mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: for the last few wicks i have been listening to the republican leader ask the majority leader not to turn the united states senate into place where a majority of 51 can do anything it wants. aim oi'm on the floor to suggest three reasons why i believe the majority leader will not do that. number one, he said he wouldn't. he said he wouldn't. senators keep their word. number two, in 2007, the majority leader said to do so would be the end of the senate. there haven't. mrbeen -- therehaven't been mann the united states who would want to have written on their tombstone he presided over the end of the united states senate of the and number three, the majority leader is an leader. it won't be very long until republicans find a way if we're in the majority to use whatever we want to do. so let me take those three reasons one by one. first, the majority leader has given his word. the republican leader mentioned that at the beginning of the last two congresses at the request of the

mr. alexander knows what's coming to him. part of this is to challenge. you'll see in the public hearing questions about the prism program and government eavesdropping. you'll hear questions about what you just played there, mr. snowden's account he's there to reveal criminality. lawmakers can't ask in public have you done anything that violates the constitution or the guidelines of this program. much of that is classified. that's why we're in this big debate. you have the balance between a public congressional testimony where they can ask some questions but some of the lawmakers will back away from asking certain things and if they ask specific questions you might hear mr. alexander say here is what i can say but i can't answer part of your questions. some of them will be dealt with in a public setting like house system. the senate wants to bring james clapper, the director of national intelligence back because he said a few months back when asked does the united states collect e-mails from average americans he said no and then he said not witting will.

mr. alexander: mr. president in. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: the quorum call will be vitiated. under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. and under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 4:00 p.m. with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. mr. alexander: thank you, mr. president. if you'll will the me know when ten minutes occurs, i would appreciate it. the presiding officer: the chair will so notify. mr. alexander: and if there are no other senators on the floor, i will continue. i am here, mr. president, today to speak on clean energy independence. before i do that i want to note the passing of senator frank lautenberg. when i came to the senate ten years ago there were a number of members here who were veterans of world war i. now there are -- of world war ii. now there are none. nosenator lautenberg was the la. a member of the generation often described as "the greatest." he is the son of

mr. alexander has to come back, tell members of congress what the revelation has shown and how the systemi think that none of this, although we're going to have rolling revelations, is really a surprise that consumers are learning what they should have learned a long time ago, that nothing is private on the internet. i am still going to be surprised if this becomes a raging debate in the next election. i think it is something that americans remain uncomfortable with, but because they don't feel confident in our security, they accept as, you know, just a function of the government to secure the home land. >> there's also growing controversy over the revelation this week that the fbi has received clearance from federal aviation officials in at least four instances since 2010 to use drones in various government surveillance cases. charles, what do you make of that? >> well, if that is true, it is an average of one a year, so it should be stopped early and it obviously would be extremely rare. i am against use of drones internally for law enforcement with two exceptions. one would be a natura

mr. alexander. >> subsequently order was restored. the chanting died down.he roll call was taken and it passed. 68-32. this bill includes stricter border security, a long path to citizenship, more visas for high-skilled workers, more series saturday for low-skilled workers. it passed 68-32. >> i'm not going to be scrambling jets. to get a 29-year-old hacker. >> no big deal? president obama saying he is not going to make a big stink over trying to nab the nsa leaker but former cia operate of says that's a big mistake. would you want the president over the united states to scramble jets and take him out of of the sky? >> i don't know if i'd go as far as taking the jet out of the sky, but i assure you that the president should show some leadership, some spine and let our enemies as well as our allies know that we mean business. snowden is not just your order run of the mill hacker. this guy absconded, premeditatedly with some of the countries -- evidently with some of our country's greatest secrets, and i find it absolutely heartbreaking, appalling, disgusting,

mr. alexander: mr. president, i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: thanks, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor to talk about doug bail. doug bailey died last week at age 79. "the new york times" reported on tuesday that doug bailey helped define the role of political consultant in the 1960's and 1970's and that he founded the hotline. he was much more than that to me and to countless of others who for whom he was an example of how to live a public life. now, i'm aware that when offering a eulogy, it is good form to speak more of the deceased than of one's self, but that's hard to do with doug because he cared so much about everyone he met and everyone he worked with. i first met doug bailey in washington, d.c. in the spring of 1977. i was here for a few months working with howard baker, the former senator from tennessee, who had just been elected to be the republican leader of this body. he'd asked me to come work for him. i think part of that was to consult, lick my wounds from h

