leahy: i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: madam president, after extensive and unnecessary delays, the senate is finally going to vote today on three important nominations to fill high-level posts at the department of justice. two of these positions have national security responsibility i have been here since the ford administration. i can't recall a time when the justice department and the country were deprived of such critical appointees, whether republicans or democrats were in charge, and the majority whether we had a republican or democratic president. we always filled very, very quickly these kind of national security positions. so it's hard to understand why we haven't been able to vote nominees for positions with national security responsibilities like the deputy attorney general and the assistant attorney general for the national security division, especially when we're only two or three months away from the tenth anniversary of september 11. and of course the dist

angie: ...los senadores robert menÉndez, patrick leahy y dick durbin vuelven a la carga, esperando quera una reforma de inmigraciÓn -que incluye el dream act- sÍ sea aceptada por sus colegas republicanos. >>es para impulsar una oportunidad de decir que esto es de suma importacia, de que queremos una oportunidad, que nuestros colegas republicanos se unan a nosotros. angie: este proyecto incluye el refuerzo de la seguridad en la frontera, lo que siempre han frontera, lo que siempre han exigido los republicanos, al igual que la verificaciÓn del estatus de los trabajadores. tambiÉn se exigirÁ a los 11 tambiÉn se exigirÁ a los 11 millones de indocumentados a inscribirse con el gobierno, pagar impuestos, multas y aprender inglÉs. despuÉs de haber aprobado un chequeo de su historial delictivo. >>es razonable. se enfoca en una legalizaciÓn para las personas que lo merecen y, al mismo tiempo, asegura a frontera. >>en una Época en la que hemos visto tantas propuestas de ley anti inmigrantes, este es un recordatorio de una forma de darle un anÁlisis sincero con sentido comÚn al especto migratorio

leahy: mr.i ask unanimous consent that the cloture motion with respect to the verrilli nomination be withdrawn and at 5:30 p.m. the senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on calendar 118, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table with no intervening action or debate, no further motions be in order to the nomination, the statements related to the nomination be printed in the record, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate then resume legislative with the other provisions of the may 26 unanimous consent agreement remaining in effect. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: i thank the chair. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of justice, donald b. verrilli jr. of the district of columbia to be solicitor general of the united states. the presidi

with one of its most important applies, and defense secretary gates told democratic senator patrick leahy, get used to it. >> how long do we support governments that lie to us? when do we say enough is enough? >> based on 27 years in cia and four and a half years in this job, most governments lie to each other. that's the way business gets done. >> reporter: although cia drone strikes against terrorist safe havens in pakistan's border area continue without letup, pakistani intelligence at the same time actually protect some of the terrorist groups. the cia gave pakistan the location of two compounds where the explosives smuggled across the border to kill american soldiers in afghanistan are manufactured. someone in pakistani intelligence apparently alerted the terrorists who immediately emptied out the compounds. right now the pakistanis are pushing the u.s. away. they have kicked out most of the americans who were training their military. david martin, cbs news, the pentagon. >>> in iowa this is the day when the town of hamburg finds out if a new makeshift levee holds back the missouri r

and professor hart, good to have you here. >> chairman leahy, thank you. i appreciate the opportunity to talk today. i've been asked to focus on two cases, wal-mart against dukes in at&t against transfix and impacts on both access to justice and consequently on corporate accountability and corporate behavior. these cases are different in the context in which they arrived. transfix as a consumer case with a cell phone agreement, wal-mart against dukes is a case involving systemwide allegations that i am promotion in the work place. the substantive law is very different. they have important similarities that are relevant to the con conversation here today. first and most significantly, both cases and decisions reflect tremendous skepticism. i think it's fair to call a hostility to class-action resolution of disputes by the current supreme court. the erosion of the effectiveness of the class-action devices at this very fire from the intense and 18 thanks, current version of the rule here because the class-action is the only way to reach many kinds of systemic

ice hockey team will step down from his club commitments in the cage to take up his new post senator leahy had been off had managed champions and passed last season but russia's sports news that the tally nucor insists it's impossible to continue now in tandem with the national job the decision coming up to sack russia coach because i've tried to juggle the job with his coaching role yes he was axed following russia's fourth place finish at the recent world championships in sweden. go to football and jack warner as quick as fee for vice president he had been suspended from the sport's governing. body pending an investigation into bribery allegations however his departure means all charges against him and now be dropped with peter saying he will be presumed innocent the sixty eight year old along with thief a member. were a key to bribing carabine thoughtful chiefs in the run up to defeat their presidential elections warner was the longest serving member feet his executive committee after joining the board back in one thousand nine hundred three has also stepped down as president. in the me

