there will be some snow showers moving across from mongolia through the northeastern corner of china then some rain extending into indo-china. but that should be about it. nothing on the severe side. in terms of temperature, pretty nice really. 14 degrees in chongqing today. 13 in shanghai. and 13 degrees with sunny spells in -- tokyo's going to be 11 degrees today. now, we head into north america. it's been pretty stormy and wintry across the midwest for the past several days in the u.s. since saturday, in fact, we've had about 48 centimeters of snow falling in minnesota, getting a good deal of snow elsewhere as well. and the same snowstorm is still with us, affecting the southern great lakes, bringing as much as 15 centimeters of snow. so watch out for icy roads if you are going to be out and about into your tuesday morning. now, out toward the west we have a high pressure system that's keeping things dry. but this area of rain and snow is going to be descending south, bringing significant snow across the northern rockies in the next couple of days. for los angeles things drying ou

bright conditions, lots of sunshine across places like eastern china up into mongolia, korean peninsula and japan. we see showers for southern portions of china. heavier rain unfortunately continuing in southern portions of the philippines. so we're going to see more potential for flooding and landslides into the weekend. here are those temperatures. 10 degrees in beijing, 9 in seoul, and tokyo seeing 9 also. we've got 19 in taipei, 16 in hong kong, and 34 roasting in bangkok. let's head now to north america. well, things are going to be, i'm afraid, very miserable for many of you across the west. this big snowstorm continues to move. you can see what a mess we're looking at here. it's going to be rain up the coast, particularly for you in california. could even see some flooding problems with rainfall. and lots of heavy snow, as well, you can see where it's going to be heaviest in the upper elevations where the deepest shades of gray are. and then out to the east, another snowstorm, and that'll bring you about 30 centimeters. in much of ontario, the gray there. the northern great lakes

mongolia has g.p.s., we don't. most every country in the world, they determine where the airplanes where they are -- where the airplanes are with g.p.s. we're still doing it on the ground. this will provide access to rural communities which is good for places like nely, nevada, and reduce delays in the first place. that's what moving forward looks like. and that's why senator rockefeller has worked for years -- years to get this bill passed. but there have been little site issues that come up. site issues are going to be debated here on the floor and we will either pass them or get rid of them and get this bill on the road to the president's desk. so what rival talked about is -- what i've talked about is what moving forward looks like. that's what we democrats want to do. this is what moving backward would look like, republicans symbolic efforts to repeal the rights in the health care reform bill will put americans at risk. i will mention a few things. it would let insurance companies once again stand in the way o

i include mongolia. i thought of mongolia being ahead of us is deeply disturbing to me. it's a way of making a point, i think one would agree. i want to reduce delays that from us fliers, and we do -- that frustrate fliers, and we do that. it opens the door to undeveloped areas. it makes a big point of that through essential air service, airport improvement programs and other programs. this bill helps protect our position as the global leader in aviation. i said global leader. we are. we are. the aviation needs and goals of texas and west virginia are the same. people might not believe it, but they are. my good friend, senator hutchison, represents some of the largest airports in the country. i represent some of the finest smaller airports in the nation. but all of our airports are critical economic engines to their respective communities. she may have -- senator hutchison may have more flights in and out of texas than we have in west virginia. in fact, i guarantee you she does. but we both know the importance of air service to economic growth and global competitiveness.

we're behind mongolia in this modernization effort. just a thought. and we -- in all of this we would be including next-generation network-enabled weather, data communications, systemwide information management, safety security, environmental security, information tool set. this means accurate weather forecasting would go down and pilots would have less relevant information, resulting in increased delays and congestion, as aircraft would have a lot more difficulty navigating storms. weather is the associated cause of 70% of delays. much less accidents. it cuts to datacom would impact pilot-situational awareness and lead to degradation of air traffic safety control having an effect on safety. it would cut f.a.a.'s research and development and would cause the delay or cancellation of nextgen. i repeat, to cancel or delay nextgen . specifically, f.a.a. will terminate all related programs that were started since 2008, including the continuous low-energy emission and noise program, which develops cleaner and quieter aircraft technologies, and alternative a

