the merkley and wyden (cantwell and merkley and begich amendments) are the only two amendments filed with a focus on the issue of beyond-perimeter flights at national. they would both alou for new flight exemptions at the airport that would favor distribution to limited incumbents or new entrants. the merkley amendment would provide eight new roundtrips for beyond-perimeter service. the wyden amendment would add 12 new roundtrips yoantdz the perimeter and four new roundtrips within the perimeter for a total of 16 new flights. while the hutchison amendment may not provide the same level of opportunity for services to their states that they desire, her amendment does provide ample room for their constituencies to obtain new service with five exemptions rather than 12 beyo beyond-perimeter. i feel we must strike a balance. we have no choice. we can't make everybody happy. senator hutchison's and my approach would sort of go down the middle. people who don't want anymore, people who want a lot more. kind of edge them together. that's all you can do in a bill of this sort, where meigss ru

a proposal for a good will store in merkley was not sitting well with sop of the -- with some of the area shop owners there. >> reporter: good morning, there are concerns for people in the area. to give you a little background this is the neighborhood i grew up. i can tell you from my experience this really used to be a hub of activity. a lot of people used to come here. changing times and technology. the vhs store could not make it. you figure a new store coming in would be good news. some of the merchants are worried the good will will not be a good fit here. good will started the process of opening a store here and asked the city of berkeley for a youth permit. already business in the area are circulating an antigood will petition. they have sited concerns a good will store can bring more homeless people to the area. donations could leave the area in front of the store messy. they are looking to streamline their donation prospects. we have talked to one nearby business they told us that they would welcome any new business in the area and say it's better than having a vacant store

senator merkley has done many of these things. it would be heard in its mortgage servicers on the phone with the homeowner are required to have one of contact. when you call, you get the same person. right now when you call you get numerous people. >> telling you to submit the same paperwork you have submitted time and again. >> and telling you you said it to the wrong person the last time you did it. i know if it is legislative, but certainly regulatory -- i don't know if it is legislator, but certainly by the door, to require services to adopt -- but certainly regulatory, it to require services to about one point of contact. right now, a person comes in with a problem and you have on vacation and foreclosure of the same time. you talk to someone about getting a mod, and then you get a letter in the mail saying you are in default. >> 14 of our realtors in rhode island -- every single one of them had the experience of a short sale agreement with the bank pending, and in the middle of it, another part of the bank with the foreclosu

senator merkley, i understand you wanted to discuss a proposal. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm going to be very brief because i did agree to withdraw the amendments at the request of our chairman, but i wanted to mention that the thought behind them, i think, is one we should continue to wrestle with which is essentially how do we make the u.s. senate less segregated? most state legislatures provide seating by democrat, republican, democrat, republican or have other mechanisms to decrease the isolation of the parties. the u.s. senators enormously is split, and split in ways that are aggravated of the developments of the last two decades, specifically, senators used to live here with their families, they were here for sweekds, had dinner together, those connections are largely gone, and the fact, the ability to have connections in settings like this is caused by the size of the room. there's ideas that various senators mentioned for addressing this. one is to have every other seating, and a second is to have our three central figures, our chairman and ranking of both parties

senator merkley. >> i thank you, administrator jackson and dr. birnbaum for coming and for your work to ensure safe drinking water act for all americans. i appreciate the work of the epa on helping to establish an appropriate testing regime. and also for your hard work on the tailoring rule to put biomass into the proper lifecycle context. so i look forward to your testimony today and thank you. >> that was amazingly brief. [laughter] >> caught me by surprise. senator boozman? >> thank you. i will fall in the senator's footsteps. it sounds like we need to move on to the question. and it will be interesting. but i was the ranking member on water resources and had the opportunity of working both -- with both of the what is there and look forward to working with them in the future. these are very strict problems, and i think the key is as we move forward we have to have sound science, we have to sound methodology to back things up. so thank you very much. >> thank you so much, senator. senator udall? >> madam chair, there may be a stampede here but

. >> senator merkley. >> thank you. i want to have congratulate my colleague from oregon, senator wyden for bringing up this issue. we have a very high marginal rate then tons of exceptions in terms of deductions and credits. a few yea ago when i was in the state legislature, i went to the portland development agency, i said, you know, oregon is 47th in the nation, in other words, one of the lowest states in terms of the tax burden it places on business. is this a selling point in attracting business to the state of oregon? and the answer was no, it's not. i said well, we're 47th, one of the lowest effective tax in the country, why isn't it a selling point? well, we have a very high marginal rate and companies largely look at that marginal rate. they don't count on getting the exceptions and the deductions and the credits, so it's proved of little value in attracting business to our state. so i said well, wouldn't it make a lot more sense then for us to be 47th with a very low marginal rate and fewer deductions and cred

