mr. chairman. a quorum being present the committee meets to consider a resolution adopting the rules of the committee for the 112th congress and to announce subcommittee assignments. ranking member cummings and my fellow committee members, i am proud to introduce the republican members of the committee on oversight and government reform of 112th congress. mr. connie mack of florida has been a valued member of congress and is vice chair -- or i'm sorry the chair of the subcommittee on the western hemisphere at the foreign affairs committee. notwithstanding those duties, i look forward to working with him on the government oversight and reform committee and have asked him to take a vice chair role. mr. walberg has returned to the congress an we welcome him to the committee. i know he'll be a strong voice on restraining government spending. i'm glad that he joins us from south central michigan. mr. langford, as a new member, is prepared to solve complex problems. he will represent oklahoma well and has

mr. chairman. >> thank you. the committee will now consider the resolution for adopting the rules. the purpose of the rules before us today -- the proposed rules before us today were distributed to each office last friday. in addition, the drafts of the proposed rules have been shared with the ranking member, mr. cummings, and his staff for at least the last two weeks. mr. cummings' staff raised a number of concerns with proposed changes to the rules and would work in good faith to address those concerns. it is my hope that throughout the congress, we will be able to work together in the same way. however, the most significant and welcome changes to the committee procedures in this congress are not made here today, but in fact, were done january 5th, with the adoption of the house rules. the new house rules require three days public notice of committee markups. the legislation to be marked up must be on the committee website 24 hours before the markup. the amendments are now required to be posted online within 24

mr. chairman. >> yes. >> parliamentary inquiry, mr. chairman. i know this is our first meeting and i just want to make sure we're clear, we had a lengthy discussion on -- >> will the gentleman state his parliamentary inquiry? we're clear. we had a lengthy discussion. >> will the gentleman state his -- >> i'm trying to do that. we had a lengthy discussion yesterday with regard to opening statements and the chairman, i thought we had reached a wonderful agreement where the chairman had said that he would provide us notice with regard to opening statements, whether we were giving them or not. and this is our firs hearing and some of the members and, of course, i am wondering exactly why we are not having opening statements and, two, we were given notice just about a half an hour ago or so that there will not be opening statements. i'm just wondering so that -- the. >> i thank the gentleman. the chair is waiving opening statements, including my own. all members will have seven days in order to place the

mr. chairman, my time is up. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. mr. stallone from new jersey. >> thank you, chairman hastings and ranking member marquee for having the hearing today. the report in front of us today is cleared, in my opinion, that we cannot kill safely off our shores under the current system and our coastal communities the production from untrustworthy big oil. on the big oil would claim that we control faithfully and expand drilling in the wake of our country's worst environmental disaster and the fighting of the systematic failures. as the deepwater rising disaster, the president has reversed course and thankfully taken drilling in the atlantic off the table at least for the next five years and i commend him for that action and believe he must make the policy permanent. only than 20 feet from the greed of the oil industry. also, house democrats passed a clear tube oppose the legislation, saying we need to wait for the commission's report. now that we have it, it's time to take action to prevent pickler from wreaking havoc on our envir

mr. chairman, my time is up. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. mr. stallone from new jersey. >> thank you, chairman hastings and ranking member marquee for having the hearing today. the report in front of us today is cleared, in my opinion, that we cannot kill safely off our shores under the current system and our coastal communities the production from untrustworthy big oil. on the big oil would claim that we control faithfully and expand drilling in the wake of our country's worst environmental disaster and the fighting of the systematic failures. as the deepwater rising disaster, the president has reversed course and thankfully taken drilling in the atlantic off the table at least for the next five years and i commend him for that action and believe he must make the policy permanent. only than 20 feet from the greed of the oil industry. also, house democrats passed a clear tube oppose the legislation, saying we need to wait for the commission's report. now that we have it, it's time to take action to prevent pickler from wreaking havoc on our envir