mr. alexander was also asked about this letter that hong kong has sent to the u.s. to clarify these reports of hacking of hong kong computers, china computers. he would not address that specifically but said that the u.s. has the interest of collecting intelligence regarded to u.s. interest but not in collecting data from all around the world. so clearly, some tough questions that the administration will continue having to answer with regards to how snowden was able to leave the united states in the first place and how he was able to leave hong kong despite this request to have him tra diet extradited back to the u.s. >> lots and lots of questions. hopefully, we'll get some of them answered today. dan lothian, thank you so much. i want to bring in our senior international correspondent nic robertson. nic is in hong kong. nic, i just get the feeling -- and tell me whether i'm right or wrong -- that hong kong didn't actually want to be -- have the choice be the anger of its own people who don't like being spied on by the nsa and the united states that wanted this guy

mr. alexander has openly, penn said none of this is happening. and james clapper also did the same thing. i do not think in front of the same committee. he made claims none of this was happening before. if they miss video where he was sitting there talking about how they do not have the ability, and he was rubbing his head, looked like he was nervous. i just don't know if i buy these guys. these are paid spokespeople from the government coming out and making these claims. i would not by what these people say. they are just covering themselves. if you want to try to get real information about with the government is doing look to independent sources. host: what about the specific plots that some of those who testified outlined regiment let me just share some with you. the deputy director of the fbi talked about the case of several men convicted by a jury in february of raising and spending about $8,500 to house shabab, a al terrorist group in somalia. the nsa had flagged the calling activities of one of the men suspicious. leppo -- caller: there ar

mr. alexander admitted that is a problem that must be fixed. martha: the former government contractor behind the nsa leaks is speaking out from a secret location. edward snowden tells a reporter he is still in that city. he's prepared to fight extradition attempt by the u.s. he says the u.s. has been hacking computers in hong kong and china since twine. since -- since 2009. bill: 62% of americans say it's. martha: a lot of the information goes into this fortified data center that opened last year in utah. it created a new phrase called metadata which is basically everything. the center costs $2 billion to get up and running. it's five times the size of the united states capital. and it can hold a yottabyte of data. that's one septillion bytes of data. it's the size of 1,000 years of all internet traffic. photograph nateing. on the economy, on the jobs market. weekly unemployment claims fell to 334 thousand. that's a 5-year low. it sounds like good news. and stuart varney says it may be the sign of a little bit of good news but also something el

mr. alexander. >> ladies, stand by. we'll be dipping in and out as news merits. this senate appropriations committee hearing with the director of the nsa testifying again. underscoring dana's point, the first time an nsa official had to basically go public since the news broke. >>> now to jake tapper, anchor of the lead chief washington correspondent with the breaking news. jake, we mentioned the top of the show, this is key, couple headlines out of this, i think. the nsa leaker told the south china morning post the u.s. has been hacking chinese and hong kong computers since '09. again, the paper says it viewed documents supporting the claim, which the paper was not able to verify. so two things. one, this says to me that edward snowden is continuing to leak. this is another bomb. >> oh, right. no, he will continue to share information and glenn greenwall told me a few days ago that there are more stories to come. it's not the huge surprise that the u.s. military is engaged in offensive cyber attacks. we've been told by generals and others last fall, i believe, t

mr. chairman. >> senator alexander. >> i congratulate the senator from south carolina. he's made the most succinct and persuasive argument today and ought to get some credit for that. basically recommended that we continue the law that requires states to adopt challenging standards and annual tests in reading, math and science but prohibits washington from defining what that is and says to south carolina or tennessee or any other state that if you choose to adopt a set of standards, whether it's the common core or any other set of standards, that you're free to amend it, repeal it, improve it, strengthen it, weaken it, that's the state's decision, is that right? >> yes, sir. it uses the notion of a school board, as you've said so consistently today, and provides the opportunity for greater flexibility, both from the state and the local levels with you i believe will create and improve better outcomes for the average student in america. >> and if i may continue, chairman, just ask senator scott. the chairman has said -- noted that the number of states have adopted these

