madam president, i yield the floor. mr. durbin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i have five unanimous consents for committees to meet during today's session of the senate, with the approval of the majority and minority leaders, and i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: thank you, madam president. madam president, there was a vote yesterday on the senate floor about a bill that was pending that goes directly to the topic just raised by the senator from iowa. it was the economic development administration. it's an agency created almost a half a century ago to create incentives for businesses to build, expand and locate in places across america where there is high unemployment. it's been a success in illinois and almost every other state. for every dollar the federal government puts on the table, it generates $7 in economic activity. there isn't a lot to go around, so they pick those projects that are th

moran: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, i rise to oppose this motion. the war crimes tribunal is about to prosecute rad itch. 16 years later. what they finally got, why, because he masterminded the massacre of over 8,000 innocent civilians. we took the lead in the balkans. it was a nato effort. but i think we all know that nato could not have put it an end to those massacres, that genocide, had we not taken the lead. we ought to act responsibly and we had to act in a timely and forceful manner. now, more recently there have been any number of times since 2000 when the president has had to use american troops for humanitarian reasons against terrorist threats, against whatever was inconsistent fundamentally with our moral values and principles but also endangered american civilians and troops. to tie the president's hands, whether it be a republican or a democratic president, is wrong. we should not be doing this. of course we should be advising the president, working with the president, whoever that president might be. and we have our committee leadersh

moran: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, rise to oppose this motion. the war crimes tribunal is about to prosecute rad itch. 16 years later. what they finally got, why, because he masterminded the massacre of over 8,000 innocent civilians. we took the lead in the balkan. it was a nato effort. but i think we all know that nato could not have put it a end to those massacres, that genocide, had we not taken the lead. we ought to act responsibly and had to act in a timely and forceful manr. now, more recently there have been any number of times since 2000 when the president has had to use american troops for humanitarian reasons against terrorist threats, against whatever was inconsistent fundamentally with our moral values and principles but also endangered american civilians antroops. to tie the president's hands, whether it be a republican or a democratic president, is wrong. we should not be doing this. of course we should be advising the president, working with the president, whoever that president might be. and we have our committee leadership, we ha

speier speier madam chair, -- ms. speier: madam chair, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 10 printed in part b of house report 112-11 offered by ms. speier of california. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 316, the gentlewoman from california, ms. speier, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from california. ms. speier: thank you, madam chair. as we know, the u.s. patent office is vital to the if a -- facilitates universities and businesses of all sizes, to turn ideas and discoveries into successful products. having said that, we must ensure that our patent system provides strong and predictable intellectual property protections. this act creates a new process called dare vation by which -- darivation which which they can show the invention in the earlier application was derived from the party's invention or concept. the bill requires a party to support a darivation. the darivation proceedings in this must be a process that's fair, relia

thank you, madam president. mr. levin: madam president? madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and call up amendments 411 and 412. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: i reserve the right to object. mr. merkley: i reserve the right to object. the presiding officer: the consent request is pending. mr. mccain: madam president, i would is it ask unanimous consent to call up both amendments. it's my understanding that amendments are allowed. if there's some amendments that are not allowed, i think we ought to understand that. i understand the strength of the ethanol lobby, but there was an agreement that amendments that would be allowed to be called up. if that's not the case, then i would obviously have to resort to other parliamentary measures. i repeat my unanimous consent request to set aside the pending amendment and call up both amendments 411 and 412. the presiding officer: is there objection? hearing no objection. mr. mccain: thank you, ma

madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: madam president, first, i ask unanimous consent that kate waters, andrew rah and jamie ribel of my staff be granted privileges for today's proceedings. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: i ask unanimous consent that derrick skinner of senator bingaman's office be given privileges to the floor during s. 679. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: madam president, just listening to my good friend from utah talk, speaking here -- and he is a good friend of mine -- and others who have been she canning here for the last hour -- who have been speaking around here for the last hour, members reus are short around here. i mean really short. forget about the attention span; memories are really short. how soon we forget that at the end of the clinton years after we had worked with president clinton to pass measures that brought in more revenues, that kept our spending under control, we had four years of b