mr. chairman. mr. rman, i would like permission to insert the cbo's preliminary analysis of the repeal of the health care legislation to the official record. >> without objection. >> thank you. and if we were to repeal the health care bill as some are proposing, that means eliminating $40 billion worth of tax credits. >> it would be very problematic and it would be particularly problematic on small businesses. but it would be a major tax increase. >> let me take you to some of the facts here. one of the difficulties in the discussion is that if our friends on the other side are asked by the local news media in their respective constituencies whether or not they favor banning preexisting condition, they will say yes. if they're asked, is it not a good idea to keep your children on your health care plan up until they're 26, they will say yes. if they are asked if it's a good idea to cap out-of-pocket expenses, they will say yes. carrying insurance from one job to the other, they will say yes. the problem

mr. chairman. mr.sky, mr. massad, thank you both for your great work and thank you for your service to our country. mr. barofsky, i'm more familiar with your work, especially, so, sir, the work that you've been doing. i want to take half a minute to really correct some of the revisionist history here on t.a.r.p. i voted against t.a.r.p. and when it came before the financial services committee and before this congress, the stated legislative goal of t.a.r.p. was to help main street, to help main street, the troubled asset relief program. and when we asked secretary paulson at the time, just before the vote, we said -- actually, i think it was the ranking member of financial services said, why don't you just take money and stuff it into the banks? the $700 billion that you wanted? and mr. paulisson siaid, no, we not going to do that. and then ten days after t.a.r.p. passed, they did exactly that. they injected all that money into the banks. this was the bank shareholder relief program. and for people now

mr. chairman counted mr. heinrich made an excellent case before it aired i also think in the interest of producing fiscal responsibility, we want to extend the federal hostile insurance trust fund cannot effectively allow that to run a for health care with the seniors at risk and i hope the committee chooses to make this amendment in order. >> any further discussion? if not, those in favor will say aye, the nose habit. the motion is agreed to. >> roll call vote, mr. chairman. >> we will call the roll. brahma is >> emotion is not agreed to. are there further amendments? >> with the appropriate waivers of number 21 to ensure the repeal of affordable health track shall not take effect until cbo certifies the repeal will not increase cost sharing or otherwise reduce access to preventative health benefits such as mammograms, colonoscopies and diabetes screenings, including such benefits offered by private health wins are by minister of 1004 and 4104 of the affordable health care. mr. chairman, these are cost savin

mr. chairman. and welcome, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, thank you for your thoughtfulness and i think what you laid out to us both in terms of where we have come from, and what we've done and where we need to go, i think, is very, very important. i feel as a member of this committee now for many, many years, though, that i have a need to make sure that we don't have a revisionist history whenever we're talking about how we got here. i think it's really important if we're not going to -- if we're not going to repeat mistakes that have been made before that got us here, i think it is important to just say once again for the record that when i had the opportunity to come in and serve with you, mr. chairman, the committee members in 2001, we had the biggest surpluses in history of the country. and so we've not always been in this situation and there were a number of decisions made on spending, frankly, without accountability that have gotten where we are. and i would argue that, unfortunately, the spending was -- in the eight years in

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. mr. courteney. >> thank you, mr. chairman and ranking member slaughterment i'm in awe of this committee. that movie, they shoot horses, don't they? reminds me of this. you are incredible. >> sir, we didn't start until ten o'clock this morning. we didn't start early. >> you got more to go, i understand. i want to focus on an issue that's important to the education work force committee, and again, representative slaughter mentioned there's been positive job growth since the bill was enacted with new private sector jobs and adp announced in december there was 297,000 more jobs created, and tomorrow, we get the december fingers. we have an economy that is healing, and this law, i just think that the burden sits heavily on others to point how it has in fact prohibited job growth since last march. one of the two definitely pro-employer components of this law are the focus of an amendment that myself and congressman peters presented. number one, to protect the small business tax credit, and secondly, also the early retiree i

