mr. chairman i yield back. >> thank you. next is, mr. green. >> thank you mr. irman and i appreciate the opportunity you have been in so quickly dealing with this. first of all i want to thank the chairman emeritus for his offer, chairman dingell willing to conduct a class on remedial health care comprehension and my only question is that it be mandatory or permissive, and hearing my colleagues on the other side talk about unelected bureaucrats, unelected insurance companies do this every day right now and i will give you an example. when i moved to be a member of congress, my wife had been getting annual mammograms and yet our new insurance in congress refused it after the first year. and she was a survivor. her mom was a 40 year survivor of breast cancer. sushi fit the exception and it took me as a member of congress saying i can't practice law but believe me i will file suit against our carrier it they don't continue to pay for those mammograms. you have to fight for the care that you want and to say that the house bill that passed would set up this unelected

mr. chairman i yield back. >> thank you. next is, mr. green. >> thank you mr. chairman and i appreciate the opportunity you have been in so quickly dealing with this. first of all i want to thank the chairman emeritus for his offer, chairman dingell willing to conduct a class on remedial health care comprehension and my only question is that it be mandatory or permissive, and hearing my colleagues on the other side talk about unelected bureaucrats, unelected insurance companies do this every day right now and i will give you an example. when i moved to be a member of congress, my wife had been getting annual mammograms and yet our new insurance in congress refused it after the first year. and she was a survivor. her mom was a 40 year survivor of breast cancer. sushi fit the exception and it took me as a member of congress saying i can't practice law but believe me i will file suit against our carrier it they don't continue to pay for those mammograms. you have to fight for the care that you want and to say that the house bill that passed would set up this unelec

mr. chairman. mr. khuzami, mr. bernanke and paulsen were negotiating with merrill lynch and bank of america and sort of came to an agreement, yet they didn't disclose this, didn't want to put it in writing the transactions that were about to embark on here and about to approve and had been working with. and my understanding is that at once they did that, that would have been a discloseable event that the s.e.c. would have been able to come in to and be a part of and have some oversight over. is this a -- what is your opinion of this transaction, how it all happened and this unwillingness to put this in writing? >> well, congressman, what the law -- what the securities law require is that if that understanding had solidified to a material contract, then it would have been required to have been disclosed under what is known as form a case. bank of america would have had to make a disclosure if it rose to the level of an enforceable contract. and, you know, that's -- >> but isn't this skirting the law? by

mr. chairman. as congressman taylor said, i'm going to ask some tough questions but i do appreciate you being here. there was a time in our country when words mattered, when laws and statutes mattered. mr. secretary, title 10, 230 of the u.s. code that you submit to us that you provide a ship-building plan when you sent our budget over so we'd know where the money was going to be built on our ships and you certify that the budget you sent over complied with that ship-building plan. you refused to do it this theory. title 10, section 230a says that we have a aviation plan that we have an assessment that the budget comply with it and you just refuse to do it. house resolution 477 was unanimously approved by this committee on both sides of the aisle requiring that you would submit to us that ship-building plan that the law required by september 15th. you just refused to do it. 478 required an aviation resolution in that segment that you would comply with the law and submit it to us by september 15th. y

mr. chairman. mr. hairman, let me thank you for your leadership of the committee during -- throughout this year but particularly in this confirmation process. i think everybody's had the opportunity to make their views very well known in an unfettered way and that process should be reassuring to the american people so i thank you for your leadership. let me also say i don't envy chairman bernanke's difficult position. he's served in what can only be referred to as one of the hottest seats in american government for the last year, make something of the toughest decisions that have come before the country in probably well over a generation. shielding himself from what has become a populace attack from both sides of the aisle. faced with an economic that was -- economy that was headed into the abyss, chairman bernanke and the fed had what appeared to be a series of hops and choices, take it or leave it, do something or do nothing. and i think we hopefully can all agree that doing nothing was not an option.

mr. chairman. we have set am bashs goals for training and equipping afghan saerm and police forces. but it remains a weak government. you said earlier much of afghanistan is ungoverned still. having a weak government and strong military frequently leads to unhappy results in many parts of the world. we've also had at best mixed success in trying to build a military as a unifying national institution in nations that don't have a strong national identity. we try to do that in iraq. and it appeared that we effectively armed and equipped every side in the sectarian civil war. the video, the cell phone video, the execution of saddam hussein and the taunting by the shia militia did us great damage, created the impression that was a sectarian revenge killing, not the execution of justice in a society with a legitimate rule of law. what is the desertion rate now? where are those folks going? how are we going to make sure that the military we build is not going to dominate the government and how are we maki