berman: yes, madam speaker. i'm pleased to yield to the ranking member of the appropriations committee, the gentleman from washington, mr. dicks. three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from washington is recognized for three minutes. mr. dicks: the debate in the house today concerning the extent of u.s. involvement in the military action in libya now led by nato is a necessary and important debate. and i appreciate the role that dennis kucinich has played in this. both resolutions being considered today recognize the essential role of congress in authorizing and in funding the use of u.s. armed forces consistent with the war powers act and constitution. both resolutions require the members of the house to reflect on the appropriateness of the use of military force in this operation as outlined by the president. and both resolutions initiate the entirely appropriate debate over the objectives of this operation as well as its duration. in my judgment the president's initial commitment of u.s. airpow

noem: thank you, madam chair. we talked a lot on the house floor recently about agriculture and the fact that agriculture needs a haircut and people are concerned about agriculture getting too many benefits provided by the taxpayers. i would certainly say that in the past and the most recent past agriculture has been significantly cut. under this bill before us today, we also see significant cuts. i rise in strong opposition to this amendment offered by the gentleman from arizona because this amendment is an attack on consumer choice, on free market access and on homegrown american energy. we've seen reports out there that have indicated that ethanol has reduced the price of gasoline up to 89 cents a gallon and across this country consumers don't have the option to purchase that right now if they'd like to. it would send dollars, over a billion dollars to deficit reduction. it would make sure that we have infrastructure in place so the consumers can have relief from these high gas prices. with everything that's be

came lease: thank you, madam -- mr. scalise: thank you, madam chair. what i bring forward is addressing the bureaucratic red tape and inefficiency that's causing over a million american workers to make multiple trips to get a document that their workers require, the federal government requires them to have, it's a transportation worker i'd credential and it's an important document to have but was created back in 2007 with the five-year limitation and has to be renewed. a worker has to go in a registered office and go and get their fingerprint taken, they've got to get their picture taken, present credentials to get the card. the problem with the implementation is that the department has been requiring these workers to go back multiple times to get the card when in fact if you look at a passport, example, how it is issued, you can go in and fill out the paperwork and then they send you the passport. it works that way for most forms of identification. but for whatever reason in this program the department has been requiring multiple trips. the reason it'

schumer: thank you, madam president. mr. president -- madam president, the last thing we need when we're trying to get back on track is a default crisis that would bury us under even more debt. yet the latest round of republican politicians threatening to default on our debt have made their priorities clear. they'd rather stop paying our md women fighting overseas, force deep cuts to social security and medicare and throw even more americans out of work than tell big oil companies and corporate jet attorneys pay their fair share. clearly our republican colleagues are serious about politics, not deficits. you can't be serious about deficits and at the same time recklessly jeopardize our economic standing in the world in order to protect tax breaks for the wealthiest few. yet, that is what leaders like mitch mcconnell seem to be saying. just yesterday my republican colleague drew a line in the sand on cutting wasteful spending in the tax code, calling elimination of special interest giveaways politically impossible. politicall

career: madam president, before our time expires, madam president? in listening to my colleague from massachusetts reminding me that captain chara, the defenseman who raised the cup last night is the tallest person to ever play in the national hockey league, it reminds me therefore that we are also making history because never has the stanley cup been held so high over the ice. thank you. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. mr. reid: i'm happy to be here to listen to my friends talk about hockey. i'll talk just a minute about hockey. i was raised in the desert. when we came back here as a -- i came back here as a member of congress, i wanted my boys to watch a hockey game and i wanted to watch one. i had never watched one. so we went to a hockey game. i tell you, it's a game you have to learn something about. for me walking in with no experience, it was pretty difficult. they are on the ice just a few minutes and off, they are back and forth, it's hard to keep track of all that. but i did have the opportunity tw

