mrs. mccarthy of new york. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 479, the gentlewoman from new york, mrs. mccarthy, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. mccarthy: i rise today to offer an amendment to the deeply flawed bill before us now. we continue the majority's political motivated attacks on regulations. for the past two weeks we have considered bills design to slow down and stop the regulatory process. the bill before us today doesn't target just the rules that the majority might have you believe, it would hamper all rule mations, even those essential to public health and safety. my amendment today seeks to address that issue by exempting the reins act regulations related to food safety, workplace safety, air quality, consumer product safety or water quality. these issues are too important to be impended by the majority's talking points. consumers can't be put at risk because one house of congress can't get its act together to pass food safet

mr. markey, five minutes. the chair: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized for how many minutes? five minutes. the gentleman is recognized. mr. markey: i thank the gentleman. we are now debating on a very real piece of legislation that solves an imaginary problem. the farm dust regulation prevention act purports to address the fictitious threat that the environmental protection agency is out to destroy the family farm and countless jobs by regulating the dust emitted by tractors and other farming equipment. never mind that e.p.a. administrator, lisa jackson, has committed to leaving the 1987 standard for paragraph particularals unchanged. -- particles unchanged. and never mind the assistant administrator essentially told the energy and commerce committee that e.p.a. was about as likely to regulate fairy dust as it was to regulate farm dust. while hiding behind its stated purpose of addressing the made up threat of utter ruin to the family farm, this bill inflicts very real harm. that is because it also blocks t

mr. peters of michigan. the chair: the gentleman from michigan, mr. peters, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan. mr. peters: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the chair: so recognized. mr. peters: there is no question that congress must act immediately to help our nation's small businesses succeed, create jobs, and boost our economy. unfortunately, instead of moving common sense legislation to extend the payroll tax cut for middle class families and enacting the american jobs act to help small businesses afford new hires and investments, we are today considering h.r. 527, the regulatory flexibility improvements act this legislation, while it is well intentioned is a step in the wrong direction. in addition to making it more difficult for agencies to take action to protect workers and the public, it will also slow down agency guidance that could help create certainty and spur job creation. this bill will create paralysis by analysis by subjecting any action an agency proposes to

gowdy knows there is only so much i will be able to say. >> mr. chair? >> thank you, mr. attorney- general. mr. attorney general, thank you for your testimony today. i ask unanimous consent that the general from colorado, mr. paulus, be assigned to the -- if there is no objection, so ordered. the hearing is adjourned. >> this morning, homeland security secretary and an apology and now is that the council on foreign relations. she will be interviewed by terry moran of abc news. you can watch it live on c-span2 at 8:30 eastern. on c-span, "washington journal" is next, live with your phone calls. later, how the obama administration manages scandals. and tonight, the final episode of "the contenders" about two- time presidential candidate ross perot. a new report shows increasingly in --

the chair: the gentleman from michigan. mr. conyers: i yield to the ranking member currently, george miller of california, i yield him as much time as it may consume. the chair: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. miller: i thank the gentleman for yielding. and, mr. speaker, this is a very sad day for america's workers. this country has spent great time and effort, along with the industrial base and the business base in this country to ensure when workers go to work every day they will return safely to their home. this legislation begins to bring that to an end because it would needlessly and recklessly expose our workers to injuries. it would obstruct the federal agencies to adequately respond to real safety and health concerns of our nation's workplace. under the current law, both the occupational safety and health administration and the mine safety health administration would be tasked to protect workers from exposure for risk and toxins over their working lifetime. however, this legislation would override that t

thank you, mr. chair. on behalf of the staff of the transportation authority and myself, we wish you the very best of luck in your new capacity. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. >> i do have a few items i would like to highlight. we cannot have a report without an update on what is happening in washington, d.c., on the reauthorization of the six-year service transportation act. you all heard about this at some length at the last meeting. the house, under the leadership of chairman micah, had worked to put together what looked like was going to be a five-year bill. we are, however, again back at the point of discussing what their revenue is going to be. there was some sense of an agreement just a month ago about using royalties from extended oil and gas exploration to pay for the revenue gap, but that has fallen apart as republican members of the house have backed away from that. then we had the valiant efforts going on in the senate, led by senator barbara boxer, to try to put together a two-year bill ther