mr. chairman. um... we deal in alternatives around here. initial reports of whom president barack obama might have nominated to be the chairman of the fed had me quite concerned so by comparison, i was relieved when he decided to stay with ben bernanke. spoken with chairman person bern, made clear on no uncertain terms my continued support is con tin gent on his fulfilling the commitments he made to me that he will one, implement a plan to pull government support back from the private sector and a companies to fail or succeed on their own, two, fight inflation aggressively and protect the value of the dollar through monetary policy decisions and three, work with the congress in a meaningful way to enhance the transparencies. given the large side of the fed balance sheet i think taxpayers should expect nothing less. he's made those commitments to me in anticipation of what might happen if we defeated his nomination, i have told him i will support him in this committee on on the floor. thank you mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator? >> thanks,

mr. shimkus. the chairman emeritus of the liturgy and commerce committee, the gentleman from michigan, mr. dingell is recognized for five is. >> thank you mr. chairman. and thank you for attending today's hearing on h.r. 3125. three of spectrum inventory act. in h.r. 3019, the special relocation improvement act of 2009. had these two bills of which i'm original cosponsor will aid the federal administration allocations by german commodity of increasing importance especially given recent advances in mobile broadband services. i call -- i'm concerned about the allocation, about the future and also about what we have done so far and whether it has contributed to the proper use of the spectrum for the future and for all our people. these two pieces of legislation is are complementary to the federal communications commission the duty to present to the congress and national broadband plan as mandated under the american investment and recovery act. to be certain the success of the development of such a plan and implem

chairman of the policy committee. yes, mr. cinich from ohio. >> chairman bair, do you have any concerns that america may face yet another bank collapse? >> no, i don't, but i think there's a lot of work that needs to be done to continue the stabilization and the cleanup, and i think the regulatory reform efforts going on right now in kongs are absolutely crucial to that. >> do you think banks that are too bill to fail or too big to exist ought to be broken up? >> well i think there -- the problem with too big to fail is the same problem you had with fannie and freddie. an implied government backstop which feeds into risktaking. if shareholders and creditors think they have the up site and the got the couldn't down side that is going to contribute to this. we think that's the major crisis, hate to pound sound bike a johnny one know, congress needs to establish a robust and severe resolution. he niche that says they will take losses if these institutions go down. right now they're happily you know, feeding extending credit and ma

mr. chairman. we all know chairman bernanke's academic accomplishments prior to joining the board of governors. he was and remains one of our nation's leading scholars on the great depression. i believe his expertise in this area has served him well during our current crisis. it's important to note, however that every crisis has a beginning, a middle, and an end. and while we learned a great deal about crisis management from the great depression, it appears that we've learned precious little about how to avoid the situation in the first place. prior to the recent financial crisis, the federal reserve kept interest rates, i believe, far too low for too long, encouraging a housing bubble and excessive risk-taking. in addition the fed failed to use its available powers to mitigate those risks. congress also bears some responsibility. often, over my objections here, we enacted housing policies that improu dentally encouraged homeownership to levels we now know with unsustainable. we also failed to curta

mr. chairman. mr. france, i'm sorry you had to go through what you went through, just to get back your money, not even to speak of all of the trauma and time and so forth that you had to go through. >> thank you. >> but you are an example what's happening with this explosion of technology. we have people that are now, instead of using a crowbar to steal, now use technological improvements, and they are doing the same thing. and they are doing it with a lot of deception as the chairman's hearing has pointed out. and this committee has been handling a lot of other things, called phishing with a ph, and farming with a ph. and spoofing which is another one we just had it in florida. a spoofing case. that's when you look on your cell phone and you see the number that's calling you. well, if you alter that number to make it appear like you're looking at what happened to this lady, a single woman, suddenly she is getting a call from her own residence. and of course, somebody was doing this to play a prank on

mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i join my colleagues in welcoming you here, madam secretary and i commend you for the good jobs that you are doing. i appreciated the meeting you participated in when you were in philadelphia some time ago. about manufacturing vaccines. and we have seen a very serious problem with h1n1, the swine flu vaccine, with the delivery falling far behind what was anticipated. because they were foreign manufacturers by and large. australia used it for their own purposes. and with respect to the possibility of bioterrorism, theories a long list of problems, anthrax, botulism, smallpox. and we seem to be bogged down in bureaucratic infighting between a couple of federal agencies with the rumor department at the fence in the border not -- or darpo not going ahead with the briefings at the very highest level with the vice president, secretary sebelius and director orszag and my question to you is, isn't this a problem of such magnitude and with our experience with h1n1 that we ought to be moving ah

