madam president, i yield the floor. mr. barrasso: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. i'd like to compliment my colleague from south dakota for his commitment and continuing focus on jobs and the economy and the impact that that has on our nation and our future. i come, as i have week after week, with a doctor's second opinion about the health care law, which is in many ways directly tied to the economy and the economic situation that my colleague from south dakota was commenting on. we have seen continual unemployment of over 8%, now 8.2% unemployment. people graduating from colleges who can't find work who are going back to live with their parents. it's because the president focused on a health care law and the supreme court will rule on it tomorrow, but he focused on that instead of focusing on what people at home were concerned about -- jobs, the economy, getting the economy moving again, bringing the economy back to health. a healthy economy is what people were looking for.

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. rockefeller: madam president?the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. rockefeller: madam president, in the shadow of one seemingly narrow senate vote -- that being the inhofe resolution of disapproval of the environmental protection agency's rule on mercury and air toxics -- i rise to talk about west virginia, about our people, our way of life, our health, our state's economic opportunity and about our future. coal has played an enormous part in our past and can play an enormous part in our future but will only happen if we face reality. this is critical in a very contentious time in the mountain state. the dialogue on coal, its impacts and federal government's role has reached a stunningly fevered pitch. carefully orchestrated messages that strike fear into the hearts of west virginians and feed uncertainty about coal's future are the subject of millions of dollars of paid television ads, billboards, break room bulletin boards, public meetings, letters and lobbying campaigns. a daily onslaught d

clay: madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from missouri is recognized. mr. clay: madam speaker, i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and i make a point of order that a quorum is not present. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 and the chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. farenthold: madam speaker, i move the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3501. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 3501, a bill to designate the facility of the united states postal service located at 125 kerr avenue in rome city, indiana, as the s.p.c. nicholas scott hartge post office. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. farenthold, and the gentleman from missouri, mr. clay, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. farenthold:

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. whitehouse: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: madam president, let me first thank the distinguished senator from illinois for his determined efforts and my senior colleague in this body, senator jack reed, for his determined efforts to try to get to a resolution that will prevent the student loan interest rates from doubling. i'm here today to speak about another problem in which something very important to ordinary americans is also being jammed up as a result of obstruction and intransigence. and in my case it is the highway bill. we had a march 31 deadline, the house and the senate, to get a highway bill done. the national did its job. we -- the senate did its job. the house did not do its job. they failed to get a highway bill done. let me point out that we've been doing highway bills in congress back since the eisenhower administration, and this is not rocket science. so it is telling that the body at the other end of this building could not get a highway

with that, madam chair, i yield the floor. mr. thune: madam president? the presiding officer: the chai senator from north dakotat. thunthune earliermr. thune: to e you have to ask yourself, do they really believe what they're saying? they cram down track about how republicans are blocking this or blocking that. i think it is important to point out that now for the past six years the democrats have been the majority party here in the united states senate. in fact, for two of those years they had a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the united states. filibuster-proof, literally could do anything they wanted to in the united states senate. they had a majority in the house of representatives, and of course they got the presidency. and if you look at the volume of legislation that was produced at the time, most of the things that were accomplished with the 60-vote filibuster-proof majority were things that the american people disagree disagrh as i think what you find now with public polls. the individual mandate that was included in the legislation and gle

the treasurer has the court. >> thank you, madam deputy speaker. the budget papers shows that securities on issue are under the existing limit at the end of each year. that is a fact. i know it is an uncomfortable fact and i know it will stand in the way of a mass of scare campaign that those opposite want to run and i know that they will go to any length to talk down to our economy and run as tough in terms of the national reputation but those are the facts. we have had a request from the office of financial management that we put a buffer in because we do have a challenge when it comes -- >> [clamoring] >> order. i will if pushed issue a general warning and there'll be very few people left in the chamber. >> we have been advised by the office of financial management that we should have a buffer. notwithstanding the fact that at the end of each year we are within that cap. i knew they do not understand a lot about financial matters so i will run through a couple of the facts. first and foremost, in terms of revenues they tend to come in in lumps t

thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. mr. brown: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, madam president. i begin by thanking the chair of the senate veterans committee for her incredible leadership on one of the most tragic issues of our time, the suicide rate among active duty personnel and our armed forces and especially among veterans. i just last week spoke to the disabled american veterans in columbus. i hear these same issues all the time, particularly men and women who are sent for the second and third and fourth and fifth deployments. one soldier -- one veteran active in the d.a.v. told me about an ohio soldier who has had a seventh deployment, and that's just not what we should be doing, and her leadership -- and i'm a member of that committee. i'm the first ohioan ever to serve on the veterans committee for a full term, and i'm on that committee because of these problems, and i'm so thankful for the leadership we have on that committee and what senator murray has done. i remember while i was pr

thank you very much, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president?iding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: madam president, thank you very much. i want to join senator shaheen and join senator klobuchar and particularly thank senator whitehouse for bringing us together. i know senator boxer was on the floor earlier talking about the transportation committee. we're all here because of the urgency of the conference report being presented to us, so that we have a multiyear reauthorization of the surface transportation promise prams of this country. madam president, let me just point out -- i know a lot of times our constituents are congress fused as to why -- confused as to why legislation cannot move here. but, clearly, the holdup in passing the surface transportation reauthorization are the republicans in the house of representatives. they are blocking a bill that has broad support from the industries that are affected by it, from the public, and from both democrats and republicans here in the senate. we passed a consensus bill. it's not

because this must be at the store madam chancellor and when you are being criticized harshly. for increasing germany's dependence on. russian energy resources and maybe president putin can comment on this as well. sixty you would all be in. i'm not sure whether. i'm a target for criticism or a reason for dependency as far as energy is concerned russia is a reliable partner we have seen this for decades we have seen that many large german companies have a long term contract with russia and the north stream pipeline has evolved from in the german russian project into russian you would be in project money and ever more companies and countries in europe who are joining this project we have just hosted. a twenty three summit of people to state cooperation and. we have completed the situation with energy supplies to what we had some five years ago and nowadays the situation is fundamentally different there is that much less to no criticism. or europe has many other opportunities for receiving gas is that for example there is also norway which is also part of the of the both take cou

dold: thank you, madam speaker. i join with many others in the greater chicago area in recognizing the life and recent passing of a tremendously respected, selfless and inspirational leader in our community, richard shonsteth. richard no doubt made a difference in this world with his tireless dedication to strengthening the u.s.-israel relationship. his sweeping passion for an energy for pro-israel advocacy set a very high bar which both elevated and advanced the commitment of so many good people to pro-israel causes. richard believed in engagement and activism and he lived his life knowing there was only one way to do things, the right way. he served his community as an outstanding example of leadership and earned a reputation as brilliant and committed mentor to many, many people. like so many who were lucky to know him, i feel i was given a special gift in richard's friendship. my thoughts and prayers go out to his family, certainly his wife, cindy, his daughters, carly and kate, and the entire extended family. m

kerry: i thank my colleague, madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. kerry: madam president, thank you very much. i thank my colleague for his courtesy. i'm perfectly happy to wait. i'm going to wait and listen to his comments anyway. we've got a little thing going on here back and forth. i want to thank chairman leahy for his work on the judiciary committee in helping to bring this nomination to the floor, and obviously senator brown and i are here together, having worked together to choose this nominee to send his name to the white house, and we're very grateful, both of us, to president obama for acting favorably on this nonpartisan recommendation which we made. we're grateful to the other members of the judiciary committee who approved the nomination that brought it to the floor expeditiously so we can fill a very important vacancy in massachusetts. i think both of us believe that the president could not have nominated a more qualified individual than judge hillman. he's already a judge, as

