madam president, that's not fair. the republican plan is to give them more tax cuts, give them more tax cuts. in fact, the house republican plan on revenue provides an additional trillion dollars in tax cuts for the wealthiest among us, gives millionaires an average tax cut of more than $150,000 a year. it does not contribute one dime of revenue to deficit reduction. madam president, i want to end where i began. the last time our colleagues on the other side were in charge, when they controlled everything here from 2001-2006 and the white house until 2008, their policies, republican policies, led the united states to the brink of financial collapse. and now, the proposals they are making here today are to take us right back, right back to those failed policies. madam president, we shouldn't let them do that. that would be a mistake for our country. it would be a mistake for the world. i thank the chair and yield the floor. mr. sessions: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. sessions: th

alexander: tha*eu, madam president. madam president -- thank you, madam president.this week is the 13th national annual charter schools weeks. on tuesday senator landrieu and i of louisiana joined with ten other senators introducing a resolution praising teachers, the administrators, the parents, the students who are part of the charter school movement across our country. let me begin by explaining exactly what a charter school is because sometimes we stand up and start talking without talking about the -- without explaining the subject. a charter school is the memphis academy for science and engineering. i visited there three or four years ago. it was during spring break. during spring break, most of the students in memphis were somewhere else, but not in the memphis academy for science and engineering. these were sophomores studying advanced placement biology. these were children who had been in other schools the year before that were deemed to be low-performing schools. in other words, these were among the students in memphis least likely to succeed. but they hav

thank you, madam chairman. >> three minutes. >> thank you, madam chair, don isn't incompetent, that mike doesn't work. senator inhoff mentioned the cost of the extension in one way. i'll mention the cost of extension in another. we have seven states reporting that they will forego 60,000 jobs this construction season because of the temporary nature of the extension. they simply can't plan beyond that for federal funds. so if we can successfully conclude this conference, quickly, then we can look forward to not only restoring jobs in those seven states, i'm certain the numbers, if added up for all the states would be at least 100,000 jobs foregone. they aren't just construction jobs, remember, with bye america provisions, the steal, it's manufacturin manufacturing--these are some very sophisticated jobs, not only in construction which is devastated, but in manufacturing in other areas, so i have some sense of urgency about passing this legislation, the legislation as reported by the senate also has funding for secure rural schools which is critical, in my part of the world and critical ac

>> thank you, madam chairwoman. i want to asuppress my appreciation to senator conrad, senator baucus. i think it's very form that we have a fair level option and that it's a fair farm level official. and that's what we provide here is that the producer can select the kind level option or the farm level option and that was vietly important, certainly in our part of the country, but i think to have that option there for all producers is truly responsive to their needs and ensures that in a year where they have a loss, then they have help. and in a year where they don't, then they don't need help so they don't have help. so i think it was -- it's well structured, it's very important to providing the kind of farm bill that we want with the kind of safety net protection and help for our producers that we want. so i thank them. and i also thank both you and the ranking member, again, for your help and support with it. >> any other comments? yes? senator nelson. >> yes. madam chair and ranking member, i support this effor

item no. 7, madam clerk? madam clerk: approve the extension of the mou with the san francisco public utilities commission for the c.c.a. program. chairperson campos: thank you and before we turn it over to ms. miller, mr. fried, congratulations i think are in order. ms. miller. >> this is similar to the previous item which is once again the mou. we thought the program would be launched by this time so the mou had a term date which we're beyond now so we want to extend it until june 2013. chairperson campos: great. thank you. another one-year extension. any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. motion by commissioner avalos, seconded by commissioner olague. if we can take that without objection? item 8. madam clerk: item no. 8 is public comment. chairperson campos: any member of the public who would like to speak on any item within the jurisdiction of lafco not otherwise on the agenda. seeing none, public comment is done. item 9. madam clerk: item no. 9 is future agenda items. cha