mr. chairman. thank you very much. mr. davis is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. when we talk about international business and reach and its impact domestically, i harken back to being deployed in the middle east and secondary born division and a rapper blew up to my feet and it was a arab labeled pampers package, and i began to understand the reach of our economy. it's 1300 employees, 1200 live in our district creating $138 million in wages and your company purchased $60 million in good from 260 suppliers in our region in kentucky. those are real numbers, real jobs that impact a lot of lives in a much broader supply chain multiplied in the economy. at a time when the economy is struggling, we looked at job creatorrings, small businesses, but also very much so large businesses like p and g can put americans back to work. americans want to work in the united states with but the tax structure encourages them to do otherwise. you continue to invest in american markets. do you factor tax liability into your decisions, and if you do, how do you -- do you look more at t

mr. chairman. >> senator mccaskill, i think as you know the purpose of this hearing is set forth which is to see what happened here, specifically and what was done to attempt to remedy it. the broader questions which you raise are appropriate in different form for that to be argued at a different time. these witnesses in all fairness to them are not called for that purpose. >> and i certainly understand and i don't need to be in any way critical of these witnesses because they are not prepared to handle these questions. but they are on my mind and i needed to express them. >> which is your right. thank you very much. senator sessions. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and i would just like to say first that the air force did start off with this process in a very, very unfortunate way, people from both the boeing company and air force went to jail. senator mccain smelled a rat early on. this committee was the one committee that wasn't really consulted in how that original contract was awarded. and senator

mr. chairman. and welcome, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, thank you for your thoughtfulness and i think what you laid out to us both in terms of where we have come from, and what we've done and where we need to go, i think, is very, very important. i feel as a member of this committee now for many, many years, though, that i have a need to make sure that we don't have a revisionist history whenever we're talking about how we got here. i think it's really important if we're not going to -- if we're not going to repeat mistakes that have been made before that got us here, i think it is important to just say once again for the record that when i had the opportunity to come in and serve with you, mr. chairman, the committee members in 2001, we had the biggest surpluses in history of the country. and so we've not always been in this situation and there were a number of decisions made on spending, frankly, without accountability that have gotten where we are. and i would argue that, unfortunately, the spending was -- in the eight years in

mr. chairman. if it hasn't been requested already, i would ask that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks. the chair: it's already been requested in the house. we can move on. mr. lungren: mr. chairman, i rise today in support of h.r. 359 which terminates the taxpayer financing of presidential election campaigns and party conventions. at the outset i want to mention in response to something that s said by the other side, this is absolutely nothing to do with the citizens united case decided by the supreme court. that changed not one eye oata campaign finance law. corporations still cannot make contributions to campaigns or candidates. it does not change that. citizens united had to do with the estion of whether or not one los his or her first amendment protections of free speech, particularly with respect to expressions of

mr. chairman. let me first apologize to the witnesses. i had to leave to go to a meeting and didn't hear anything other than a small part of the first witness' testimony. i assure you i will read it. i didn't come back to ask questions about what you said because i didn't hear what you said. i came back really to make sure that a perspective that i have on this issue gets into the record. because this is where i differ with a lot of my colleagues who have thought that this is an appropriate issue for us to deal with in the u.s. house judiciary committee. i'm kind of a states rights, old school guy on this. i have always believed that tort law was a matter of state law. i concede that we have the authority to write tort standards for medicare recipients and for the range of people that we do, but general tort law, from my perspective, has always been a matter of state law. i happen to live in charlotte, north carolina, and that is right on the south carolina line, but i've never seen a hospital that

mr. chairman. and welcome, mr. chairman. mr. rman, thank you for your thoughtfulness and i think what you laid out to us both in terms of where we have come from, and what we've done and where we need to go, i think, is very, very important. i feel as a member of this committee now for many, many years, though, that i have a need to make sure that we don't have a revisionist history whenever we're talking about how we got here. i think it's really important if we're not going to -- if we're not going to repeat mistakes that have been made before that got us here, i think it is important to just say once again for the record that when i had the opportunity to come in and serve with you, mr. chairman, the committee members in 2001, we had the biggest surpluses in history of the country. and so we've not always been in this situation and there were a number of decisions made on spending, frankly, without accountability that have gotten where we are. and i would argue that, unfortunately, the spending was -- in the eight years in the