thank you, madam president. ms. mikulski: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: madam president, i rise to speak on the affordable careage oact. madam president, today i am so relieved that the supreme court has upheld the affordable care act as constitutional. with this ruling, our nation's highest court has made it clear that no matter who you are, a man or a woman, a senior facing cancer, a child with juvenile diabetes, you will have health care that's available, reliable, and undeniable. health care reform has achieved many goals that the american people wanted us to do. one, expanding universal access. now 32 million people will have health care that they didn't have before. second, it breaks the stranglehold of insurance companies, ending their punitive practices, particularly in those areas of preexisting conditions where they denied health care because a child might have autism or asthma or for we women they had a particular approach where they charged us more, 30% more, and then they simply

let me get -- oh, thank you, madam. >> thank you, madam chairman. dr. macfarlane, let me first say how much i enjoyed talking with you, and i appreciated that opportunity yesterday. i'd like an actual answer for these questions. what experience and technical expertise do you have concerning reactor safety? i know that you have your doctorate in geology, which can be helpful with regard to waste disposal or plant sitings. but the actual operation of a nuclear plant, what experience have you had or technical expertise? >> my expertise is on the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. so that does deal with part of what nuclear power plants produce, which is spent nuclear fuel, which are on reactor sites. and so part of my expertise has to do with that. i think that in general, as well as you pointed out, seismic issues are important, not just for plant siting, but for plant operation, as we saw in terms of what happened in japan. >> with regard to the 4,000 employees, the chairperson is given some supervisory power. what is the largest organization you have e

>> thank you very much, madam chairman. and i would first also like to welcome our two distinguished nominees who are here with us today. and congratulations to both of you on your nominations. madam chairman, the nuclear regulatory commission has gone through a very dark period recently. the commission has experienced a crisis of leadership at the top of the agency. incidents of harassment of staff, outbursts of rage, and withholding of information from fellow commissioners by chairman jaczko. it has hurt the agency's image. throughout it all, the other four nrc commissioners and the staff have persevered, as they always have, ensuring that the mission of the agency, nuclear safety, is not compromise. today we should be pleased to have this opportunity to work towards strengthening the leadership of this agency by ensuring the agency has a full compliment of commissioners. i believe that commissioner svinicki is eminently qualified to continue her distinguished career on the commission. she has shown leadership and experti

thank you, madam chairman. >> thank you so much. senator carper. >> thank you, madam chair. i just want the start my statement with a question of dr. macfarlane. how do you pronounce your name? >> due want an answer? >> yes. >> macfarlane. >> thank you. and we've never mispronounced commissioner svinicki's name. we have the potential to butcher names badly here. hopefully we'll get yours right. but your name is misspelled, i would note that, dr. macfarlane. i want to welcome both ms. svinicki and dr. macfarlane to our committee. quite favorably impressed by the technical breadth and depth our two nominees and by the set of skills that each one has already brought. the other -- would bring if confirmed to the nuclear regulatory commission. i'm encouraged the president would move to nominate dr. macfarlane to serve as commissioner and to chair the nrc. i'm also pleased that he submitted the name of kristine svinicki to serve a full five-year term on the commission. hopefully we can make a decision on both these nominees before june 30th of this year, so the commission will hav

price: thank you, madam speaker. mr. broun: thank you, madam speaker. two years ago, the president signed into law one of the most egregious attacks on our freedom this nation has ever seen. two years later, almost 60% of the american people want to see obamacare repealed before the price of health care goes up even more than it has. believe me if we let this law take effect as planned, costs will skyrocket and millions of americans will lose their insurance all together. on top of stricter mandates, cuts and more government overreach, obamacare is flat out unconstitutional. we simply cannot force american people to buy health insurance if they don't want it. i'm hopeful that tomorrow the supreme court will do its job and apply the constitution as our founding fathers intended. i look forward to repealing obamacare and getting started on real health care reform as soon as the court reaches a decision. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from new york seek recognition? >> to address the h

madam chairman, we are grateful for your support and the support of this subcommittee. i would welcome any questions that you or any other members may have. thank you. >> madam chairman, ranking member, distinguished members of the subcommittee, on behalf of more than 200,000 members and supporter of afghanistan veterans of america, i thank you for the opportunity to share our views on this important issue. i've spent 14 years in the marine corps trying to execute the marine corps's two missions, winning battles and making marines. as an iava staff member, i don't make soldiers, sailors, airmen or marines, but i do try to make their lives better. the views expressed in this analysis reflect the views of iava and not the marine corps. unemployment is arguably the most pressing issue facing veteran today. while recent statistics may indicate the employment outlook might be getting better for veterans, the situation is still worse than it ought to be. for example, the unemployment rate for veterans nearly 18 to 24 years is nearly double the rate for 18 to 24-year-old civil