tierney from massachusetts for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chair. mr. chaffetz, i think we hollowed out collaboration seems in keeping at least the personnel on board and to manage contracts every time we have a hearing on that respect. if we contract outcome which is not always a good idea, then at least we have to keep on board enough people to manage these things for everybody's benefit. in your report, mr. chaffetz, the sub prime contract for afghanistan used on while those are provided the projects required by the contract to defend statistics agency failed to provide contract costs performance. specifically you found the agency overpaid the vendor a hundred million dollars in transportation costs, pick another $455 million to jewish pressures vegetables without equipping core requirements and allowed to build over $50 million in costs would erode the perp reaching here. what recourse do you have this inspector general in the agency fails to properly manage a contract that leads to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to taxpayer. >> well, tha

. >> mr. chair, mr. president, members of the committee. prior to my years of experience with national issues, this was also as a 25-year member of the planning department and a five- year member of the planning group, so i have had considerable background there, and i currently keep my hand in as a quote interested citizen on the northeast waterfront advisory group, and as such, i have had the opportunity to participate in the planning of east of the embarcadero steady and many presentations and many comments pro and con of this project -- the embarcadero study. one thing i would like to say, i think that the members in this room are probably very concerned about the testimony they heard about the golden gate towers and how it has been finding ways to avoid paying higher taxes on the property and to get around the city rent control board, and i would hope that the city would find this legislation in this regard. also, having said that, as was indicated, the golden gateway owner is not the developer for this project. the developer for this

[roll call] >> mr. chair, you have a quorum. >> let me welcome the staff this afternoon, think you very much. >> announcement of prohibition of sound producing devices. the use of telephones, pagers, and other -- get the tape recorder on so that every precious word is remembered out of austerity. other sound producing electronics are prohibited at the meeting. if you're responsible for one going off, you may be removed for the meeting. the board respectfully request they be placed in the off position. is there a motion for approval and a second of the mets for the last meeting? >> so ordered -- of the minutes for the last meeting? >> so ordered. >> i like to ask the department to take a look at the citation report. we haven't seen those in several months. >> will work and get something on the calendar for you. >> other directors? >> the directors' report. >> i am sitting in for the director of transportation. since this is the first meeting of the month, we will start with the special recognition award from t

mr. chair, if we could set the clock at three minutes, i would like ms. hester to talk about this afternoon. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am an attorney. what you have here is the redevelopment map for the lower embarcadero, the lower market street redevelopment area. will we now think of, and this is golden gateway. and this is the freeway. when the city started this area in 1959, they delineated this area here as residential, north of washington street, and the freeway ramps were a really big factor when this was developed. the city tore down the area along the embarcadero, and they tore down the ramps, but the freeway system is a system that basically used washington and clay and broadway and samson and battery to move traffic on to the embarcadero freeway, and they just wore them down. they did not go back and look at what changes needed to be made. this included start walls all along washington street. there was a director who was very familiar with the original heights. he is going to talk about that. when this area was developed, these buildin

tierney from massachusetts for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chair. mr. chaffetz, i think we hollowed out collaboration seems in keeping at least the personnel on board and to manage contracts every time we have a hearing on that respect. if we contract outcome which is not always a good idea, then at least we have to keep on board enough people to manage these things for everybody's benefit. in your report, mr. chaffetz, the sub prime contract for afghanistan used on while those are provided the projects required by the contract to defend statistics agency failed to provide contract costs performance. specifically you found the agency overpaid the vendor a hundred million dollars in transportation costs, pick another $455 million to jewish pressures vegetables without equipping core requirements and allowed to build over $50 million in costs would erode the perp reaching here. what recourse do you have this inspector general in the agency fails to properly manage a contract that leads to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to taxpayer. >> well, tha