and defense secretary gates told democratic senator patrick leahy get used to it. >> how long do we support governments that lie to us? when do we say enough is enough? >> based on 27 years in c.i.a. and four and a half years in this job, most governments lie to each other. that's the way business gets done. >> reporter: although c.i.a. drone strikes against terrorist safe havens and pakistan's border areas continue without let-up, pakistani intelligence at the same time actually protects some of the terrorist groups. the c.i.a. gave pakistan the location of two compounds where the explosives smuggled across the border to kill american soldiers in afghanistan are manufactured. someone in pakistani intelligence apparently alerted the terrorists, who immediately emptied out the compounds. but for all the double dealing, the chairman of the joint chiefs says the u.s. cannot afford to turn its back on a country that has both terrorists and nuclear weapons on its soil. >> if we walk away from it, it's my view it will be a much more dangerous place a decade from now, and we'll be back. >> reporte

i'll turn to senator leahy. >> i have a question for professor van alstyne. professor harrison has been acknowledged that there is a way to do this while resolving any constitutional questions. if we can invoke the doctrine of constitutional doubt for purposes of this committee, we might do so and resolve any such doubt simply by taking a two-step process rather than the 1 step process. we would amend the existing legislation, making clear that this direct it could serve an additional six years and having the president re-nominee director mueller to an additional six-year term -- two- year term. given the questions that have raised, what should we do that? >> you may if you want. the president has expressed his desire to have missed mueller continue -- to have mr. mueller continue in the office. i want to suggest the alternative that i've suggested to you. president'sg on the recommendation that he wants this man to continue in office for the additional two-year period. that seems to satisfy the nomination requirement. the president wishes mr. mueller to occu

senator patrick leahy, democrat from vermont, second most senior member, called on weiner to quilt. joins mark pryor of arkansas, congressman allison schwartz of pen and a list of house democrats, all saying the weiner must go. i wonder if las vegas has the over and under on weiner making through the weekend with. my guess is he is gone by monday but we will see. here's the question. why won't congressman anthony weiner do the honorable thing and resign? go to c nchlt nchlt p kom slnn. post on my blog. why do you suppose he is hang tough? >> people have a short attention span and move on to other stories. i don't know. see what he does. you may be right. see what happens the next few days. thank you. >>> a new shock today president obama's economic record, from one of the republican front runners for his job. we are talking about mitt romney. he told michigan voters the obama administration has failed the hard-hit state and the nation. the economy is clearly one of the biggest challenges for the president's re-election bid right now, if not the biggest. here's our white house corres

leahy: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination. the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, michael h. simon of oregon to be united states district judge for the district of oregon. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be one hour for debate equally divided in the usual form. the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, today the senate will finally consider the nomination of michael simon to fill a judicial emergency vacancy for the district court for the district of oregon. mr. simon is one of the most highly regarded lawyers in the country. he spent five years as a trial attorney at the department of justice during the reagan administration, including a stint as a federal prosecutor, three years of volunteer judge pro tempore

. >> chairman leahy, members of the committee can appreciate the opportunity to speak today. i've been asked to focus on two cases, wal-mart against duke in at&t against concepts via and the impacts on justice and consequently on corporate accountability and corporate behavior. these cases a very different in the context in which they arise. concepcion is so agreements, one against duke says systemwide obligation of pay discrimination in the work place. while the sensitive underlines his two cases is very different, they have important similarities that are relevant to the conversation here today. first and most significantly, both of the cases reflect tremendous to sit down. i think it's fair to call it hostility to class-action resolution of disputes by the current supreme court. the erosion of the effectiveness of the class-action device has moved us very far from the intent of the drafters of rule 23 in 1966, current version of the rule. because the class-action is the only way to reach many kinds of systemic misconduct, the erosion of the tool and toy companies have many

