mr. chairman. these individuals, either we're going to apply the law and trust the regulators and allow them to promulgated the proper regulation so there is transparency in these products and then allow the mark place to work -- marketplace to work, mr. chairman i urge adoption of this amendment. >> all in favor kate by saying aye. opposed. >> opposition -- the amendment fails. clerk call the role. >> mr. stark. >> no. >> stark votes no. >> mr. lefrp. >> no. >> mr. levin votes no. >> mr. mcdermott. >> mr. lewis. >> no. >> mr. lewis votes no. mr. neil no. >> mr. tanner. mr. becerra, mr. becerra votes no. mr. pomeroy votes no, mr. thompson. votes no. mr. larson. mr. lumme in our. votes no. mr. kind. mr. kind votes no. mr. pass crowe. no. ms. berkeley. >> yes. >> votes yes. mr. crowley. votes no. mr. van hollen. mr. van hollen votes no. mr. meek. mr. meek votes no. ms. schwartz. votes no. mr. davis of alabama. votes no. mr. davis of illinois. mr. davis of oil now votes no. mr. ethridge. mr. ethridge v

mr. chairman, mr. burton, the problem is you're such a pessimist, you have this notion of what we have out there is doomed to failure and there for you to set up these high-risk insurance pools. this bill in is of the most optimistic wonderful thing that we can possibly achieve and don't take it down with his pessimistic attitude of this amendment. i yield back. >> the gentleman yield back, mr. barton for closing on your eminence. >> briefly mr. chairman, the contrary to my friend from new jersey says i'm an optimist, but i look as the cbo scoring on a public auction and the current bill and i see when trillion, that's not all because of a public plan been a big chunk of it is indelicate this alternative and i see approximately 2 billion a year. if we get the same band for the bought except own spin to don't -- $2 billion a year instead of a hundred billion a. seems to me we would want to go with a less expensive alternative. but i'm very optimistic. i think the market transparency, people for the sake

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i rise in support of the amendment offered by the gentleman from washington, representing a state that has a significant rural base. the outreach program in h.r. 2965 should not overlook the creativity of any rural americans. the amendment of the gentleman from washington will help ensure that no rural americans will be overlooked in the sbir and sttr programs. mr. chairman, i'd yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back. mr. reichert: mr. chairman, i'd close by saying i very much appreciate the support on this amendment from the other side of the aisle and my colleagues, especially the chairwoman and mr. smith for their support and also for their support of mr. graves. i thank you and i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from new york. ms. velazquez: mr. chairman, we are prepared to accept the amendment. i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the question's on the amendment offered b

mr. chairman, thank you, mr. speaker, i want to associate my -- myself with the remarks of steve israel and the aforementioned members of the hydrogen caucus who have been critical to promoting this legislation. i want to thank chairman pastor, especially his staff, tonya berkman and also joe levin who played an instrumental role in making sure that we got this important funding included in the bill. now, in connecticut, we have -- we pride ourselves on being a fuel cell center. we have more than eight companies, three in my home district. as steve israel pointed out, and i know mr. pastor knows this the importance of being energy independent cuts to the core of what we're going to do. this is technology that's been around for some time. we use it successfully in nasa. we're able to power our space vehicles, able to use the water and be able to heat and cool and power our spacecraft. with that, can we get people back and forth to work and heat and cool our buildings? i think so. the whole goal is to make sure we'r

mr. chairman -- mr. speaker, that we've heard several times here today about this action are complaints from the people who helped wreck america's economy and are now complaining because of the way this president and this congress is trying to pull the country out of the ditch and restore economic growth. we've come to expect that, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant. with that i yield a minute to the distinguished speaker of the house. the speaker pro tempore: the speaker of the house is recognized. the speaker: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding and i thank him for his very important and swift action to address the opportunity that was given to us this week. as you know, my colleagues, as part of the supplemental earlier this year the cash for clunkers provision was provided in it. many people had worked very, very hard on that for a long time and we were able to have it passed on a bill that was going to be signed by the president. i want to acknowledge congres

mr. chairman, i -- mr. holt: mr. chairman, i commend the chair of the subcommittee for producing a good bill. i seek to enter into a colloquy with him in conducting audits of electronic election results. voting is the foundation of our democracy. it's the right through which we preserve other rights. and anything of value should be auditable, especially our votes. that's why it's so important that states using paperless systems have all the funding they need to convert to paper ballot voting systems before the next general election and that all states have the funding they need to conduct audits of the electronic tallies. and i'd yield at this ment back to the chairman. mr. serrano: i agree with the gentleman about the importance of protecting the integrity of the vote count. i was pleased to incorporate funding in the bill and language in the committee report stressing the importance of gathering information on voting system malfunctions making official paper ballots more accessible, and varyfying election results. i

