>> thank you, madam speaker. here we are on the last day of the calendar year 2012. with an impending fiscal cliff challenging all of us. the women and men who serve in this great body have expressed great differences but those differences ought not divide us. they should build us with the best consensus, we need a bold and balanced approach to this fiscal cliff. mr. tonko: we need to make certain that the 33 consecutive months of private sector job growth are not disrupted. we need to make certain that the unemployment rate does not rise as the c.b.o., congressional budget office suggests, to 9.1%. we need to avoid taxes growing by $,200 for an average family of four in 2013. -- $2,200 for an average family of four in 2013. it is important for us to go forward and take the initiative and avoid the consequences of that fiscal cliff. i'm concerned because fema as an example would be cut by some $878 million. having witnessed the destruction in my district, we can ill afford that. cuts to nutrition programs, cuts t

madam president, u.s.failure to respond to the needs of this strategic ally in its time of need by simply approving the already-signed agreement would signal to palau and to most other nations in the pacific that the u.s. is an unreliable partner. so, madam president, i urge the support of my colleagues for this amendment and for approving the agreed to assistance to palau so that they may have the resources needed to respond to super typhoon bofa. madam president, i have six unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have been approved by the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. bingaman: madam president, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mrs. hutchison: madam president? madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum

and madame >> welcome back, everybody, now folks thank you very much before the break madame tussaudse a spot in their famous wax museum and then measured me for improper tallity. but the question remains could my smoldering good looks and blistering significance be captured in a medium with such a low melting point? let's find out in part two of -- >> stephen colbert wax on and wax off at madame tussauds. >> i had made it to the hall of presidents. >> this is george washington. >> no, he had wooden teeth. >> famously. >> he did. >> does this wax figurine have wooden teeth. >> it does to the. >> swing and a miss, swing and a miss on that one. larry feins from the three stooges. >> john adams, our second president. >> okay. the fun interactive set, you sit next to him in a chair. >> incredible. what other technology do you have. >> our 8th president. >> our first president with ironic faition hair. >> this is worth the price of admission right here just to pet his face. >> who is this. >> martin van burren. >> and this man, i did not realize we elected vampire to the senate. >> we didn

find out tonight in. >> stephen colbert, wax on and wax off at madame tussaud the. i sat down with the art frist madame tussauds so i could get waxed. >> just leave a landing strip, okay, do that for me? they walked me through their painstaking process. >> when they make your figure they will insert every hair in your figure's individually, every eye lash, every eyebrow, it takes six weeks. >> that's fantastic. >> isn't it. >> i'm so glad that effort isn't going into curing cancer. >> if you have a tattoo somewhere we want to re-create that. >> i do. i have a black panther crawling out of my butt crack. >> that's awesome. >> it says welcome to the lair and the panther is going-- so you have a box of eyeball its. >> we do. >> do these come from chinese prisoners. >> they are glass, what are you talking about. >> i don't know what chinese people are made of. i have no idea. (laughter) next i slipped into something more revealing so they could measure my every nook and cranny. (cheers and applause) i feel dirty. >> so dan, how did you get this job. >> i'm the general m

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. udall: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. udall: madam president, we're in a quorum call? the presiding officer: no, we're not. mr. udall: madam president, i rise today to first recognize the life of a very unique and remarkable coloradoan. then i will speak to a cause that's near and dear to me, i think as well to the presiding officer, which is our wind energy industry and the threat that it faces. but i first want to speak about a man by the name of randy at kinson who we lost just this year, october 9, 2012, at the way-too-young age of 60. he was a firefighter. he dedicated himself to serving his community and, as he put it, his brothers and sisters in colorado's fire departments. randy was an example to all of us because he dedicated his entire adult life to helping others. he started at the age of 19 in 1972 by joining the denver fire deposit and denver firefighters local 858. not long after that, he took a more active role in representing his fellow firefighters as

