us in this room are parents and grandparents and we spend our lives trying protect our children and keep them safe. trevor, my hat is off to you for the work you have done. you are living example of what happens when one has courage and determination, and we thank you for which you have done. the parents should ever have to be afraid to send their child into the backyard, into a neighborhood park, or to school that might make them sick, get this is the reality facing parents who live in communities under assault from diseases such as cancer. for example, in the 1990's, a cancer cluster was discovered in new jersey, where children we've been diagnosed with leukemia and brain cancer at alarmingly high rates. there were homes over two superfund sites. an investigation by the centers for disease control and prevention found an association between mothers who drank contaminated water and children who developed leukemia. science tells us that children are especially be vulnerable when they