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, let me thank you for your leadership of the committee during -- throughout this year but particularly in this confirmation process. i think everybody's had the opportunity to make their views very well known in an unfettered way and that process should be reassuring to the american people so i thank you for your leadership. let me also say i don't envy chairman bernanke's difficult position. he's served in what can only be referred to as one of the hottest seats in american government for the last year, make something of the toughest decisions that have come before the country in probably well over a generation. shielding himself from what has become a populace attack from both sides of the aisle. faced with an economic that was -- economy that was headed into the abyss, chairman bernanke and the fed had what appeared to be a series of hops and choices, take it or leave it, do something or do nothing. and i think we hopefully can all agree that doing nothing was not an option

mr. chairman, for holding this hearing. and also, mr. irman, for your conceits commitment -- for your complete commitment to nasa and space exploration. without your commitment and the vigor you have shown, i think congress would have lagged behind in making sure we are doing what we need to do to stay in the forefront of utilizing space. by thank you for calling the hearing. by thank you, mr. augustine, four leading the panel. i look forward to questions. >> as you give us your report, mr. augustine, i think is going to become increasingly apparent -- it is going to become increasingly apparent that the moment of truth for the nascent's human -- nasa's human space flight is here. there is only one person who can lead america's human space flight program, and that is the president. so the work that your panel has done is in preparation for the president making a decision. kay would like to lead it. i would like to be the space program. the senator cannot do it. the administrator of nasa cannot do it. the human space flight program of this

mr. chairman. and we all know that chairman bernanke's academic accomplishments prior to joining the board of governors, first as a member and then as chairman. he have and remains one of our nation's leading scholars on the great depression. i believe his expertise in this area has served him well during the current crisis. and it is important to note, however, that every crisis has a beginning and a middle and an end. and while we learned a great deal about crisis management from the great depression, it appears that we have learned precious little about how to avoid the situation in the first place. prior to the recent financial crisis, the federal reserve kept interest rates, i believe, far too low for too long. and encouraging a housing bubble and excessive risk taking. in addition the fed failed to use its available powers to mitigate those risks. and congress also bears some responsibility, often, over my objections here, we enacted housing policies that imprudentantly encouraged home ownersh

mr. chairman. thank you for being here. i believe that by allowing mortgage cramdown in bankruptcy poses a major threat to the housing sector and the overall economy. it is completely unfair to future borrowers, it harms lenders and investors and it undermines the stability necessary for recovery. as we have seen, such a proposal does not meet the threshold to pass the senate. the uncertainty that this would create for mortgage originator is what the housing sector does not need to be in the car the volatile housing market. allowing this would be a continuation of the heavy-handed interference that got us into this precarious predicament in the first place. as we know, the political housing establishment in the name of increasing home ownership significantly contributed to the crisis. this is accomplished through the intention a weakening of traditional mortgage lending standards. these weekend underwriting standards were encouraged by the community reinvestment act mandated by congress. as my frien

mr. chairman. >> thank you both. and general mcchrystal, you're commander of the international security assistance force, as well as u.s. forces. would you be willing to introduce a few of our nato representatives who are here with us today? >> yes, sir. this is part of my personal staff, of course i've got colonel charlie flynn, who's a u.s. army officer, cristof my german aide. i have two aids, one american, one german. bill raferty is a planner a british officer, another allied officer from the u.s. navy greg smith runs our communications jake mcfaren is our political adviser in the headquarters, casey welsh is my other aide, american aide. hi 27 months in iraq before he came to afghanistan with only five months off between those two deployments and then dave silverman works in my personal staff obviously another naval officer. >> great. thank you very much. we'll begin our questioning now and i'm first going to recognize the gentleman from texas, mr. green, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. c

mr. chairman? >> mr. chairman, congresswoman and distinguished members of this committee, thank you for your time today. let me state up front i support fully and without hesitation the president's decision. i appreciate the opportunity to contribute to what i believe was a healthy and productive discussion. i've seen my share of internal debates about various national security issues, especially over the course of the last two years. i can say i do not recall an issue, so thoroughly or so thoughtfully considered as this one. every military leader in the chain of command as well as those of the joint chiefs was given voice throughout this process, and every one of us used it. we now have the force of strategy, more appropriately matched to the situation on the ground in afghanistan. and resources match more appropriately to that strategy. particularly with regard to reversing the insurgencies momentum in 2010. given the stakes in afghanistan for our own national security as well as that of our partners aro