>> madam chair, yes, we are. supervisor chu: yes, i would be supportive of supervisor mirkarimi's position. perhaps we can make a motion or take action on the $24,900 in budget closeouts and accept all the recommendations from the budget analyst except the $10,000 for the animal control section? can we do that without objection? ok, we can do that without objection. thank you very much. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. supervisor chu: the department of technology. >> good morning, supervisors. john walton, director of the department of technology. i am here to give you an update on our discussions with the budget analysts office. we are in agreement with them. these 16 recommendations of the total value of approximately $800,000. unfortunately we are not in agreement with the budget analyst on several other items related to travel, training, equipment maintenance, other expenses to cover unforeseen expenses throughout the year. they add up to a total of $823,041. 16 of the 22 cuts we do agree to add up to -- the

brown tbrown, madam president. last week -- mr. brown: thank you, madam president. last week minority leader pelosi and some of her colleagues signaled their intention to introduce a discharge resolution for a vote on h.r. 639, the currency reform for fair trade act. i applaud those in this body and in the house of representatives who want to push on currency reform and encourage the speaker and house leadership to support this position. this legislation this -- similar legislation passed overwhelmingly with strong bipartisanship in the last congress. senator snowe from maine and i introduced that legislation in the senate. it would strengthen counterveiling duty laws to consider undervalued cren says an unfair subsidy in determining duty rates what. does that mean? what that means is that we have -- in essence, we have lost jobs in this country because too often the playing field in our trade relationship with the people's republic of china is simply not level. we know that china, in far too many cases, subsidizes energy. we know they subsidize land. we know they s

madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 11:00 a.m. for one hour, with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each with time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the majority controlling the first half and the republicans controlling the final half. the senator from california. mrs. feinstein: thank you very much, madam president. madam president, i rise today in support of the ethanol subsidy and tariff repeal act which senator coburn has offered and i have cosponsored along with senators burr, cardin, collins, corker, lieberman, risch, shaheen, toomey and webb. madam president, i know that the fact that this amendment is on the floor, scheduled to be voted on at 2:15 this afternoon, has caused some deep consternation on my side of the aisle. there is objection to the procedures used. i am not going t

walz: thank you, madam speaker. i rise today to honor a brave fallen hero from my district who was killed in iraq last week, specialist campo, a remarkable man from minnesota, gave his life for this nation. he joined the national guard while he was still in high school and his classmates remember him as a kind, fun-loving young man who had aspirations of going to college and going into the medical field. he served this country bravely as an army medic. when he would come home he would shrug them off, explain he was doing his job. earlier in the week, in the 2009 graduation section, emilioa favorite quote was, live as if you die today. tomorrow, his family, his friends and his community will gather together to honor his memory and celebrate his life. we will remember his sacrifice to this nation and how he died and gave the ultimate sacrifice. but we will also remember the kind of person he was, full of life, kind-hearted, a good friend and a good son. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the

madam chair, mr. chair now, my amendment would bring the oil companys' dream world crushing down around them, my amendment eliminates the loophole created in this bill, giving the e.p.a. the authority to regulate the support vessels and the emission sources that they are. i was in the rules committee, i heard this argument about five years and shell and i also heard my colleague, mr. rush, clearly explain that shell filled out applications that were not fully filled out and then when they were sent back at some point they even pulled their application before sending it back in complete. now, you can't have it both ways, but more important, i would ask every speaker that speaks in favor of this measure, tell the american public today how much is this going to reduce the cost of gasoline today, tomorrow or next week or next year. the fact is the labor secretary did something today about the next generation of jobs. she announced grants for different segments of this country in the amount of $38 million