mr. chairman and directors. i am a chair of the citizen's advisory council. i have a a couple things to talk to you about today, in terms of our recommendations passed at the last meeting. the first and biggest is the recommendations regarding the draft of why 20132018 strategic plan. this is something that we participated in the workshops where i represented in the workshops. however, on the final plan, there are a number of areas where we think the plan could be improved. about the plan as it was presented to us. we have a couple things that are sort of applied to the whole plan, then i will talk a little bit about problems we have with various objectives. we think the plan should refer to the voter adopted transit first policy in the other policy objectives of the agency. it has been adopted twice by voters of san francisco and we believe it serves as an important guidepost for the agency. when we talk about the objectives of the agency, we have to remember that some of those objectives have been set by the voters. we think of the transit first policy and

mr. flake of arizona. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 487, the gentleman from arizona, mr. flake, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona. mr. flake: thank you, mr. chairman. while the clean air act obviously serves the useful purpose, all too often states and localities are tied up in knots just trying to comply with provisions of it while the rules promulgated in response to the law or amendments to the law just weren't well thought out. and in this regard in 2005 congress amended the clean air act so states and localities could get off the regulatory hook for so-called exceptional events, dust events, events they cannot control but impact air quality. in 2007, the e.p.a. adopted the exceptional event rule implementing congress' amendment to the clean air act, but this rule has proven flawed, costly and inconsistently implemented. let me give you an idea of what we're talking about here. . this is a photograph of one of the events that happened just this year in the phoenix area, phoenix metropolitan area. this

next item -- >> mr. chair, if i may, i do not know this is the right time or place to do this, but i wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your service as chair of the transportation of authority, and i appreciate the work that you and your staff have done. i see that there have been many accomplishments. i want to wish you the best in your future endeavors and look forward to continuing to work with you. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: very sweet of you, and thank you. wearing two hats, multiple hats for step, i certainly want to recognize that added responsibility for staff and interns and everybody else for help manage the duties and responsibilities of the transportation authority, while we recognize the ta staff. and my own staff have had to manage and cope with those responsibilities. thank you to all, your staff, for helping you all where that extra hat, too. so thank you, supervisor campos. i believe we are done. >> item 15. supervisor mirkarimi: excellent. fantastic holiday, new year, and

mr. ellison. the chair: the gentleman is regnized for one minute. mr. llison: i ask unanimous consent to submit this letter for the record from the transportation union. the chair: the gentleman's request is granted under general leave. the gentleman is recognized. mr. ellison: mr. speaker, this particular piece of legislation that uns mines unions,makes it more difficult to organize and generally frustrates american working men and women to organize on the job takes place just a few weeks before the republican majority was trying to take down the clean air act in the e.p.a. when you look at the amican -- the republican job approach, it seems to me their argument seems to be that workers and people who want to breathe are the problem with the american economy. people who want to drink clean water and breathe clean air and people who want to have some rights on the job, they're the reason the american economy doesn't work. well that happens to be about 99% of us, mr. speaker. and i hope that as people are watching this debate on this floor today, that the

thank you, mr. chair. on behalf of the staff of the transportation authority and myself, we wish you the very best of luck in your new capacity. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you.

secretary boomer: mr. chair, with those items behind you, we do chairman nolan: we have received this. it is not an action item. i was asked yesterday about what does receiving actually mean. could you explain that a little bit? >> let's take two minutes to talk about this report. if you remember, we started having conversations about the charges, electronic bills, and what we decided to do was to hire a third party, and after speaking with multiple stakeholders, they are here to provide a presentation. chairman nolan: going back to the question, what actually is receiving? >> after from the public, to go back and take the comments and fold them into the next step, which is the best practices study that we are just about to award. it would be to take what we receive. they can also give you a highlight. >> this is to help you to make an informed decision when we do come back before you. this is for your edification. chairman nolan: do you want to hear the presentation or the public? how long of a presentation are