long-time senator barbara mikulski stopped a high-level hearing to respond to a tweet. the maryland democrat got had message criticized from buzzfeed reporter rosie gray. her response right here. >> rosie gray said on her tweet 17 minutes ago, "senator barb is trying hard to keep other senators from asking the general more about data mining programs." any senator can ask any question at this hearing that they want to. so rosie, it's an open hearing, i look forward to keeping in touch. senator? >> i love that. as for the reporter, rosie gray, she tweeted, "omg" as mikulski was speaking. >> omg is right. could you imagine watching -- >> she handled that perfectly. >> time for the weather. aside from severe storms moving through the ohio valley and northeast, look for scattered thunderstorms from oregon into the northern rockies, hail, gusty winds and isolated tornadoes in eastern montana. another hot day and dry and breezy for the southwest. >> 106 in phoenix, 90s from albuquerque to salt lake city, 60s in the pacific northwest, upper 70s and 80s in the nation's midsectio

senator coats, senator collins, senator mikulski are all members of this committee.d one of the main things is the extent of liability protection, the importance of the domestic portal of entry for cyber attacks. i would like to ask that you describe what is meant by a civilian portal for senators assembled here today and, also, a rationale why this is important for privacy and other reasons. ..

. >> reporter: and an infuriated senator barbara mikulski wrote a letter questioning the leadership to prevent sex assault saying i have been work on this issue more than 25 years and keep hearing that the military has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to sexual assault. the message stays the same but the problem keeps getting worse. the number of sexual assaults rose 6% between last year and the year before. but many gown reported. the pentagon estimates a staggering 19,300 service men and women experience unwanted sexual contact in 2010, rising to 26,000 last year. >> the number veep sods are unbelievably night. senator ben cardin watched the exclusive cbs interview with the alleged victim. >> this type of conduct will not be tolerated in our military. it won't be tolerated anywhere in our society. >> the president also called for action while addressing graduates in annapolis last month. >> we have to be determined to stop these crimes. >> some in congress want sex crimes taken out of the chain of command to ease fears of retaliation, and stop this growing problem. >> these are

mikulski took the unusual step of firing back about the tweet. >> i want to respond to a tweet about me from rosie gray. there is no attempt to stifle any senator. so rosie, it's an open hearing. hi. look forward to keeping in touch. senator. >> how about that? who knew she was an obsessive twitter reader. anyway, meanwhile, edward snowden remains in hiding. he spoke with the "south china morning post" from a safe house somewhere in hong kong. i'm not here to hide from justice. i'm here to reveal criminality. my intention is to ask the courts and people of hong kong to decide my fate. experts say he may be deluding himself. hong kong does not have a strong tradition of support for political asylum. this morning, beijing took advantage, responding in the state-run "china daily" that the, quote, massive u.s. global surveillance program is certain to stain washington's overseas image. of course, president obama with the new chinese president over the weekend spent a lot of time le lecturing the chinese president about their cyber spying. the cia's deputy director is retiring after twice

longtime senator barbara mikulski stopping a hearing to respond to a tweet.rat asked other senators not to question the head of the nsa about likes. she wanted them to wait until behind closed doors. that led buzz feed reporter to send out a critical tweet. mikulski then answered the criticism. >>> an australian swimmer ended her quest to swim from cuba to florida nonstop without a shark cage. forced to give up after 11 hours in the water. a jellyfish sting was debilitating. the team said that she will need 24 hours to recuperate. the third woman to attempt the marathon swim in the past two years. we need to take a break for a second. we had a bet yesterday. >> $1. >> you said. she would make it. >> said she would make it. >> i said she would not. >> never call me a welcher. >> big bucks. don't spend it all in one place. >> i won't. i'm going to put it away. >> nicely done. >> another bet. >> no, no. >>> moving on to this. we have three new jersey fishermen had a close encounter with the biggest shark they have ever seen. probably a lot of us have ever seen.

