levin: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. levin: i want to talk about a clearly necessary provision in this bill. the fleet modernization provision. but i do want to say just two mings briefly. comment on what has been said here by the minority. i really think that they are looking for reasons to vote no, no matter how illegitimate they are. regarding this issue of the release of photos, the president has said and i quote, i will continue to take every legal and administrative remedy available to me to ensure that d.o.d. detainee photographs are not released, end of quote. secondly on the i.m.f., a commitment was made at the g-20. in this carries out the u.s. commitment. it is not

speaker, i'd like to yield two minutes to the gentleman, chairman levin from michigan. mr. levin. i'll be glad to. mr. barton: i have two nonmembers of the ways and means committee that i'd like to go out of order to get us in balance so mr. camp and you could balance each other. mr. rangel: i yield to the gentleman. mr. barton: i'd like to yield to the gentleman from new york one minute, mr. lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. barton: and i'd like to thank mr. rangel for his courtesy. mr. lee: i like to thank the gentleman for yielding. my community knows too well that washington typically overregulates and hides the costs to taxpayer. this bill is being over 1,100 pages in length and 50 pages dedicating to regulating light bulbs. in order to garner enough votes, the majority has tried to shift the most punitive costs of this bill to later years so they can get it passed. early on it will be the government footing this enormous bill with your tax dollars. and then down the road the subsidy will shift to consumers will pay directly to sust

levin: this is not an easy effort and there have been different ways to go about it. and i simply want to say to those who have been in the lead and especially to representative sutton, this would not have happened without the dedication of herself and others who have been determined that there be continued in this country a strong domestic auto industry. it's that clear. other countries have stepped up to the plate. they have provided support. this is now a necessary implementation of this effort. so i plead with people on the minority side to listen, to step up to the plate, to not look for arguments or excuses to duck. there is no ducking the need for a strong domestic auto industry, not only for ohio, not only for michigan, not only for illinois, not only for indiana, but for the entire united states of america. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new york reserves. the gentleman from california. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, at this juncture, i don't have any further requests for time. i would inquire whether he has any furthe

levine, and northwest austin municipal utility district v. holder. wythe had a predecessor the year before in regal v. medtmbing ronic. the court held 8-1 that the f.d.a.'s regime for medical devices preempted all state law, charging the device the f.d.a. allowed to be marketed caused physical injuries. i was the lone dissenter in that case. wythe v. levine involved drugs rather than devices and the absence of a preemption clause in that statute. tort suits under state law could be maintained, the court held 6-3, claims for inadequate warnings on drug labels. caperton v. a.t. mass see cole company came with a record resembling john grisham's novel "the appeal." there was a jury verdict in favor of caperton who charged the coal company's predatory practices drove him out of business. the west virginia supreme court, dividing 3-2, reversed the judgment for caperton. declared victory for the coal company. there was one problem. justice benjamin who cast the deciding vote in west virginia's highest court was newly elected to the court, the coal company's

jackie parker, a senior advisor to senator levin and cofounder of the senate black legislative staff caucus, has been instrumental in planning the upcoming ceremony with civil rights leaders and other luminaries to recognize the injustices of slavery and jim crow. finally, i would like to recognize the tireless work that mike house daniel goldberg has dedicated to seeing this resolution become a reality, the countless hours that he has committed to make this occasion happen is almost uncountable, the number of hours he's pullete is a put into this. i had like to add senators leahy, dodd, murray and kerry as cosponsors of the resolution. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. brownback: i, too, want to acknowledge some individuals that have really helped to make this historic day take place. one for me is congressman john lewis, that i've been woshing with for some period of time to get the african-american museum of history and culture to be a reality on the mall. the design is s. has now been picked. the location lab picked. it will be at the base are

the three cases were all three versus goode and wyatt versus levine and cuomo versus clearinghouse. cuomo versus clearinghouse is one of the three cases coming down on monday. we don't know much about that. all three cases was the degree to which the cig are rhett labeling act, which requires certain language to be on cigarette labels and on advertising preempted state laws that would provide the opportunity to sue tobacco companyies for mislabeling or misleading advertising. the statute said in order to have a uniform national policy with respect to the advertising and promotion of cigarette products, prohibitions or requirements, by states on the advertising and promotion of cigarettes based upon smoking and health will be precluded. the the altria case has someone suing because they argued the advertising of light cigarettes was misleading. according to the allegations, people smoked those cigarettes in such a way that they got potentially mortar and nicotine than the regular cigarettes so the idea of advertising them as light was misleading and tobacco companies said yeah, but t