senator patrick leahy is quizzing defense secretary gates about our relationships with supposed alliese a listen. >> how long do we support governments that lie to us? when do we say enough is enough, secretary gates i'll start with you. >> well, first of all, i would say, based on 27 years in the cia and 4 1/2 years in this job, most governments lie to each other. that's the way business gets done. >> do they also arrest the people that help us? >> sometimes. >> when they say they're allies? >> sometimes. >> not on -- >> and sometimes they send people to spy on us and they're our close allies. >> and we give aid to them. >> that's the real world that we deal with. >> peter, that was a more stark and open and honest critique of the relationship we've got with our supposed allies than you normally get certainly at a budget hearing. but let me ask you this. isn't it really one step beyond the norm of smoke and mirrors -- i ask you this, you're a spook i think i can call you that, being in the cia for years -- what normally happens for them to affirmatively arrest our sources of informati

bride but persistent i came back when to the senate again 1974 against mine now colleague patrick leahy and he won and i lost but i got 4 percent and i saw those votes going up than a few years later iran for governor again we have elections every two years and i got 6%. at that point* i took the hint that maybe getting elected to political office is not what my life would be about i went to do other things to work on an historical film strips and having a good time. in 1981 politicians say people say you should run for office but it was true. saying we look at the election results and you do well in burlington you may actually wind. so i did. we put together a wonderful coalition of unions and the senior citizens and women advocates and police officers who came on board and on election night, we won by 14 votes with a five term incumbent which will probably go down in vermont history as a major political upset of vermont history. and then we went to the recount ended up winning by 10 votes. i took office in 1981 was two supporters on the city council and the others who were not support

leahy: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be a second. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, on this nomination the ayes are 72. the nays are 16. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the president shall be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate shall resume legislative. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i move to proceed to calendar 38, s. 782. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, proceed to calendar 38, s. 78 2, a bill to amend the public works and economic development act of 1965, to reauthorize that act, and for other purposes. mr. reid: i have a cloture motion and ask that it be reported. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion. we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the sen

leahy: mr. president, i have nine unanimous consents for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent these requests be agreed to and these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. isakson: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. isakson: mr. president, i rise for a moment and i'll be joined by my colleague, the senior senator from georgia to pay tribute to a great american poo passed this earth 30 years ago today. his name was richard brevard us are sell jr. he was a great georgian, with an interesting past. he was elected to the state legislature in the 1920's and rose to be speaker of

chairman leahy would've had to request them so i figured well, transit, chairman leahy were somewhat similar and i had an expectation that we would get something. professor tiefer, i wanted to follow-up on something though. you talk in terms of the history of ag and their operations, just as. rolling discovery, isn't that the norm in most other discovery that this committee does where people say it's voluminous and they start giving you them as they get to them if you're working with the department of interior, most of the other areas to your knowledge of? >> yes, it does very from office to office. i think they have a problem here because some of the best evidence of these e-mails, and it's not so easy to do rolling discovery of e-mails. but as far as documents and categories of documents, yes, that would be the normal practice. >> mr. tatelman, same thing, you are using information, out in trades and drag even when we're asking for legislative language or research, we ask you for some and then you get additional. and just for the record, that's my experience with every else is you

if i may respectfully -- >> more specifically, that chairman leahy would have to request them. >> we answered senator grassley's letters, we have great respect for senator grassley, worked on many products over the years quite productively. it is the long time position of the executive branch through administration of both parties that they speak through committees as to oversight, so you are exercising the power of the house, no senate chairman has made a parallel request. >> i am well aware for two years in this administration there were no republicans able to make the requests and have them granted, and the requests generally were not made at all. that is, in fact, the position of the majority here, that it wasn't valid oversight for those two years. it is my personal position and i'll go on the record today since people were kind enough to read things from the past that we need to have legitimate minority rights and that at some future time in congress and each time the rules are produced, i'm going to try to have a party of the opposite party of the president, even if they're a

fiery exchange on capitol hill between defense secretary robert gates and vermont senator, patrick leahyo do with pakistan and reports that the pakistani government arrested c.i.a. informants, including an army major who wrote down license plate numbers of visitors to osama bin laden's compound and passed them to u.s. intelligence officers. secretary gates was attending a meeting of the senate's defense appropriations committee when senator leahy asked him for his evaluation of pakistan as an ally. >> how long do we support governments that lie to us? when do we say enough is enough? secretary gates, i'll start with you. >> well, first of all, i would say based on 27 years in the c.i.a. and four and a half years in this job, most governments lie to each other. that's the way business gets done. >> do they also arrest the people that help us when they say they're allies? >> sometimes. >> not often. >> and sometimes they send people to spy on us and there are close allies. >> and we give aid to them? >> and that's the real world that we deal with. >> that was the final appearance on capito