. >> thank you, chairwoman mikulski, ranking members of the committee.thank you for inviting me to testify today. it is just over one year now that i was sworn in as inspector general and it has been an extraordinarily busy time for me in the office. we have issued numerous reports of great importance over the past year, including on atf's operation, fast and furious, and wide receiver, the justice management division improper hiring practices, the department hearing of the clarence hearing limits a request, and the federal security program. we also included many reports that do not make headlines that will help make the department's operations more effective and efficient. we use to do more than 70 all that's in the past year, financial audit statements, information security audits, and audits of grant recipients. we investigated the fbi's implementation of several projects, the u.s. marshal service management of its procurement activities, and the executive office of immigration reviews and immigration of -- management of immigration cases. at the same

with senator mikulski, got the legislation approved as part of the small business job protection act of 1996. the spousal i.r.a. that became law is an important tax benefit for stay-at-home spouses. it allows the stay-at-home spouse to make a full i.r.a. contribution to the stay-at-home spouse's only i.r.a. even if a husband or wife has made a full contribution to the working spouse's i.r.a. at a time when too many people are not saving enough to provide a secure retirement, this measure helps many contribute to assure they have a full retirement. under the rules in place before, that would be a very nominal $250. under senator hutchison's legislation, the contribution can now go up to $5,500, a big contribution each year. so i think it's very appropriate that we honor senator hutchison with the naming that is proposed, and i yield back -- i reserve the balance of my time at this point. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. johnson. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield four minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr.

i see barbara mikulski smiling. i remember when i came up to explain that last deal and i remember you and i were talking frank grabbed me and said, i've got to see you, got to see you. we worked it out and frank came .own he said maybe, you can come up to the senate. i did. i went to the ceremonial office. , bonnie.he told you we spoke for about two hours. he wanted my advice -- should he run again? [laughter] what in the hell do you say to frank lautenberg when he says, should i run again? [laughter] even then he was slowing a little bit and he knew it. , look. frank i think you would win if you ran again. i think even chris christie would vote for you. [laughter] by the way, the governor and i are friends. we both love the university of delaware. we both went there. i even asked him to come out and cheer for a game. i offered him a ride on air force two. i really did. one of the advantages. i said, frank, what are you thinking? we talked down talk. , ok emma i was send you some data. i was going to germany. there

barbaraer -- i see mikulski smiling. i remember when i came to explain that last deal, and frank came over and grabbed me and said -- i've got to see you. so we worked it out. -- he said i can come down right now but maybe you can go to the senate. which i did. i know it'll do everything, bonnie, and i'm sure he told you we spoke about two hours. he wanted my advice -- should he run again? [laughter] what in the hell do you say to frank lautenberg when he says should i run again? even then, frank was slowing a little bit, and he knew it. i thinkfrank, look, you will win again if you run again. will voteen christie for you. [laughter] by the way, the governor and i are friends. we both love the university of delaware. we both went there. i even asked him to come out and tear at a few games with me, but he cannot make it. i offered him to write on air force two. one of the advantages. i said frank, what are you thinking? and we talked and talked, and he i said look, i will send you some data. and i said ok. i was going to

i will turn to senator mikulski. [laughter] >> mr. chairman, in reviewing the request before the committee, i notice there is an operation and maintenance shortfall for the army's request in excess of $8 billion in the overseas contingency operations and maintenance account. why are we seeing such a huge difference between what is being requested and what is available for these activities? why this big disparity? >> i will respond generally and then asked the comptroller to be more specific on the accounts. i noted in my statement here this morning that the costs essentially of transitioning and withdrawing from afghanistan, principally an army assignment as has been the situation the last 12 years, the army has had the ball of the manpower responsibilities in these wars in iraq and afghanistan. as we are unwinding those and equipment and maintenance, to get that equipment out, is not easy to get out, for a lot of reasons. the cost as been significantly more than what had been anticipated over the last two years. that is part of it, b

> osenator mikulski >> [inaudible] proxy.y >> senator casey? >> no. >> senator franken? >> no. house?ator white hou >> no by proxy. >> senator alexander? >> aye. dburke?or >> aye by proxy. >> senator hatch? >> aye. >> 10 ayes, 12 nays. >> the amendment is not agreed to. thank you. we have to go vote, and we will come back as soon as possible so we can continue on. we're making good progress. we will be right back. >> i have a little meeting off the floor to go to. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> coming up today on c-span, "washington journal." at noon eastern at the house returns to the floor for work on a defense authorization bill. take of the name of this place still resonates with the shuddering in the hearts of the american people. more than any other name connected to civil war, except weekends, gettysburg reverberates. americans retain the knowledge that what happens here is the crux of our terrible, a national trial and even americans who were not sure precisely what happened on the fiel

