senator shaheen and then senator moran, followed by johanne, senator pryor, senator alexander, senator merkley. >> thank you very much, chairman kohl ski. i'm very pleased to be up to serve on this committee with you and ranking member shelby, and i'm particularly pleased to hear you talk about the effort to return to rig or in terms of our budgeting process. i think that's very important for the senate. for all of our panelists, thank you very much for being here and for the work that you've done to date, because as the congress we've been unable to deal with this country's debt and deficit. and i was impressed and pleased to hear all of you talk about, in your remarks, the fact that these automatic cuts that are going to go into effect aren't just going to affect government jobs and government programs, but they're going to fix private sector jobs and private sector efforts to put people back to work in this country. so that they're going to have an impact on businesses, on families, on the jobs that we are creating. and ultimately they will have an impact on economic activity in this countr

you is while this is making news today, i have been watching as senators like ron widen and jefr merkley and others have been pressing officials over the last couple of years. didn't always bubble up to get a lot of attention. they have been pressing this issue for a long time. believing that congress not only has a responsibility of oversight, not that the whole public would know about these things, but the specific senators who are charged with watching over this would have the information and to better understand it and to shape policy. so this is a long fight for some of the progressive senators who have wanted more answers, and had the unclassified version not become public through our colleague who broke that story, that generated greater pressure. obviously the confirmation hearing. you have the lemplg point where this issue is front and center. there might have been other topics besides drones that would have been central, but today this will be the real focus for john brennan, and as you point out, his history with the agency, his span of time serving more than one president, gi

mitch mcconnell joined forces with oregon senators ron wyden and jeff merkley to co-sponsor a bill thatould allow american farmers to grow industrial hemp without worrying that they were going to be punished. hemp is a variety of the plant species that produces marijuana. and while it has a smaller amount of the chemical that produces a high, it's considered an illegal drug by the federal government. hemp's strong fibers, though, can be put to legally in many products, such as soap, cosmetics, and rope, even soap on a rope, which helps politicians make the case that growing hemp could help the economy and create jobs. you know, pot's always been an unusual issue in the state of kentucky. they've had third party candidates run on the issue of legalizing. >>> breaking from his usual brace of all things lincoln, president obama said yesterday that it might be time to cut penny production. during his google chat, one person asked the president why the u.s. still mints pennies when so many economists agree they are economically inefficient. the president said while it wouldn't be a huge savi

all of those young senators geoff merkley and tom eudall sheldon white house and a veteran, veteran, hankins has been leading this charge to reform the filibuster for years they can say, i told you so. yeah, you agreed to a deal where mitch mcconnell would have a say, you would count on mitch mccogto make a determination that this was of such significance and only in those limited cases would they use a filibuster. the very first time they had an opportunity, we see mitch mcconnell had stabbed us in the back. harry reid let them do it. paul is out in brighton michigan good morning. >> all right. pretty upset this morning. >> i want to thank you for something. i have been a recovering republican for over 20 years now. you and paul on crossfire helped me out. >> one day at a time buddy. one day at a time. >> bill: there was some good news there, paul. thank you. ? >> yeah. >> i think everyone is being too hard on harry reid because you have to remember, the republicans have a stranglehold on the house anyway. maybe he is just being practical. >> in this case, though, paul, the house ha

senator merkley? >> thank you very much, madam chair, and it's a pleasure to be here at my first appropriations committee, and i certainly look forward to engaging in these types of discussions as we wrestle as representatives of our respective states on both sides of the aisle on how to take our nation forward and restore a thriving economy, a growing economy that will bring us back on track. and that's what the discussion is all about. and i wanted to ask comptroller werfel if we take the budget control act, combine it with sequestration and the impact on interest and we total all that up, how much is the savings? ballpark. >> senator, the budget control act had roughly $1 trillion in deficit reduction, the sequester is, would impact the deficit by an additional $1.2 trillion. >> so about 2.2, and i had if you threw in the interest on the -- well, from the center of budget and policy priorities they had 600 billion on the control act, 900 billion on nondefense and an additional 250 in interest savin

again, as senator merkley mentioned, the uncertainty associated with not knowing how policy's going toates will be and what spending will be and what programs will be and, you know, which contract dors will be receiving funding, et cetera. those are important concerns. >> i know your policies are based on a monetary policy and also unemployment and employment. and i have to believe that our inability to get things done is causing a lot of consternation. you made a comment, and you've actually repeated this in this hearing, that you'll continue -- i want to go to quantitative easing, that your purchasing of these assets will continue until substantial improvements in the outlook of the labor market in the context of price stability. will you explain to me a little bit more in-depth what that means? >> well, sure. we're going to be looking at a variety of variables. be looking at payroll employment, is it strengthening, is it sustainably strengthening, is the unemployment rate coming down. so, those are indications of -- >> do you have a target? >> we do not have a specific target. we've

again, as senator merkley, the uncertainty not knowing how policy is going to be developed, and what tax rates will be, what spending will be, what programs will be and which contractors will be receiving funding, et cetera. knows are important concerns. >> i know your policy is based on a monetary policy and also unemployment and employment. i have to believe our indecisiveness and inability to get things done is causing a lot of consternation. you made a comment and actually repeated this in this hearing, that you'll continue, i want to go to quantitative easing, your purchasing of these assets will continue until substantial improvements in the outlook of the labor market in context of price stability. will you explain to me more indepth what that means? >> sure. we are going to be looking at a variety of variables. we'll be looking at payroll employment. is it strengthening? is the unemployment rate coming down? those are indications -- >> do you have a target? >> we do not have a specific target. we've given thresholds for our rate policy. we have not extended those to our asset