mr. chairman, i -- mr. kanjorski: mr. chairman, i want to thank the chairman of the full committee recognizing me and to assert for the record in the full house that although today is a huge bill of 1,300 pages or 1,200 pages will be difficult to describe and probably not well understood by the people watching this proceeding or all the members of the house, i want to say that i'm proud to have worked under the fought tolage of the chairman, mr. frank, and i think that in years to come historians will look back at in this moment and say, when there was need in this country for reformation it was had in the major part of this bill. mr. chairman, i have had the pleasure of participating in major portions of the bill, title 5, title 6 and part of title 1. what we tried to do in essence so that the viewing public can understand is to recognize some of the problems, not all the problems, but some of the problems that we were facing as a result of the actions of last year, of the capital markets of the united states. first and f

mr. chairman -- by way of inquiry of my chairman, aside, mr. rman, from the unprecedented and secretive process by which this bill was put together and is being brought to the floor, the rule before us contains a most unusual provision to allow the chairman to submit a report explaining the legislation. it would be very helpful to all members before we vote on over $154 billion in spending to actually have the benefit of the chairman's explanation. i, for one, have not only not seen this report, i didn't even know he was writing one. therefore i ask the chairman, is there a copy of this report and will you make it available now so that members will have a chance to see it before we vote on this bill? mr. obey: i find it very interesting that the gentleman has not raised this point with respect to the defense appropriations bill, but let me simply say that the explanatory statement for this bill is very short. it is on our website. it was posted there this morning. mr. lewis: the chairman certainly might have given us the courtesy of communicatin

mr. chairman. and like to start with mr. green. he has had his hand up a couple of times, so if you, sir, would sort of share what you were going to share and then i'll launch into my tirade. >> thank you. i wanted to comment, well, two thing. one is i wanted to acknowledge because at the beginning of my remarks i did not comment that i was a lawyer, so i just wanted to comment that i'll participate though i did not before as a lawyer in the dialogue. and in the discussion about how decisions will be made, mr. chairman, you raised the issue that some tough choices are going to have to be made. i would like to, again, try and focus on some of the prior public policy considerations, particularly embodied in arisa which was created as one of the three legs of the stool to promote the retirement savings of the average american worker. the other one being individual savings, social security, and qualified plans. and the concept of qualified plans was the public policy was to encourage employers to create plans to put funds into retireme

mr. chairman, i -- mr. kanjorski: mr. chairman, i want to thank the chairman of the full committee recognizing me and to assert for the record in the full house that a@@@@@ @ first and foremost we discovered that there were greating regulators in transparency and accountability in the rating agencies as they acted to evaluate various sets of securities in the world markets. and when we examined the rating agency in great detail and through hearings and examination we found that these entities were poorly -- not really regulated at all, but certainly poorly accounting for their own responsibilities in the system. we found that they were enticing investors throughout the world to buy securities that rated a.a.a. when in fact some of those securities weren't even of b-class quality. as a result millions of people around the world and billions of dollars came in to the purchase of these securityized -- or these securities and as a result when the market failed, they failed and there was an impression around the world created t

mr. chairman. a lot of good questions and a lot more to be asked. i want to ask the panel in no particular order your thoughts on credits the fault. it seems like the fact that banks sold these swaps to reach other contributed to the affects of the financial crisis. it seemed in effect banks were able to make a higher credit rating during this process for regan one question is -- in this process. one question is did it allow them to substitute higher credit ratings and swat that for a lower credit rating, and as the trading of credit defaults wants among faiths have the unintended consequence of lowering or reducing the cab on the day system -- on the banking system as a whole? , to follow on credit defaults as a legitimate product. >> let me start since credit defaults swaps are a type of over-the-counter derivative, and they certainly play a very important role in the latest financial crisis. they were used by banks and investment breaks and other institutions to ensure mortgage securitization an

mr. chairman and mr. sullivan for being here today. first let me begin by saying i think the secret service does a great job and it saddens me to see that there was such a lapse this time at the white house in the past i know there's always been close communication between the social secretary for the white house, legislative -- legislative affairs for example if we are going to have congress people come for the christmas party, and every single time that i have entered the white house there has always been somebody from the presidents -- from the white house at the very first point before you ever even get to the checkpoint where they check your purses, etc.. every time even if it's just been a meeting with the president over a particular policy there has always been somebody out there. my question -- the first question is in this pre-planning meeting did you all decide no one would be specifically assigned from the social secretary's office or legislative affairs or what have you at the first checkpoint? was that a decision made? bec

mr. chairman. everybody, including the people testifying in this panel have been trying to get us out of this muddle somehow and i think all of their intentions are beyond question. i think this is a very difficult knot to untie and trying to make some sense in understanding it listening to what you have just said, mr. chairman, i just wanted to note that for a long number of years nobody came to us to front our obligations and responsibilities from any federal agency including that which is before us today saying we need more resources. as a matter of fact, the previous administration seemed to have a philosophy, if not an agenda, for deregulation rather than more regulation and did not want to provide the resources. chairman frank, as a matter of fact, had a proposal to more fully provide assets to the s.e.c. and sipc for additional resources to be able to do the kind of investigations that were obviously needed and that was moving forward until it was scuttled by mr. delay during a different con