rogers: thank you, madam speaker. as many things keep me awake at night as the chairman of the house permanent select committee on intelligence, the growing threat from chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear attacks not only abroad but here is of growing concern, instability in governments that possess these materials and increasing interest from those who would choose to do harm to the united states, desire to get their hands on these materials, means that we must prepare ourselves here at home for the unfortunate, i think unlikely, certainly in the short-term but possible position of being attacked with these disturbing weapons systems. this is that important step to protect americans by increasing our stockpiles and would urge its passage and with that, madam speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is will the house pass the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of th

thompson: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, there are areas where t.s.a. needs to improve its performance. on that we can all agree. just last week, g.s.o. released a report for t.s.a. properly overseeing privatized screeners and revealing that some airports with their privatize screeners do not perform as well as their federalized counterparts. i look forward to addressing those areas with my colleagues in the 113th congress. today we have an opportunity to support legislation supported by industry, the obama administration and t.s.a. that has the potential to enhance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of screening baggage. with that, madam speaker, i urge my colleagues to support s. 3542 so it can be sent to the president for his signature and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from new york. mr. king: i urge adoption of this bipartisan, commonsense bill, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is will the house suspend t

with that, madam president, i would request unanimous consent -- madam president? the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: i have six unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the apresume o approve majority and minority leaders. i ask that these requests be agreed to and printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: madam president, i would yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. ms. snowe: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. madam president madam president i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. snowe: thank you. madam president, i also ask unanimous consent that proceed as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. snowe: rand i also ask unanimous consent that i consume as much time as needed. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. snowe: thank you, madam president. i rise tod

durbin: madam president? the presiding officer: the minority leader -- the assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: madam president, what just transpired deserves a word. senator mcconnell came to the floor this morning and offered a change in law that would help us avoid the kind of obstruction and the kind of showdowns that we have had in the past over the debt ceiling. in fact, the idea was not new. it was his original idea that has been the law of the land and followed. and he offered and challenged senator reid to bring this matter for consideration in the senate. senator reid just agreed to it, said he would bring this for a vote in 20 minutes and we would decide up or down whether the debt ceiling problem would be resolved once and for all under senator mcconnell's proposal. and then senator mcconnell objected, objected saying no, no, we need 60 votes. for those who don't follow the senate, 60 votes is the equivalent of a filibuster vote, breaking a filibuster vote. so this may be a moment in senate hist

walz: thank you, madam speaker. as more and more of our brave warriors return from afghanistan, more and more of them are looking for work. it's our duty as a nation to make sure that we are doing everything possible to get these troops re-employed. that's why i'd like to applaud both the senate and house for including in the national defense authorization act the helping iraq and afghanistan veterans return to employment. the hire act. what it does is establish a very commonsense process that encourages state credentialing authorities to consider certain military occupational training when granting licenses. it makes absolutely no sense to force a battlefield medic to spend time and federal dollars taking redundant training to be an e.m.t. it makes no sense for a state agency that wouldn't count hundreds of hours driving heavy equipment in afghanistan to get a c.d.r. license. the department of defense spends $140 billion a year training our military personnel, the best in the world, it would be ludicrous to not use

madam clerk, can you please call item no. 9? >> item no. 9, ordinance amending the police code provisions for clipper cove special use area adjacent to special use area adjacent to treasure island . >> for the record, peter summerville, former isla vista resident. before you today is a proposed ordinance amending san francisco police code section 1.1. as you are aware, clipper cove is the still water body of water located between treasure island and yerba buena island. in august 2009 the board of supervisors unanimously approved ordinance 193.09 creating clipper cove as a special use area. the current ordinance requires vessels anchored in clipper cove for more than 24 hours to permit an anchorage permit. 3, make it unlawful for any person to conduct salvage operations or possess salvage materials from clipper code without title approval. shall be charged solely as a misdemeanor under the proposed amendments. 4, allow tida to assess violations to police section 1.1, with fines and appeal process consistent with san francisco adm