even mongolia has a more advanced system than we do. that is just unacceptable. not surprisingly, our outdated system is at capacity. according to the f.a.a., delays resulting from the constraints on the system cost the united states over $9 million every year. that number is going to continue to rise if we do nothing. we need to take action. the f.a.a. forecasts that the aviation system will carry more than a billion airline passengers annually by 2023. we cannot afford to let such an important part of our 21st century economy languish with 20th century technology. by investing in nextgen, our air traffic controllers will finally have the 21st century technologies they need to make our system more efficient. let me just give an example of the progress that nextgen would make. right now air traffic controllers give all of their commands to pilots over the radio. they tell them when and where they'll be landing. because all of the pilots in the area are listening, there is the potential for miscommunication sometimes. our pilots and controllers are very profession

the ambassador from afghanistan, mongolia, netherlands, indonesia, senegal, and slovenia. [applause] i'm especially pleased to welcome the members of congress who are here, senator kay hagan from north carolina. senator mike leigh from utah. where are you, mike? you're somewhere here. there you are. [applause] and the youngest person in the audience, senator frank lautenberg of new jersey. [applause] we were also pleased to have senator bob menendez and representative eleanor holmes norton here earlier. we have a few administration people here. one is my very good friend, who just took his job as deputy secretary of state for management and resources, tom nides. tom, stand up. the state department has been doing an extraordinary job on the issue of evacuation of americans from egypt. i think they deserve a special hand for that. [applause] daniel johannes, you're here somewhere. right there. ok. my friend, the great administrator for the usaid, rag shaw. where are you, raj? the president and c.e.o. of the overseas private investment corporation, elizabeth littlefield. the

it's important, i think, to remind people that -- that we are behind the country of mongolia when it comes to air traffic control, so it's very important that we get this bill passed. and i agree with leader reid when he said we -- we can't be on this forever, we need to move it along, and i look forward in helping with -- in helping with that process. with that, i yield the floor. mr. rockefeller: good morning, madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. rockefeller: i want to reiterate some of what the leader has said and some of what the senator from new mexico has said, and that is the vast importance of this bill. i have said many times on this floor there are 11 million people who work for the aviation industry. that's only the direct jobs. there are probably two or three million indirect jobs. it's one of the major parts of our economy. then here we stand after 17 delays. kicking it down the road for three months, completely messing up f.a.a.'s ability to work with runways or make improvements if necessary. you can't fiddle around with runways i

in america we don't have a gps system where just about every western country does, even mongolia does, tibet does not. to move forward, modernize our airports, it's important for jobs, it's important for travelers convenience, but i would say most of all, it's important for mesh's productivity. when people sit and wait, planes delays, flights canceled, the amount of output that country loses is enormous. we are losing much moreen france, germany, and england. they have the modern systems. it's about time we put them in. there are some that say let's go back to the 2006 level of spending. in 2006, the budget did not have a gps system. well, certainly we have to cut where that's waste. just across the board, roll the clock back doesn't make much sense. technology, the world advances we cannot mark backwards. there are certain things that we need to keep the country strong. the president talked about some of those in his address. investments and transportation has been one since the ways the erie canal helped my state. thank god. it's sort of a do and don't in my opinion. the health care

mongolia has a more advanced air traffic control system than america. south korea has faster and easier access to the internet than america. europe and china have high-speed rail systems far more advanced than america. dozens of commissions, academics, groups, the smartest people in america have all come to the same conclusion. our infrastructure is old, and we need to invest in fixing it. we have to reduce the debt and deficit. i was a member of the deficit commission. i understand it as well as anyone. but the american people don't want us to do this at the expense of critical infrastructure that will be needed to grow our economy. unfortunately, the house republicans currently are in a debate on the floor of the house proposing that we cut off our investments in transportation, right in the middle of the year, right before the construction season. house republicans are debating that this week. their plan cuts billions in funding for roads, rail and mass transit. it's going to cost us over 300,000 private-sector jobs. 300,000-private-sector jobs. not