mr. chairman. mr. me thank you for your leadership of the committee during -- throughout this year but particularly in this confirmation process. i think everybody's had the opportunity to make their views very well known in an unfettered way and that process should be reassuring to the american people so i thank you for your leadership. let me also say i don't envy chairman bernanke's difficult position. he's served in what can only be referred to as one of the hottest seats in american government for the last year, make something of the toughest decisions that have come before the country in probably well over a generation. shielding himself from what has become a populace attack from both sides of the aisle. faced with an economic that was -- economy that was headed into the abyss, chairman bernanke and the fed had what appeared to be a series of hops and choices, take it or leave it, do something or do nothing. and i think we hopefully can all agree that doing nothing was not an option. whatever oth

mr. chairman. just aç'itásq final questions. re that is looked at often is the percentage of gross domestic product that our public debt is. and it's obviously going up. it is projected to exceed the level that it was at the height of world war ii. but many of us wonder, what is the appropriate level? what do economists believe is a level of debt measured by a percentage of g.d.p. that is acceptable versus worrysome -- worrisome? >> well, senator, i thought we did reasonably well when the percentage of debt was 20% to 30% of fwpped. i prefer lower than that, but we can tolerate that. the major problem is notÑi so much the level of debtçó relati to g.d.p. but what is a sustainable deficit? and that's a more complex calculation. to the extent the federal treasuries are drawing both the savings on the society which are scarce. it leaves more savings for the private sector to invest in far more productive investments than generally is employed using the savings of the society through government functions. >> thank you. mr. walker, do

mr. chairman. r. chairman, ranking member smith, other members of the committee, i would like to begin by commending you for holding this hearing. and in particular, for your focus on emerging forms of internet piracy. in today's economy we cannot afford to let the theft of u.s. intellectual property undermine the vitality of what should be among our most promising, creative and economic assets. each year espn invests billions of dollars to produce tens of thousands of hours of high quality sports programming for distribution by a television and a agreeing array of new media platforms. we're here today because sports is not immune from privacy. we see this on the increasing number of internet sites that are the focus of this hearing. it allows the real time threat of real time sports programming uploaded by the site operators or by the users of these sites. in the interest of time let me highlight just a few points from my written testimony. first, it is important to recognize that this is not a pro

mr. chairman. >> thank you. thank you very much. i want to thank our first panel for being here today. your responses will be helpful to what we'll be doing. and, again, i thank you and wish you well in your positions. thank you. now i &%@@@ #á4 miss susan r. johnson, the president of the american foreign service association. as you know, it is the custom of the subcommittee to swear in witnesses. and i would ask you to stand and raise your right hand. do you swear that the testimony you're about to give to this subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god? >> i do. >> i do. >> thank you. let the record note that witnesses answered in the affirm tichlt before we start, i want you to know that your full written statement will be part of the record. and i also like to remind you t remind you to please limit your oral remarks to five minutes. ambassador newman, we'll please proceed with your statement. >> chairman akaka, thank you for inviting me to appear agai

mr. chairman. general mcchrystal, ambassador ikenberry, welcome, and thank you for being here this morning. this committee, this congress, and the american people have been awaiting your testimony. before i go into the substance of my remarks, i want to state at the outset that all of us support your mission in afghanistan and the men and women serving under your command. for over three months, washington has been mired in a substantial war debate. pundits and academics alike have been weighing in on whether the conflict in afghanistan is in our national interest and if this is a fight we can win. in the absence of a clear authoritative voice during the months of the white house review, the course of the debate has followed a flood of leaks from the always popular but never accountable anonymous source. to put it mildly, this was not helpful. during this time, the public support for the war waned. and i worry our mission suffered too. with the president's speech last week and your testimony here tod

mr. chairman, mr.ent, i have a question for you, recognizing the challenges that congress and the f.c.c. spectrum, are companies in the cta are exposing the dynamics of the possible solution? >> i would say our companies are exploring every opportunity and option available to them. including to utilize their own spectrum, to use it more efficiently and look at every avenue ahead in the years ahead to access more spectrum. >> are any companies in your organization using the dynamic spectrum access? are any trying to borrow f you will, in a peak time surrounding system, is that going on now? >> i am sure they are looking at every option available to them. >> ok, mr. smith. good to see you and thanks for being here. let me ask you this one, i think it's important to search for a solution of the spectrum crisis to serve free over the air broadcasting. in your testimony you cite how the use of white space spectrum in rural america is the way to go. this is solution useful in urban centers as well? >> it cou