we have defense authorization that is reported out of committee today by senators levin and mccain. that something that is very important for the military and to the american people. we have other appropriation bills that we have to work on. we have health care. we're going to move as far as we can on that during that period of time. so we have just a lot of work to do. i also, mr. president, on july 14 there, wil, there will be nor 2:00 p.m. this is an arrangement i made with one of the senators and this will be good for the entire body. so july 14, there will be no votes after 2:00 p.m. mr. mccain: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: madam president, i have an amendment at the desk and ask for its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from arizona, mr. mccain, proposes an amendment numbered 1367 to amendment number -- 1366 to amendment number 1365. mr. mccain: madam president, i ask further proceedings -- further reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: witho

carl levin of michigan is the chair of the senate armed services committee, this last two hours 40 minutes. good morning. the committee meets this morning to consider three military nominations, admiral james stavridis, lieutenant general douglas fraser, nominated to be general and 6 ft. admiral star vitas -- admiral stavridis. and lieutenant general stanley mcchrystal, nominated to be general and commander of nato international security assistance force and commander u.s. forces afghanistan. on behalf of the committee, we would like to thank each one of you for your service to our country, your willingness to continue to serve. we also want to acknowledge the sacrifices that you and your families made along the way. the support that our military families of pride -- supply is critical. we want to do all we can to support them. if confirmed, these three nominees will be meeting today's concerns in their areas of responsibility, and preparing for tomorrow's. one of the most immediate challenges is implementing the president's news several military strategy for afghanistan and pakistan. if c

thanks to all the great people like sean hannity, rush limbaugh, bill o'reilly, laura ingraham, mark levin, william bennett, glen beck, hugh hewitt, dennis frayinger, dennis miller, dick morris, ann coulter, michael steele, karl rove, newt gingrich, thomas so, victor davis hansen, shelby steel, charles kroutheimer, michele malkin, fred barnes and so many others. let's give thanks to them for not giving up and staying the course to bring an end to this false prophet, obama. that's what i said pretty much this morning. and now i have the honor, you know, the honor to be with you and to introduce such such a wonderful array of great people who i'm so honored to be, you know, able to introduce to you tonight. since 1976, orrin hatch has served the people of utah with distinction and honor. in the senate, we can -- and by the way, i met orrin hatch, and isn't he -- i mean, you know i'm in the movies and sometimes people see me they say gee, you're taller that inthought you were or you know, whatever it is. or you're not as old as i thought. i say that. but really, they never say that. but when

thanks to all the great people like sean hannity, rush limbaugh, bill o'reilly, laura ingraham, mark levinlliam bennett, glen beck, hugh hewitt, dennis frayinger, dennis miller, dick morris, ann coulter, michael steele, karl rove, newt gingrich, thomas so, victor davis hansen, shelby steel, charles kroutheimer, michele malkin, fred barnes and so many others. let's give thanks to them for not giving up and staying the course to bring an end to this false prophet, obama. that's what i said pretty much this morning.@@@@@@@ @ @ @ @ @ to introduce such a wonderful group of great people, who i am excited to be able to introduce to you tonight. since 1976, orrin hatch has served utah with honor. in the senate -- isn't he -- i am in the movies. people say i am taller than they thought. or you are not as old as i thought you were. they never said that. when i saw orrin hatch, i'd only shown him on shows. n him on shows you know where his face is on television and he's usually addressing very serious subjects so he's very, you know, has a very serious demeanor. but i found out wonderful things about

mark levin. a constitutional scholar. it has been on the new york times best-seller list for nine out of the last 10 weeks. it has sold over a million copies and is essentially a treatise on why conservatives believe what they believe. custer a number of different issues. it is a fabulous boat. i have read it once. i let it. dog yard the pages. written notes and all the margins. i'm quoting the book on liberty and tierney everywhere i go. i urge people to read his book. it is fabulous. i'm going through it the second time and taking more notes. i am also working on another book by a great lady that i have heard several times speak about the book. it is a forgotten man. she is writing the history of the hoover and years of fdr and the great depression. a forgotten man is the american taxpayer who is paying for all of the expense for building up the welfare state. it is a fascinating story to see how the american economy is taking a real parallel today in 2009 with the same course of action that was taken back in the great