>> thank you, madame chair. i agree. the department of technology is about to take a leadership position in moving forward some of the strategic initiatives around consolidation, working together, finding ways citywide for folks to come up with solutions that do not replicate procurements as solutions. it is hard to say at this level of production where we would be. what i can say, when we agreed to doing eight of the 10 strategic initiatives, we did not anticipate these additional cuts. there will be some impact if you decided to take these additional recommendations from the budget analyst. we would have to reassess how many exactly we could continue to support. we have been cut back the last three or four years fairly significantly. we are a bare bones operation. at this point, at this level of cuts, though perhaps necessary, would be significant to us and we would have to frankly ss our leadership -- frankly reassessed our leadership position on some of these things. not to belabor the point, but every i.t. investmen

>> we do not have to take any action, madam chair. supervisor chiu: i want to quickly echo our colleagues. you do a lot of this work. we know it will be a very complicated set of analyses, and i really want to thank our controller and our economist for the work they have done already. supervisor chu: thank you. thank you, mr. controller. >> thank you for your support, supervisors. we appreciate. supervisor chu: moving on, the next department is a general city responsibility. i believe the outstanding item we had was the neighborhood transition funds of $300,000. >> madam chair, members of the committee, on the last item, we do have one alternative suggestion on page 64 of our report. the committee has already taken our recommended reduction of $24,000 on this item. $300,000 or remain, which we consider to be a policy for the mayor's transition plan. we ask that the board of supervisors consider placing the funds on the budget and finance committee reserve. it would not be a board reserve. it would be reserved we are suggesting as an i

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. corker: madam president?orrect? the presiding officer: that's correct. mr. corker: and if i happen to go eight minutes or so, would you let me know i have two minutes left? the presiding officer: yes. mr. corker: i thank you very much, madam president. i rise today to speak about something that's affectionately known as the durbin amendment. during the dodd-frank debate that occurred about a year ago and upon its passage, there was an amendment brought to the floor called the durbin amendment by dealt with debt coast guar-- withdebit cards ant cards. this amendment had nevada been debated there. had never been a hearing on this amendment. and in the height of i think people being very concerned about the large financial institutions in our country, this was an amendment that passed. i voted against it. i thought it was bad for us as a country to allow the federal reserve to begin setting prices for specific industries, as the durbin amendment called for. but, in any event, the durbin amendment became law, and

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. johanns: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. johanns: i ask consent to speak for 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. johanns: madam president, i rise today to stalk about something that is on the -- to talk about something that is on the minds of our agricultural producers. in meeting in my home state across nebraska it seems the first question is always going to be or the second question is always going to be something related to the e.p.a. and most of the time the question goes like this: what's going on at the e.p.a.? why are they trying to put me out of business? in response to this growing concern, which i am confident the e.p.a. has heard, they've taken to the road with a good, old-fashioned charm owe fen six the problem is that the e.p.a. is selling publicly to farmers and ranchers what they're trying to sell just doesn't match up with reality. they say one thing on the road while the regulatory train just continues to barrel forward right here in

madam clerk, is there anything else on the agenda? >> no, madam chair. supervisor kim: if there is nothing further, this meeting is now adjourned.

this is -- this doesn't make any sense, madam speaker -- madam chair. we're told by my friends on the other side of the aisle, well, don't worry. all the faith-based groups will take care of everything. that's what they're there for. well, talk to any leader in any faith-based community in this country and they will tell you that they are working overtime right now to try to provide for the struggling families in their communities. every part of this country, from urban to suburban to rural. faith-based communities are stepping up, but they cannot do it alone. they need us to be a partner. i don't know of a single faith-based leader who would say to anybody this this congress, don't adequately -- in this congress, don't adequately fund w.i.c. or the other programs that provide food and nutrition to needy people. the fact of the matter is that is not an answer. to put the burden on the faith-based community is basically an excuse for us to do nothing and is unacceptable. we heard on the other side of the aisle, well, there are so many programs. we have e