>> thank you, madam chair. and i'm just going to be brief. >> sure. >> and ask my full statement to be put in the record. >> sure. >> but i also want to ebg what other members have said in terms of safety. the buck really stops with the nrc when it comes to safety. and i hope that you hear that message from us. it's tremendously important that you have that as a focus and when you look at regulating that you highlight that. and we don't have to look in the further than japan to see what happens if safety goes wrong. the articles i've been reading about, japan, as senator lautenberg said, 54 plants have been shut down. businesses are talking about overseas. the economy is collapsing. they're having serious problems. so safety i knowreacts with all the other actions that are out there. and with that let me just thank dr. macfarlane pore your service on the brc, on the blue ribbon commission. i know that you traveled to new mexico, you took a great interesting spw in that blue ribbon commission that's looking at w

kosta: thank you, madam speaker. i rise today -- mr. costa: thank you, madam speaker. i rise to speak on the conservation and economic growth act. first, i want to thank the gentlewoman from new york to speak on what i think are some of the good things in this package but unfortunately some of the elements of this package that i think is not the appropriate way that we ought to be debating the challenging issues of immigration reform in the house of representatives. first, these bills should be taken on their individual merit, not as a package. if we consider them together, we should then have an open rule that would allow us to then debate the merits of each individual bill. now, some of the bills contained in h.r. 2578 are supportive in the past. as an example, the measure offered by mr. denham allows the federal energy regulatory commission to consider spillway improvement on the project by the said irrigation district. this will allow expansion of the capacity of that reservoir, some 1,800 feet of the merced river would be impacted, but as a result of it we will ga

that's a lot of land, madam president. and all of that is impacted by what we do in the conservation title of the farm bill. and we also know that the challenges that my farmers face in michigan are different than those in kansas or oklahoma or minnesota or montana, so we have built in enough flexibility in this new title while modernizing it, reforming it, creating flexibility to be able to meet very different needs across the country. we are -- i will briefly go through each area just to focus on that. we are focusing, as i said, on four different areas -- working lands where we have the two programs that are being proposed to be eliminated right now; the environmental quality incentive program, which i spoke about, and also the working lands -- excuse me, the environmental quality incentives program and c.s.p. is in the working lands title. we also include the conservation innovation grants which are geared to projects that offer new approaches to producers for environmental and production benefits. and we, again, look

broun: thank you, madam chairman. again i rise just to freeze the funding for salaries and office expenses for the office of fair housing and equal opportunity. by a meager $304,000. if we cannot cut out $115,000 or $304,000, what are we going to cut? as my friend from massachusetts already said, actually on two of my amendments, that it's to increase salaries of federal bureaucrats. we've got to freeze the salaries of these bureaucrats. we've got to be fiscally responsible. my amendment doesn't cut any program, doesn't cut any service, doesn't cut out any part of the necessary aspects of the federal government. all it does is it freezes the salaries and expenses of this office as the other amendments would do so. it freezes it at this year's levels. doesn't even go backwards. freezes it at this year's levels. i urge support of my amendment and yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts seek recognition? mr. olver: um, i seek to -- the chair: the gentleman

madam clerk backs -- madam clerk? >> this is an information item. commissioner campos: welcome back. >> my report is on your desks. to the chair's point, it feels very good to be back. thank you for your remarks and your concern that all of you had expressed. i will try to be very brief. we are waiting for a puff of smoke in d.c. about the new transportation act, but i predict we will see an extension of the existing one first, because in order for that puff of smoke to happen, the final conference committee has to be released to the entire house and senate by tomorrow, and i'm not sure we're ready for that. so, we'll see a delay of days, or perhaps a week. there are some important issues at stake. and not talking about the keystone pipeline, which unfortunately as part of this debate. but things like the news starts program which the republicans in the house want to reduce in size. library projects and so on. and which the senate, of course wants to maintain at the current level. and the tiger program, which the house would like to zero out in the