>> madam chair? i would like to call up nelson amendment number one, it's not germaine and it's essentially the same as the nelson number two which i won't call up. title 12 the existing grand father clause, first enacted in 1990 and extend by congress in 2000 will expire. as a result, many communities will no longer be eligible for funding, none of these critical rural usda housing programs, cutting him off from what is often the only source of federal housing. both of these amendments seek to extend this grandfather clause through the 2020 census with different levels of community eligibility. i know both chairwoman stabinou and roberts, i know this is an issue to you as well. and i look forward to working with you in the banking committee in addressing the issue as we continue to move this farm bill forward and as such, i will withdraw my amendments at this time. and i thank my colleagues and friends for his support and he may have some comments he would like to make. >> all i need to do here is t

thank you, madam chair. the products may be going overseas, but the jobs are created in our rural communities, and while i don't plan to offer my amendment for a stand-alone during margin and insurance program, i strongly support this growth-oriented approach to risk management for dairy. i know we have regional differences here, and i respect that, but i hope to continue to work with you and others on this committee throughout this farm bill process to advance a dairy policies that reflects the industry's growing commitment to export communities. thank you, again, to the chair and the ranking member for all of your work getting us to this point, and i -- and i look forward to working with you as we head towards the floor. >> well, thank you very much, and we do intend to continue to work with you as we work to strike the right balance. that really is what a farm bill is about, and we're going to continue to work with you. let me turn now to senator thune. i want to thank you in so many different ways. the f

king: thank you, madam chair. in listening to the presentation by the gentlelady from tennessee and rebuttal by the gentleman from california, i'd make the point that it isn't only the supreme court that makes a decision on constitutionality. we all take an oath to uphold the constitution here in this congress and the executive branch and also in the federal court system. and when you go through the process of constitutional determination, we do allow the supreme court as a public and a people to make that decision. we do so under marbury and it's something over a couple of centuries old. but in the final analysis of the balance of powers, in the end it's the people that decide what's constitutional, not the supreme court. and i say that because we have the authority here in this congress to control funding. as the gentlelady from tennessee has in her amendment that comes out, and there's a reason for that. we have many debates on constitutionality here in this congress, on this floor. it's our obligation to do th

welcome, general. >> madam chair, thank you for the opportunity to represent the marines this morning. i'd like to begin by just making a few key observations regarding our current and future readiness. today of the 197,000 marines on active duty and the 39,000 selected marine corps reserve, 26,000 are forward deployed. 18,000 of those are in afghanistan. our number one priority is assuring that our forward deployed forces are wellmaned, trained, and equipped. and as a result of your support, i can assure you that those marines and sailors that are forward deployed are at the highest state of readiness. but a forward deplayed units have personnel and equipment requirements that exceed standard allowances. the additional equipment is due to the nature of the fight in afghanistan and the very distributed nature of operations. the additional personnel required to support staffs and trainers for afghan security forces. we meet these additional requirements by pulling equipment and personnel from units at home stations. as madam chair mentioned in the opening remarks, our units at home sta

madam president that's not fair. republican plan is to give them more tax cuts, give them more tax cuts. in fact, the house republican plan on revenue provides an additional trillion dollars in tax cuts for the wealthiest among us, gives millionaires an average tax cut of more than $150,000 a year. it does not contribute one dime of revenue to deficit reduction. madam president i want to end where i began. the last time our colleagues on the other side were in charge, when they controlled everything here from 2001-2006 and the white house until 2008, their policies republican policies, led the united states to the brink of financial collapse. and now the proposals they are making here today are to take us right back, right back to those failed policies. madam president we shouldn't let them do that. that would be a mistake for our country. it would be a mistake for the world. i thank the chair and yield the floor. mr. sessions: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. sessions: the fundam

>> thank you, madam chair. i wanted to ask each of you in the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the conclusion of the chairman's risk assessment that he submitted to us. he says that the services will need to, quote, conceive of a new risk paradigm. can you help me about what that means, if we are conceiving of a new risk paradigm? >> well, i think as you create a new strategy, certainly you look for ways to balance the risk that you're going to accept. and of course you focus on the most dangerous aims and then also you consider the most likely things that are going to occur. and so i think what the chairman is getting to with that, at least my read of this, is that, you know, each time that you revamp your strategy you're going to have to look at things through the lens of kind of the context of today and what the threat offers in the future. >> general, just as a follow-up on that, just listening to it from my perspective, i assume that's what we did whenever we would issue a risk assessment. so, when i

i earned the right to be madame. you can't be a madame unless you've laid on your back and sold it yourself. >> okay. there you go. that will make a headline somewhere. i've got to ask you this, when you first saw this story playing out, madame, did you say oh, here we go, did you realize it was going to get to this level? >> yes, i did. the ladies broke the number one rule, get your money up front, sweet heart. and the men, shame on them. they made an agreement. stick to your agreement. every red blooded man, when you make a hand shake, you better follow through. shame on them. >> we're looking at a documentary made about the ranch that was for hd-net that we're looking at. i've seen many things about the mustang ranch. we've done stories on it here on cnn. my question to you, madame, do you think that this case, does it help or hurt the case for legalized prostitution here in the united states? because now it's connected with politicians and the highest politician in the land, the president. >> it's always connecte