i am working with senator levin and mccain in the armed services committee to make some changes in the next few weeks for the defense authorization bill. i urge you to get with us soon. will you do that? >> we have been discussing this internally. we think it is time for us to share those. >> i would like to do more than amend the military commissions act. i would like to deal with the third bucket, the people that are too dangerous to let go. we are losing -- whatever damage we are trying to repair with the international community, we are losing the public hear about closing the facility. when you look at the polling data, there has been a change against the idea of closing guantanamo bay. have you noticed that? >> believe me, i have noticed. i believe it was raised by one of the senators about the notion of having our plan out there. i think that is something that we're planning to do and need to do as quickly as possible. we need to have our views on the entirety of -- >> exactly. >> comprehensive views on the related things as quickly as we can. >> habeus review, i want to congratu

levin. >> i have to non-members of the ways and means committee that i would like to go out of order to get us some balance. >> i yield to the gel them. >> alike feel that to the german from new york one minute, mr. lee. i want to thank mr. rangel for his courtesy. >> the people in my district note to well that when washington applies itself to a problem, it over regulates and hides the true cost to the taxpayer. with it being over 1100 pages in length and 50 pages dedicated to regulating light bulbs, in order to garner enough votes, the majority is trying to shift the most punitive costs to laborers so they can get it passed. early on, it will be the government putting this enormous bill with your tax dollars, and down the road, the subsidy will shift to consumers who will pay directly to sustain this program to hire, job killing enterprises. either way, is the taxpayer that bears the burden. we need to focus on an energy solution that rewards innovation using american made energy, not trying to find a way to tax our way to prosperity and continue this terrific job loss. that is why

levin you would start to see budgets come close to 2008 levels and then we would see growth budgets in 2012. but if the severity and length of the recession continues then it could go further. but as ray and others have said, too, the problem is we have difficult structural issues before word just in terms of all kinds of cost drivers, like corrections costs for prisons and so the question is as the recovery money ends how much is made up by an increase in revenue from an improved economy lag in terms of growth rates for budgets not on till fy 12. >> the only other comment i would make is if the on employment begins to come down, then you consume state revenues will begin to come out, but the big problem here is the medicaid growth is going to be very, very late in the cycle. and if you don't get a very strong uptick, that growth is cooling to be a huge problem for several years to come. >> and i just want to add, too, another reminder because i think it is so important from the revenue side most states, particularly those with personal income taxes, are extremely dependent on the weal

levin for states but so far 24 states are reporting they do have a budget gaps expected in 2011 so about half the states in 2011 expect a budget gap and i would expect that would grow also. let me talk about revenue collections in this report. no surprise to anyone revenue collections are down significantly in all sources of revenue. there are numerous reports recently just finishing up this spring collection period for states that have demonstrated both anecdotally and other wise very significant declines in revenue for the states. currently we are seeing in this report is an overall aggregate 6.1% decline year-over-year in state revenues in the three major sources of revenue, that's sales, personal income and corporate income tax. in 2009 the current fiscal year revenues exceeded expectations and only two states, wyoming and north dakota, which tended to be anomalies and we had budget gaps where forecasts were not met in 38 states. and again i would not be surprised as we and the fiscal year from the state's june 38th if that number might grow. specifically sales tax collections were 3

i'm working with senator levin and mccain in the armed services committee to make some changes in the next few weeks for the defense authorization bill. i would urge you to get with us soon. will you do that. >> yes, we will. i mean, we have been discussing this internally. we have some thoughts and proposals, and i think it's time for us to share those. >> and i would like to do more than just amend the administration military commissions act, i'd like to deal with this third bucket, this folks that may not be subject to trial but too dangerous to let go. and the reason i say that is that we're losing, you know, whatever damage we're trying to repair with the international community over guantanamo bay, we're losing the public here about closing the facility. when you look at the polling data, there's been a severe change against the idea of closing guantanamo bay. have you noticed that? >> believe me, i've noticed that. [laughter] >> well, i'm sure the president has. >> i think it was raised -- i remember by one of the senators -- about the notion of having our plan out there, and i