caller: i like senator leahy's question better. the host: why? caller: this question was how long will we support governments who lied to us. how long are we going to support our government? they don't tell us the truth, either. they don't tell anybody the truth. not other countries, and not us. host: from "the wall street journal" this morning. budget negotiators consider medicaid cutbacks. a group of negotiators from both parties met for the eighth time at the capitol seeking agreement that -- that would pave the way for congress to raise the debt ceiling. this is an issue we will talk about with a freshman republican from kansas who is a member of the budget committee. he will be here at 8:20 or so eastern time. gaithersburg, maryland, john on our democrats' line. secretary gates says most countries like to each other. caller: i believe it is correct. i am going to challenge to come up with a framework by which the should stopent' lying to our citizens. having as believing they killed osama bin laden. host: david on the independent line. calle

[laughter] i came back, ran for the senate again in 1974 against my now-colleague patrick leahy. he won, i lost, but i got 4% of the vote in a three-way race. so i saw those votes going up. and then two years later i ran for governor again. we have elections every two years in vermont. and i got 6%. at that point i took the hint. [laughter] maybe getting elected to political office is not what my life was going to be about. i went about doing other things, mostly doing some writing, working on historical filmstrips and actually having a pretty good time. in 1981 you know how people, politicians always tell you that people came up and said you should run for office? actually, in my case it was true. there were a number of friends who said, you know what? we looked at the election results, and you did really well in burlington, and if you run in burgleton, you -- burlington, you might actually win. so i did. and we put together a wonderful coalition of, um unions and senior citizens and women's advocates, environmental advocates and the police officers came onboard, and on election

senator patrick leahy of vermont, the most senior democrat yet to say weiner should go. a poll of voters in his contradict shows most of them want him to stay in congress. according to a democratic source, so does his pregnant wife huma abedin. >>> alabama's governor robert bentley signed a new immigration law, much like arizona's law. it requires police to check the status of anyone they suspect may be in the country illegally. >> it is a tough bill. it is the toughest bill in the country, but we wanted a tough bill. >> civil rights group call the law unconstitutional and warn it will cost the state millions of dollars to enforce and then to defend in the courts. >>> fire fighters in arizona working through the night trying to protect a number of mountain communities from the spreading wallow fire as it's called. officials say the fire could reach power lines today and that threatens electricity supplies as far away as texas. if the lines are damaged hundreds of thousands of customers in new mexico and texas would face rolling blackouts. >>> rob marciano is in the extre

. >> thank you, chairman leahy and ranking member grassley and the other members of the committee who are here today. i thank you for your introductions and for the opportunity to appear before the committee today. as you pointed out, my term as f.b.i. director is due to expire later this summer. however in early may the president asked if i would be willing to serve an additional two years. upon some reflection, discussion with my family, i told him that i would be willing to do so. now the president has asked that congress pass the legislation necessary to extend that term and if this committee and congress see fit to pass the required legislation, i look forward to continuing to work with the men and women of the f.b.i. as the committee is well aware, the f.b.i. faces a complex threat environment. and with the past year we have seen an array of national security and criminal threats from terrorism, espionage, cyberattacks, and traditional crimes. these threats have range interested attempts by al qaeda and its affiliates to place bombs on airplanes, to lone actors seeking to detona

it includes senator patrick leahy and two former chairmen of the democratic party.ethics committee investigation. to determine if weiner's actions violated any of the house rules. >> did you misuse resources of the government? number one. and number two did you misuse your office? if you fall in that zone, you are much more likely to run afoul of the rules. >> reporter: one person who seems to be sticking by weiner? his wife, huma abedin. abedin is thousands of miles away from the tawdry controversy, traveling in the middle east with her boss and close friend, secretary of state hillary clinton. another revelation, abedin is 3 months pregnant. confidants have told abc news during this difficult time, abedin is leaning on close friends, especially clinton who noted the painful deja vu for both of them. after strongly defending himself in public last week, anthony weiner is laying low, working on a behind-the-scenes apology tour to try to save his job. peggy? daniel? >> i have a feeling we will still be talking about this story next week. >> and maybe weeks afterwards