madam chair can i offer my amendment? >> yes. proceed. thank you. >> i'd like to offer amendment number three which is a sense of the committee. now, obviously we all care about the families that we serve in our states. and obviously no one on this committee wants to see children go hungry. but our food stamps program, our snap program is one of the most important programs for helping these at risk families and at-risk children. our nutrition assistance helps 46 million people including 23 million children in the united states. i have a sense of the senate that very simply states that none of us want to see children go hungry. that we all want to make sure that nutrition assistance is available to those who need it. that this is a shared value that we all support. oi'm not going to be offering it in committee but i'm going to be offering it on the floor and i hope fly colleagues will consider it as a statement of those shared common bipartisan values. >> thank you very much. we will proceed back to the lehey amendment number five. and i w

thank you, madam chair. >> well, thank you very, very

madam clerk, if we can now go to our 4:00 p.m. special order? >> items 36 through 39 comprise a special order at 4:00 p.m. for a public hearing of persons interested in a decision by the plant or a determination date is february 3, 2012, that a project located at 1100 lombard street is exempt from environmental review under the california environmental quality act. item 37 is the motion affirming that is exempt from environmental review. item 38 is a motion refers in the determination by the planning department, and item 39 is a motion directing the clerk to prepare the findings. president chiu: i understand we have received communications from both parties for a continuance to may 22. can i have a motion to that effect? by supervisor farrell, seconded by supervisor campus. anyone that would like to comment on discontinuance? we will be back on may 22. seeing none, colleagues, can we take the motion to continue without objection? that will be the case, and, madam clerk, can you please call before club special item for the special order, items 40

>> madam chairman, the chairman has spoken. nothing much else needs to be said, but i'll say it anyway. in my opening statement, i -- i said we were over $24 billion. and i was pretty proud of that. very close to $25. we made adjustments that we think are proper under the issue of fairness. i understand that there are a lot of folks who don't think that that is the case, but we and i'm not casting any aspersions in their direction. but if we're over $24 billion and now we're 23, and we don't know exactly where but we're 23, i want to make doggone sure that we're not below the 23 which was offered to the supercommittee sometime ago. so i think under the banner of caution and remarks by the distinguished chairman that we better -- and the senator from north dakota, you know, let's look at this. and let's work on it, but let's, you know, wait until the floor. >> debbie? >> senator? >> madam chairwoman, back here in the corner. i agree with that, i don't think there's anything wrong with being north of $23 billion in savings. i don

brown: thank you, madam president. i want to reiterate and underscore the words of my colleague, the senior senator from new york, about how important the iran, tightening iran's sanctions are to israel, to the united states of america, and to the stability, really the stability of the world. allowing nuclear weapons in the hands of a country that's as unstable as iran and hostile to so many of our values and our -- i mean most people in the world, not just the united states. not just israel. not just the democratic world. how problematic this is for the entire world. that's why i'm pleased with the work that chairman johnson and ranking member shelby, chairman tim johnson, ranking member shelby, senator menendez, senator graham and others, that this continues to send the important message to iran that we will continue, we will increasingly tighten sanctions. threatening to iran the stability of its economy and helping iran to understand that this will create difficulties for that regime and having any support of its p

thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. moran: thank you, madam president. yesterday, a group of four of us senators introduced legislation that i want to highlight today in this brief opportunity on the senate floor. we introduced senate bill 3217. this legislation called start-up 2.0 was introduced by senator warner, senator coons, senator rubio and me to begin the process of trying to create a better entrepreneurial environment in the united states, to create opportunities for entrepreneurs for innovation, to grow the economy and create jobs, and i want to personally thank those three senators, two of us republicans, two democrats, who decided that this common phrase that we hear around washington, d.c., we can't do anything this year because it's an election year is nothing that we're willing to tolerate. we didn't get the marching orders, the instructions that say you can't work and accomplish good things for america just because there is a november election. and so i