>> thank you, madame chairman and ranking members. [inaudible] i appreciate the opportunity to be here before you today and provide comments on the veterans of administrative related bills on today's agenda. i am accompanied by mr. walter hall, who is the general counsel, and i apologize for the tardiness of our oral statements and appreciate your indulgence. the va supports s. as 90 for the coverage of children under the program until the age of 26. this would bring the the va health care benefits for children at the line of coverage available by the private-sector under the affordable care act which was enacted last year. this is an important program and would potentially benefit almost 60,000 children of veterans. we appreciate the intent of s. 666, the traumatic brain injury act which would require the secretary submit a report on the advisability of establishing a broad polytrauma presence in northern iraq and we appreciate concerns about making these valuable services available in this area, and i am pleased to report based on t

thank you madam chair. >> thank you. senator boozman. >> thank you madam chair. mr. roth, i want to follow up on senator lugar's line. i lot of our -- i am thinking of a manufacturing the manufacturing business that makes motors and you know hedges on the materials that they use for that. i don't think right now that they really understand the impact of what is going to happen. i guess my question to you would be, do you think there is enough clarity at this point? is there enough information now that is a correct statement? >> senator i certainly think until the final definition of the term swap dealer and major swap participant are promulgated certain firms aren't going to know what side of the line they are on. and therefore don't know what additional costs they will be taking on are not taking on, so i think to the extent the question is how much can people assess the impact of the regulations on them i think it is hard to do that until you know what the final definitions are. >> i guess the next question then is if that is true, how can they make the necessary c

house, madam leader, thank you for being here again.s it time for the president and the republican speaker of the house to sit down together and work out some sort of deal to raise the debt ceiling? >> let me just say this. there won't be any agreement for such an agreement -- unless the house democrats are part of that. unless the speaker comes to the table with 218 votes. but i think the president has been involved. he's talked about bipartisanship, and balance and what we do. the obstacle has come because the leader cantor has walked away from the table because he doesn't want to deal with special interests tax subsidies and the need -- >> the republicans don't want any tax increases in the debt ceiling? >> it's not a question of tax increases. >> they don't want -- yes, right, they don't want changes in revenue. >> what we're talking about here, some of the things that leader cantor can't handle the truth when it comes to these tax subsidies for big oil, for corporations sending jobs overseas or giving tax breaks to the wealthiest p

supervisor farrell: thank you, madame clerk. i have a one that resolution and then i'm going to introduce imperative agenda. we will talk about it at that point. supervisor chu: just a quick announcements to my colleagues. as we finish the hearing today, we will continue to have public comments during the budget process. it will be next friday if you are interested in attending that. we will have a department of public health meeting. you are of course welcome to come or send a rep. they will be at 12:00, 1:30, and 3:00. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you, madam clark. i am introducing to resolution today. this is declaring san francisco a summer learning city and hopefully will kickstart the city with non-profit programs and activities for all kids that need that extra help. most students lose about two years of great level equivalency over the summer two months. low income students lose about two months in reading achievement compared to the middle-class peers that make gains. more than half of the achievement gap between lower a

madam clerk, is there anything further? >> i believe this item needs to go in the committee report commissioner mirkarimi: he believe it does. -- i believe it does. >> there are no further items before the committee, mr. chairman. commissioner mirkarimi: i want to thank sfgtv for their fine ongoing coverage. this now concludes the public safety committee. thank you all.

madam clerk, is there anything else on the agenda? >> no, madam chair. supervisor kim: if there is nothing further, this meeting is now adjourned. >> if you are interested in our local city government and would like to work with 18 other enthusiastic citizens committed to improving its operations, i encoura supervisor chu: good morning peter i am joined by supervisor mirkarimi, supervisor cohen, supervisor renner, and supervisor chiu. the clerk is victor young. we have members from sfgtv here. do you have any announcements? >> yes, please turn off all cell phones. if you wish to speak during public comment, turned in a speaker card to myself. if you present documents to the committee, please provide a document to the clerk. items from today will appear in the board of supervisors agenda on june 21, 2011, unless otherwise stated. supervisor chu: thank you very much. call item one. >> and to consider release of reserved funds for the supervisors in the amount of $34,515 for the temporary relocation of the board of supervisors meetings. >> madam chair and m