mr. chairman? >> yes, gentleman mr.regon. >> i'm just now being able to peruse the amendment that came out at 9:09 last night. are there any -- has this been scored or do we know how much money we're talking about here? do you know, mr. chairman? any data on the costs of this? >> gentleman, we yield. these are authorizationings of appropriations, so we don't have a score on authorizations, the score would be on the appropriation. >> is there like a grand total for the amount that we're authorizing here? >> -- let me ask council if there's a grand total for the amount? speak up. >> are there totals for each bill. perhaps i could direct to the council that mr. chair. >> could you show me on what page for each of these, i understand there are eight. >> if you yield to me. often authorizations spell out a specific amount. oftentimes they leave it to the appropriations committee and figure out how much is needed after they examine the request. we would authorize a program and -- 0 and then, the the appropriations committee w

mr. chairman para did mr. chairman, this amendment was worked out with mr. sarbanes and your excellent staff of, and also is part of legislation that i have offered with two colleagues, melissa bean, it would bolster the safety and security of our communities by enhancing the surge capacity of local medical facility is end at the same time it would help returning veterans transition into civilian live. the amendment authorizes grant funding to create a fast track for military medics to become emergency responders. and also commissions to the gao studied identify in obstacles keeping former military medical profession from entering civilian medical fields. in the mr. chairman, everyone here understands their extraordinary service performed by military medics on the battlefields and iraq and afghanistan they are the true mashed champions of our work efforts in those places and a gain invaluable experience responding to ied attacks and other catastrophic emergency is on the battlefield. however, when they return home, the unemployment rate of returning veterans

mr. chairman. mr. hairman, we've had a lot of hearings on privacy here on this committee and when i was chairman of the committee, we had -- we had many hearings on privacy. and i think my concern is that if we transfer some of the federal trade commission's privacy work to this new cfpa, particularly, in light of all the expertise that you have and you've been the leading federal agency in the area of consumer product safety for all these years, and including financial privacy as well as identity theft information security so with that in mind, what do you feel about this transfer? >> well, i guess, i'd make a couple of points and this committee and you have been leaders on privacy issues. you know, we'll be transferring over a lot of laws we hope to keep a back-stop authority that is concurrent and, of course, this is the beginning of the legislative process. it's not the end. >> no, i understand. >> i see a lot of agreement on many things within this committee on ways to go forward. the way we read t

mr. chairman. >> mr. stupak? >> mr. chairman i have the amendment at the desk, 005. >> the clerk will report the amendment. >> mr. stupak, could you repeat the number? >> 005. >> five? >> top right-hand corner, 005. >> could you say what the vision? is it a or b? >> a. >> it is a. >> the clerk will report the amendment. >> amendment offered by mr. stupak of michigan, mr. pitts of pennsylvania and mr. terrie of nebraska. at the poor pcie please insert the following. >> i would ask unanimous consent that the amendment be considered as read. can i ask again that this is within the division and has been provided within the time, the two hours? >> yes, mr. chairman. >> thank you. mr. stupak is recognized. >> thank you mr. chairman. over the past 35 years congress has passed three laws, the church amendment, and the hyde amendment protecting the conscious writes for health workers is this the with regard to abortion. however the lenhardt feazel legislation we are considering here today does not contain conscious protections fo

mr. chairman. mr. hairman, i want you to know that when i go to visit these plants and i see these people working whose sons and daughters are fighting, they know how important these vests are, they know how important their work is for the defense department. i remember 20 years ago when i brought defense companies into my districts and i had 24% unemployment, and we didn't have the specification, we didn't have any small business that could do the work. we didn't get any awards. once we learned it and able to perfect it, once we were able to compete, the people in my district are hard working. we got the unemployment down below the national level, a diversified economy. all i could do was bring people in. i can't direct them where to do the business of the defense department. they do it on their own. they are the ones that awards the contracts. and i visit those plants and i see those hardworking people. i see what they do for this great country. not only the troops serving in iraq and afghanistan, but

mr. chairman para did mr. chairman, this amendment was worked out with mr. sarbanes and your excellent staff of, and also is part of legislation that i have offered with two colleagues, melissa bean, it would bolster the safety and security of our communities by enhancing the surge capacity of local medical facility is end at the same time it would help returning veterans transition into civilian live. the amendment authorizes grant funding to create a fast track for military medics to become emergency responders. and also commissions to the gao studied identify in obstacles keeping former military medical profession from entering civilian medical fields. in the mr. chairman, everyone here understands their extraordinary service performed by military medics on the battlefields and iraq and afghanistan they are the true mashed champions of our work efforts in those places and a gain invaluable experience responding to ied attacks and other catastrophic emergency is on the battlefield. however, when they return home, the unemployment rate of returning veterans

