senator leahy has been near a number of times. we have the biggest first amendment sign in the world. right out there with all 45 words of the first amendment. senator leahy is such a champion of the first amendment. he cannot go by pennsylvania avenue without looking at it. we appreciate you coming back here today, senator leahy. in this very room, president obama held a town meeting. the week after next, the supreme court justice breyer is going to come here to talk about matters of the judiciary and public issues. it is a delight that the newsuem to serve as a place where the members of the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judiciary branch in come here and hold civilized discourse about public affairs, about the media, about the things that abydos, and the things that bring us together. it is in that light that the newseum is delighted to welcome senator leahy today. i am going to turn the program over to the dean of the georgetown university law center, welcome, bill. [applause] >> it is a pleasure to be here.

senator leahy is such a champion of the first amendment. he cannot go by pennsylvania avenue without looking at it. we appreciate you coming back here today, senator leahy. in this very room, president obama held a town meeting. the week after next, the supreme court justice breyer is going to come here to talk about matters of the judiciary and public issues. it is a delight that the newsuem to serve as a place where the members of the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judiciary branch in come here and hold civilized discourse about public affairs, about the media, about the things that abydos, and the things that bring us together. it is in that light that the newseum is delighted to welcome senator leahy today. i am going to turn the program over to the dean of the georgetown university law center, welcome, bill. [applause] >> it is a pleasure to be here. our speaker come at it become a tradition to begin each new congress with a report on the upcoming priorities of the senate judiciary committee which he chairs. the geor

. >> i want to welcome you all here and senator leahy.tor leahy is such a champion of the first amendment. he cannot go by pennsylvania aven without looking at it. we appreciate you coming back here today, senator leahy. in this very room, president obama held a town meeting. the week after next, the supreme court justice breyer is going to come here to talk about matters of the judiciary and public issues. it is a delight at the newsuem to serve as a place where the members of the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judiciary branch in come here and hold civilized discourse about public affairs, about the media, about the things that abydos, and the things that bring us together. it is in that light that the newseum is delighted to welcome senator leahy tay. i am going to turn the program over to the dean of the georgetown university law center, welcome, bill. [applause] >> it is a pleasure be here. our speaker comet it become a tradition to begin each new congress with a report on the upcoming priorities of the senate judi

senator leahy is such a champion of the first amendment. he cannot go by pennsylvania avenue without looking at it. we appreciate you coming back here today, senator leahy. in this very room, president obama held a town meeting. the week after next, the supreme court justice breyer is going to come here to talk about matters of the judiciary and public issues. it is a delight that the newsuem to serve as a place where the members of the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judiciary branch in come here and hold civilized discourse about public affairs, about the media, about the things that abydos, and the things that bring us together. it is in that light that the newseum is delighted to welcome senator leahy today. i am going to turn the program over to the dean of the georgetown university law center, welcome, bill. [applause] >> it is a pleasure to be here. our speaker come at it become a tradition to begin each new congress with a report on the upcoming priorities of the senate judiciary committee which he chairs. the geor

senator leahy. [applause] >> dean, thank you very much for the introduction. it does seem a little ways away from that farmhouse, being here, but charles, having you and your super staff hosting this discussion means a lot. you and i have worked together on these issues over the years. i must admit, when i started preparing this speech, bruce cohen and others in my office were talking about it. things changed over the weekend. we should talk about the travel to events of this past week -- tragic events of this past week. it caused us to pause and reflect on the promise of our democracy and our responsibilities as its beneficiaries and stored. as we entered this beautiful building today, many of us passed by these magnificent words, the first amendment. it is carved in marble and the pennsylvania avenue facade nearly 74 feet high. "congress will make no law respecting an established religion and prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redr