mitchell: thank you, madam chair -- mr. michaud: thank you, madam chair. e.d.a. is the only federal agency with a single mission of creating high-quality jobs here at home. the investments made by e.d.a. in all of our districts lead to economic development and job creation. by law e.d.a. projects require a 50% local share and must leverage significant private sector investment. as a result e.d.a. funding goes to projects that have been developed and vetted by local leaders and businesses. their investments are competitive, merit based and based on regional comprehensive economic development strategies. as a result e.d.a. projects reflect local priorities and contributes to broader economic development in the area. but most importantly all e.d.a. investments must result in their creation and retention of high-quality jobs. and the program has a strong track record of success in my home state of maine and throughout the country. in fact, between 2005 and 2010 e.d.a. investments have helped to create over 314,000 jobs nationwide. at a time when our economic recovery

madam chairman you've showed your ability to bring people together. so, you know what, i'm counting on you doing it here. don't want you to feel any pressure or anything, but you've demonstrated that and i want to be supportive. i want to see you get a bill out, get people to work and get those contractors busy and let's don't have another bridge fall somewhere because we couldn't do our work. with that i yield back and thank you for your efforts. thank you. >> thank you. i see senator schumer. senator schumer, this is your moment, sir. three minutes to you. followed by representative butler. how do i say it? >> herrera butler. >> i'm so sorry. okay. i got it now. yeah. >> chairman boxer, it's a pleasure to be here. i want to thank you for your amazing leadership on this bill. you and senator inhofe deserve real commendation for coming together on an outstanding bill in a bipartisan way. it's just what america wants. we want jobs. we want infrastructure and we want it to be done in a bipartisan way where the parties are not fighting and you have achie

thank you, madame chair. >> thank you. mr. miller, for five minutes. >> thank you, madame chair. significant credit portfolio and i don't claim to understand that entirely, but the details are sketchy. it also appears -- credits of the banks are taking too much pleasure in the hard to see this as something to gloat over. it's not like a $200 factory burned down. it just sort of shifted $2 billion. it was chase's $2 billion around to probably some hedge funds. so it really appears that the only thing to worry about in all of that is the effect it might have on the soundness of any given bank engaged in these kinds of transactions or especially to the system as a whole, whether it creates a systemic risk. and i'm wondering how on earth we got a chance, even got a fighting chance to figure that out ina drew, chief financial officer at chase who has now resigned was making $14 million last year. and she apparently did not understand these transactions and we're supposed to send in some examiners on government salaries and they're supposed to figure out what risks are involved in thes

>> thank you, madame chair. mr. auer, so designated nonbank sifis, how much weight will the fsoc give to existing regulators? perhaps you have an international nonbank financial institution and in their home country they have supervisory authority that's very clear. would the fed be likely that the fed would be designated or less likely? >> both in the framework that the council lays out in its rule and guidance stages two and three, the council does plan to take into account existing regulatory scrutiny, whether that scrutiny is domestic or foreign, whether at the conso d consolidated level or legal entity level. that would all be factors that would lead into the council's ultimate determination about whether or not that firm poses a threat to financial stability. >> mr. fwibson, you said earlier that you have the authority, the fed has the authority to tailor standards as appropriate to nonfinancial companies. now, isn't this unchartered territory for the fed? >> we have the authority to tailor the standards for n

madam clerk: supervisor farrell? supervisor farrell: no. madam clerk: two ayes one no. chairperson kim: that motion passes. we also take a motion to refer the committee report to the full board. we do not have a meeting after memorial day and the sunshine task force meets on june 6 so we want to get these appointments forward so they can have quorum at their next june meeting so we have a motion to refer this to the full board as a committee report and we can do that without acquisition. i want to thank all the applicants that came out today. i appreciate your volunteerism and commitment to sunshine transparency for san francisco government. at this time, we are going to be entering into closed session. is there any public comment on item no. 8? yes? there is. >> as you know, i'm kevin woodson and i thank you for putting me on the agenda and i'm here just to let you know face-to-face that something happened in the past and i moved on and it's hard for me to go on without no employment or no, you know, health and i want y'all to know that i'm trying to go on with my life