you heard from barbara mikulski, a liberal democrat from maryland, chair of the appropriations committee, telling eric holder at a hearing wait a minute, we're a little sick and tired of this idea that only the people on the intelligence committee are briefed on this. perhaps other members of congress should be briefed on this because they're being blindsided by all of this right now. not only do they have people calling them saying hey, wait a minute, my phone records are being collected by the government. tomorrow they're going to be hearing from americans all over the country who are worried about when they're online, what videos they're looking at, what websites they're looking at. is that being collected as well. >> jim acosta, appreciate it. congressman ron paul, appreciate you calling in as well. i think i said rogers. rogers on the house intelligence committee. i misspoke before. reaction from both sides defies part sani politics. let's talk about it. democratic strategist paul begala and republican strategist ari fleisher. paul helped get president obama re-elected. ari served i

in a letter to defense secretary chuck hagel senator barbara mikulski wrote she is deeply troubled tohe increasing rates of sexual assault within their academy. she added, if we are going to end sexual assaults in the military, we must start by changing the culture w. the pentagon announcing a schedule for integrating women into front line combat by 2016, the need to address the epidemic of military sexual assault has never been more acute. joining me is democratic congresswoman from illinois, tammy duckworth, also an annive lieutenant colonel in the army national guard. >> thanks. it's great to be here. >> as someone who has served in the u.s. military, how much of the problem we face is a problem of military culture? >> i have to say even a single case of rape or sexual assault or harassment is not acceptable. i refuse to accept this notion that it's military culture, that there's a good old boys' club. the military consists of well-disciplined men and women who are fully capable of administering the laws and the systems to prevent sexual assaults and harassment from happening. that

senator mikulski, chairman of this committee, has been extremely tolerant of our diversion from whathe purpose of what this appropriations hearing was. this is the appropriations committee. our purpose is to determine what kind of financial resources are agencies need to address critical issues facing our country. we have diverted thanks to the tolerance of the chair to critical question but one that is scheduled to be and will be thoroughly discussed with every member of congress and with the public to the extent that is. general, i appreciate your answer to the question. you're walking a very difficult tightrope here. there are demands that you release previously classified information to not just members of congress but to the general public. and if you don't do that, this frenzy of mischaracterization of these programs will continue in the public. so you're caught the train rock and a hard place. i regret that. i've been urging my colleagues before they draw a conclusion to go learn about the program before they go public. an enormous effort has been made to respect the privacy a

. >> thank you, chairwoman mikulski, ranking members of the >> coming up on c- span, "washington journal" is next. and at 1030 eastern, the syrian civil war. , cheng li5 minutes looks at the chinese economy. dean cheng will discuss china and the national security market. later, michelle larkin and dr. remington discussed strategies to improve health. host: good morning. ."is is "washington journal yesterday, it was revealed that the national security agency collected information from verizon and has access to major internet companies like facebook and google. politicians on capitol hill were criticizing the use of this program. some republicans also supporting it saying it is a key tool in intelligence gathering. for our first 45 minutes, we are interested in yourho

you saw a lot of democrats today, barbara mikulski, jeff merkley. they were asking tough questions about the safeguards for privacy, safeguards over the surveillance programs. republicans were asking the same questions. a lot of republicans and democrats both believe that these programs do thwart terrorist attacks, so there's not an overthrow of the nsa. but i think there's a real concern. this is going to lead to some more legislation to try to protect those taxpayers who are paying for the nsa and who are worried about their own privacy. >> more legislation is possible. will clapper have to resign, bob? >> clapper is really going to be under fire. you saw keith alexander today. he was getting tough questions. but clapper, the question for him is did he lie to congress? did he tell congress the truth about these programs? that's where the real anger is in congress. not so much the nsa as a bureaucracy but about clapper, dni, whether they were telling him the story. >> he made terrible, terrible mistakes in that hearing. dick armey, let's go to immi

i believe this approach is misguided and look forward to working with chairman mikulski to put the department boss is on the right track in the 2014 process. the budget also proposes to remove language that prohibits the transfer of gitmo detainees to u.s. soil. this provision received broad a partisan support last year come, and i am troubled by the administration's recommendation it be removed. the proposal is particularly disconcerting in light of the president's renewed declaration on guantanamo bay. the president has made no specific proposal for dealing with the current detainees. the president has not even attempted to remove those detainees his own administration has determined can be returned to their own home country. the proposal leads me to believe that the president is planning to move the gitmo detainees here to the united states. why else would the budget delete the transfer language? either this is a real proposal or it is a political posturing. in my view political posturing is unnecessary and detrimental to any real discussion about terrorist detainees. i am also adamantly o