mr. alexander. can!s, we yes, we can! >> the sergeant-at-arms will restore order in the gallery. the sergeant-at-arms will restore order in the gallery. >> today's vote was preceded by debate. florida senator marco rubio. this is a little more than one hour. >> my father had a rough childhood. a small catering company that his parents ran together collapsed so as a young child, he was forced to leave school and go to work. he would work virtually every day for the rest of his life. as hard. grew up just her father was disabled by polio and to struggle to provide for his seven daughters. my parents met at a small store. he actually lived and slept in the storage room of that store. like all young couples, they had dreams. my mother wanted to be an act risk and my father tried hard to get ahead. after work, he would take correspondence courses to become a tv and radio repair man, but it was hard because he barely knew how to read. they did everything they could to make a better life, but living in an increasingly unstable country with limited education and no connections, they just

that earned a reprimand from senator alexander. >> mr.the last few weeks i've been listening to the republican leader ask the majority leader not to turn the united states senate into a place where a majority of 51 can do anything it wants. in 2007, the majority leader said to do so would be the end of the senate. there have not been many majority leaders in the history of the senate, and i know none of them want to have written on their tombstone he presided over the end of the united states senate. >> and then senator alexander reminded harry reid of the promise he had once made. >> senators keep their word. >> the majority leader has given his word. >> the problem with that, this is a senate where republicans only expect democrats to keep their word. in march of 2003, lamar alexander made this promise. >> i don't know what happened in the past, but i know what this one senator would do in the future. if there is a democratic president and i am in this body, and if he nominates a judge, i will never vote to deny a vote on that judge. an

i know senator alexander has a substitute and we will turn to that at this time. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'd like to call up alexander amendment one to title one. >> without objection, we'll call up senator alexander's and other amendments. >> i call up how succinct this is compared to the 1,100-page proposal from the chairman. while we'll be emphasizing our differences a lot in this discussion, let me point out some things we do agree on. both senator harkin's bill and this substitute set a new goal. the words are important. college and career are the words used in the bigger bill. in our bill, we say, college or career. because only 70% of high school graduates go to college. and we want to recognize the importance of those who go straight to careers. two, both bills reaffirm the requirement for states to set high standards aligned to the goal i just mentioned. both bills continue testing students in states three through eight. these are state tests, in reading and math and once in high school, reporting the results of those tests for each student subgroup. so that's common to

mr. chairman. feelal alexander, do you that this opening -- open hearing today in any way jeopardizes our nationalsecurity? >> i do not think the hearing itself jeopardizes it. i think the damage was done in the release of the information. today, what we have the opportunity is, to where it makes sense, to provide additional information on the oversight, compliance, and statistics, without jeopardizing it. we are being careful to do that, and i appreciate what the committee has done on that. >> how many people were in the same position as snowden was as a systems manager, to have access to this information that could be damaging if released? and all our complexes around the world. there is on the order of 1000 system administrators, people who actually run the networks, that have, in certain sections, that level of authority and ability to interface through the system. >> how many of those are outside contractors? >> the majority are contractors. as you may recall, about 12 or 13 years ago, as we tried to downsize our government workforce, we pushed more of our information technology workforce or

mr. chairman. general -- general alexander and steam, thank you for helping us understand in so many closed sessions, and hopefully helping the nation understand, what we are doing, why we are doing it, and how we are doing it. i want to focus more on 702, if we could. general alexander, could you explain what happens if a target of surveillance is communicating with a u.s. person in the united states? >> under 702, i think the best case is someone that sean joyce made. if we are tracking a known terrorist in another country -- pakistan, yemen, or someplace -- and we see them communicating with someone in the united states, focused on doing something in the united states, we tipped that to the fbi. our job is to identify that, see the nexus of it. it could be in another country. sometimes, we would see somebody in one of those countries planning something in europe or elsewhere. we would share that. when it comes into the united states, our job and this -- our job ends. we are outside, and we provide it to the inside fbi, and they go from there. they will get the process for getting additional infor

mr. ranking member you both made this point. these are as general alexander said, extremely important collection programs to protect us not only from terrorists but from other threats 0 our national security, a wide variety. they have produced a huge amount of valuable intelligence over the years. we are now faced with a situation that because this information has been made public, we run the risk of losing these collection capabilities. we are not going to know for many months whether these leaks in fact have caused us to lose these capabilities. if they do have that effect there is no doubt that they will cause our national security to be effected. thank you mr. chairman. >> thank you all very much. i appreciate that. i have a couple of quick questions. members have lots of questions here and i want to get to them. just for the record, mr. english can you describe quickly your civilian role, you served in that role as a civilian capacity is that correct. >> questions yes, sir, across the history of the nsa there has been a military officer, the direct he sh