before the california state assembly, judiciary committee, and provided written testimony to senator leahyfor the uniting of american families act. the irc, in making their recommendations to the mayor and board of a supervisors, to improve and enhance the quality of life into the participation of all the grim immigrants in the city and county of san francisco must include the plight of same-sex couples and by-national relationships. at the four of any immigration reform discussion, particularly for this city, the current immigration law fails so many immigrants and families. yes, same-sex relationships stand on prejudicial ground when compared to their heterosexual counterparts. without specific language such as that in the united families act which seeks to have permanent partners, same-sex by dutch national couples will remain victims to the law that compels discrimination against lgbt couples, including the right to sponsor a spouse, and with no right to a k1 same-sex visa. we are advised that took schumer will introduce same-sex reform in january 2010. we are also told that passage by

and later in the morning, patrick leahy of vermont. live coverage from the museum begins at 11:00 eastern. >> thank you very much mr. president, mr. vice president. you have on overed me and my family by giving me an opportunity to serve you and to serve our nation. >> with more than 80 appearances by william daily and gene sperling, you can use the c-span library to learn about the newest additions to the. it's washington your way. >> now, remarks from arizona governor jan breweron the tucson shootings that killed six and wounded 13, including representative gabery yel gifferts. this is about 10 minutes. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, thank you all. and good afternoon. speaker adams, president pierce, honorable senators and representatives of the legislator, chief justice and justices of the supreme court, constitutional officers, tribal leaders, honored guests, and my fellow arizonaans. i had intended to deliver a state of the state address to you all today. remarks that outline an exciting and solid plan for job creation, educa

the offshoring prevention act, cosponsored by senators leahy, sanders, boxer, durbin, brown of ohio,nd harkin, would end a perverse tax incentive that actually rewards for shipping jobs overseas. under current law, an american company that manufactures goods in rhode island or montana or maine must pay federal income tax on profits in the year that the profits are earned. that's standard tax law. but if that same company moves its factory to another country, it is permitted to defer the payment of income taxes from that factory. and declare them in a year that is more advantageous, for example, one in which the company has offsetting tax losses. if an american company moves a plant offshore, it acquires this tax deferral advantage. it makes no sense that our tax code allows companies to delay paying income taxes on profits when made through overseas subsidiaries that charges -- but charges those profits in the year that they're made at home, and my bill will put a stop to this practice, where profits earned on manufactured goods exported to the united states. to put it simply, our ta

that is why my friend from vermont, senator leahy, has joined me in this effort to help provide a level playing field for our states. mr. president, here are a few more important points about our bill. the 100,000-pound trucks are no larger or wider than 80,000-pound trucks. this change would remove an estimated 7.8 million truck miles from our local roads and streets. increasing the truck payloads by 35% would reduce the overall number of trucks needed. in addition to saving fuel by traveling fewer miles, the steady pace of interstate driving improves the fuel economy of trucks by 14% to 21%. and the maine department of transportation's engineers say that they are confident that our interstate bridges are safe and can handle the additional weight in the state of maine. mr. president, countless maine small business owners have told me how this change would improve their competitiveness. for example, the owner/operator of a logging business in penobscot county said that being able to transport his pulpwood to the mill on i-95 rather than on secondary roads would save his company at least

host: yesterday, senator leahy was in washington. also talked about beef up security for members of congress. here's what he had to say. >> the capitol itself is very, very secure. if i think about what it's like when i was in law school, it's a little bit different today. i do not feel any worry there. i would not want to see every member of congress walking around with security. we have it for the obvious ones in leadership, and a speaker, and i have no problem with that. i think it isolates you from the people you represent. it's not the kind of country we are. host: a republican in baltimore, maryland -- your thoughts. what should change, if anything? caller: good morning. first of all, i would like to express my condolences to anyone affected by the shooting in arizona. the caller from ohio -- the idea that this shooter had any [inaudible] there's no evidence. there are no e-mails. nothing. that is not the problem. the issue is, late in the 1960's and into the early 1970's, this country went through de- institutionalizing people

soon after becoming senator, he cosponsored along with senator leahy and senator grassley a bill to give federal prosecutors more effective tools for rooting out financial fraud. well, president obama signed that bill into law in may of last year. and when the senate undertook the sweeping reform of the financial system earlier this year, senator kaufman quickly stepped forward as one of the toughest critics of wall street, giving speech after speech here on the floor proposing and demanding fundamental changes in america's broken financial system. i listened with particular interest to his explanations and criticisms of high-frequency trading and other opaque trading practices of hedge funds and big wall street firms. i was a proud cosponsor of the safe banking act cosponsored by senator kaufman and senator brown. this legislation would have dramatically reduced the size and concentration of the largest financial institutions, thereby making our financial system safer. i was disappointed this proposal was not included in the final bill. but getting 33 votes for this ambitious measure wa