mr. chairman. i would yield five minutes to the distinguished ranking member of the transportation-infrastructure committee, the gentleman from florida, mr. mica. the chair: the gentleman from florida is recognized for five minutes. mr. mica: i want to thank you for the opportunity to speak on this important transportation and h.u.d. funding bill. i want to first of all compliment mr. olver, mr. latham, the two leaders of the appropriations subcommittee on a great job that they have done, an effort that they have put together, their staff in addressing transportation and infrastructure needs for the nation. and this is one of the most important bills that we'll pass because this job actually will put people to work. and i can tell you, my colleagues, and every one of you know the statistics, the national unemployment is 9.5%. in my state of florida we're 10.5%. i have some counties in my district that are 15%. and we have a problem, and one of the ways to get people working and in jobs is building i

mr. chairman. mr. hairman, i hope all seniors across this country who are medicare recipients are listening and watching these proceedings and listen very carefully to the last amendment by mr. weiner. this -- my amendment, mr. chairman, is addressing the fact that we have an unfunded liability of $37 trillion by the year 2075. and yet, to fund this new program to try to come up with the pay-fors, what this bill does is it has cut $500 billion out of the current medicare system that already has a $37 trillion unfunded liability. and i hope every senior is listening very, very carefully. mr. chairman, this amendment would take all of that pay for, all of that $500 billion put it back where it belongs. put it into the medicare system. here are some of the things that we could do with that $500 billion rather than trying to create a whole new public plan, medicare for all. we could close the doughnut hole. we could provide that are covered under part d., the prescription drug plan, something our democratic

mr. chairman and i would like to briefly thank mr. skinner for making this trip to testify and congratulate him on his recent election. he has been a leader in the european union and in parliament. he has been a leader in championing of the directive which provides an important it relevant example of an effort underway to create a more efficient regulatory structure, and yesterday's op-ed in "the washington post" by larry summers and tim geithner noted the importance of international coordination among regulators and reiterated the administration's commitment to leading the effort to improve supervision around the world. unfortunately, with their fragmented regulatory regime over insurance we are lagging at this point. we are not leading the rest of the world. as solvency to work to unite the insurance markets and 27 member countries and the e.u., we continue to struggle with a patchwork system of 50 plus state regulators. with the implementation of this directive nearing, it is becoming more apparent that the framework potentially wi

mr. chairman and i will be brief, i know miss baldwin want to discuss her amendment. i have an amendment i have worked on for behavioral health trading grants, not only myself but mr. murphy of pennsylvania. >> we will accept both amendments. a voice vote, we will accept them. >> okay, we want to end up on a positive note. >> i accept that and withdraw my -- >> we will accept to show you that we are good guys and let's vote and come back monday and start over. >> i want to make sure the good guys on the record before, -- >> i am trying to be helpful,. >> and mr. green would yield, on the baldwin amendment we're still working on clarification language. i think we all agree in principle and what we're doing with the bald one amendment and want clarification language on possible euthanasia language on this amendment. miss baldwin, if she wants to clarify that i'm going to go give as understanding. >> absolutely. mr. stupak and i have had a significant discussion about an amendment to the baldwin the amendment. i think we are in agreement and as we move toward we will inco

mr. chairman. i will be happy to answer a question. >> mr. me, thank you very much your next we will hear from mister cohen. you may proceed. thank you. chairman dorgan, senator demint and members of the subcommittee. i'm roger cohen and i am president of the regional airline association. i want to express our deepest sympathy for the lives of the passengers and crew of flight 3407 that were lost and for the families affected by the crash. we deeply share in their grief. i also want to express today not only for our member airlines, but for our 60000 highly trained professionals, our total unwavering commitment to safety. as we work towards ensuring patient as we work towards this, let's make sure this postaccident process does not have to be repeated. we will take whatever steps are necessary so that our flight crews and our aircraft are as safe as humanly possible. the safety of our nation's skies is a shared responsibility. at monday's faa summit, five of our regional airlines ceos and other senior leaders, five of our ceos joined with fede

mr. chairman. >> mr. davis from kentucky is recognized. >> thank you mr. chairman. mr. amendment would strike the government-run plan for the underlying bill. the government run plan is simply unworkable. does not get to the root problem of affordability. the bill in front of us today is called americans affordable health choices act. i don't know who came up with the name or how they define affordable but well over a trillion dollars is not considered affordable in flat with kentucky. tens of millions of people if they are move to a government plan as studies predict, you might as well have a car that says your cover but the my dystrophy can find a provider who will see you it is worth as part of that is the coverage and the reason is this bill does nothing to address the core system issues that some of us have been talking about literally four years lendee by the optics in the process at the court which this does not we are going to increase costs of the process in overhead and limit reimbursements and reduce them and ultimately can end up with anything but a rationed