i would like to suggest that general alexander go first, followed by mr. beers, mr. mcfeely representing justice, and dr. gallagher, you are the wrath of god. general alexander, the microphone is yours. >> thank you very much. i think what you and senator shelby have pointed out with respect to cyberspace is absolutely important for us to discuss. the threats that we face today continue to grow. you know, it takes for the government a team to work this -- before going for the i do want to point out that the team is here, and it's great to be part of that team. because no one government department or agency can do it itself. for us it's going to take a partnership between homeland security, between the fbi, and with support of nist and especially on executive order that senator shelby brought up, for us to work together. when i look at what's going on in cyberspace and the capabilities that are growing, this is an incredible opportunity for us as a nation and the nations around the world. the technical capabilities that we have when you look at what our children are us

been members that talked about the fact that they didn't know about these programs general alexander or maybe mr. english, can you talk about the briefings you provided for members of congress both recently and when this set of laws were developed? >> 702 has recently reauthorized at the end of 2012 in the run-up of that n.s.a. companionship with the department of justice, f.b.i., d.n.i. made a series of presentations across the hill some number of times and talked in very specific details about the controls on those programs and the success of those programs. the reauthorization of section 215 of the patriot act came after that, but there was a set of briefings along those lines. at the same time we continue to welcome all congress persons or senators to come down and we can come to you and classify all briefs. some members have taken us up on that offer. >> that's right. any time, any place we can talk, we will do that. >> i have been on the committee only a short time. i learned about these programs a before i came on this committee, so i know members outside of the committee had access to th

our correspondent archivist and say that i would like this for my grandfather, robert alexander hannah. saying, mr. hannah did not have any access to this. and i needed to tell him that i cared. and i did not really know if he would be able to take pictures and e-mail it to me or anything like that. a few weeks passed and i got an e-mail that just said that the title was duncan hannah. there was no message at all. it was a series of photographs putting this big wooden leg on it to get around was often not desirable. you know, they would come up with something at home and walk around with a couple of crutches. the state paid for them. they had two options going into it. they could have purchased this patent and then purchased the kit. the woodblocks and and everything for a little bit less. obviously the most cost of effect of thing. so if you lost your leg from too far down, and what we had commercially available when work for you, you could just take the money some of them are very high-tech. i think everyone has seen somebody walking down the street with a 6 million-dollar looking contraption th

i would ask you, general alexander, and you, mr.joyce, after september 11 where there was a phone interception from yemen that allowed you to foil he new york stock exchange plot. could both of you explain how the attack could have been prevented or if you believe it could have been prevented. >> i don't know if the attack could have been prevented. what i can tell you is that is a tool not available to us at the time of 9/11. when there was a call made from yemen to kalid, we did not have the track that call. now things may have been different, and we will never know that, unfortunately. that is the tool we are talking about today that we did not have at the time of 9/11. moving forward, as you mentioned, about the stock exchange. here we have a similar thing, except this was under the 702 program where n.s.a. tipped to us that a known extremist in yemen was talking or conversing with an individual inside the united states we later identify . kalid we were able to find him in kansas city and able to identify two additional conspira

general alexander, or mr. joyce, could you explain how the attack could have been prevented?n and there. if we would have had the reasonable suspicion standard, we'd have to look at that. assuming that we did. if we had the database we had now with business records fisa and and we searched the data number. we could have tipped it to the fbi. >> so what did you take away from that answer? do you think the 9/11 could have been prevented if we had had the surveillance programs in place? i agree with general alexander. i think it could have been prevented. there's no such thing as a sure thing in this business. to me that would have added an extra piece of the mow sake and it would have improved our chances of being able to stop 9/11. >> someone who disagrees with you on a lot of these issues. republican senator rand paul talked about 9/11 in an interview with our jim acosta. senator paul said the failures before 9/11 had to do with a lack of police work, not seeking warrants, had nothing to do with the ability to listen in to phone calls what would your response be to that? >> i