. >> what you're seeing is pat leahy of vermont escorting the president out of the chamber and looks like what it is. they're printed copies of the speech distributed in the chamber and people would love always to get the president's signature on the cover to mark the occasion. kelly, was our -- from where we sat listening to the broadcast, the theory that by co-mingling the parties it did make for a kind of warmer, more polite and civil reception. >> that was very much my sense, brian. having attended a number of these i felt that the number of standing ovations was significantly fewer. the volume certainly a little more muted. certainly, a sense of coleenlg yalty of issues where everyone can stand, talking about support for the troops or issues like education. one policy issue that seemed to get a lot of people to their feet was with respect to the health care law, a provision known as the 1099 that has to do with small businesses and there is bipartisan support for that but it really had a different feeling. as i skned the room with an issue i knew was a key for one member or anot

senators inouye and leahy. so if 98 of us haven't voted on the rule, what's the effect in well, the effect is that we're not held accountable when the rule gets abused. and with a requirement of 67 votes for any rule change, that's a whole lot of power without restraint. but we can change this. we can restore accountability to the senate. many of my colleagues as well as constitutional scholars agree with me that a simple majority of the senate can end debate -- first step, end debate on a rules change and adopt its rules at the beginning of a new congress. critics of my position argue that the rules can only be changed in accordance with the current rules and that rule 22 requires two-thirds of senators present and voting to agree to end debate on a change to the senate rules. since this rule was first adopted in 1917, members of both parties have rejected this argument on many occasions. in fact, advisory rulings by vice presidents nixon, humphrey and rockefeller sitting as the presidents of the senate have s

senators inouye and leahy. so if 98 of us haven't voted on the rule, what's the effect in well, the effect is that we're not held accountable when the rule gets abused. and with a requirement of 67 votes for any rule change, that's a whole lot of power without restraint. but we can change this. we can restore accountability to the senate. many of my colleagues as well as constitutional scholars agree with me that a simple majority of the senate can end debate -- first step, end debate on a rules change and adopt its rules at the beginning of a new congress. critics of my position argue that the rules can only be changed in accordance with the current rules and that rule 22 requires two-thirds of senators present and voting to agree to end debate on a change to the senate rules. since this rule was first adopted in 1917, members of both parties have rejected this argument on many occasions. in fact, advisory rulings by vice presidents nixon, humphrey and rockefeller sitting as the presidents of the senate have s

later in the morning, remarks by judiciary committee chairman patrick leahy of vermont.e will discuss the upcoming agenda in the 112th congress. live coverage from the newseum begins at 11:00 a.m. eastern. defense secretary robert gates is in china for talks on military cooperation. earlier, the nixon center hosted a discussion looking at china's growing military and what goals secretary gates might accomplish on the trip. this is an hour, 40 minutes. >> good afternoon, everybody. welcome to the nixon center. i am pleased with the turnout. if i could remind everyone to turn off your cell phones, please. please turn them all the way off, not just to vibrate, just reduce the electromagnetic interference in the room. i will introduce the speakers and moderate the question and answer period. we will try to wrap up by 2:00 p.m. eastern, if not earlier. first, let me welcome our speakers. we have a great panel of experts, and definitely coming to talk about a complicated and very important issue at exactly the right time. as all of you know, secretary gates left for beijing th

