likk an old -- like en a lawyer goes to court. we have deliberately stayed away. i think we should be out of iraq very soo we did not want to get into that debate as to whether or not because nothing in here undercuts what will be provided for the troops currentl in the field. havergument i let's n any more iraq or afghanistan. you have the air power and sea power to go to the defense of people in trouble because they are thatened by somebody else. the answero that is let's not get into those things in the future unnecessarily. but nothingn what we're talkg about would uercut iraq and afghanistan. i think that makes it possible to get support. >> in respoe to two of those questions, we are doing sothing very different here. we are moving outside of the process. the deficit reduction commission in a sense is outside of the process. when we lk at what is happening in this coury today, some of the difficulties and particulars that we face inside the beltway are not really compelling people outside of the beltway. we're looking at is the congressional elections coming

likk an old -- like when a lawyer goes to court. we have deliberately stayed away. i think we should be out of iraq very soon. we did not want to get into that debate as to whether or not because nothing in here undercuts what will be provided for the troops currently in the field. havergument is let's not any more iraq or afghanistan. you have the air power and sea power to go to the defense of people in trouble because they are threatened by somebody else. the answer to that is let's not get into those things in the future unnecessarily. but nothing in what we're talking about would undercut iraq and afghanistan. i think that makes it possible to get support. >> in response to two of those questions, we are doing something very different here. we are moving outside of the process. the deficit reduction commission in a sense is outside of the process. when we look at what is happening in this country today, some of the difficulties and particulars that we face inside the beltway are not really compelling people outside of the beltway. we're looking at is the congre

you ccn go back all the way to april of 2009 when our staff first presented our ids at how we would likk to go forward with legislation. swiss have held dozens of hearings to death and many of you have participated in some degree. after i presented the first discussion draft of our proposal in november, i signed bipartisan working groups to attack the major issues in our bill. i until a new proposal that incorporated many oo those bipartisan ideas through those working groups. beyond that, i have worked every day to keep my colleagues informed every step of this process. this bill is the product of collaboration of many colleagues before debate even began on the floor of the u.s. senate. that debate lasted nearly four weeks and some 60 votes were democrats and republicans. one of the many that passed was the in shelby-dodd amendment. we were able to and bailouts, one of the most contentious issues of our proposal. this conference represents an extraordinary time in the banking committee. we are currently part is putting into conference is at once. this bill and the house foreign affairs

look, what we are talking about here is a bill to require disclosure so that companies likk british petroleum, other foreign-owned companies can't come into the united states and influence elections. now, i don't know why that's so controversial. i guess if a particular interest was overly generous like big oil is to my republican side, that they would have objections, but, look, the american people overwhelmingly want transparency and disclosure. if someone -- some oil company were to come into my district and swift boat me and try to hide who they are by saying that they are a committee for clean oceans, that's deception. the american people ought to know it's being paid for by big oil. we have right now all across the country ads that are distorting the health care bill that was passed in the congress. but they are all paid for by insurance -- the insurance industry, yet you can't find the word insurance industry on any of those ads. people deserve to know who is spending millions and millions of dollars on these ads. whether you are a democrat or republican, you ought to be for transparen

you ccn go back all the way to april of 200 when our staff first presented our ids at how we would likk to go forward with legislation. swiss have held dozens of hearings tdeath and many of you have participated in some degree. after i presented the first discussion draft of our proposal in november, i signed bipartisan working groups to attack the major issues in our bill. i until a new proposal that incorporated many oo those bipartisan ideas through those working groups. beyond that, i have worked every day to keey colleagues informed every step of th process. th bill is the product of collaboration of many colleagues before debate even began on the floor of the u.s. senate. that debate lasted nearly ur weeks and some 60 votes were democrats and republicans. one of the many that passed was the in shelby-dodd amendment. we were able to and bailouts, one of the most contentious ises of our proposal. this conference represents an extraordinary time in the banking committee. we are currently part is putting intoonference is at once. this bill and the house foreign affairs committee and t