mr. chairman. mr. france, i'm sorry you had to go through what you went through just to get back your money, not even to speak of all of the trauma and time and so forth that you had to go through. so, but you are an example of what's happening with this explosion of technology. we have people that are now instead of using a crowbar to steal, now used technological improvements. and they are doing the same thing. and they are doing it with a lot of deception as the chairman. have pointed out. and this committee is handling a lot of other things called phishing with a ph and farming with a ph and spoofing, which is another one we just had in florida, a spoofing case. that's one you luck on your cell phone and you see the number that's calling you. well, if you alter that number to make it appear like you are looking into what happened to this lady, a single woman and suddenly she's getting a call from her own residence. and of course, somebody was doing this to play a prank on her. while the lady is abs

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman.adame secretary, i just want to talk to for a moment. i am really concerned that we may be unwittingly presiding over the demise of american agriculture. i have never seen one more stressed. i come to the largest agricultural states in the union. california is a driver, sometimes for good and sometimes a driver for not so good. but what we see happening our growing farmers moving to mexico. operating lance in mexico hiring mexicans and importing into this country. i'll give you one example. a man by the name is steve's karami, 2000 acres, 500 jobs, 50 million operation in california to guadalajara. today he exports 2 million pounds of lettuce a week and he has spent thousands of dollars to start up his new farms and train workers. that's what's happening. western growers tells me back and tells everybody i assume that at least 85,000 acres of farmland from california and arizona are now in mexico and at least 22,000 added jobs are now in mexico. and we see it in apples. we see it in da

mr. chairman. >> ambassador carl icahnberry retired from the united states army with the rank of lieutenant general in april of 2009 and shortly thereafter was sworn in as the u.s. ambassador to afghanistan. prior to this assignment, general eikenberry served as the deputy chairman of the north atlantic treaty organization, military committee in brussel, belgium. he has served twice before in afghanistan, first as u.s. security coordinator and chief of the office of military cooperation in kabul. and then as commander of the combined forces command in afghanistan. general stanley mcchrystal is the current commander, international security assistance force, and commander u.s. forces afghanistan. previously he served as director of the joint staff from the april 2008, to june 2009 and as commander, joint special operations command from 2003 to 2008. where he led the operation that resulted in the death of abu musab al-zarqawi, the leader of al qaeda in iraq. ambassador, general, we're honored to have

mr. chairman. the chair: the committee of the whole house on the state of the union, having had under consideration h.r. 4173, directs me to report that it has come to no resolution thereon. the speaker pro tempore: the chair of the committee of the whole house on the state of the union reports that the committee had under consideration h.r. 4173 and has come to no resolution thereon. the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable, the speaker, house of representatives, madam. pursuant to section 1238b3 of the floyd b. fence national authorization act, amended by division p of the consolidated appropriations resolution, 2003, 22 u.s.c. 6901, i am pleased to reappoint mr. peter t. arbrooks of virginia and mr. blain of ohio to the commission, effective january 1, 2010. both have expressed interest in serving in this capacity and i'm pleased to fill their request. signed sincerely, john boehner, republican leader. the chair: the chair lays before the house, the following per

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. the gentleman from mr. -- indiana. >> thank you mr. chairman. mr. sullivan, you have used check point repeatedly. were there points -- two or one that had a list? >> there were two of. >> it wasn't a point, it was checkpoints that bailed? >> yes, sir. >> and the list you are referring to was in the list provided to you by the social secretary or is this a list that has been in social security numbers vetted, there's been background checks on individuals, might have turned up questionable things in this couple's background and who they were associated with. was in the list eight social secretary list of who he invited or was it vetted list? >> i believe i have this right and if i don't we will correct it, but what happens before this event the white house staff will give us a list of all the people that have been invited and we will then take that list and also provide us with name and date of birth and social security number. we then run all of those -- to do their appropriate record checks for those individuals. anything does come up that would lea

mr. chairman. >> i want to ask a series of questions around the major themes of your report. the fact that if we're going to have a robust human space program and were going to have to commit the resources to it, you specifically talked about 3 billion a year. your architecture is various, and engineers such as yourself and nasa leadership are going to have to determine that architecture, but the goal that the committee has set is to get out beyond low earth orbit, that nasa ought to be exploring the heavens with the human space program. and that in the meantime we've got to worry about the workforce. so i want to pick up on those three games, which i think are going to be the major things that the president is going to have to make his decision on. now, you came up with this idea of 3 billion a year. if you had additional resources, what would you do? >> beyond the 3 billion? the primary things that we think need to be done in the near future are largely covered in the 3 billion figure. if you had