mr. snowden. listen to the head of the nsa this morning, the national security agency, general keith alexander, when asked about this on abc. >> we are in touch with mr. -- >> i have no opinion on wikileaks. i don't track them. i really don't know who wikileaks are other than this assange person. my job again defend the nation. >> you have to have some sympathy for good public servants like general alexander whose job it is to keep secrets. but when you say we don't really know who wikileaks is after how much they have been in the news, just the other day the fbi director again another excellent public servant saying we have drones in the united states but we're just now developing the protocols. what the administration's top people say in public, and again bob mueller and jen algeneral alexander, good public servants, but it leads you to the impression they're making it up as they go along. >> it does have a bit of a keystone cop feel to it at this point because we have this guy running all over on the globe with the u.s. saying we want to hear with countries that really have to play ball. i want y

keith alexander defended the phone and data mining program as lifesavers. in hong kong mr. den told the post that while the u.s. complains about chinese hacking computers, china is complaining about the same thing. he said, quote:back in watch general alexander told the senate appropriations committee that complaints that the data mining program violates americans civil rights are misinformed. >> i do think what we're doing does protect american civil liberties and privacy. the issue is to date we've not been able to explain it because it's classified. so that issue is something that we're wrestling with. how do we explain this and still keep it safe and secure? that's the issue that we have in front of us. >> john: so it's legal, we tell you why, but we can't. the nsa director added this explanation to the program that apparently isn't classified any more. >> it's dozens of terrorist events that these have helped prevent. >> john: but there seems to be a good deal more to the nsa story that we don't yet know. california democratic representative loretta sÁnchez attended a s

mr. chairman. >> thanks you, senator alexander and as i said, we will proceed as agreed to in the first amendment to lead to. >> i have agreed to let senator alexander of for the first amendment, and then i will have an amendment. i would say just for a heads up, what my amendment does is to clarify, clarify that this is not a mandate. i keep hearing about mandates. no state has to do one thing we say in this bill as long as they don't want to take any money. if they don't want to take the money, they don't have to do one single thing. so states cannot doubt. the state cannot doubt. and that is your prerogative. that is not a mandate. a man they would be where we say you have to do this no matter what. we are just saying that in our bill we said these parameters. if you take title one money we are -- those of us who are here as senators, the arbiters of what happens to federal taxpayer dollars, not state taxpayer dollars. that is a different -- the state legislature and as that. but our federal taxpayer dollars that go out for title one and other programs, focused mostly run title one, it would s

. >> reporter: alexander debunked claims by edward snowden, the nsa leaker. >> i saw an interview in which mr. snowden claimed that due to his position at nsa, he could tap into virtually any american's phone calls or e-mails. true or false? >> i know of no way to do that. >> reporter: alexander said those on american citizens mug through a national security course, it wasn't enough to the basic environment of mistrust. >> the american public is fearful in this mass of amount of data you get that there's the ability of the federal government to synthesize that data and learn something more. >> reporter: speaking to the chinese media, snowden leveled serious accusations. quote, i heard today from a reliable source that the united states government is trying to bully hong kong government into extraditing me before the local government can learn of this. the national security agency hacking people in hong kong. there is no way to independently verify the statement. on accusations of bullying and snowden's extradition, the state department was silent. >> i do not have anything new on it. >> repor

i recognize senator alexander. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate the comments of all the senators and senator scott's reminder that our focus should be on the children. let me emphasize again that we're talking about 100,000 public schools and 50 million children. and how do we best help them succeed in the kind of world that senator from connecticut is just described. reminds of the discussion we had we were successfully putting together the compounding pharmacy bill. i used the -- who ran nuclear submarine program in the 1950s and the question is how are we going make sure the reactors work? what rick did was tell the captain that if the reactor failed, their career failed. and so we have never had a death on a navy sub reactor because of the consequences. ting has to do with the question of accountability. whose job is it to help children succeed? it starts with parents. we don't know how to pass a better parents law. the next is teachers. i think we all e agree on that. the holy grail of improving schools, i think, is to find a fai