senator mikulski, chairman of this committee, has been extremely tolerant of our diversion from what the purpose of what this appropriations hearing was. this is the appropriations committee. our purpose is to determine what kind of financial resources are agencies need to address critical issues facing our country. we have diverted thanks to the tolerance of the chair to critical question but one that is scheduled to be and will be thoroughly discussed with every member of congress and with the public to the extent that is. general, i appreciate your .nswer to the question you're walking a very difficult tightrope here. there are demands that you release previously classified information to not just members of congress but to the general public. and if you don't do that, this frenzy of mischaracterization of these programs will continue in the public. so you're caught the train rock and a hard place. i regret that. i've been urging my colleagues -- beforey thought they draw a conclusion to go learn about the program before they go public. madeormous effort has been to respect the pr

i will turn to senator mikulski. [laughter] >> mr.hairman, in reviewing the request before the committee, i notice there is an operation and maintenance shortfall for the army's request in excess of $8 billion in the overseas contingency operations and maintenance account. why are we seeing such a huge difference between what is being requested and what is available for these activities? why this big disparity? >> i will respond generally and then asked the comptroller to be more specific on the accounts. i noted in my statement here this morning that the costs essentially of transitioning and withdrawing from afghanistan, principally an army assignment as has been the situation the last 12 years, the army has had the ball of the manpower responsibilities in these wars in iraq and afghanistan. as we are unwinding those and equipment and maintenance, to get that equipment out, is not easy to get out, for a lot of reasons. the cost as been significantly more than what had been anticipated over the last two years. that is part of it, but

president, i indicated last night that i was going to create a vote at 11:30 this morning, but senators mikulski and shelby have asked that we put that over a little bit, so we're going to do that at noon because they're having important work on the appropriations committee. we'll continue to work through amendments on the bill today. hopefully we can have a, at that time at noon have a path forward on this legislation. we have a number of amendments that are now pending. we hope to have a way of disposing of those. i hope there's something that can be worked out. senator landrieu and others have indicated they want some amendments. i hope we can work that out so we can move forward on the bill. so, we'll continue to work through the amendments, as i indicated, today. the first roll call vote, as i've indicated, will be about noon today. excuse me, mr. president. we've made some significant advances on the historic immigration legislation that's now before us. i'm confident, i'm hopeful that we can pass this bill. i've indicated on a number of occasions that we're going to do everything within o

unanimous consent that on friday, june 28 through monday, july 8, the majority leader and senators mikulski and reed be authorized to sign duly enrolled bills or resolutions. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the upcoming recess or adjournment of the senate, the president of the senate, the president pro tempore and the majority and minority leaders be authorized to make appointments to commissions, committees, boards, conferences, or interparliamentary conferences authorized by law, by concurrent action of the two houses or by order of the senate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn and convene for pro forma sessions only with no business on the following dates and times: july 28 at 12:15 p.m., tuesday, july 2 at 10:15 a.m., friday, july 5, at 12:00 p.m. let's start those over again. first, july -- i'm sorry, so sorry. friday, june 28, 12:15 p.m. tuesday, july 2 at 10:15 a.m. and friday, july 5, at 12:00 p.m. and that the senat

barbara mikulski. they didn't even have their own bathroom.served. many of them were widows that were pinted to fill out the final days, weeks or months to fill out their husband's term. 1992 became known it is a year of the woman. carol moseley-braun beat a sitting senator, alan dixon in a primary in illinois. patty murray, mom in tennis shoe, won a primary in washington. there were two open democratic nominations in california. they went to dianne feinstein and barbara boxer. in the end, lynn yeakel did not make it against specter but when the election was over there were six women in the senate. few months later when kay bailey hutchinson won a special election in texas there were seven. since then, total of 23 more women have made it to the senate. there are 20 serving there today. it is still not a huge number but it is the most ever. and if you ever wonder why it matters, well, armed services committee hearing this week was a good explanation. dysfunction among house republicans are. [ male announcer ] moving object detection. ♪ blind sp