madam clerk, is there anything else on the agenda? >> no, madam chair. supervisor kim: if there is nothing further, this meeting is now adjourned. supervisor avalos: good morning. welcome to the city operations and neighborhood services committee. my name is john avalos. we will be joined shortly by supervisor mar. can you share with us your announcements? >> yes, mr. chairman. all persons attending this meeting are requested to turn off cell phones and pagers. if you wish to submit speaker cards, please put them by the container at the rail in front of you to your left. if you wish to submit copies of materials for members of the committee, please submit an extra copy for the file. supervisor avalos: thank you. if you could please call out item one. >> item 1, resolution authorizing the recreation and park department to retroactively accept and expend a grant administered by the california state parks and recreation department in the amount of $2,700,000 for the 17th and folsom street park project. supervisor avalos: thank you. we are joined by supervis

madam chair. this is the fourth time we are in committee for this, so i will not repeat what i have said in the past. this is a very modest first step in beginning to reform our ballot measure process. i want to thank members of the committee and members of the public for the very valuable feedback that we have received, and the amended version submitted last week limits this prospectively. it does not impact any ballot measures passed before 2012. it is a purely perspective reform, and it is limited to ballot measures place on the ballot by the mayor or by the board of supervisors and has no impact on initiatives. in other words, measures placed in the ballot by signature. it is a modest government reform, and ask the committee's support. supervisor kim: thank you. any call it -- comments? supervisor elsbernd. supervisor elsbernd: i have been relatively quiet on this. it is likely to move out of committee, so i wanted to share my thoughts. i think what happened tuesday afternoon is exactly what t

>> thanks, madame chair. general petraeus, in listening to the president last night, i was somewhat disappointed with the scale of the drawdown particularly in the short term. and the reason that i was disappointed is because i have visited with you on any number of occasions where you've been very attentive to making sure that we understood what your goals were in afghanistan particularly with of the now halfway complete surge from a timing standpoint, and you often talk about needing to make gains of homeland and kandahar provinces as you just talked about, and ultimately making gains in the eastern part of afghanistan. as i look back at your testimony in june of 2010, just after the president made his west point speech, you talked about him and giving to messages in that speech, one of commitment and one of urgency. and i want to quote you. he said the urgency was the july, 2011 peace. noting that what happens in july, 2011 is a beginning of a process for transition that its condition based in the beginnin

madam clerk, call item two. >> considering appointed one member, a term ending december 31, 2011, to the western soma citizens planning task force. there's one seat and one applicant. supervisor kim: the clerk's office informed us that this appointment does not require a hearing, because it is an appointment by the district 6 supervisor and myself. so we will not be having a hearing. but if there's any public comment on this item. seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, may we filed this item? without opposition. thank you. please call item 3. >> hearing to consider appointing one member, a term ending december 31, 2013, to the developmental disabilities area board 5. there is one seat and one applicant. supervisor kim: i believe mess donna adkins it -- i believe ms. donna adkins is here. briefly tell us about your experience. i know you have already been serving. thank you for your service. briefly talk about your experience and background and your interest in continuing to serve. maybe a little bit about what you hope to work on in your next term. >> thank you for the op