mr. chairman. mr. hairman, i've not prepared an opening statement because i didn't know we were going to have opening statements for rankings and the chairman of the subcommittees, but i'll make an opening statement nonetheless. i have always believed that this problem is the wrong problem and it is a solution in search of a problem. if you look at the evidence over many years and i've looked at the evidence since 1986 consideration of reforms to this problem in the new york state assembly when i was a member there, i've been involved with this off and on for 25 years, you find that the real problem is not the excessive costs of malpractice or that -- the excessive costs of malpractice insurance is not caused by lack of theso-called tort reforms that are being advanced here and that have been advanced over the years, namely making it harder to get attorneys capping fees or capping recoveries. but these recoveries -- capping the recoveries wod simply be unfair to people who are very seriously injured. fi

mr. chairman. i want to ask a question. i get asked this a lot back home. and the ranking member mentioned that. power in the world can you add 32 to fifty-two million people with free or highly subsidized health care and think even though there's a third party out there saying the deficit will reduce the deficit, where are they coming up with this information other than in washington? >> on the substance i do not believe this reduces health-care costs if you that many to the pool they will use more health care services and health care costs will go up. with regard to the estimate of budgetary impact of the bill by -- it does its job under the rules the budget act imposed. my gripe is with the drafters of the law to use the budget act to make sure they have the answers they wanted even though it was in defiance of economic common sense. >> i was chairman of the florida chamber and our little chamber, 25 businesses locally. this is the biggest issue in the last 20 years. this isn't something that ha

mr. chairman. and welcome, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, thank you for your thoughtfulness and i think what you laid out to us both in terms of where we have come from, and what we've done and where we need to go, i think, is very, very important. i feel as a member of this committee now for many, many years, though, that i have a need to make sure that we don't have a revisionist history whenever we're talking about how we got here. i think it's really important if we're not going to -- if we're not going to repeat mistakes that have been made before that got us here, i think it is important to just say once again for the record that when i had the opportunity to come in and serve with you, mr. chairman, the committee members in 2001, we had the biggest surpluses in history of the country. and so we've not always been in this situation and there were a number of decisions made on spending, frankly, without accountability that have gotten where we are. and i would argue that, unfortunately, the spending was -- in the eight years in

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. mr. davis is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. when we talk about international business and its reach and impact domestically, i'm harkened back to being deployed in the middle east in the 82nd airborne division, taking a walk under the desert in the moonlight, a wrapper blew up to my feet and it was an arabic labeled pampers pack edge and i began to understand the reach of our economy. g.e. has 1,230 employees who live across the river in our district and creates $130 million in wages. and your company purchased $160 million in goods from 260 suppliers in our region in kentucky. those are real numbers, those are real jobs that impact a lot of lives and a much broader supply chain that are multiplied in our community. at a time the country is struggling to regain its footing, we looked at job creators, small businesses, but also very much so large businesses like p and g as a means to put americans back to work. companies want to manufacture in the united states but are faced with a tax structure that encourages them to do elsewh

mr. chairman. and mr. chairman, thank you for chairing this particular hearing which i think is going to be one of the most important of the year. as you said, i also welcome our former colleague david mcintosh and david, i hope we get to talk a little bit more later on but appreciate you being here, too. mr. chairman, the american people in november voted for real change in washington. one change they want is to stop the flood of regulations that cost jobs and smothers job creation. yet, another is to make washington and congress more accountable. the reins act makes that change a reality. unelected federal officials for too long have imposed huge costs on the economy and the american people through burdensome regulations. today these regulatory costs are estimated to be a nearly incomprehensible 1 3/4 million dollars. because they are not elected they cannot be held accountable by the american people. the reins act reins in the costly overreach of federal agencies that stifles job creation and slows econo