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. grassley: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. grassley: there's been a lot of discussion lately about how the senate is not working properly. this is evidenced by even a casual observer. to understand how the senate was observed to work and what has gone wrong requires some knowledge of the history and the rules of the senate, and i would put more recommend if more empy thank the rules of the senate, particularly as expressed in "the federalist" papers but the people who are advising the states -- who were advising the states to approve the constitution. to many people this subject, no doubt, seems arcane and confusing. the simplistic explanation that we get from the other side of the aisle -- and it is a steady drumbeat -- is that republicans are filibustering everything just willy-nilly, thereby grinding the snoo senate to a h. various motivations are suggested as to why republicans would do such a thing, but the point that they want americans to take away is that

with that, madam president, i yield the floor. madam president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: a senator: madam madam presiden? the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: i rise today -- the presiding officer: there is a quorum call, senator. mr. paul: i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. paul: madam president, i rise today in support of the fourth amendment protection act. the fourth amendment guarantees the right of the people to be secure in their persons, their houses and their papers and their effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. john adams considered the fight against general warrants or what they called in those days writs of assistance, he considered this fight to be when the child independence was born. our intelligence and the fourth amendment go hand in hand. they emerge together. to discount or to dilute the fourth amendment would be to deny really what constitutes our very republic. but somehow along the way,

madam president, i would yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. a senator: thank you, madam president. madam president, i want to talk about the disaster supplemental today, but before i do that, i want to spend just a minute talking about the senator from hawaii, mr. inouye. mr. blunt: we were at the service this morning in the rotunda of the capitol where only 31 americans in the history of the country have been honored by that opportunity for americans to think about them as they lay in the center of the capitol on the catapult that was used -- ca -- catafalk that wasd by president lincoln and others. i was able to place the wreath at the capitol when rosa parks was in that same place, and i just want to say, madam president, how honored i was to get to serve in the senate with mr. inouye. he really not only was a hero in so many ways but i think connected all of us to the greatest generation, as tom brokaw titled that generation, and there was no better example of that quiet, purposeful, heroic

wallace. >> president chiu: thank you, madam clerk.e any more business in front of the body? >> clerk calvillo: that concludes our business for today, mr. president. >> president chiu: i want to wish you and your families, members of the public and everyone watching on sf gov tv, thank you for your service and wishing everyone for a very, very happy thanksgiving. this meeting is adjourned. >> good morning and welcome to the san francisco county transportation authority finance committee and i'm scott wiener the chair of the committee. to my right is commissioner sean elsbernd and to my left is commissioner david chiu and commissioner eric mar and commissioner carmen chu will be joining us. >> no announcements. >> item two. >> item two presents november 6, 2012 meeting action item. >> any comments or changes to the minute? seeing none, public comment on item two. seeing none. public comment closed. can we give motion to approve the minutes? can we do that without objection that will be the order. >> thank you. >> thank you good morning

unlike most museums, at madame tussauds, you're invited to touch the exhibits. attraction. why? >> we encourage our guests to get as close as they want. they can hug, they can kiss the figures. there's plenty of kisses on justin bieber. take as many pictures as you want. it's a lot of fun. >> do you have a favorite? >> johnny depp. >> did you lay one on him? >> i gave him a hug. [ laughs ] >> the exhibits get a lot of personal attention, and that takes a toll. although all of the figures are made in madame tussauds london studio, it's up to the staff here to take care of them. so, early in the morning, before visitors arrive, technicians like emily make the rounds. she checks the hair of heroes like civil-rights champion rosa parks, makes sure eli manning and carmelo anthony are ready for action, fixes brad pitt's tie, and -- oh, yeah -- removes all that lipstick from george clooney's cheeks. >> on a daily basis, the most popular figures, like clooney, brad pitt, johnny depp, they got kissed all over, so they got lipstick on their face. >> what are the different