during a capitol hill hearing yesterday, defense secretary robert gates told senator patrick leahy event always honest with each other. >> how long do we support governments that lie to us? when do we say enough is enough? >> based on 27 years in cia and 4 1/2 years in this job, most governments lie to each other. that's the way business gets done. >> the chairman of the joint chiefs, admiral mike mullen admitted criticism of pz is warranted but warned we can't afford to drop them as an ally. >> if we walk away from it it will be a much more dangerous place and we'll be back. >> mullen noted what makes pz more dangerous is terrorists and they do have nuclear weapons. >>> the cia is investigating a cyberattack on its public website that said it breached the senate's public computer system says it's responsible. the cia website did not contain any classified information. >>> a blast ripped through a police parking lot in nigeria's capital this morning and officials believe it was a suicide bomber. it is not known right now how many people were killed but dozens of vehicles were set on fir

senator patrick leahy of vermont is the latest high profile dem to suggest weiner should resign in theer's wife of almost one year is pregnant. we wanted to know a little bit more about this woman who, by far, is standing by her man. so we sent mary snow to find it. >> reporter: as congressman anthony weiner fights for his political life in new york, his wife, huma abedin, continues working thousands of miles away, seen here in abu dhabi with her boss, secretary of state, hillary clinton. the 35-year-old abedin, one of clinton's top aides, noticeably absent from her husband's side when he admitted having sexually explicit communications with several women and lying about it. but washingt"the washington pos reporter quotes friends of abedin as saying, don't read too much into her absence. >> her friends say that this is obviously a bump in the road for her marriage, she's very much committed to her husband, she loves her husband, and she wants to work it out. >> reporter: abedin is a muslim who grew up in saudi arabia. weiner is jewish, and raised in brooklyn. he has a reputation for be

president, i express my appreciation to senator sanders, senator leahy, my longtime friend and former employee in the department of justice, ron white, and the attorney general and others for working to help us get through this stalemate that we were involved in. i ask unanimous consent that the "help" committee be discharged from the following nomination -- there's two are them, nominations -- 678, public health service nominations, beginning with presidential nomination 678, public health service nominations beginning with mary j.w w. w. which hoi, d ending with christopher p. morris, the nomination be placed on the executive calendar, the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motion to rebe considered made and laid on the table there, be no intervening action or debate and that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations, any statements relating to the nominations be printed in the record and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the environment and public works com

senator leahy has been very faithfully reporting bills out from his committee, and we finally said, okayr most important -- one of the most important things we can do is protect our patent and make it better than it is. we did that here. we passed it here, sent it to the house. nothing has happened on that. they haven't voted on it. that's very unfortunate that we have not been able to get those two bills. the patent bill is 300,000 jobs. the f.a.a. bill, 280,000 jobs. that's pretty six that's a lot of jobs, madam president. and that's been held up. we know that we felt it was extremely important that we do something about jobs and we did that with something that has worked so successfully in the past. and that's a bill we brought to the floor to help small businesses innovate, invent and invest in new jobs. what a wonderful program it has been. we tried to get that reauthorized. it was killed here in the house by many, many amendments that had nothing, nothing, to do with the underlying bill. so we had to take that bill off the floor after having spent six weeks on the bill and having n

in the senate we've worked closely with senators leahy, grass lee, kyl, hatch and others. i want to thank them as well. also we would not be at this point tonight without the support of commerce secretary lott and the p.t.o. director. our country needs this bill. we can't thrive in the 21st century using a 20th century patent system. at a time when the economy remains fragile and unemployment is too high, we must support the p.t.o. which is considered part of a pro-growth, job-creating agenda. this will catapult us into a new era of choice. i urge my colleagues to support h.r. 1249 and i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back. all time for general debate has expired. pursuant to the rule, the amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in the bill shall be considered as an original bill for the purpose of amendment under the five-minute rule and shall be considered read. no amendment to the committee amendment is in order except those printed in part b of house report 112-111. each such amendment may be offered only in the order printed