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, in an hour or two, we will vote on a symbolic repeal of what has been described by my colleagues on the other side has obamacare. that is one thing i want to take the liberty to correct, that is now seared into the body politic of america, the measure for affordable health care that we passed is the of the obamacare -- is dubbed obamacare. i advocated universal health care when i came to congress in 1982. i advocated we should have a public option before i knew barack obama's name. it would be better to call this american health care and not just the president because it happens to be on his time and his time. we could call it alceecare because i certainly have been for those who aren't caught uninsured and underinsured in america, of having the privilege of having the kind of insurance the most of us have. so that we proceed from this symbolic vote to next week, a symbolic vote on our budget. i recall vividly at age 12 there was a radio program that came and called "let's pr

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i've not prepared an opening statement because i didn't know we were going to have opening statements for rankings and the chairman of the subcmittee b i'l me an opening statemen noneeless. i have always believed that this problem is the wrong problem and it is a solution in search of a problem. if you look at the evidence over many years and i've looked at the evidence since 86 consideration of reforms to this problem in the new york state assembly when i was a member there, i've been involved with this off and on for 25 years, you find that the real problem is not the excessive costs of malpractice or that -- the excessive costs of malpractice insurance is not caused by lack of the so-called tort reforms that are being advanced here and that have been advanced over the years, namely making it harder to get attorneys capping fees or cappingrov fale who are very seriously injured. first of all, we know that most people who suffer real damages as a result of medical negligence

mr. chairman, chairman of the hawaii republican party. the proxy committee met and we bedewed the 16 properties that were submitted to the secretary -- and we reviewed the 16 proxies' that were committed -- proxies that were submitted to the committee. >> all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye. thank you, mr. chairman for your efforts. at this time, we will take our report from our treasurer. >> good morning. before i give my report, it has been a pleasure and an honor to serve as your treasurer. thank you for the opportunity. as i give my report, something came to mind. as a cpa, i am and ask what do accountants do. the simple answer is that we solve problems you did not know you had. we do it in a way you cannot understand. keep that in mind. as of this past tuesday, we had cash on hand of $1.3 million. as of the year end, our preliminary report shows it was given to the executive committee on wednesday. we have a total of $21.3 million in debt. that break out at $6.3 million in the form of payables owed to vendo

mr. chairman, i would reserve the balance of my time. the chairman: before recognizing the gentleman from pennsylvania, it was the chair's understanding perhaps the gentleman from washington would like to consume some of the ways and means time and then ask permission to give the rest of his time to the gentleman from pennsylvania. if that understanding is correct the chair would recognize the gentleman from washington. >> i would like to yield to the chairman of the oversight committee, the ranking member of the oversight committee such time as he may wish to use in answering mr. lungren. the chair: which one do you want to use, your time or unyour time? the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized on his own time. >> thank you. it's my pleasure to deal to the member of the house administration committee, ms. lofgren. the chair: the gentlewoman is recognized for three minutes. ms lofgren: i rise in opposition to h.r. 359. this will will unnecessarily eliminate the $3 checkoff box that's voluntary on returns to fund presidential campaign

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i would like to make my own statement part of the record with your consent. i want to thank all three of our panelists. mr. mcintosh, i will start -- >> without objection. >> that you, mr. chairman. what in your judgment is the proper balance between the executive branch and the legislative branch it comes to rule making and enforcement? >> well, let me point out that the administrative procedure act also constrains how the executive branch writes its regulations, the processes it must use before they can have the force of law. so there is a long tradition in our modern history of congress asserting constraints over how the president's and the executive branch can issue regulations. it is fully compatible with that for congress to say before this regulation that you are proposing, mr. president, or the agency, it has to come back to congress and said they're for congress to give its approval of the content of that regulation. i'd think it is fully within congress's power to