mr. chairman. un die earlier this year attended several white house health care -- you and i earlier this year attended several white house health-care summits. i said that the republicans in the house, the republicans on this committee were very ready and willing to work with the president, with you and other members of the majority, to create a new health-care system for america. there is no member of congress on either side of the aisle that is opposed to improvements or reforms of our current system. we were ready to work. you told me repeatedly that you were ready to work. myself and the other republicans. having said that, actions speak louder than words. what you and i have held several meetings, and we held one meeting with the ranking member of the subcommittee, we agreed to work together. the brown bag lunch that was supposed to occur because of that was scheduled and rescheduled, and finally, last week, we were supposed to have had it last friday at noon. we were called the afternoon befo

mr. chairman. >> mr. rooney? >> thank you, mr. chairman. as quickly as i can, going off what mr. hunter was just saying, when you talk about voluntary versus reliability and it seemed admiral mcdonald was sort of saying that, you know, reliability with elements of voluntary was preference and you were going voluntary with elements of reliability, why is he wrong? >> well, first i respect admiral mcdonald a lot. and i respect his views on this issue. it's one he and i have discussed extensively. we think that there should be a voluntariness requirement being just that as a factor because we think that military commissions, judges, courts, what have you are going to try to impose that any way as we have more and more of these prosecutions. as a requirement, we ought to get it right and make sure that it accounts for all the circumstances that congressman hunter is concerned about. so we are advocating a voluntariness standard but it's got some good language in there that we're happy to put forward for the record within the 10 days that i think is sufficiently flexible to take accou

mr. chairman para did mr. chairman, this amendment was worked out with mr.banes and your excellent staff of, and also is part of legislation that i have offered with two colleagues, melissa bean, it would bolster the safety and security of our communities by enhancing the surge capacity of local medical facility is end at the same time it would help returning veterans trans the amendment authorizes grant funding to create a fast track for military medics to become emergency responders. it also commissions a gao study aimed at identifying obstacles keeping former military medical professionals from entering the civilian medical fields. mr. chairman, everyone here understands the extraordinary service performed by military medics on the battlefields in iraq and afghanistan. they are the true mash champions of our war efforts in those places, and they gained invaluable experience responding to i e the attacks and other catastrophic emergencies on the battlefield. however, when they return home, the unemployment rate of returning vets is about 30%, and they have

mr. chairman. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. >> i wanted to make a statement on behalf of myself and mr. frank of massachusetts and ms. brown of florida regarding the best of catfish industry and if the chair wants to respond, fine, but we've discussed this. it actually came a little bit late in the hearing process to do anything about. but i wanted to give some background and in 2008 the farm bill created a new usda catfish inspection program that requires the usda to define what is considered a catfish. now, the reason this is important is because the f.d.a. traditionally does the inspection on fish, not the usda. but now we put in this farm bill the usda in the catfish business. this was pushed by the domestic catfish industry asserting that chinese catfish processors would not be able to meet the usda equivalentsy requirements of continuous inspection and then could not export competing products to the united states and as somebody who comes from farm country, i know that dealing with f

mr. chairman. the chair: mr. speaker, the committee of the whole on the state of the union having had under consideration h.r. 3183, directs me to report that it has come to no resolution thereon. the speaker pro tempore: the chairman of the committee of the whole house on the state of the union reports that the committee has had under consideration h.r. 3183 and has come to no resolution thereon. the chair will entertain requests for one-minute speeches. the gentlelady from kansas. >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jenkins: mr. speaker, the number of empty storefronts across kansas is growing and the folks who call our towns home continue to ask, where are the jobs? they hear about bailouts and the $1 trillion so-called economic stimulus, but kansans are still struggling. the nation's deficit has topped $1 trillion for the first time. and some say it could grow to $2 trillion by this fall. we should be asha

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, we have had a loss of hearings on privacy in this committee, and when i was the chairman of the committee we had many hearings on privacy and i think my concern is if we transfer some of the federal trade commission privacy at work to this new cfpa, particularly in light of all of the expertise you have and you have been a leading agency for all these years, and including financial privacy as well as identity theft, information security so with that in mind, what do you feel about this transfer? >> i guess i would make a couple of points, this committee and you have been leaders on privacy related issues. we will be transferring over a lot of balls, we hope to keep a backstop authority that is, current and of course this is the beginning of the legislative process -- >> i understand. >> i see a lot of agreement on this committee on ways to go forward. on -- negative -- the way that we've read the legislation it is unclear whether data security will stay with us mr. barr propo