>> madam chair, nothing at this time. supervisor chu: colleagues, can we meet kaine -- can we entertain a motion? we will do that without objection. department of public works. >> good afternoon. so, we were able to work with the budget analyst, and we are in agreement with the budget analyst. supervisor chu: the department of public works is in agreement with the budget analyst recommendations. supervisor kim? supervisor kim: thank you. i was so happy to see that. i did want to raise my own personal concern about the $1 million in reserve for the law library. given the discussions we have had come up we think that is a very high amount. certainly, we would not want to spend general fund dollars to that extent. we can look at this by relocating location such as the library, and i hope that that would be a consideration in the following year, and that this committee would consider such a large allocation. i know this is for the next fiscal year, but i wanted to bring that concern up today. >> supervisors, we will come back

. >> thank you very much, madam chair. i'll start with mr. oros. mr. mayor from the first panel actually recommended the committee ask the va to freeze the pending reorganization until a full scale program to evaluate a new strategic plan can be achieved, and i know sounds like the wounded warrior project agrees with that assessment. do you agree with that as well, and we'll start each of the panelists can answer that question. and why. >> i guess i'm not entirely familiar with the differentiation between what mr. mayer is asking to be done and the current system. >> do you think we should ask the va to freeze the organization, to bring everything in-house? >> absolutely, absolutely. >> i'm happy to provide a comment on that. with regard to the reorganization, all of our concerns are provided in our written statement, but until i think that we can answer that, it would be great to be able to know the results and how things worked in the pilots that were implemented in january. it is my understanding that within those pilots different, the re-org was im

barrasso: thank you, madam president. madam president, the president of the united states earlier today was in cleveland. he spoke for 54 minutes, and yet he said almost nothing. at least certainly nothing that most of us have not heard before. it was two years ago this very weekend, two years ago this weekend, that the white house announced the start of what it referred to as the recovery summer. that campaign effort was an effort to convince the american people that the obama administration's policies to create jobs, that the policies were working. david axlerod, the senior advisor to the president said this summer -- the summer of 2010 -- this summer will be the most active recovery act season yet. again, that was the summer of 2010. treasury secretary tim geithner wrote an op-ed in the "new york times" entitled "welcome to the recovery." again, that was 2010. now here we are, two years later, and americans are still waiting for a real recovery. the recovery summer failed to produce results because it was never more th

>> madam chair, just to clarify these are the policy recommendations. the library is an agreement with all of the recommended cuts. these are the policy recommendations on pages 13 and 14. supervisor chu; what remains is primarily the policy recommendations for the custodian, a library one and a library tech assistance. these four positions are related to the expansion of library hours, correct? take of that is correct. - >> that is correct. supervisor chu: given that the department has agreement with the department recommendations, i would recommend we accept the policy recommendation by the budget analysts. i am a big fan of expanding the library hours and would hope the committee would not take the recommendations the we're able to expand the library hours. supervisor cohen: i want to echo your comments, and i also want to say thank you for your commitment, particularly the visitation library. we have seen as a destabilizing force that is forcing nonprofits, largely due to the economic climates that are no longer able to support the community, but th

>> thank you very much, madam chair man. thanks for bringing us together to consider the nomination of dr. allison mcfar hand and christine svinicki. everyone knows it has been critical to meeting our nation's energy needs and it is an emissions free energy source that provides one-fifth of america's electricity. my state of new jersey, four nuclear power reactors provide the state with more than half of its electricity. but as we saw in japan last year, there are also many reasons to be cautious. in order to operate plants safely, the united states must have an effective policy for disposing and storing spent nuclear fuel. and right now most nuclear power plants store more than 1,000 tons of nuclear waste and spent fuel pools on site. it's not a sustainable situation. in new jersey, nuclear waste is stored on site for our -- at our fewer nuclear reactors. and some of it is in dry cast storage. but most is in spent fuel pools, which rely on a steady supply of water and/or electricity. in japan, when the tsunami knocked the p