the messenger: madam speaker, a message from the senate. the secretary: madam speaker. i have been directed by the house -- sflat that the house that the senate has passed a bill in which the concurrence of the house is requested. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 17, 2012, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip limited to five minutes each, but in no event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. poe, for five minutes. mr. poe: madam speaker, there is nothing more americana than the image of happy children at school during the christmas season. that week that norman rockwell picture was stolen. here are 23 of the 26 victims that were murdered that day. we should know their photographs. we should know their names. they were chase ko

wallace. >> president chiu: thank you, madam clerk.n front of the body? >> clerk calvillo: that concludes our business for today, mr. president. >> president chiu: i want to wish you and your families, members of the public and everyone watching on sf gov tv, thank you for your service and wishing everyone for a very, very happy thanksgiving. this meeting is adjourned.

wallace. >> president chiu: thank you, madam clerk. business in front of the body? >> clerk calvillo: that concludes our business for today, mr. president. >> president chiu: i want to wish you and your families, members of the public and everyone watching on sf gov tv, thank you for your service and wishing everyone for a very, very happy thanksgiving. this meeting is adjourned. >> we came to seven straight about 10 years ago. -- 7th street about 10 years ago. the environment is huge. it is stronger than willpower. surrounding yourself with artists, being in a culture where artists are driving, and where a huge amount of them is a healthy environment. >> you are making it safer. push, push. that is better. when i start thinking, i see it actually -- sometimes, i do not see it, but when i do, it is usually from the inside out. it is like watching something being spawned. you go in, and you begin to work, excavate, play with the dancers, and then things began to emerge. you may have a plan that this is what i want to create. here are th

madam clerk, are there any communications? >> clerk calvillo: there are no communications. >> president chiu: could you read the consent agenda. >> clerk calvillo: items 1 through 12 are considered routine. if a member would like to discuss an item it shall be removed and considered separately. >> president chiu: would anyone like to sever any of these items? roll call vote on items 1 through 12. >> clerk calvillo: supervisor mar, aye. supervisor olague, aye. supervisor wiener, aye. supervisor avalos, aye. supervisor campos, aye. president chiu, aye. supervisor chu, aye. supervisor cohen, aye. supervisor elsbernd, aye. supervisor farrell, aye. supervisor kim, absent. there are 10 ayes. >> president chiu: those ordinances are finally passed, motions approved. madam clerk -- colleagues, if it's okay -- supervisor kim just arrived. if you could call item 13. >> clerk calvillo: an ordinance appropriating approximately 2.7 million of state reserves for the san francisco unified school district for fiscal year 2012-13. >> president

i go back, madam chairman. >> mr.duncan of south carolina is recognized. >> thank you, madam chairman. your leadership will be missed on this committee, the looking forward to the future. i want to say that words mean something and they should mean something and i'm glad we are finally in agreement that this incident was a terrorist attack that took the administration longer to get there. i notice on page one of arb's report that the ongoing investigation has labeled an ongoing criminal investigation when they should be labeled a u.s. terrorist investigation, the navy the same person who worded that are also called the fort hood massacre in incident of workplace violence. words mean some thing. the arb report points out failures and testimony here today states they are being addressed and i appreciate that. they should be addressed for state and security at diplomatic personnel all over the world. they're still many unanswered questions, especially about how do we protect and defend diplomatic corps and sovereign terr

>> thank you very much, madame chair. and i want to thank all of the members of public who have come out to speak on this item. i also want to note that we have in the audience former supervisor tony hall and it's good to welcome a former member of this body here. i will keep my comments very brief, because i think that everything that has been said, that needs to be said about this matter has been said by the tenants themselves. and i especially wanted to thank the tenants and the residents of not just sro hotels, but different units in the city that have come forward to shed light on this issue. i also want to thank supervisor kim and her staff, who have been dealing with this issue from the moment that she got elected. and i think that this legislation is in many respects, you know, not the culmination, but it adds to the body of work that already has been done and we need to continue to monitor this. so i'm very proud to be a co-sponsor. i think it's one of those pieces of legislation that is truly a no-brainer and my