. >> after senator mccaskill's comment, senator levin was breathing some of the press about he thought the nomination hearing has gone, what was going to happen in the next two months. and he very clearly criticized her for speaking out. >> i think of for the senator was senator mccain. >> no, it wasn't john cornyn. mccain folded like he often does. >> a little bit of positive news. i briefed the senator mccaskill on some of this. and she told me, she said i don't know how long i'm going to be in washington. i'm from missouri. i'm a democrat from missouri, we are in danger. she said if i can change 1% of that, the gop, and she also had just gotten a new ad hoc committee on federal contracting and she said she is ready to take the two by four out. so we hope that she doesn't leave part, and it took a lot of guts to vote against the nominee. there are some out there still trying to. >> tried to talk to these people and help them to come forth. >> may be asking you guys to come talk to her. >> a question on acquisition. is there a problem, don't understand these problems or don't do anyth

i have been to carl levin. i have been to john dingell's office. i have been to debbie stabenow. i have been to gary peters office, who works for the financial committee, and nothing has been done. host: i'm going to jump in because it is hard for us to do with individual problem the program. for comments on policy and what is in the news, let's go to louisville, ky. bob is calling on our independent line. caller: thank you very much. my name is bob and i have been involved in three businesses. the first one was heavily regulated by the federal government if you think the federal government is there to help you in any business that you involved in, you are not because they are sold -- you are nuts. there are so heavy handed, they will micromanage our business until there is no business. the second one is the auto industry. i have been in finance sales management, the whole 9 yards, closing, everything to the third is the housing industry. i will tell you, when they talk about community reinvestment act, fannie and freddie and all this good stuff, i went to the real estate and saw

the agencies actually deliberated on the issues relevant to the case, for instance, in wyeth versus levine, if they had actually taken a count of the particular risks and decided despite these particular risks this is the way the warning really should be, if they actually had in the altria case talked about what the required cigarette companies to put certain kinds of nicotine amounts on their labels, then i think the court would have come out differently because we actually would have had deliberation of the expert agency. and i think that changes the preemption calculus because then there are the concern that we don't want to have jurors inexpert overruling the views of the expert agency. it's also because we'll have a decision in a national market, we'll actually have deliberation that this is the best way to proceed. on the other hand, if we don't have substantial deliberation by the agencies of the government, the danger is that the court, because they simply failed to deliberate, then the preemption becomes a kind of lay say fair, even through the agencies, because congress has passe

and she won the lawrence levine prize for a beloved historian who passed away a few years ago. >> ands she? >> she's the beakman professor of northwestern history at the university of oregon. this is her second book and -- it's a labor of love. >> the day wall street exploded. >> what could be more topic cal. this is not about the economy today. this is a book set in the '20s when there was actually a real explosion down on wall street. this is a first book. this is an extraordinary first book and a wonderful storyteller. beverly gage is a professor of yale university. she started it well before 9/11. it's not something she decided to talk about before the current events and what was happening in wall street in this period and it's a real detective story. >> and finally one other book we want to talk about the wilsonian moment. >> this is new method ideology and what is really exciting to me there's been such a division in history between people who studied the united states and people who studied the rest of the world so people will focus on countries and focus on individual topics.

surrounded himself with a different crowd, which included tony rezko, christopher kelly and stewart levine these were people who saw rod as governor but also went along with his dream of becoming president of the united states. to understand rod blagojevich you have to understand how important that was to him to become president of the united states. and the people around him then began looking at richard mel thinking, well, you know, maybe hezl wouldn't play too well in presidential campaign, an old line chicago democratic politician. so they began freezing him out. and by the time rod became governor, they really froze him omtw@@ú@ú stationary and had christopher kelly call up dick mel and arrange a meeting with him to tell him that his son-in-law wanted him to take his name off the 33rd ward stationary. >> and the meeting was with kelly and not blagojevich, right? >> right, right. >> what makes that so interesting is suddenly blagojevich is not deigning with dick mel, instead, he's going through these channels and then when we get to this other incident which i'd like you to describe t

. >> we are here with susan levine at the university of illinois, chicago to talk about her book, "schoollunch politics" the surprising history of america's favorite welfare program. susan, why did you think it was important to expose the behind-the-scenes scene of the school lunches? >> well, i think that everybody who goes to school in america eats a school lunch and at some point in their life, and it is a very important program for child nutrition and it is a very important program for poor children in this country. >> when and why did we start providing school lunches to children? >> that is a good question and it is a long story. , economists provided school lunches for children in the early part of the 20th-century and an effort to teach immigrant children how to become american in the depression of the 1930's. many more poor children were showing up in schools and teachers began to offer school lunches, and at that point, the government got involved with children's lunches, because there was a surplus of agricultural commodities and in order to keep the prices down, the government