midst of another cliff crisis in the senate, it didn't quite work out, and i remember, i see barb mikulski smiling. i remember when i came up to explain that last deal, and i remember you and i were talking, frank came over and grabbed me and said, joe, i've got to see you, got to see you. so we worked it out, and frank came down. i invited him to come down, he said i can't get down right now, but he said maybe you can come up to the senate, which i did. [laughter] and i went to the ceremonial office. and knowing he told you everything, bonnie, i'm sure he told you, we spoke about two hours. and he wanted the know, he wanted my advice, should he run again. [laughter] what in the hell do you say to frank lautenberg when he says should i run again? [laughter] and even then frank was slowing a little bit, and he knew it. but i said, frank, look, i think you win again if you run again. i think even christie will vote for you. [laughter] by the way, the gov and i are friends. we have one really important thing in common, we both love the university of delaware. we both went there. [laughter] i

i remember -- i see barbara mikulski smiling.ber when i came to explain that last deal, and frank came over and grabbed me and said -- i've got to see you. so we worked it out. frank came down -- he said i can come down right now but maybe you can go to the senate. which i did. i know it'll do everything, bonnie, and i'm sure he told you we spoke about two hours. he wanted my advice -- should he run again? [laughter] what in the hell do you say to frank lautenberg when he says should i run again? even then, frank was slowing a little bit, and he knew it. i said, frank, look, i think you will win again if you run again. i think even christie will vote for you. [laughter] by the way, the governor and i are friends. we both love the university of delaware. we both went there. i even asked him to come out and tear at a few games with me, but he cannot make it. i offered him to ride on air force two. one of the advantages. i said frank, what are you thinking? and we talked and talked, and he i said look, i will send you some data. and

senator mikulski provided a program funded through nist, the national side history center of excellence, which leverages maryland and virginia which have also been looking at these sort of effect to bring in companies to work collaboratively on cybersecurity and create this tipping effect that you so eloquently described are part of clusters. >> great. i'm a big proponent of that. i of that. i'm out of time but i did want to send a question about the national guard. i think as we move forward we're going to have to make sure that they are coordinating with them. they will be our boots on the ground if there's ever an issue, and i'm hoping that we're doing the right thing. madam chairman, i would like to submit that question. >> thank you very much, senator. and we hope there will be follow-ups that will go even deeper to this. in terms of your clustering, we are at the epicenter of cybersecurity because with the national security headquarters there. where the national institutes of states headquartered there. we'll have the fbi headquartered there. we have university -- >> we will take

. >> thanks to senator mikulski for bringing the cyber issue into sharp focus for the entire senate with their bipartisan briefing. i was under the intelligence committee after 9/11. it was automatic investment in intelligence resources to keep safe..-- keep us a dramatic investment in the personnel to execute the plan to keep us safe. i trust, and i still do that we were hiring the very best. trusting them to not only give us the best in terms of knowledge, but their loyalty to our country. i would like to ask you about one of those employees. who is now in a hong kong hotel, and what we know about him as follows. he was a high school dropout. he was a community college dropout. he had a ged degree. he was injured in training for the u.s. army. he had to leave. he did the job as a security guard for the nsa in maryland. shortly thereafter, he did the job for the cia in what is characterized as i.t. security in a piece that was published. at age 23 years old, he was stationed in an undercover manner overseas from the cia him and was given clearance and access to a wide array of classifie

been cosponsored by senators boxer, gillibrand, cantwell, stabenow, klobuchar, warren, baldwin, mikulski, shaheen, leahy, franken, menendez and schumer. and i ask unanimous consent that senator landrieu be added as a cosponsor. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. hirono: i have been speaking on the senate floor and talking with my colleagues about my concerns that the immigration bill that we are considering inadvertently disadvantages women who are trying to emigrate to the united states. i believe that the new merit-based points system for employment green cards will significantly disadvantage women who want to come to this country, particularly unmarried women. many women overseas do not have the same educational or career advancement opportunities available to men in those countries. this new merit-based system will prioritize green cards for immigrants with high levels of education or experience. by favoring these immigrants, the bill essentially cements unfairness against women into u.s. immigration law. that is not the way to go. after i brought these concerns to senator