. >> thank you, chairman leahy and ranking member grassley and the other members of the committee who are here today. i thank you for your introductions and for the opportunity to appear before the committee today. as you pointed out, my term as f.b.i. director is due to expire later this summer. however in early may the president asked if i would be willing to serve an additional two years. upon some reflection, discussion with my family, i told him that i would be willing to do so. now the president has asked that congress pass the legislation necessary to extend that term and if this committee and congress see fit to pass the required legislation, i look forward to continuing to work with the men and women of the f.b.i. as the committee is well aware, the f.b.i. faces a complex threat environment. and with the past year we have seen an array of national security and criminal threats from terrorism, espionage, cyberattacks, and traditional crimes. these threats have range interested attempts by al qaeda and its affiliates to place bombs on airplanes, to lone actors seeking to detona

president, beginning, i want to thank chairman leahy, ranking minority member grassley, majority leader senator reid and minority leader senator mcconnell for bringing this nomination to the floor today. senator merkley and i have been proud to put forward mr. simon's name for consideration by the president. we're enthused by his subsequent nomination, and we are now hopeful that he will soon be able to continue his service to the people of oregon in this new capacity. michael simon is both a distinguished lawyer and a legal scholar with a diverse and impressive legal career, and that career includes work as a public servant, as a litigator, a pro tempore judge and as a professor. michael simon now is a partner at the firm of parliamentary pen portland and he has worked there since 1986. after graduating suma cum laude from ucla, mr. simon attended harvard law school where he again graduated with honors cum laude. mr. simon began his legal career in the department of justice antitrust division where he served as trial attorney for five years. during his time working in washington, d.c.,

chairman leahy and the judiciary committee have reported important legislation on data breach and other issues central to cybersecurity. the armed services, energy, and other committees have studied the issue from the perspective of their particular jurisdictions and expertise. and under the leadership of chairman feinstein, the intelligence committee cybersecurity task force completed its classified report last july, authored by me, senator mikulski and senator snowe. so, we've been ready in congress. the administration has now weighed in with its own proposal, recognizing that we need cybersecurity legislation to make our nation safer and launching in earnest our legislative process. we have hard work ahead to find the best possible solution to this complex and grave challenge to our national and economic security. as we begin, i'd like to flag five issues that i believe must be addressed as this legislation goes forward. first, we need to build greater public awareness of cybersecurity threats going forward. what's the problem? the problem is the threat information affecting the dot

. >> it's interesting, yesterday senator patrick leahy said look, robert gates, how long do we let theseountries lie to us and robert gates said frank this, this is how business gets done. he's been frank these last few days. it's been refreshing. >> it was interesting to hear that. it's probably fascinating for you as barbara, he said sometimes friends we're with send spies into other countries, this is how it happens. it was a frank discussion on the hill. >> it was, indeed. behind the scenes one of the things they keep talking about and reminding congress of is pakistan remains a country with nuclear weapons. you now have a new leader as we reported yesterday of al qaeda, amman al zawahiri, a country with nuclear weapons, a country that is experiencing, perhaps, unprecedented unrest over the terrorism question right now. it's really a toxic soup all around. >> barbara starr, thank you, barbara, at the pentagon. >>> dragged across a busy road in florida. this is a stunning dash cam video released. a 62-year-old officer pulled over a motocyclist victor morales in march. as he put his ha

leahy: madam president, i suggest the absence of a quorum.the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. hatch: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. hatch: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hatch: madam president, our economic situation grows more dire by the day. our unemployment rate has gone back up to 9.1%. last month only 54,000 jobs were created. you've got to create over 145,000 to just stay even. housing prices remain in free fall. since 2007, home values declined by more than they did during the great depression. in large part due to qe-2 americans are facing higher gas prices and higher food prices that are cutting into their family budgets. now there is increasing pressure for a qe-3 which would only accelerate commodity inflation. and looming over all of this is our national debt. we have a national debt of nearly $14.5 trillion. that actually understates things. this is how "usa today" calculated it earlier

protecting servicemembers act cosponsored by senator baucus, blumenthal, boxer senator hagan platenburg, leahy, merkley kolsky, senator nelson, pryor, reid of rhode island senators sanders of another test repeatability of the next noncriminal double penalties for violations of current foreclosure protections. it would also extend the make permanent foreclosure coverage after military service offended. current laws amendment to protection under military service. order provision is due to expire in december 31, 2012. servicemembers will make it 90 days of foreclosure protections. my bill would permanently extend foreclosure protection beyond nine months. i hope senators on both sides will come together and join me in supporting legislation and a thank you again for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. unfortunately chairman murray, and members of this committee to pass legislation from which i believe will discourage phone service from further violations and hope protect the financial and emotional well-being of our military families. >> thank you, senator whitehouse. without all of