>> madam chair, one item that mr. wagoner did not mention was the $4610 closeout of the incumbrances. i believe he agrees with that but he didn't mention it. >> the $4,000, that would be fine. >> so we've got agreement both on the recommended cuts as well as closing out those projects. we'll take both of those sets of recommendations without objection. and then with regard to the transition plan, that's snag we can pick up the following week. and if i can ask you perhaps to follow utch with supervisor kim on that -- >> i would be happy to and with anybody else to talk that through. >> supervisor wiener? >> i would love to follow-up on supervisor kim's comments and i agree with what you said and when i read that in preparing for today, i thought that was

merkley: thank you, madam president.i'd like to also speak to the bill before us on the economic development administration. i rise specifically to talk about the issue that is on the minds of all americans, and that is the topic of jobs. unemployment is far too high. my home state unemployment is too high. and that's before you count all of the folks who are underemployed, who have found some type of part-time work but it is not enough to support their family. we all know how worried americans are about this. it goes to the heart of their financial foundations, the success of their families, and it should be our top focus. the good news is that the bill before us creates jobs and stimulates the economy in our towns and regions that need the help the most. the economic development administration assistance is targeted to both rural and urban areas experiencing high unemployment, low income, a natural disaster, or other severe economic distress. and it does this at a low cost and gets the most bang for our buck. the bill

madam clerk, are there any announcements? >> the items on the agenda today that are recommended will go to the full board on tuesday, june 12, unless otherwise indicated. >> number one, supervisors mirkarimi, john avalos, and more to the association of bay area governments. supervisor kim: thank you. is there any public comments on this item? simenon, public comment is now closed. >> make a motion approving supervisor mar john avalos, mirkarimi, and mar. >> thank you. we can do that without opposition. we will move forward with positive recommendation to the full board. thank you. please call item number two. >> hearing to consider appointed two members for and if it turns to the bay area regional interoperable communications system authority. there are two seats and two applicants. supervisor kim: thank you. my understanding is that and -- they are here today. there no questions. if you like to see something briefly -- >thank you so much for being here. >> good morning. i would very much appreciate being appointed to the boa

richardson: madam chair. the speaker pro tempore: curp -- the chair: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california rise? ms. richardson: i ask for a recorded vote. the chair: further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from california will be postponed. are there further amendments to the pending program? if not, the clerk will read. the clerk: page 21, line 21, state mediation grants, $3,550,000. dairy indemnity program, for necessary expenses in making payments such sums as necessary, agricultural credit insurance fund program account including transfers of funds, $1,5 00,000,000,000. the congressional budget -- $1,500,000,000. in addition for administrative expenses to carry out the direct and guaranteed loan programs, $2 68,634,000. funds appropriated to the agricultural credit insurance program account may be transferred, risk management agencies, $68,016,000. corporations, the following corporations are authorized to make expenditures within the limits of funds and borrowing

thank you, madam chair. i want to come back to something that the representative from wyoming has said. i was not a member of the congress in 1982 when i think the congress voted, basically saying they would have a repository. i was with congress later on when a vote was taken. this is for the depository or repository. for the most part, the elected officials, and the congressional delegation, they have opposed this. this was done by a number of years, democrats and republicans looking at the establishment of a repository. i know we can do better. if we had to do this all over again, if we had to do this all over again, we should be smart enough to do what they did in france, and what they did in france was considered about beating repositories and to provide really terrific economic opportunity is for the communities. if we can have side standing in line to be prisons, if we can do that, to be a host for inmates from all over the country, we should be able to provide a system so that states would say they p

. >> that was the agreement, madam chair. that is unique in america. and the state legislature voted by a 236-4 vote to say no, we do not think it is in the best interests of the people of the state of vermont. they want vermont yankee shut down. vermont wants to mover in a new way in terms of energy. we are number one in the country in terms of energy efficiency. we are moving in a positive way in terms of sustainable energy. that is the direction the state of vermont wants to go. the question is what is the role of the n.r.c. in that discussion? is it appropriate for the n.r.c. to get involved with one of the largest utility companies in the united states of america, entergy, a $14 billion a year coming, pays his c.e.o. $18 million a year. entergy wants to stay open. they want to make more money. i understand that. the people of vermont want to shut it down. i agree with that. why should you be involved in that in what disturbs me very much, and i want to purse this later, is my understanding is that yesterday by a 3-2 vote, this commission decided t