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, we have had a loss of hearings on privacy in this committee, and when i was the chairman of the committee we had many hearings on privacy and i think my concern is if we transfer some of the federal trade commission privacy at work to this new cfpa, particularly in light of all of the expertise you have and you have been a leading agency for all these years, and including financial privacy as well as identity theft, information security so with that in mind, what do you feel about this transfer? >> i guess i would make a couple of points, this committee and you have been leaders on privacy related issues. we will be transferring over a lot of balls, we hope to keep a backstop authority that is, current and of course this is the beginning of the legislative process -- >> i understand. >> i see a lot of agreement on this committee on ways to go forward. on -- negative -- the way that we've read the legislation it is unclear whether data security will stay with us mr. barr propo

mr. chairman, thank you very much. mr. murtha spoke longer than he normally does, and -- but he -- we do our talking as we're producing this bill, and it's a bipartisan bill. we worked together every day with the members of the subcommittee who are really outstanding members and the tremendous staff. it's interesting, a lot of the staff of this subcommittee were here when mr. murtha was chairman before. and then they -- we kept the same staff when i was chairman and when mr. lewis was chairman. we have a really great staff. they know what they're doing. so we produced a good bill. we're a little less than $4 billion under the president's request. we could have used that money because there's a lot of things that we should be doing that we're not, mr. murtha mentioned the f-22. that is a substantial issue, and i will tell you why. i remember one of the earliest session that's i sat with on the defense appropriations subcommittee as a fairly new member listening to a marine who said, we will fight anywhere our country sends

mr. chairman for holding this hearing. >> mr. chairman let me say in response to the congresswoman, i know this highway trust fund for me let is an issue for many, many members. it was during that time that i served and continues to be. i have talked to both of your centers from wyoming about this and i think you will be in a good position along with your senators to really work on this as we work through how to really make the formula fair. there are issues and i know how important these wrote are to states like wyoming. i really do. i mean they are the lifeline for economic development and opportunities and, so we will work with you on that. >> i look forward to it. mr. chairman think as a lot for holding this hearing. >> mr. secretary include me in south carolina among those who want to see. >> thank you mr. chairman. secretaries, thank you very much for being here and thank you for all you have done. i guess you read the fine the term hit the ground running and what you are both experts in your respective fields, i know that y

mr. chairman, i do. it's 14a-001. >> mr. , i reserve a point of order. >> i ask the clerk the following questions again. is this to the subtitle that is under consideration? has it been available for two hours and do you have copies to distribute? >> mr. chairman, yes to all of those questions. >> the answer many the affirmative to all those questions. the clerk will report the amendment. >> amendment offer by mr. gingrey. >> without objection, that amendment will be considered as read and the gentleman from georgia, mr. gingrey, is recognized for five minutes. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much. this amendment would prevent any federal employee or political appointee to dictate how a medical provider practices medicine as a result of the development of best practices by the center for quality improvement. mr. chairman, doctors and their patients are really sacrosanct and the droctor/patient relationship is very important. the center quality improvement as i understand it is similar to the knight organization in the uk heal

mr. chairman. good morning, chairman kanjorski, ranking member dared and members of the subcommittee. it is an honor to testify before you today on these important issues. my name is john hill. i am president and chief operating officer of the magna carta companies. magna carta was founded in new york in 1925 as a mutual insurance carrier for the taxicab industry. although we no longer ensure taxis, we employ 240 individuals and right in 22 states. we very much remained a small mainstreet mutual insurer with $170 million in direct written premium. i'm here today on behalf of the national association of mutual insurance companies to present our views on systemic risk. it represents more than 1400 property and casualty insurance companies ranging from small for mutual companies to state and regional insurance carriers, two large national writers. nami members from the insurance needs of millions of consumers and businesses in every town and city across america. i serve as chairman of nami task force

mr. chairman? >> let me go to mr. blonton.ld to you on the last five minutes of debate. >> i'll yield time to my colleagues after i mistake a couple of comments. one is that there is no study that i'm aware of that indicates that there is anything that saves money or bends the cost curve. we heard the cbo testify with conclusively that the cost curve does not go down, the gentleman's suggestion that somehow this is guaranteed to contain costs is not supported by any information i'm aware of and the tax year we're talking about is a tax that absolutely falls on most of the small businesses in america that get beyond that two or $300 that you say level and their tax will be impacted by this dramatically. the job creating engine of the country, i think the former chairman's amendment, the ranking member's amendment just simply up here is going to be this tax, tries to move it into an area where it doesn't impact the job-creating aspects of small businesses that have -- that do have income that might xooet exceed $250,000 or $300,

mr. chairman. >> mr. chairman. >> i'm sorry. >> mr. an, i'm prepared -- just a second. >> senator brown. >> mr. chairman. >> a couple of things to go back and clear up. i've heard statements that we're taking away rights from companies, the government has given the companies the patents. it's given the companies the exclusivity. those are good things, i think we should but we're not taking away their rights when we limit the amount we're giving them. the patent is 20 years as senator harken said. the exclusivity, make sure this is understood, while the approval process goes on, that getting the pennant, going through the approval process at fda, doing the clinical trials, stage one, stage two, stage three all of that does eat away at patent time but it doesn't eat away at exclusivity time. it doesn't begin and until the fda has said yes. then the period of exclusivity begins. they're not eating away at the seven years that we propose any more than they were eating away at the exclusivity in hatch/waxman. hatch/waxman is five years and i