. >> hi, madam president, my name is rod sahad, commissioners, supervisors. my name is rad sahad, i am president of the asian commission. i am here to pay my respects to leroy king, i have known him and i've got in front of him so i first of all want to do that. secondly i want to say that not just the other community but asian indian community also supports commissioner king to be reappointed. we think he brings great wisdom and is fair and i'm delighted personally that he is on the board, on this new commission, the commission on community investment and infrastructure, if i got that right. i'm also here to support the nomination of mara rosales who i have known since 1985 when she was assistant city attorney. worked with her when we were trying to bring asian indians into the mlp program. enough has been said about her so i'm not going to say anything further. i am in support of all the members. >> thank you, mr. sahar, thank you for being here. >> madam supervisors, al norman, baby merchants, southeast commission. i am here in support of all of the candid

madam clerk, call the roll clmpletsd supervisor avalos, present. supervisor campos, present. president chiu, present. supervisor chu, present. supervisor cohen, present. supervisor elsbernd, present. supervisor farrell, present. supervisor kim, present. supervisor mar, present. supervisor olague, present. supervisor wiener, present. mr. president, all members are present. >> president chiu: thank you. ladies and gentlemen, could you please join us in the pledge of allegiance. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> president chiu: colleagues, we have board meeting minutes from october 9, 2012. approve, motion by supervisor mar, seconded by supervisor campos. those are approved. are there any communications? >> clerk calvillo: there are no communications. >> president chiu: could you read 2 pm special order. >> clerk calvillo: the policy discussion between mayor edwin lee and mrs of the board of supervisors. this week representing two ev

senator cardin. >> thank you, madam chair.et me ask my entire statement be included in the record. thank you so much not just for convening this hearing, but for your leadership in dealing with these issues, but for your leadership in dealing with these issues to the needs of the communities and individuals who issues to the needs of the communities and individuals who impact did by the severe weather events, but your leadership in directing this committee to look at race in which we can make our communities less vulnerable. sandy was a devastating storm. 80 lives were lost as a result of the storm. seven in the state of maryland. 8 million people in the united states for some time were without power as a result of sandy. maryland feared much better than our surrounding states. we spent a lot of our resources to help friends in new york, new jersey and other states impacted, but of the severe for the people of hurricane. the amount of high sustained winds were unprecedented in our state. 70 mile-per-hour when for hour upon hou

>> that is consistent with their current policy, that is correct, madam chair, supervisor avalos. >> thank you very much. to the department, those two recommendations, wanted to hear from you. one sounds like it is a policy that is already dictated by the health commission, your department. second one we've actually seen a previous item like this at the department of health that came before on contingency for prospective expenses versus things that we've already done. we took that recommendation previously. any comments on these two recommendations? >> we concur with the first recommendation. on the second one we bring every contract to the health commission prior to coming to the board. so, we actually met that requirement of the second recommendation. >> we have somewhat of a disagreement with dph on this in our audit that we recently completed on professional services contracts. we actually did recommend that they limit the contingency to 10% so it was consistent with health commission policy. and we thought that in this instance it was important for them, since there's changes in

>> yes, madam chair. it's my advice that the committee directs me to competitively bid these services. i am happy to at the end of awarding that contract, be able to take some further time and investigate the actual details around the independence issue, the chain of command and who the budget analyst would report to, how our office would interact, how they would interact with the members of the board, where exactly they would be housed here at the board of supervisors. you could also direct me to investigate other jurisdictional cities. los angeles, san diego, new york to look at how they are provided budget analyst services. so, i think it's from the comfort of actually having a contract that you could then further direct me to provide that information to the committee. >> okay. and if we were to go forward with an rfp and eventually that rfp would have to come back for approval, could we have it be flexible such that if there was a decision by this body at a later time to actually do a contract, any ty