mr. chairman. thank you for those nice words of introduction. i want to thank you for your national leadership of transportation safety in general and also on this transportation safety issue, in particular. you were prompting by responding to my request to take a look at these issues. the washington, md., metro -- maryland and virginia metric systems. we have had terrible accidents in the action has been swift, urgent, and several. if we all work together, the executive and legislative branch, we can really within the next year do something that we can be proud of and that our constituency can rely on. i feel like it is a new day and there is a freshness and leadership and a commitment to rigorous follow-through. i recognize that transit safety is a national problem. i am here today to speak about the washington metro that serves maryland, virginia, and the district of columbia. i am here to speak for all of the people in the capital region, over 2 million people, who ride the metro, go to school

mr. chairman, i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman. mr. hunter? >> thank you, mr. he opportunity to squeeze in a question here. i thank the gentlemen for being here. we all talk about critical enablers and how short we are on those enablers. we mentioned over and over again we're short on rotary wing aircraft, counteried stuff now, short on trainers, short on isrs, short on civilians, short on infrastructure like hangars, things like that, so you add 30,000 troops, then what? how do you identify who will be the enabler and who will not be and this july 2011 timeline compared to your troop cap of 30,000 or 33,000 or 40,000, whatever it is going to be, that's going to be a hard and fast troop cap. you're going to have to say, general, grunt, you go home because i want a new imagery analyst out here. how are you going to make that distinction and what is going to make you decide when it comes to enablers, or actual combat troops? >> actually it is a great position to be in from the standpoint of if i get to shape the force and what we need more of and what we don't nee

mr. chairman. i'll try to be brief, mr. chairman. chairman bernanke, i believe that the last few years have provided us with ample evidence concluding that the current regulatory structure that we have, one in which the fed serves the preeminent regulatory body, requires considerable restructuring. in fact, i believe the american people realize that. i also believe, too, that the feds' monetary policy independence is crucial, and it must be preserved. very important to central bank. fortunately, the regulatory reform process gives us here, i think, a chance to develop a better, more accountable regulatory structure, and enhance the real and perceived independence of the federal reserve as a monetary policy setting entity. very important. but to achieve these ends, i think the fed would have to give up some of the regulatory authority senator dodd has proposed. i would hope that you as the chairman in the interest of achieving better regulation and better monetary policy and independence of the fed, would put, you know, the monetary po

mr. chairman, madam secretary thank you for being here. fema has now obligated $44 billion in response to hurricane katrina, read up in wilma since 2005 however accorbig@@@@@ @ would like to know why not. >> fair enough. >> in august of this year the department issued new policies governing searches of travelers, electronic devices such as laptops are ipod's at the border. i am deeply disappointed with the policy the department adopted come in particular the refusal to adopt any sort of standard for searching u.s. citizens of the border and madam secretary in addition to the inconvenience picasa the international business travelers these policies also do nothing to as a wage racial profiling when it index. >> border searches. this is unacceptable and that is why i am planning to reintroduce the travelers privacy protection act in the coming months. i've been told the department was the least attempting to increase oversight in transparency related to these searches but given the vastly different standards laid out for cd p it is unclear wh

mr. chairman. >> the chair thanks ithe gentleman. on communications technology for five minutes for the purposes of opening statements. the gentleman from west virginia, chairman doctor for five minutes. >> thank you very much, chairman rush. i want to begin by saying thank you to you and your very fine staff and mr. or don savidge -- radonovich as well as mr. stern's and his staff for the excellent cooperation we have had amongst ourselves. i very much look forward to our continued collaboration as we consider the need for legislation and discuss the principles that privacy protection legislation should embody. broadband networks are the primary driver of the economy and it is fundamentally in the nation's interest to encourage their expanded use. one clear way congress can promote greater use of the internet for access of information for electronic commerce and for entertainment is to ensure that internet users have a high degree of privacy protection. including transparency about information collection practices and uses, and contr

