mr. barrasso: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that we go into recess at this point, as planned. i'm sorry. i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that we go into recess at this time. the presiding officer: without objection. recess: tomorrow morning, president obama will participate in the 16th annual national prayer breakfast. expected to speak around 80 in eastern. more live here on c-span2. also tomorrow, chairman ben bernanke is scheduled to talk about the economy before the house budget committee. watching that live starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern over on the c-span three. president obama today outlined a new mortgage proposal the withheld polers underwater on mortgages refinanced their homes with lower interest rates. housing and urban development secretary sean donovan discuss the plan with reporters at the white house this afternoon. >> is this for me? a little early for valentine's

mr. barrasso? >> when we talk about the professori proffering of an offer, will it be how we deal with unemployment benefits or simply addresses part of what we need to do on unemployment benefits? >> my understanding, if i can answer, is the latter. >> so we'll have to deal with other aspects of unemployment? >> clearly. >> got to crawl before you can walk. congressman walden? >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i appreciate the discussion and the senate's openness to provide us with an offer. i think that's very good faith and we look forward to receiving it. i think it's important to remind people that the house did approve a full one-year extension of unemployment. the house did approve a full one-year extension of the middle class payroll tax cut. and a two-year fix of the physician payment schedule so that seniors could have access to their doctors. that is what went to the senate. what came back was the two month proposal that has us together here as a 20-member family trying to work out h

mr. barrasso: thank you. i come to the floor today, as i do week after week, to talk about the health care law and offer a doctor's second opinion about this health care law. i do that as someone who's practiced medicine in wyoming, taken care of families across the cowboy state for a quarter of a century, and i do at that bade because we are now's a pproaching the second anniversary of the president's health care law and, as predicted by many of on my side of the aisle, the negative results continue to roll in and billions of taxpayer dollars continue to roll out. each week we learn more about how this law is going to break another one of the president's promises. he made a lot of prornlings -- f promises, one of which, he said, it will not add a dime to the deficit. it is now clear that the democrats in congress completely underestimated, certainly vok vocally, how much the president's new entitlement program is going to cost the american people. and i come week after week because nancy pelosi said, first y

mr. barrasso: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. madam president, i come to the floor as i do week after week as a physician who practiced medicine in caspar, wyoming, taking care of families in the community and across the state for about a quarter of a century. and i come as a doctor providing a second opinion about the health care law. since this health care law was signed by the president almost two years ago, the public has been overwhelmingly opposed to it. democrats in congress drafted this health care law. they did so quickly and behind closed doors. in spite of the president's promise that discussions would be held on c-span, no one saw what was happening. well, now the bill is law. and as nancy pelosi said, first you have to pass it before you get to find out what's in it, we have as americans witnessed week after week the unintended consequences of the rush of the democrats to score what they thought would be a political victory. so i continue to come to the floor with a second opinion

mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator barrasso? >> thank you very much. mr. chairman, mr. secretary, thank you for being here. we sat close the each other at the state of the union. during that address i was happy to hear the president say, quote, this country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above energy strategy that develops every available source of american energy. i'm encouraged to hear you echo those comments today in your testimony. unfortunately the president's rhetoric rarely matches the reality. and monday congress learned the lesson once again, of course, with the president's fiscal year 2013 budget. specifically, the tens of billions of dollars in new taxes and fees on american energy, oil and natural gas. it's hard to understand how the president can impose tens of billions of dollars in new taxes on american energy and still pursue the, quote, all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of american energy. i know the american people realize that doesn't make sense. we all support renewable energy. what i see is this president and this

mr. secretary. >> senator barrasso. >> thank you, mr. secretary, for being here. last week president obama went to miami to give another speech on energy. he stated that, quote, i will do whatever i can to develop every source of american energy so our future isn't controlled by events on the other side of the world. nice words. the president too often says one thing and then does in my opinion something very different. and to me that's been nowhere more evident than what we are seeing in the interior department because the president says he supports an all out, all-of-the-above energy strategy, but the department has repeatedly taken steps to limit american energy production. a couple of compafrpbls, in november the department propose add five-year plan which excludes both pacific and atlantic oceans. the plan excludes the development off the coast of virginia, even though both senators, both democrat senators and the governor of virginia, a republican, supported such development. in january, the department withdrew approximately a million acres in northern arizo

mr. brady talked about woodchips. that has been changed. senator baucus and senator barrasso talked about standards being changed. this is the first time that this is being scheduled. we have never had any standard. that epa wrote to the senate on january 18 that the epa can and will use legally available and tools to address compliance concerns that boilers and incinerators subject to the rules subject to the result of a court decision and they are still talking to the industry. the rules will only be finalized until april or may so the industry cannot comply to these rules does not make sense because we do not know what the final rules are going to be. i do not think congress should take the action now to say that you cannot adopt rules. the problem is not choosing winners or losers, the boiler manufacturers or the operators. it is to protect children, children who are exposed pre- made early to neurotoxic mercury. let the senate hold a hearing on it and get the final information and then see if the people who are co-sponsors believe the bill is necessary because i think a lot of people will say the bill is no