and say, i would like the confederate pension for my grandfather, robert alexander hannah, and i have his leg if anybody cares. mr. hannah did not have access to e-mail. i wrote him a letter and told him that i cared, and, you know, i did not really know if he would be able to take pictures and e-mail it to me or anything like that, but a few weeks past, and i got an e-mail one day that said, the title of duncan hannah, and no message at all, and it was just a series of photographs taken in the feed store, so it was this leg, and all these feed bags, and you could see somebody's hand homing -- holding it at a variety of angles, and there was a picture with the bottom of the foot, and i saw the screw holes, and i knew how the patent worked, and i knew where the cables went, and i knew it was one of the pa tent leg. the stumps that people had were so ragged and painful that putting this big wooden lag on it to get around was often not desirable for them. they were hot, they hurt the stumps. they came up with something at home or walk around with a couple crutches. the state paid for them. they had two options going

i was struck this morning general keith alexander was on abc's "this week" and he was asked how this happened. mr. snowden worked for a private company contracted to the united states government and the general said they will develop some way to track the system administrators, that they are now going to develop that, and that they are now going to go to partners or a buddy system so nobody is sitting alone who can access and steal, take this information. when you hear the general say that, does that mean that there could be another, two, three, four, five, six other edward snowdens out there who there taken this information from the workplace, highest secrets of the united states government? >> i suppose it could. it is surprise to go hear that general alexander does not think there were sufficient auditing procedures in place. i suspect that the nsa has a very good idea of what he has taken because the systems are at minimum set up to audit, access sensitive material. and it's probably developed a pretty good idea about how he took it. it's interesting to me that they want to lock things furthe

i would like to suggest that general alexander go first, followed by mr. beers. the microphone is yours. >> thank you very much. i think what you and senator shelby have pointed out with respect to cyberspace is absolutely important for us to discuss. the threats that we face today continue to grow. it takes for the government a team to work. before i go any further, i want to point out that the team is here. it is great to be a part of that team. no one government department arranges he can do it sell. 4s is going to take a a partnership between homeland security, the fbi, for us to work together. when i look at what is going on in cyberspace, and the capabilities that are growing, this is an incredible opportunity for us as a nation around the world to -- for us as a nation and around the world. the ability for education, this is a tremendous time. when we look at what we can do with this with respect to medical care in the future, it is a bright future for us. it is complicated by the fact that cyber espionage, and the threats that senator shelby talked about.

archivist and say i would like, i would like for my grandfather, robert alexander and the, and i got his leg if anybody cares. so mr. hand did not have access to e-mail. i wrote him a letter and told him that i cared, and you know, i didn't really know if he would be able to take pictures and e-mail it to me or anything like that. but a few weeks passed and i got an e-mail one day that just said, that title was duncan hannah, no message at all him and is just a series of photographs taken in the feed store. so it was his leg and all these feedback and you can see somebody's hand holding it. and it was just a variety of angles and it was finally one picture that showed the bottom of the foot. and i could see the screw holes and i knew how the patent work and the new with the cables went and i knew it was one of the patent likes to the stump that people had were so ragged. and painful that put in a good wooden leg on it to get around was often not desirable for them. they were hot. they hurt the stumps. they just came up with something, or walk around with a couple of coaches. the state pay for them. they had two opt

alexander on tuesday afternoon. thank you very much for being with us, mr. leader. >> you bet, andrey a. glad to be with you. >> i know you support the concept of these programs but tell me why you think the balance doesn't need to be adjusted or changed. >> i think we need to look at the balance, andreandrea. i think we had a briefing yesterday, it was a classified briefing so i can't talk about the substance. what i can talk about, however, is that it was one of the most thoughtful briefings in which i've participated with the whole caucus invited. the whole caucus wasn't there. republicans, democrats, the congress. it was very interesting in terms of the bipartisan views that were expressed. some support it, some not supported. some thinking we need adjustment. it was not along party lines. it was a very thoughtful consideration that as a nation, as policy makers we have to balance the constitutional privacy rights that americans want and must have consistent with our constitution and on the other hand america's desires and congress's desire to make sure they're safe and secure in the

alexander still acknowledged they still don't have a way to block system administrators like edward snowden from taking secrets. william cohen served as secretary of defense during the clinton administration an joins us now. mr. secretary, thanks very much for being with us. one of the parts of the testimony that was so interesting was that alexander said they're still working on how to stop someone like edward snowden from accessing all of this. i understand that the damage assessment is just climbing by the day as they discover more an more data that he took from the computers. they don't even know the extent of it, and he is threatening to disclose more. so, is this a profound problem within our intelligence community? >> i think the problem is we have too many people who have access to top-secret clearances. as a result of that, you have people who are not fully vetted, and this may be the case with mr. snowden, but i think they have to take much greater care in allowing the individuals who do have access to this information to be able to take it out. now it's clear to me that there has to be some process whereby you simply can't plug a drive in and pull out information and take it home and give it to ou