. >> senator merkley. >> thank you. i want to have congratulate my colleague from oregon, senator wyden for bringing up this issue. we have a very high marginal rate then tons of exceptions in terms of deductions and credits. a few years ago when i was in the state legislature, i nt to the portland development agency, i said, you know, oregon is 47th in the nation, in other words, one of the lowest states terms of the tax burden it places on business. is this a selling point in attracting business to the state of oregon? and the answer was no, it's not. i said well, we're 47th, one of the lowest effective tax in the country, why isn't it a selling point? well, we have a very high marginal rate and companies largely look at that marginal rate. they don't count on getting the exceptions and the deductions and the credits, so it's proved of little value in attracting business to our state. so i said well, wouldn't it make a lot more sense then for us to be 47th with a very low marginal rate and fewer deductions and credits

senator merkley, i understand you wanted to discuss a proposal. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm going to be very brief because i did agree to withdraw the amendments at the request of our chairman, but i wanted to mention that the thought behind them, i think, is one we should continue to wrestle with which is essentially how do we make the u.s. senate less segregated? most state legislatures provide seating by democrat, republican, democrat, republican or have other mechanisms to decrease the isolation of the parties. the u.s. senators enormously is split, and split in ways that are aggravated of the developments othe last two decades, specifically, senators used to live here with their families, they were here for sweekds, hadinner together, those connections are largely gone, and the fact, the ability to have connections in settings like this is caused by the size of the room. there's ideas that various senators mentioned for addressing this. one is to have every other seating, and a second is to have our three central figures, our chairman and ranking of both parties occ

senator merkley, i understand you wanted to discuss a proposal. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm going to be very brief because i did agree to withdraw the amendments at the request of our chairman, but i wanted to mention that the thought behind them, i think, is one we should continue to wrestle with which is essentially how do we make the u.s. senate less segregated? most state legislatures provide seating by demrat, republican, democrat, republican or have other mechanisms to decrease the isolation of the parties. the u.s. senators enormsly is split, and split in ways that are aggravated of the developments of the last two decades, specifically, senators used to live here with their milies, they were here for sweekds, had dinner together, those cnections are largely gone, and the fact, the ability to have connections in settings like this is caused by the size of the room. there's ideas that various senators mentioned for addressing this. one is to have every other seating, and a second is to have our three central figures, our chairman and ranking of both parties occupy

merkley: i rise to support the nomination of judge marco hernandez of oregon to the united states district court. judge hernandez is unquestionably qualified to serve on this court. he has built his career through hard work and determination. as a young man, he attended night classes at a low cool community -- local community college before enrolling at oregon state college. he proceeded to get a law degree at the university of washington school of law. as a young man, he picked crops. after he graduated from law school at the university of washington, he returned to oregon to join legal aid services and represent farm workers. he went on to serve as deputy district attorney in washington county and was later appointed to be a state court judge, a position that he has held since 1995. as a state court judge, he established an innovative domestic violence program designed to aggressively pursue offenders. he established a new program to assist mentally ill defendants, a program he continues to oversee. judge hernandez was first nominated to the district court by president bush in 2008. alth

because it is still a huge problem in our community, and all communities, your exchange with senator merkley. do we have a structure in place that could implement the policy that you are suggesting? that is, do we have a credible way being able to determine whether a potential person who was subject to foreclosure quickly could determine whether they are entitled to some form of help? >> no. i don't think that a mechanism in place that is appropriate. and is helpful enough. in some states, they have been more aggressive than others. i think the state of connecticut, new york, new jersey puts in processes with third parties involved to try to facilitate this, but it's not something that is being done nationwide or in parts of the country where the foreclosure problem is particularly acute. it's not coast-to-coast but in some place it is very acute. so no, i don't think that we've addressed that adequately enough. >> so, if we were just to put in a moratorium without having a process in place, is that really going to help the situation or not? >> no. i'm not advocating we have a moratorium. i'

. >> senator merkley. >> thank you. i want to have congratulate my colleague from oregon, senator wyden for bringing up this issue. we have a very high marginal rate then tons of exceptions in terms of deductions and credits. a few years ago when i was in the state legislature, i went to the portland development agency, i said, you know, oregon is 47th in the nation, in other words, one of the lowest states in terms of the tax burden it places on business. is this a selling point in attracting business to the state of oregon? and the answer was no, it's not. i said well, we're 47th, one of the lowest effective tax in the country, why isn't it a selling point? well, we have a very high marginal rate and companies largely look at that marginal rate. they don't count on getting the exceptions and the deductions and the credits, so it's proved of little value in attracting business to our state. so i said well, wouldn't it make a lot more sense then for us to be 47th with a very low marginal rate and fewer deductions and cr