mr. chairman. mr. airman, ranking member issa, members of the committee, it is an honor and privilege to appear before you today and present to you our quarterly report to congress. in my testimony i would like to outline what is contained in our quarterly report section by section going over some of the highlights. in section 2 of the report we do is we do any jabbar quarterly reports, to summarize what this happened the last three months in the t.a.r.p.. this has been a busy corridor for the tarp. we have seen the expansion of several programs, the bankruptcy of general motors and chrysler an extraordinary government support of those industries, the expansion of the mortgage my vacation program and the selection of servicers and the allocation of approximately $18 billion in support of that program. we have seen paybacks for the t.a.r.p. money, more than $70 billion for capital purchase program recipients and launch the public private investment program with the selection of nine asset managers and co

mr. chairman. i want to commend you and the distinguished ranking member, senator sessions, for conducting a fair and thorough hearing on the nomination of judge sonia sotomayor to replace justice david souter. i was especially pleased when judge sotomayor said the hearing was as gracious and fair as she could have asked for. i came to the confirmation process wanting to vote for a president's nominee and the prospect of a woman of puerto rican heritage serving on the supreme court says a lot about our country, america. i like judge sotomayor and respect her service to her community, the judiciary and the nation. as i expect her to be confirmed, i know that her service will continue for years to come. i spent a great deal of time reading judge sotomayor's speeches, articles and cases, and i participated in all three rounds of questions at the hearing. i genuinely wrestled with this decision. i did not use the political standard taken by senator barack obama in 2005 when he voted against chief justic

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. and mr. maurer, thank you very much for your testimony. as i understand in my opening, you know, i have experienced tragedy in my family with a plane crash with my father in that the plane was never recovered. and it took a tragedy back then to change the rules requiring locater beacons in planes because of that incident. and it was the largest air recovery attempt in this country's history. and so it seems always when we deal with air traffic safety, it's always a tragedy that moves us to the next stage. so i appreciate you being here. i'm very, very sympathetic from personal reasons, but, you know, as i was listening to the testimony -- mr. cohen, i feel like you're on the hot seat and i appreciate your being history. but as i was listening to you, i asked my staff -- 'cause i know all the associations have conferences and meetings and so forth so while you were testifying, i said go get me a copy of your last conference, which was held in midmay. and it was a four-day, five-day conference.

mr. chairman. mr. lahood is always good to see. congratulations on your new post. mr. vilsack, congratulations to you and i want to thank you for the work you're doing with mr. petersen to help the dairy industry and i appreciate the comments you made on that and mr. salazar, good to see you again. i want to draw your attention to this live here. it's a state you guys all recognize as the state of california and as you are probably aware there is a government imposed drought that's been occurring where we've lost 40,000 jobs. this is an area the size of the state of rhode island that's out of production, even been abandoned or followed. the unemployment in this area is close to 20% with some enclaves as high as 40% or even higher. mr. salazar, you visit this area on april 15th to toward the economic devastation and on your visit you announced $260 million in stimulus funds and i will quote from your press release to mitigate the effect of the devastating drought that california is currently experiencing

mr. chairman. mr. barofsky, and thank you for your great torque and i appreciate the work being done by elizabeth warren as well. conover q2 obviously allows us on the oversight committee to do a lot of our work. let me ask you, one of the programs of the treasury has said that was the assassin guarantee program -- assets guarantee program where treasury will guarantee held by qualifying financial visitations. they have focused mainly on toxic assets purchased by -- held by bank of america and citigroup, i think those of the two big outfits that focus on. have you been able to get information on the specific assets that treasury has acquired a from citibank and bank of america? >> career in the process of putting together an audit that will address tt question, we received a letter of request to look into that and right now in the process of putting together the odd structure that will address this issue of what is in the cash flow and how it came to be and a thorough audit on the entire process and wa

mr. chairman, you have our commitment.whoever you want, whenever up the, we will provide them. >> thank you very much. senator demint? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think we need to get a little more specific and, mr. may, i appreciate you mentioning the specifics what we can do with training, but what i'm not hearing here today are specific ideas about what do we need to change to prevent something like this from happening again. i mean, there have got to be things that come to mind that we need to change. i mean, obviously, we have some situations of violating current rules, no sterile cockpit in this particular crash and that the pilots themselves violated rules. we need to make sure that that doesn't happen again. but what do we need to do, what do the carriers need to do -- what do we need to do from a regulatory perspective and do we need legislation that the regulators can't carry out? so what we're looking for here is what we can do and that so i would just like mr. may starting which because you mentioned training

mr. chairman. more than that we need their supreme court justices to have an understanding of the real world impacts their decisions have on every day people. we need justices is wisdom comes with life, not just with law books. sadly this important quality seems to be in short supply. the current supreme court is issued many decisions that i think represent a triumph of ideology over common sense. when chief justice roberts came before this committee in 2005 he famously said the supreme court justice is like an umpire, calling balls and strikes. we have observed unfortunately it is hard to see homeplate from right field. if being a supreme court justices were as easy as calling balls and strikes we would not see many 5-4 decisions. in lst alone 23 of the decisions were decided by a 5-4 vote. the recent decision of ledbetter forces could year tire and rubber is a classic example of the supreme court putting activism over common sense. the question in that case was simple, fundamental. should women b