. >> thank you, chairman leahy and ranking member grassley and the other members of the committee who are here today. i thank you for your introductions and for the opportunity to appear before the committee today. as you pointed out, my term as f.b.i. director is due to expire later this summer. however in early may the president asked if i would be willing to serve an additional two years. upon some reflection, discussion with my family, i told him that i would be willing to do so. now the president has asked that congress pass the legislation necessary to extend that term and if this committee and congress see fit to pass the required legislation, i look forward to continuing to work with the men and women of the f.b.i. as the committee is well aware, the f.b.i. faces a complex threat environment. and with the past year we have seen an array of national security and criminal threats from terrorism, espionage, cyberattacks, and traditional crimes. these threats have range interested attempts by al qaeda and its affiliates to place bombs on airplanes, to lone actors seeking to detona

if i may respectfully -- >> more specifically, that chairman leahy would have to request them. >> we answered senator grassley's letters, we have great respect for senator grassley, worked on many products over the years quite productively. it is the long time position of the executive branch through administration of both parties that they speak through committees as to oversight, so you are exercising the power of the house, no senate chairman has made a parallel request. >> i am well aware for two years in this administration there were no republicans able to make the requests and have them granted, and the requests generally were not made at all. that is, in fact, the position of the majority here, that it wasn't valid oversight for those two years. it is my personal position and i'll go on the record today since people were kind enough to read things from the past that we need to have legitimate minority rights and that at some future time in congress and each time the rules are produced, i'm going to try to have a party of the opposite party of the president, even if they're a

senator leahy. >> i want to join the others to thank you for the extraordinary service you both have shown to this country. you came to your role at a very challenging time. admiral mullen, i appreciate although the personal relationship and your trip to vermont you and mrs. mullen when you joined myself up there to meet with our troops when they are deploying, secretary gates, i have told you i'll say publicly, i enjoyed our friendship of about 30 years now. and i said there is one issue we do not agree on. that's the war in afghanistan. most americans, certainly most vermonters i talk with, increasing number of members of congress, i think we have to greatly accelerate our withdrawal from that country. i supported going into afghanistan for the purpose of getting osama bin laden. after 9/11. the subcommittee and all of us here on the appropriations committee have been strongly supportive of that. i did not support the invasion of iraq, which distracted us from that goal. iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. we are paying for this cause for years to come. we have borrowed the money to

if i may respectfully -- >> more specifically, that chairman leahy would have to request them. >> we answered senator grassley's letters, we have great respect for senator grassley, worked on many products over the years quite productively. it is the long time position of the executive branch through administration of both parties that they speak through committees as to oversight, so you are exercising the power of the house, no senate chairman has made a parallel request. >> i am well aware for two years in this administration there were no republicans able to make the requests and have them granted, and the requests generally were not made at all. that is, in fact, the position of the majority here, that it wasn't valid oversight for those two years. it is my personal position and i'll go on the record today since people were kind enough to read things from the past that we need to have legitimate minority rights and that at some future time in congress and each time the rules are produced, i'm going to try to have a party of the opposite party of the president, even if they're a

leahy: i will not object, madam president. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rubio: thank you, madam president. thank you, senator. over the last two weeks, we have had a deepening divide between the white house and the congress over libya. it's a clash that has been both completely avoidable and also quite frankly counterproductive. first, let me say that for the life of me i don't understand why this administration did not bring this this issue to the congress from the outset. in the early days of the libyan rebellion, the president should have come to congress and informed us that the rebellion had arisen, that the rebels were asking for our assistance in establishing a no-fly zone over libyan airspace so they could take care of the dictator themselves, and this that with our support, he intended to work with our allies to establish such a no-fly zone. if this president had done that then, i believe that he would have found support here and that by the way qadhafi would have been gone a long time ago. but instead this administration waited, and while it did