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i ask unanimous consent that a statement i made speed without objection. >> thank you very much. returning to my colleague, mr. nugent who says that it would be helpful if we have a fresh piece of paper, his words, and that we start over again. there are many things in this measure to like and dislike. and it would seem to me that the speedy answer on my republican friends, constituents who they feel wanting to address is at least ignoring certain aspects of what true transpire if we were to take the time to hear from people who have benefited, to hear from the folks who are providing the regulations, to hear from the administration as to whether or not any of their views have changed, all of these things could be done. and yet we proceed to have a $230 billion measure, if there were to be made law, already in a hole blown budget. and i find that and just can't understand how it is that we are in the position we're in. let me quote three people. one, and they do not know two

mr. chairman. >> thank you. >> ok. >> thank you so much for your time. obviously, wheat, in the press, have noticed the absence of the republican appointed members of this commission. is the fact that their descent is likely to undermine how port and play this can be taken? >> let me make a brief comment and then i will ask one of my colleagues to comment. first of all, we're here to present the report today. there are two separate the sense that have been filed. the public and the media will have a chance to view the dissents. we can find areas of agreement in the conclusion. the seriousness of mortgage fraud. but i would say this, there are fundamental differences. we believe that this crisis was avoidable. we believe that it was the result of human action and inaction. i believe that the report speaks for itself. would you like to add to that? >> i think it would be useful for the record for the questioners to say their name and their affiliation. >> thank you. >> i apologize. >> and i might men

mr. chairman. >> the time has expired. mr. landrieu. stat thank you, mr. chairman. just for the record, i did raise the commission's credentials on my campaign to get here. maybe they were not raising it in june but i sure was in louisianan. considering the industry's performance in the gulf of mexico where over 42,000 wells have been drilled in addition to 2500 deepwater without any significant incidents in my opinion reflected the successful risk-management worthies safety factors, and these are yes or no questions, were these facts the success in history of all of the wells that had been drilled out in the gulf of mexico, were they taken into account when you did this report? >> yes, sir. >> okay. >> was there any economic analysis done during the course of this report in terms of the impact of not only the gulf economy but the national economy as well taking into account? >> we know tens of billions or damage to the environment primarily of the gulf as a result of the bill. so the answer is yes. >> the president's commission to determine a cause of the disaster

mr. chairman. mr. barofsky, mr. massad, thank you both for your great work an thank you for your service to our country. mr. barofsky, i'm more familiar with your work, especially, so, sir, the work that you've been doing. i want to take half a minute to really correct some of the revisionist history here on t.a.r.p. i voted against t.a.r.p. and when it came before the financial services committeend before this congress, the stated legislative goal of t.a.r.p. was to help main street, to help main street, the troubled asset relief program. and when we asked secreta paulson at the time, just before the vote, we said -- actually, i think it was the ranking member of financial services said, why don't you just take money and stuff it into the banks? the $700 billion that you wanted? and mr. paulson siaid, no, we'r not going to do that. and then ten days after t.a.r.p. passed, they did exactly that. they injected all that money into the banks. thisas the bank shareholder relief program. and for people now to say, yeah,

mr. chairman, my time is up. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. mr. stallone from new jersey. >> thank you, chairman hastings and ranking member marquee for having the hearing today. the report in front of us today is cleared, in my opinion, that we cannot kill safely off our shores under the current system and our coastal communities the production from untrustworthy big oil. on the big oil would claim that we control faithfully and expand drilling in the wake of our country's worst environmental disaster and the fighting of the systematic failures. as the deepwater rising disaster, the president has reversed course and thankfully taken drilling in the atlantic off the table at least for the next five years and i commend him for that action and believe he must make the policy permanent. only than 20 feet from the greed of the oil industry. also, house democrats passed a clear tube oppose the legislation, saying we need to wait for the commission's report. now that we have it, it's time to take action to prevent pickler from wreaking havoc on our envir

mr. chairman, i have a quick power point presentation on this item. you have a hard copy in your packets. i will be very brief. if i could have the power point? there we go. as was said earlier, this is fulfilled in section 131303, requirements for the public utilities code prompting an adoption by this board, going beyond what was adopted in the prop k plan. as you know, the authority has other roles. the local sales tax, under the role of complying strategic roles, a program administered by the bay area air quality management district with two components. one of the regional, administered directly by the district. and a local component for the manager fund, one that you as the authority board administered. and the latest addition mentioned earlier is prop aa the annual vehicle registration fees of with the authority is now the administrator. $5 million per year in revenues for transportation purposes. here is an overview of the allocations and expenditures during the period covered by this report. this report is by one of those vagaries of state leg