mr. chairman? >> let me go to mr. blonton.aps he can yield to you on the last five minutes of debate. >> i'll yield time to my colleagues after i mistake a couple of comments. one is that there is no study that i'm aware of that indicates that there is anything that saves money or bends the cost curve. we heard the cbo testify with conclusively that the cost curve does not go down, the gentleman's suggestion that somehow this is guaranteed to contain costs is not supported by any information i'm aware of and the tax year we're talking about is a tax that absolutely falls on most of the small businesses in america that get beyond that two or $300 that you say level and their tax will be impacted by this dramatically. the job creating engine of the country, i think the former chairman's amendment, the ranking member's amendment just simply up here is going to be this tax, tries to move it into an area where it doesn't impact the job-creating aspects of small businesses that have -- that do have income that might xooet exceed $25

mr. chairman. mr.now in your report the surveys were done in the 50 states of the district of columbia. any reason why the territories are not included or they generally not included in surveys? >> no particular reason, just the methodology we chose. >> they are not generally excluded? >> no. >> just in this particular-- >> lemon to the amount of time and a limited amount of resources dictated 50 states in the district of columbia. >> dr. sharfstein in your testimony, you said that you have come fda has broad authority over food delivered into interstate commerce, as though if it is just within a state or within the territory, fda doesn't have any jurisdiction, or do you work with the states then and the territories? >> that actually is a pretty broad statement because if the bottle comes from outside of the state or the cap comes from outside the state even if it is sold within the stated counts is under state and there is a presumptions understand that it would be interstates, but in theory there may

mr. chairman, i want to thank mr.iahrt and every member of the subcommittee on both sides of the aisle for the work that they put in in bringing this bill to the floor today. it's a controversial bill, i know we've had a lot of disagreements, but i think the disagreement has not been disagreeable,nd i appreciate that very much. i want to thank rebecca mot lee, susan smith, steven steegler, amy vitalia, albert lee, and on the minority side, steve crain, stephanie myers, and amy for all the work put into this bill. mr. chairman, this country has pushed a lot of money, government money, taxpayers' money into the financial sector of the economy and wall street the last few months in order to try to stabilize the economy. is is the bill that tries to deal with the problem -- >> will the gentleman -- mr. obey: i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the committee is not in order. the gentleman from wisconsin reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from kansas. mr. tiahrt: i thank the chairman. it's a pleasure t

mr. chairman. i want to commend mr. polo and for identifying an area that i think is sometimes skipped over who was significant and the continuum of health care and if that time were people were teetering between being able to stay home and having to go to a facility in skilled nursing or facility during even the hospital and i believe that your focus is in the right place. i am just curious because here's how i see it -- if you remember in my opening statement i talked about how part of the pay for is for this plan is creating a savings which providers u.s. cuts and we're taking a $57 billion cut -- i'm sorry, a savings to home health care and we are replacing that piece of home health care where people go to your home and help you to stay in your home so you're not institutionalized and now replacing matt was an opt out pay for a programmer. if republicans offered a calving home health care and medicare benefits and then replacing them with something that people had to pay ford to receive again, i'm sorry but you guys

mr. chairman. >> thank you mr.k and you know i am always open to-- because we have seven gary excellent panelists and i want to hear from them i'm going to restrict the opening statements to two minutes for each person and we will go down the line and i will start with mr. meeks. >> thank you mr. chairman. i will try to do it in two minutes. first of all i think we have come a long way in the united states from where we were in 2002 where there was a coup d'etat in venezuela and within 48 hours we supported the coup d'etat government. we have got to make those improvements and i think we have made that with this administration. we clearly cannot turn back the hands of times are ahead the opportunity to talk to several heads of states including president area isoo said we could not allow coup d'etat cosson this is the government of other areas to try to figure out that we make sure we don't turn back the hands of time and that is what this is about so i am as nervous as the chairman is that the hands of time do not

mr. chairman, i apologize for being late. mr., i have the highest of regard for senator bradley, and if you're good enough for him, you're good enough for me, and in particular it's fortuitous that you're here today because north korea said they're not about to lose their plutonium. we need somebody who can bring folks together over there, so i'm looking forward to you doing that as quickly as possible. congratulations on your nomination. governor huntsman, i appreciate your time and i have only two questions for you. the first one is you have been a promoter of tourism in china. as ambassador what plans do you have to enrich tourism between our country and the country of china? >> it's an interesting question because i've been on the other end of this conversation having led a trade mission a couple of years ago to china. specifically as it relates to travel and tourism, and i had a chance to speak to a number of representatives of travel groups and agencies while in china. and interestingly enough now utah has its first-ever di