senator merkley, i understand you wanted to discuss a proposal. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm going to be very brief because i did agree to withdraw the amendments at the request of our chairman, but i wanted to mention that the thought behind them, i think, is one we should continue to wrestle with which is essentially how do we make the u.s. senate less segregated? most state legislatures provide seating by democrat, republican, democrat, republican or have other mechanisms to decrease the isolation of the parties. the u.s. senators enormously is split, and split in ways that are aggravated of the developments of the last two decades, specifically, senators used to live here with their families, they were here for sweekds, had dinner together, those connections are largely gone, and the fact, the ability to have connections in settings like this is caused by the size of the room. there's ideas that various senators mentioned for addressing this. one is to have every other seating, and a second is to have our three central figures, our chairman and ranking of both parties

merkley was wearing a backpack. as they got closer to each other, the guy sticks something in the backpack and they keep on walking. subsequently, the s.b.r. said a message to them saying and no one noticed anything suspicious. we were watching, but leathe s.v.r. did not figure it out. the moscow center ordered richard murphy to buy a particular brand of computer and bring it to moscow, which he did. he came back with the same brand of computer with a different serial number. the computer was apparently used for electronic communications in moscow. remember, i told you that murphy had a fake birth certificate. the directors like to have their staff have real documentation. richard murphy's per certificate was fate. that appears to be a factor of what they were able to do. audio surveillance discussing the criminal complaint has richard and cynthia talking about applying for a job at the state department. they knew he would not stand up to the background checks. there were problems with the documentation. there is so

congress i recommended judge hernandez nomination to president obama, and i'm very pleased that senator merkley, who has joined me here in the united states senator, has been a strong supporter of judge hernandez as well. and i was very pleased when president obama announced that he too, like president bush, thought it was important for judge hernandez to serve on the federal bench. one of the reasons that leaders from both political parties support judge hernandez is that throughout his judicial career, he has demonstrated a special affin ity -- affinity for creative solutions. he implemented an innovative domestic violence program to aggressively pursue offenders and created a new program for mentally ill defendants which judge hernandez continues to oversee. with a tremendous record of public service, innovation and commitment to justice, no one was surprised when judge hernandez was reported out of the judiciary committee mansly. he's -- nanc unanimously. he's had the support of republicans and democrats. he's received the strong backing of the hispanic national bar association. in fact, ju

senator merkley. >> thank you, madam chairman. i know you are familiar with the bull run reservoir, which is a remote basin in the cascade mountains that humans are not allowed access to and is the principal water source for the metro region. you all have worked with us to establish a monitoring regime for corpus peridium. that data has been compiled under that monitoring regime. the city will be seeking a variants to establish the appropriate circumstances based on that data and this pristine water source. i believe epa has not delegated to the state of oregon responsibility for enforcing that part of the clean water act. so i believe the city will be applying to the state. and so, if the state approves of variants will the epa, does that kind of settle the question? or does the epa considered the possibility of overturning it? >> senator, thank you for your strong interest in protecting that watershed. my commitment is that epa will work to support the state to work closely with the state on the variants determination and help t

merkley: thank you, mr. president.ve watched the affairs in tehrir square in cairo, as millions of americans have, and was deeply impressed by the peaceful demonstration of egyptian citizens calling for change in their nation, for change that would respond to the economic plight of ordinary citizens. for change that would give ordinary citizens the opportunity to be a part of the voice directing the chorus of their nation. until yesterday those protests were absolutely peaceful. but that did change yesterday when pro mubarak forces entered the fray. last night i was watching as were thrown from pro mubarak on to protesters below. i watch as thugs proceeded to stone those protesters. i watched as there was sporadic begunfire in the square. and i watched as a group of horsemen galloped through the crowd whipping people with their whips. this thuggery against citizens peacefully protesting is absolutely unacceptable. now, the united states has had a long and close relationship with egypt. we channel a tremendous amount of

senator wyden, senator cantwell, senator merkley, senator murray also had great concerns, along with the senators from alaska, senator -- the senators from alaska, senator murk -- senator murkowski and senator begich. so they had concerns we had to address. the california senators certainly have wanted more access for california because that is a huge population base that will now have better access to national airport as well as dulles. so there -- i think that is the outline of the amendment that we have just adopted, and we're going to continue to work in conference. the house bill has five new entrants only, so we have 16. we have conversions. the house does not. so there will be a lot of talk and a lot of input, but my goal is to have more competition, to have strengthened air carriers for our overall u.s. air competition, and to assure that the people west of the mississippi river have access to national airport. and so i think we have made a good start here, and i want to commend all of those who have been involved in a very delicate negotiation, and i especially thank my chai