madam secretary, the next order of business. >> item 10, discussion and possible action to approve and execute a wholesale water revenue prepayment collection and agreement. >> todd rydstrom. you have heard of this item and you aassumed a partial repayment. what is before you is a culmination of a lot of hard work and congratulations to mr. jensen and his team that got this through and the legislature and the governor. it's refunding like the sewer bond refunding. and this allows wholesale customers to early repay retail customers. it achieves savings for our wholesale customers. and allow us to smooth rates for our retail customers. a few brief slides. $362 million, or up to, could be the potential early repayment for previously funded capital. that retail investors have made in the system. bawsca is able to issue bonds now on wholesale customers as approved by the governor and legislature, and this is effective january 1. this prepayment again was envisioned in part in your budget hearing discussions. but we only assumed $50 million but with market conditions and they may want to rep

with that i yield back, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas yields back. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. sherman: i rise again in support of this bill and i yield to no member in terms of my dedication to privacy. this bill passes, you're going to get notification of what the privacy rules are when you start with the financial institutions. you're going to get notified every time they make a change and you're going to be notified any day of the night or day when you simply go onto the website and look at the required privacy notification. when graham-leach-bliley was passed, not everybody had access to the internet. i realize today not everybody does, but a much larger percentage of americans are familiar with the internet, have access to the internet and know that if they want to see the privacy notification of the privacy rules of their financial institution it's there on the internet in a way that most americans are going to have easy access to. the idea that you're mailed a

. >> good afternoon, supervisors, madam chair kim, my name is don marcos, director of mission hiring hall and i want to congratulate all the appointees by the mayor to this important commission. first and foremost, the honorable dar sing who i have adopted as my community dad. his intelligence and vision is not obvious in what he says but how he assesses things and how he acts on them. he is a kind and very, very conscious man who is community minded. maridol salas, when we celebrated our 40 years her name came up. she was referred by a nonprofit law firm and ignited a fire in her heart and now runs her own firm and has made a lot of contribution in the work force hiring local residents. miss johnson, i am a co-member in the tax credit investment board advisory committee, energetic and driven as she looks. miss mondahar, a prohifk, prolific advocate of the community, not just the philipino community but the community as larpk and of course mr. ellington as energetic as he sounded. >> (calling names). >> good afternoon, chair kim, supervisor farrell, supervisor avalos, i was on the so

and why don't we go to our imperative agenda, madam clerk. >> clerk calvillo: on behalf of supervisorzing the grand reopening of the sunset recreation center and commending the project team of san francisco rec and park and the department of public works forf ]w hard work and commitment to san francisco and its residents. >> president chiu: take that one first. colleagues, we have a resolution from supervisor chu. i believe it's -- it has the requisite commendatory finding as well as brown act finding. it's been seconded by supervisor elsbernd. let me ask if there are members of public that wish to speak on this imperative item. seeing none -- you're welcome to speak on the imperative item which is a resolution around -- madam clerk it's the sunset rec center? >> clerk calvillo: yes recognizing the grand reopening of thesq9k4$ópimÑ sunset recre. >> president chiu: so you can speak on this item. life or death, imperative, what is imperative. imperative, i think, is the right for people to live equally, for this to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, in order to do that,

brown: thank you, madam president. i rise to address an issue that concerns families and children and veterans and so many people in north carolina and ohio and around the country and around the world. i rise for millions of americans, family members, friends, loved ones, and colleagues who experience some level of disability. people living with disabilities have long been isolated, pushed to the margins of society. an example of that is america's deaf community. the deaf community strongly supports this treaty. many students at gallaudet university, a university founded by an act of congress in 1864, the charter synd by president lincoln so that people with disabilities are capable of doing so much more to enrich our culture. gallaudet -- i sit on the board of one -- you the only senator's senator in this body who sits on the board of gallaudet. i sit on the board of this great yiewrveghts the only one of its kind in the world. it's close to 150 years old. we know how important it is. many students at gallaudet from o