roby: thank you, madam speaker. it is truly an honor tonight to stand with other freshmen colleagues to discuss the ever important number one constitutional responsibility of this congress, in my opinion, very clearly spelled out and i quote, to provide for the common defense. of course this week the house will debate on h.r. 4310, the fiscal year 2013 national defense authorization act. as you know, mr. speaker, we marked this up in committee last week into the wee hours of the morning and we passed the armed services committee -- it passed the house armed services committee on may 10 with a bipartisan vote of 56-5. and this legislation specifically provides for pay funding and authorities for america's men and women in uniform. and it's the key mechanism by which we fulfill our constitutional duty to provide for the common defense. this bill does many things, but i thought what i would do in this -- beginning of this hour is i wait, we see some of my freshmen colleagues walking in the room to join us tonight, i wo

supervisor campos: thank you, madam chair. i want to thank the three applicants for there willingness to serve the city and county of san francisco. with respect to item four, which is the vacancy for the seat that is currently held by laura guzman. very impressive resin made -- resume. it is good to see someone come to the city is so quickly and want to get involved. i don't know if at this point this is the right commission body, but i think it would be very important for the city to utilize your expertise, your knowledge, and i certainly look forward to some of the other positions you have applied for. i do think we could use your skills. in terms of laura guzman, i don't know what can be said that has not already been said. and now we have a preference for people who already are wrought -- who already reside in the city. a lot of people cannot afford to reside in san francisco. anyone who works in the city knows that ms. guzman is a critical component of that community and frankly, i do not know what the homeless coordinat

>> thank you, madam chair. i thank you for calling this important hearing on the current readiness of u.s. forces in review of the defense authorization request for fiscal year 2013 and future years defense program. i foremost want to thank the witnesses that are before us today as we confront challenges around the world. i know that each of you have been tremendous leaders. and all of the soldiers that serve below you deserve our respect and admiration. and i thank you all for what you're doing in very difficult times, both fiscally and also with the national security challenges we face. so thank you. on march 23rd of 1983, president ronald reagan delivered an important speech in the oval office. and in his speech he said what seems to have been lost in all of this debate is the simple truth of how a defense budget is arrived at. it isn't done by deciding to spend a certain number of dollars. we start by considering what must be done to maintain peace and review all the possible threats to our security. there

madam chairwoman, i look forward to working with you on these issues. i know we'll continue to work through them with some other amendments and perhaps on the floor, but i did want you to know where my concerns lie. >> thank you very much, and let me make a note to members. we do need everyone to come back for a quorum so please come back. senator hoeven, last but not least. thanks for your advocacy on energy. made a big difference working with senator conrad on behalf of north dakota to get a farm level program that makes sense. we appreciate very much all of your hard work and look forward to continuing to work with you. >> thank you, madam chairman. truly appreciate your work and your willingness to work with us and also to ranking member roberts. thank you, senator, for your patience and your perseverance. not only your knowledge of agriculture but your love for agriculture certainly showed in this process, and i -- i know everybody said it, but i do have to commend the two of you for diligently working through this process. i think senator bennett

chairman, or madam speaker. i would rather do it another way my hometown, laid off 125 police officers. same story in other towns in new jersey. fewer cops on the beat means more crime on our streets, plain and simple. if i can't come up here and fight for the guys and gals who defend us day in and day out, and if there's an attack, it a natural disaster or man-made disaster therks police and firefighters and e.m.t.'s who will be there long before the federal government. we need to protect them. sure, i'll yield. >> my dad was a policeman in the city of philadelphia. mr. wolf: with my dad, i couldn't say the word cops. because it was a derogatory term. my dad was a policeman, i love my father. when we go to conference, we'll attempt to really deal with this. i think mr. fattah and i agree. nasa is not the police to go. i'm very sympathetic. we're given -- giving a budget, some guys want to take the budget down even more. the republican study committee wants to take it down even more. some guys would have voted f

thank you, madam chairman. >> thank you, senator. >> madam chair, that mike doesn't work.sender and hostage in the cost of the extension one wyatt all mentioned it in another. we have had -- those seven states recording that they will forgo a 60,000 job this construction season because of the temporary nature of the extension. they simply can't plan beyond that for federal funds. so if we can successfully conclude this conference quickly, then we can look forward to not only restoring jobs and those seven states and certain members of fatah death for the states of the abuse 100,000 jobs were gone. the arches construction jobs. with why america provisions for steel is manufacturing. transit vehicles and things that go into the transit vehicles are some sophisticated jobs we need not only in construction but is devastated but in manufacturing and other areas. i have sense of urgency about passing this legislation as reported by the senate. also funding for secure role skills which is critical in my part of the world and across the united states for many counties and states t