mr. chairman. i want to congratulate chairman leahy and senator session as well as your staff on judge sotomayor's confirmation hearings. the proceedings are fair to all members and most importantly to the nominee. today, i am pleased to cast my vote for judge sotomayor, an individual whose life stories and inspiration to millions of americans. a child of immigrants with modest means. judge sotomayor has risen by exemplary academic accomplishment and hard work. now to the cost of confirmation to our nation's highest court. but judge sotomayor is much more than only a story of a college but. she has shown herself to be a judge truly worthy of elevation to the supreme court. both on the bench and before this committee, judge sotomayor has proved that she has the necessary character competence and integrity to serve on the supreme court. judge sotomayor is distinguished 17 year judicial record demonstrates her commitment to fair and impartial application of the law, and respect for the values which ma

mr. chairman and good morning chairman bernanke. federal reserve in collaboration with the banks has created the greatest financial crisis the world has ever seen. the notion of limited amounts of money and credit created out of than error has delivered this crisis. instead of economic growth and stable prices it has given a system of government and finance that threatens the world financial and political institutions. real unemployment is now 20% and there has not been economic growth since the onset in the year 2000 according to an on government statistics. permitting debt and credit expansion past 38 years has come to an abrupt end as predicted by free-market economists. pursuing the same policy of excessive spending, debt expansion and monetary inflation can only compound the problems and prevent the required corrections. doubling the money supply didn't work, quadrupling to 12 were either. the problem with debt must be addressed. expanding debt when it was a principal cause of the crisis is foolhardy. excessive government and p

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. i thank the others for kind personal comments. senator kyl, the deputy republican, later told me his duties required him to be elsewhere, asked consent that he have a statement he wants placed in the record which senator sessions has his proxy and will be able to vote when that time comes. so next, senator graham. >> thank you, mr. chairman. one, i would like to add my compliments to you and senator sessions for conducting the hearings with whatever shortcomings they may have in terms of finding out about the nominee. i think you did a good job of giving us a chance to ask and senator sessions did a very good job. i come to this a little bit differently. you can tell it in my vote. i'm going to vote for the nominee. and i cannot disassociate myself, being a second term senator from what almost happened three or four years ago. i really enjoy politics. it's been a great honor to represent the people of south carolina and to be able to have a say about things that

mr. chairman we have mr.aya, a man who refuse to listen to the honduran supreme court, a man who refuse to listen to the honduran attorney general, a man who refuse to listen to the honduran congress. mr. chairman this is a man who tried to undermine the legislature, the judiciary, the attorney general, the human rights. i am interested to hear what our panel has to say on this. not only that mr. chairman, this is a man that when told no by the courts took it upon himself to storm the military base in seas and distribute ballots for an illegal referendum. bellock that hugo chavez fingerprints are all over. it seems to me that more, the more we look at mr. zelaya the more we find a man who believes he is above the law, untouchable in clearly a man who has no respect for democracy. i also look forward to hearing from our panel on the links between hugo chavez and mr. zelaya. since he was exiled mr. zelaya has been flown around the hemisphere on venezuelan jets. the ballots were going to be distributed for the i

mr. chairman. you just spoke about some conversations with mr. lewis, and if i could just clarify, i guess mr. lewis claims that he first learned of the $12 billion financial loss of merrill lynch on december 14th, which was nine days after the shareholder vote. now, you just testified that he called you at that point and told you he was strongly considering backing out. is that what you were referring to just a moment ago? or was it a conversation later on december 21st when lewis informed you that he was considering backing out because of financial losses? >> all right. let's just break in for a moment. we have some instant analysis, as always, from our expert panel. today we are blessed with by robert mctier, former president of the dallas federal reserve and a cnbc contributor. and we have cnbc's senior economics reporter, aka, the great, steve liesman. good morning, gentlemen. bob mctier, as i read this story and i heard mr. paulson's testimony, and i liked it very much, he is basically saying i put the wood to ken lewis in the b. of a and i

mr. chairman, just a point of information. >> mr. stern's, state your point. >> you indicated you're making this decision because the primary jurisdiction for this committee on this question does not have referrals. is that correct? are you saying house administration doesn't have referral and that is why you're making your decision? >> the gentleman is correct. the house administration has jurisdiction and it is on referral. >> is it possible if we voted on and then they would be a referral so that if by voting on a they would get referral -- >> the gentleman is not correct and the chair must rule under the rules as he has, and i would say parenthetically i would support this amendment if it were appropriately brought. >> mr. chairman -- >> we are going to move on now. order, please. >> i have a pending appeal of the ruling of the chair and i would like to speak to you, mr. chairman. >> i don't think that the appeal of the chair is pending -- >> i wish a motion, mr. chairman. >> table of the motion. [inaudible conversations] >> ther