in a bill coming up that senator leahy and i introduced, we want to do away with that.is absolutely right. there is an industry. you have an industry that benefits from it. do not forget that you created an industry that got this stuff up. the president is -- the president did not say this, but he is calling for reducing the marginal tax rate on corporate taxes. we are the second highest corporate tax rate all around the world. that makes us very un competitive. there's a principle of law that the president did not express. it says that when you lower marginal tax rates, you broaden the tax base. that's basically what the president is asking us to do. the only thing i would disagree with the president on, if he is saying that to bring in more revenue, you should not be increasing taxes during a recession, but particularly -- you know the old principle. if you increase taxes, you get less of it. if you want to increase employment, you do not increase taxes on the people that provide jobs in america. host: the president said that the wealthiest americans could sacrifice a

people would apply for leahy persistence and we would give it to them and they would have a weatherizationgram and never they should me. somebody decided let's start by the rising the people who are asking for lie he didn't guess what happened? our request went significantly down and we save significant money. by whether rising them they didn't need to use as much fuel. commonsense stuff. i could keep you here for the next hour talking about other examples but i won't. let me shift now to post recession. post recession. in the midst of a reception every state has made budget cuts and in pennsylvania we cut $3.5 billion out of our budget in the last two years. the new governor has had to make further budget cuts. but i believe by making those budget cuts in the right way, by increased revenue and that is happening all over. governor christie in the state of the state address yesterday said the same thing is happening in pennsylvania return of revenue growth. we had last month the revenue came in at $175 million above estimate. we are thinking that they may have 4% revenue growth in the next

my hat goes off to senator schumer and leahy -- leaving these hearings and trying to find that balance between every senators right to be heard and our collective responsibilityo for majority to legislate.ho senator udall who has done this enormous investigation of the constitutional process for amending the rules and so many others. the first key part of a package of reforms that a number of us, 16 i believe now have cosponsored this resolution, the first key piece is the talking t filibuster. now, the talking filibuster reform is essentially to make the filibuster what all americans believe it is. that is, if you believe so strongly that this chamber is in a direction that is misguided you are willing to come and taka this for and make your case to the american people, let's take a look at our image of that, and that is here we are. jimmy a stewart thing the role f jefferson smith who comes to thisom chamber where i now stand and says, i will take this floor to oppose the abuses that otherwise might go forward.t he held that floor until he collapsed.at's that is what the american peo

leahy of utah, mr. lee of vermont. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> would you all please raise your right hand? do you solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take the oath of obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter so help you god. >> i do. >> congratulations and welcome. [applause] [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the senate will please come to order. the clerk will call the names of the next group. >> mr. mccain of arizona, mr. mil -- kulski of maryland, mr. murkowski of alaska. >> would you all please raise your right hands? do you

official view nowadays goes somewhat as follows -- obviously agreed to beforehand between senator leahy elena kagan. once upon a time i worked on the hill. i am it very familiar with all these are written. they are very useful. it does not take. the duo expressed a concordance of views. senator lhy said to protest -- set to prospective supreme court justice elena kagan, there are two views about the constitution. the word's meaning what they actually say -- by the way, you may have read the "new york times" yesterday in which a lot of the editorials excoriated justice scalia for actually reading the law as written. there is another view that says that y really ought to read those words in a way that makes the case, out in a way that serves the public good -- makes the case come out in a way tt serves the pubc good. what do you say, taken? her reply was designed to show how moderate she was. she said, "i see some good in both sides. surely there are times when you read the words to mean what they say and applied them that way. there are times when you should not an should look at them on

to think up and even a copyright and patent certain tax principles in a bill coming up that senator leahy and i introduced, we want to do away with that. he is absolutely right. there is an industry. you have an indtry that benefits from it. do not forget that you created an industry that got this stuff up. the president is -- the president did not say this, but he is calling for reducing the marginal tax rate on corporate taxes. we are the second highest corporate tax rate all around the world. that makes us very un competitive. there's a principle of law that the president did not express. it says that when you lower marginal tax rates, you broaden the tax base. that's basically what the president is asking us to do. the on thing i would disagree with the president on, if he is saying that to bring in more revenue, you should not be increasing taxes during a recession,ut particularly -- you knowhe old principle. if you increase taxes, you get less of it. if you want to increase employment, you do not increase taxes on the people that provide jobs in america. host: the president said tha