surrounded himself with a different crowd, which included tony rezko, christopher kelly and stewart levine and these were people who saw rod as governor but also went along with his dream of becoming president of the united states. to understand rod blagojevich you have to understand how important that was to him to become president of the united states. and the people around him then began looking at richard mel thinking, well, you know, maybe hezl wouldn't play too well in presidential campaign, an old line chicago democratic politician. so they began freezing him out. and by the time rod became governor, they really froze him out. which just, as you may imagine, irritated dick mel to no end. i think what dick mel really wanted, he didn't necessarily, you know, want to be on the staff or anything like that. but he wanted to be a player. he wanted to be in the strategy committee meetings and he never was. and his ward organization that had worked so hard for rod blagojevich from the time he was elected to the illinois house and all the way through the governor's race was just livid was r

awards, one of holly prize for political as editions of political history and she won the laurence levineize for a beloved historian who passed away a few years ago for the best book and cultural history. >> who is shea? >> peggy is the beekman a professor at northwestern history and university of oregon and she is a professor of a domestic studies, this is our second book and she -- it is a labor of love of. >> the day wall street exploded. >> what could be more topical, this is not about the economy today, set in the 20s when there was i to make a real explosion down on wall street. this is the first book, mr. nouri book and a wonderful storyteller, beverly gage is a professor of yale and she wrote this to talk about america and the age of terror. she started it well before 9/11 so this is not a book that was inspired to write because of current events in europe is something to talk about was happening on wall street at this time it is a detective story. >> finally one of the book we want to talk about, the wilsonian moment king and the wilsonian, is an example of a new generation of sc

senator levin, the democratic chairman of the committee. senator mccain, the ranking republican of the committee found -- and i quote -- "secretary of defense donald rumsfeld's authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques at guantanamo bay was a direct cause of detainee abuse there. end of quote. they also concluded there was a connection between abu ghraib and guantanamo in saying the abuse of detainees at abu ghraib was not the result of a few soldiers acting on their own. acts such as stripping detainees of their clothes and using military working dogs to intimidate them appeared in iraq only after they had been approved for use in afghanistan and at gitmo. susan crawford, a top bush administration official reached the same basic conclusion. let me conclude by saying this: president bush called for the closure of guantanamo. there were little or no -- few if no complaints from the republican side. now that president obama has made that same call, we hear this chorus of opposition. i think president obama has accepted a challenge.

leader for setting this time up, the republican leader, and our colleagues -- particularly senator levin, as a sponsor, and sponsors on our side -- senator cochran, senator bond, many others -- and i ask actually at this time by unanimous consent that senator corker be added as a cosponsor to the resolution. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brownback: and also our staffs have worked very hard on this. but i really have to acknowledge lara young in my staff. she's really been dedicated to get these through and forward. i thank her for her great work on this. it is my experience that apologies are tough to do. they're tough as individuals, they're tough as groups. they're certainly tough for nations to do. it's just one of those things that when this issue would come up for a lot of people they would say, yes, i acknowledge that happened, but i didn't do t or well that happened a long time ... can't we just move past it? and yet my experience has been, until you actually acknowledge the wrong that was done and say i did this and it was wrong and i apologize, that there remains

levin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. levin: mr. president, what is the time agreement? the presiding officer: the majority has 36 minutes remaining. mr. levin: i would ask unanimous consent that i be yielded four minutes. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. levin: mr. president, one way to stimulate a key party of our economy, the auto sales, is to establish a cash for clunkers program that would provide a voucher for those with conscious -- for new vehicles. it will allow people to purchase new fuel-efficient vehicles and both stimulate the sale of new vehicles and reduce overall fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions at the same time by providing incentives for the purchase of new more fuel-efficient vehicles, this will provide a much-needed boost to the auto industry including manufacturers, dealers, suppliers and

levin: i ask permission to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. levin: i thank mr. upton, i think i'm using two of your minutes. we know there's a major restructuring of the auto industry going on as we're here today. there are a very simple truth. if there's not increased demand, that restructuring cannot succeed. i think only rigid ideologues would say it's impossible to stimulate demand. there's been a historic drop in demand for vehicles in this country. it's about one half of what it was not so long ago. and it remains true globally. this is not only a national phenomenon, it's a global phenomenon. other countries have acted and i salute representative sutton and all who have worked on this to step up to the plate for the basic manufacturing base of the united states of america and i yield back some of the time you graciously yielded to betty sutton so i could speak. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentlewoman from ohio is recognized. ms. sutton: thank yo