mr. gardner, for their hard work on this piece of legislation. it's no small feat to move legislation to the president's desk in such an efficient manner. i'd like to thank senators harkin and senator alexander for their leadership. mr. speaker, i support this bill and encourage my colleagues to do the same and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. mr. waxman: mr. speaker, i rise in support of h.r. 1407, the animal drug user fee amendments of 2013. f.d.a.'s animal drug user fee programs have been successful at speeding both brand and generic drugs to the market. however, i regret we have not taken this opportunity to provide f.d.a. with new tools to address a glaring public health crisis, the problem of antibiotic resistance. antibiotics are truly a lifesaving gift. unfortunately the more they are used the less they work. untold numbers of americans die are infected each year by antibiotic resistance. we know most antibiotic use occurs on the farm, and much of this issue is not to treat sick animals but most of the use is for disease prevention or growth promotion. if it's for treating sick anima

mr. ranking member, members of the committee, as general alexander said and as the chairman and ranking member have said, all of us in the national security area are constantly trying to balance protecting public safety with protecting people's privacy and civil liberties in this government. and it's a constant job at balancing this. we think we've done this in these instances. there are statutes that are passed by congress. this is not a program that's off the books, that's been hidden away. this is part of what government puts together and discusses, statutes are passed. it is overseen by three branches of our government, the legislature, the judiciary and the executive branch. the process of oversight occurs before, during and after the processes that we're talking about today. and i want the talk a little bit about how that works, what the legal framework is and what some of the protections are that are put into it. first of all, what we have seen published in the newspaper concerning 215, this is the business records provisions of the patriot act that also modify fisa, you've seen one ord

alexander hanna. and i've got his leg if anybody cares. mr. hannah did not have access to e-mail. i wrote him a letter and told him i cared. i didn't know if he would be able to take pictures and e-mail it or anything like that, but a few weeks passed and i got an e-mail that said the title was duncan hannah. no message at all. taken in a feed store and all the speed x you can see somebody's hand holding it undergoes a variety of angles and finally one picture showed the bottom of the foot and i could see the screw holes and i knew how the patent work and where the cables went. i knew it was one of the patent legs, the stumps people had were so ragged and painful epididymis would like to get around was off to not desirable for them. they were hot, they hurt the stumps. they would just come up with something a home or work around. the state paid for them. they could have purchased the patent and purchased the kids, the wood blocks and everything for a little bit less. obviously the most cost effective date with what they did and that was having some come down and they paid $75 if h

mr. snow then, in "wired" last year and a verbally told me basically the same thing. soon after, keith alexander came out denying all of this. it gives me a lot of thought about what might have been going through snowden's mind. if he sees the other whistle- they comeming out, out and say the government is doing these things. then the administration and nsa says that is not true, and then the mainstream media falls in , whatith the nsa position could go through somebody's mind is, the only way to actually get attention to this is to show the real documents, show what is going on. you cannot deny, if you're looking at a foreign intelligence court order, that shows all of these telephone records being connected, even local records, on the daily basis. that is the problem. you tell the public what is going on, the administration denies it. so what is next, you have to show the proof. >> explain the spy center that is being built in the bluffdale, utah. the best way-- >> to think is nsa's external hard drive. it is stored from all they get from surveillance, including daily records of everyone's tel

mr. udall, thank you, it has been a pleasure. >> thank you. >> talking to nsa director general keith alexander, let's listen. >> -- really challenge. sitting at tran transparent democra democracy. we are trusting the country to prevent another the 9/11 attack but this trust can be hard. there is incomplete information painting an inaccurate picture and fostering distrust in our government. this is particularly so when those of white house have taken the oath to protect information that can damage the national secure fit released, cannot publicly clarify information because it remains classified. it is at times like these where our enemies, with our enemies within, become almost as damaging as our enemies on the outside. it is critically important to protect sources and methods so we aren't giving the enemy our play book. it is also important, however, to be able to talk about how these programs help protect us so they can continue to be reauthorized and then we highlight the protections and oversight of which these programs operate under. general alexander, you and i have talked over the last week about the need to be able to publ