. >> senator mikulski? >> aye. wait, no.no. no. no. [laughter] >> we are making progress. >> i maintain my exuberance but vote no. >> first impressions are often the best one. >> senator murray? >> no by proxy. >> senator sanders? >> no by proxy. senator casey? >> no. >> senator bennett? >> no. baldwin?r >> [inaudible] >> senator murphy? >> no. >> senator alexander? >> aye. >> senator burke? >> [inaudible] paul?ator >> aye, by proxy. >> senator robert? >> aye by proxy. scott?tor >> aye. hawkins?chairman >> no. agree amendment is not to. we will now begin the process of working through amendments that have been filed to the bill. it is the chair's intention to recognize people in order of seniority as the go through the amendment process, and that is to go back and forth in order of seniority. we will go as far as we can today until least 1:00. we will break after the vote and they come back to this route after that vote. -- come back to this room, after teh vote. he vote. we will go and will lease the regional hour this evening. i woul

and so far -- so forth built up over years billion dollars of research and i agree with senator mikulski it is a real challenge for this country from the economic standpoint and always national security. >> directory and we'll understand whether the private sector brings that evidence and. >> what do you need? what is the justice department made? they need resources is is the appropriations committee but they need the tools and it is changing every day? >> constantly evolving. >> it is not going away. >> i would doubt that. >> is this one of the biggest challenges in the nation right now? >> clearly one of the most significant challenges we're facing. >> thank you. >> great question. >> thank you. first want to commend the ig for what i think is truly extraordinary work with a very productive time during his leadership last month your office released a summary of the interim report of the department's handling of the of known or suspected terrorists. that have been the admitted into the federal witness protection program. it came as a shock that we had known or suspected terrorist who ar

i believe this approach is misguided and look forward to working with chairman mikulski to put the department boss is on the right track in the 2014 process. the budget also proposes to remove language that prohibits the transfer of gitmo detainees to u.s. soil. ais provision received broad partisan support last year come, and i am troubled by the administration's recommendation it be removed. the proposal is particularly disconcerting in light of the president's renewed declaration on guantanamo bay. the president has made no specific proposal for dealing with the current detainees. the president has not even attempted to remove those detainees his own administration has determined to their owned home country. the proposal leads me to believe that the president is planning to move the gitmo detainees here to the united states. why else would the budget delete the transfer language? either this is a real proposal or it is a political posturing. in my view political posturing is unnecessary and detrimental to any real discussion about terrorist detainees. i am also adamantly opposed to moving

the hirono-murray-mikulski amendment currently has 19 cosponsors. i ask unanimous consent that senators whitehouse and schatz be added as cosponsors of amendment number 1718. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. hirono: amendment 1718 is a modified version of amendment number 1504. i made these modifications after working with senator graham and he has agreed to support this new amendment and i thank him for his support. the presiding officer: time has expired. ms. hirono: i ask unanimous consent for 30 seconds. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. hirono: i also have letters from over 100 organizations in support of amendment number 1718 and 1504. i ask unanimous consent that the text of amendment number 1718 and these letters of support be printed in the record following my remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. hirono: i thank the leadership council on leadership and civil rights, we long together and the america-asian justice support for these letters and for their support. i also thank the afl-cio and sciu for

by senators murray, murkowski, boxer, gillibrand, cantwell, stabenow, klobuchar, warren, baldwin, mikulski, landrieu, shaheen and leahy. i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment. mr. leahy: i would object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. ms. hirono: thank you. so noted. to continue, mr. president, the immigration bill clearly if inadvertently disadvantages women who are trying to immigrate to the united states. s. 744 reduces the opportunities for immigrants to come under the family-based green card system. the new merit-based point system for employment green cards will significantly disadvantage women who want to come to this country, particularly unmarried women. many women overseas do not have the same educational or career advancement opportunities available to men in those countries. this new merit-based system will prioritize green cards for immigrants with high levels of education or experience. by favoring these immigrants, the bill in effect cements into u.s. immigration law unfairness against women. that's not the way to go. the bill inadvertently, i

i believe this approach is misguided and look forward to working with chairman mikulski to put the department boss is on the right track in the 2000 14 process. the budget also proposes to remove language that prohibits the transfer of gitmo detainees to u.s. soil. ais provision received broad partisan support last year come and i am troubled by the administration lost recommendation it be removed. is particularly disconcerting in light of the president's renewed declaration on may 20 32", mowbray. guantanamo bay. the president has made no specific proposal for dealing with the current detainees. the president has not even attempted to remove those detainees his own administration has determined and be returned to their own home country. the proposal leads me to believe that the president is planning to move the get go cheney's here to the united states. why else would the budget delete the transfer language? either this is a real proposal or it is a political posturing. in my view political posturing is unnecessary and detrimental to any real discussion about terrorist detainees. i am also a