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman.madame secretary, i just want to talk to for a moment. i am really concerned that we may be unwittingly presiding over the demise of american agriculture. i have never seen one more stressed. i come to the largest agricultural states in the union. california is a driver, sometimes for good and sometimes a driver for not so good. but what we see happening our growing farmers moving to mexico. operating lance in mexico hiring mexicans and importing into this country. i'll give you one example. a man by the name is steve's karami, 2000 acres, 500 jobs, 50 million operation in california to guadalajara. today he exports 2 million pounds of lettuce a week and he has spent thousands of dollars to start up his new farms and train workers. that's what's happening. western growers tells me back and tells everybody i assume that at least 85,000 acres of farmland from california and arizona are now in mexico and at least 22,000 added jobs are now in mexico. and we see it in apples. we see it in d

mr. chairman. and like to start with mr. green.he has had his hand up a couple of times, so if you, sir, would sort of share what you were going to share and then i'll launch into my tirade. >> thank you. i wanted to comment, well, two thing. one is i wanted to acknowledge because at the beginning of my remarks i did not comment that i was a lawyer, so i just wanted to comment that i'll participate though i did not before as a lawyer in the dialogue. and in the discussion about how decisions will be made, mr. chairman, you raised the issue that some tough choices are going to have to be made. i would like to, again, try and focus on some of the prior public policy considerations, particularly embodied in arisa which was created as one of the three legs of the stool to promote the retirement savings of the average american worker. the other one being individual savings, social security, and qua the concept of qualified plans was the public policy was to encourage employers to create plans to put funds into retirement instead of havi

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. we are going to give a little out of order. senator schumer asked to ask a question and has to go to the meeting for the white house. i've already discussed with senter sessions. >> thank you, mr. chairman and colleagues on both sides of the aisle and secretary napolitano just a brief question on the wtii to read it went into effect on our northern border we seen a precipitous withdrawal and a good part of it at least the people there believe it is because of a lack of education. the canadians believe they need a passport to travel across the border. obviously wtii was put together to make it easy to travel across the board, but the problem is they believe that and a good number of our americans believe the same western and york buffalo depends on cross border traffic. it's probably the number-one thing in its economy so online asking is would you be willing to work with me and commit to working with you and your canadian colleagues to get an education campaign

mr. chairman. chairman snyder, mr. whitman.the oversight investigations committee. thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. and professional military education and the work that the team of the naval war college of providing for one occasion opportunities related to the mission of the navy in serving the people of this nation. united states naval war college will celebrate its 125th anniversary in october. from its humble beginnings in the structure which was the kxp founder said a true course for educational success by choosing an approach based on focus and ballistic study of war as prevention in this is much involved with both. he envisioned active learning by students and faculty on several strategic issues in a collegial environment. 125 years later, the traditions remain at the center of the college approach to education. we carefully apply a wide aperture of perspectives and the disciplines, and cultures to the study of war and its prevention. we continue to seek to prepare senior levels since for the chal

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator hatch. the efforts to give the fda more resources have not been successful. i think there are some things that need to be done here, some real questions. i think the drug enforcement administration needs to answer a question which is not been answered today about why superdrol is not placed on its schedule 3 list after it was identified as being an anabolic steroid. if he needs some revision on your listing, let us know. did not wait for our to come to you. -- do not wait for us to come to you. the business about waiting for us to ban a substance 10 years after the fda issued its first advisory and only after they received thousands of reports of adverse effects, including debts, that is not satisfactory. -- including deaths, that is not satisfactory. when the senator talks about the legitimate part of the industry, i think that most are bested legitimate. if you have 15 million people who are taking the supplements and steroids. although some of that is legitimat

mr. chairman, i assure you that we come here ready to work.we want to leave here with strong international legal finding out comes that welcome everyone to action. we issued the call to all of our partners to join this effort to make this unique opportunity before us one that truly counts, one that will fulfill hopes and aspirations of the millions of people who are watching us now and depending upon on us to do the right thing. one that will ensure that we achieve the goal of 1.5 to stay alive. let us ensure no island is left behind. thank you very much. [applause] >> state department special representative stephen wadsworth today said he does not know if north korea leaders in the country. the ambassador spoke with reporters earlier today for almost 20 minutes. >> [inaudible conversations] good afternoon, everyone. welcome. as you can see we have ambassador bosworth to talk about his recent visit to the east asian region with regard to north korea. so without further ado i will turn it over to ambassador bosworth three >> thank you robert. g

mr. lewis: madam speaker, by way of inquiry of my chairman, mr. man -- by way of inquiry of my chairman, aside, mr. chairman, from the unprecedented and secretive process by which this bill was put together and is being brought to the floor, the rule before us contains a most unusual provision to allow the chairman to submit a report explaining the legislation. it would be very helpful to all members before we vote on over $154 billion in spending to actually have the benefit of the chairman's explanation. i, for one, have not only not seen this report, i didn't even know he was writing one. therefore i ask the chairman, is there a copy of this report and will you make it available now so that members will have a chance to see it before we vote on this bill? mr. obey: i find it very interesting that the gentleman has not raised this point with respect to the defense appropriations bill, but let me simply say that the explanatory statement for this bill is very short. it is on our website. it was posted there this morning. mr. lewis: the chairman ce