i would like to suggest that general alexander go first, followed by mr. beers.he microphone is yours. >> thank you very much. i think what you and senator shelby have pointed out with respect to cyberspace is absolutely important for us to discuss. the threats that we face today continue to grow. it takes for the government a team to work. before i go any further, i want to point out that the team is here. it is great to be a part of that team. no one government department arranges he can do it sell. 4s is going to take a a partnership between homeland security, the fbi, and -- for us to work together. when i look at what is going on in cyberspace, and the capabilities that are growing, this is an incredible opportunity for us as a nation around the world to -- for us as a nation and around the world. the ability for education, this is a tremendous time. when we look at what we can do with this with respect to medical care in the future, it is a fright -- bright future for us. it is complicated by the fact that cyber espionage, and the threats that senator shelb

he said i would like the confederate pension for my grandfather, robert alexander hannah, and i've got his leg if anybody cares. mr hannah did not have access to e-mail. i wrote him a letter and told him that, i cared. and i didn't really know if he would be able to take pictures and e-mail it to me or anything like that, but a few weeks passed, and i got an e-mail one day that just said, the title was, duncan -- the subject line was duncan hannah no message at all and just a series of photographs taken in a feed store, so it was this leg and all these feed bags and you could see somebody's hand holding it, and it was just a variety of angles and then there was this one picture that showed the bottom of the foot, and i could see the screw holes and i knew how the patent worked and i knew where the cables went, and i knew it was one of the patent legs. the stumps were so ragged and painful that putting this big wooden leg on it to get around was often not desirable for them. they were hot. they hurt, the stumps. they just come up with something at home. or walk around with a couple of crutches. the state paid for t

mr. snowden claims he had access to even more information. are you satisfied with the answers you got yesterday from general alexander?i think they're still in process of analyzing where they are too. i think the general was quite honest. i asked him point blank after that answer if they were ready to get after the contractors. he said, we haven't made that full analysis yet. it brings up this point that we spend a lot of money trying to keep this information out of the hands of folks who are trying to do harm to us when, in fact, we have to pay attention to folks on the inside too. >> what do you think of the decision by mr. snowden to release this information? >> as far as the verizon sweep information, he should have probably done something different. on the other side of the coin, it gives us an opportunity to have a debate on this issue we've never had. if he has been giving other information out to the chinese or anybody else, we need to get hip ba him back in this country and try h him and penalize him. the bottom line, as far as the release of the verizon material on the meta data, i don't know how that compro

alexander, head of the national security agency, big shot. he goes up to the senate appropriations committee. >> i saw an interview in dh mr. snowden claim that due to his position at nsa, he could tap into virtually any american's phone calls or e-mails. true or false? >> false. i know of no way to do that. >> but we haven't gotten to the crux of the matter here at that hearing so far, cameron. that is, does the nsa take any from americans do you know? >> they will tell lawmakers about those programs, if they exist, in classified talks tomorrow. not that much at all interesting, really. because important stuff happens behind closed doors. having said that, the nsa chief did defend the program and personnel. basically said that they are good people and that they are trying to do what the right. and that agency works lawfully and they respect privacy. when analyzed together. they have been quote critical to disrupting dozens of terrorist actions. >> you expect him to say that. you don't expect him to say guilty of crimes. but we know, cameron, they are bundling and seizing phone records. not listening in but who you call, wh

interview" clifford alexander, secretary of the united states army under president carter and chairman of the u.s. equal employment opportunity commission under president johnson. mr. secretary, thank you for being with us again. it's an honor to have you here. >> thank you so much. glad to be with you, rachel. >> the pentagon says it is eager to enforce these civil rights rulings so it can stop discriminating against some service members and their families. do you think it is unusual to have the pentagon speaking to clearly and so quickly on this matter? >> i think it is good that they spoke clearly. i do think that the efficiency that is within the pentagon will see to it that the rules are carried out as they should be carried out. i also believe that it would be a good idea if the civilian side took a hint from the pentagon in terms of the efficiency of carrying out the many rules and regulations that effect people that shouldn't negatively. i think there are over 1,000 of them within the federal government now. so it would seem to me that it would be very good for the white house to send some orders out to each of the cabinet members with daytime charts on th