supervisor campos: thank you, madam chair. i want to thank both applicants for a willingness to serve the city of fran and i, too, have been very impressed with both applicants. with respect to the application of miss fransiz, i actually think that the work that she has done with fair trade u.s.a. where she led in the development of standards around fair trade and making sure that you have -- that you ensure that you're buying purchases from companies that are not exploiting workers, to me that's the kind of background that you want and not just the recent work there but also with other companies so i think it's precisely the kind of individual that you want to see working on these issues, and with respect to mr. maroquin, i think that his presentation speaks for itself. i'm more proud to see that we have that level of caliber in our community and that we have someone who is interested in these issues. the fact that nickey is here speaks highly of him and it means that you're extremely highly recommended and, you know, i say t

brecht's madam chair and supervisor avalos -- >> madam chair and supervisor avalos, at the bottom of page 3 we point out that the total design agreement is for $53 million and that represents 9.2% of the total budgeted 580 four million dollars laguna honda hospital replacement project. our recommendation is shown on page 5. we recommend that you amend the resolution to increase the existing amount not to exceed an amount of $50.8 million up to $51 million. the reason for that recommendation is as you know, there was another modification inadvertently being requested being approved. since it was less than $500,000, it was not subject to board approval. our recommendation simply reflects the fact that the four hundred $77,000 has previously been approved. -- $four hundred 77,000 has been previously approved. chairperson chu: are we in agreement with this recommendation? rex we are. chairperson chu: why don't we open this up to public comment? are there members of the public that wish to speak seeing none, public comment is closed. spirit >> announcement for approval. chairperson chu: w

thank you, madam speaker. i rise today to honor donald kaczynski from my home state of arkansas who has a passion of helping other veterans with a disability. after separate from the marines, he faced the obstacle of finding a new job. after moving to hot springs village, arkansas, the started a mobile food stand business. mr. crawford: he serves as commander and adjew tant of the v.f.w. he was elected state commander of the disabled veterans of arkansas. he was recognized as v.f.w. man of the career for arkansas and in 2008 as the disabled american veterans man of the year. we honor donald kaczynski and his service to arkansas' veterans. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from new york seek recognition? without objection, the gentlelady is recognized. ms. hochul: as we recall the votens, i remember the 36 hours i spent in the war zone in afghanistan speaking to our soldiers. the troops on the ground and yens confirm that pakistan remains a safe haven for the taliban an

thank you, madam president. mr. roberts: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. roberts: well, this isn't exactly the trail that i had hoped that we would take to get to conclusion, a successful conclusion to a farm bill that we need so vitally in farm country, and for all the reasons that the distinguished chairwoman has outlined. i need not go over all of those reasons. i would mention that we have a september 30 deadline in which the current farm bill expires. the alternative to that is to go back to the current farm bill, which we know is outdated and that has a payment system that is also outdated. the other alternative, of course, if you do not extend the farm bill, you go to the 1949 act which is just not sustainable. it's not an alternative. so i had hoped that we could start considering. we had three republican amendments, two democrat, and also the perfecting amendment. but that's not the trail we're going to go down. basically i think about the only thing i could add is that we're not giving up. we ca

madam chair, thanks. thanks for holding this hearing and letting me slip by and ask a couple questions. captain, nice to see you. >> my last question was just on that. the vow to hire heroes act, which is the one we passed. i know one potential might be -- maybe it's here. maybe it's in the veterans committee. is to kind of see where that's going. because the goal of it is to start making sure that if you're an electrician in the military that you can make that transition into the private sector without having to retrain, recertify, go through the process. that legislation that was passed last year or several months ago was pretty significant. so maybe it's a question we need to ask. i don't know if it's here or in the veterans committee. where that's at and how it's progressing. because that's one of the biggest complaints i hear. that we see people who are -- if you're a truck driver in afghanistan, you can be a truck driver anywhere is the way i look at it. but they need to get the legislation that's p