mr. chairman. mr.he record with your consent. i want to thank all three of our panelists. mr. mcintosh, i will start -- >> without objection. >> that you, mr. chairman. what in your judgment is the proper balance between the executive branch and the legislative branch it comes to rule making and enforcement? >> well, let me point out that the administrative procedure act also constrains how the executive branch writes its regulations, the processes it must use before they can have the force of law. so there is a long tradition in our modern history of congress asserting constraints over how the president's and the executive branch can issue regulations. it is fully compatible with that for congress to say before this regulation that you are proposing, mr. president, or the agency, it has to come back to congress and said they're for congress to give its approval of the content of that regulation. i'd think it is fully within congress's power to do that. i would point out that for the century prior to t

mr. chairman. >> mr. johnson is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you know, you've said a lot of things that don't seem to be true in the real world. maybe you ought to get out there and talk to people. but, you know, that health care tax credit, for instance, very few small businesses that i've talked to and their employees will benefit from the credit. in fact, cbo estimated that 88% of those who get health insurance from a small business work for a business that will not receive the credit. there are different credit amounts and eligiblibility requirements prior to 2014 than exists after the exchanges are operational and after 2013 an employer can only claim the credit for two years. that's not giving them much. one of the purposes of this hearing is to look at the impact of health reform law on jobs. i think we can all agree it is critical to pursue policies that create jobs, not eliminate them. and the health reform law places significant restrictions on physician ownership of hospitals. you've almost put it to a complete halt and yet my experi

mr. chairman. i thank the witnesses for their attendance and being here this morning. one of the primary duties of this committee is to engage in oversight of department of defense spending and programs. and while i am unfailing in my support for aggressive oversight by this committee over major defense acquisition programs, and i acknowledge that it is the right and responsibility of the chairman to schedule hearings as he deems fit and appropriate to ensure that the committee exercise its oversight responsibilities effectively. i approach today's hearing with a fair bit of concern, and even a greater amount of skepticism that this hearing will be beneficial to our job of oversight. unfortunately, this hearing appears to be designed to produce little new information about the pending a ward of the air force's kc-x tanker competition. as we all know the competition for the air force's new aerial refueling tanker has been beset by problems and acquisition irregularities four years. after considerabl

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i've not prepared an opening statement because i didn't know we were going to have opening statements for rankings and the chairman of the subcommittees, but i'll make an opening statement nonetheless. i have always believed that this problem is the wrong problem and it is a solution in search of a problem. if you look at the evidence over many years and i've looked at the evidence since 1986 consideration of reforms to this problem in theew york state assembly when i was a member there, i've been involved with this off and on for 25 years, you find that the real problem is not the excessive costs of malpractice or that -- the excessive costs of malpractice insurance is not caused by lack of the so-called tort reforms that are being advanced here and that have been advanced over the years, namely making it harder to get attorneys capping fees or capping recoveries. but these recoveries -- capping the recoveries would simply be unfair to people who are very seriously injured.

mr. chairman. a parliamentary inquiry. i know this is our first meeting and i want to make sure we're clear. we have a lengthy discussion. we had a lengthy discussion yesterday with regard to opening statements. the chairman and i thought we had reached a wonderful agreement or the chairman had said that he would provide us knows this -- notice to regard that opening statements, whether giving them or not, and this is our first tearing and some of the members and of course i was wondering exactly why we are not having opening statements, and we were -- until we were given notice about half an hour that there would not be opening statements. i was wondering. >> i thank the gentleman. the chair is awaiting the opening statements including my own. all members will have seven days in order to place their opening statements into the record. on a very personal note, i felt that it was most important on this first hearing to start off by listening to the witnesses -- and i know the special ig, this is his

mr. chairman. i very much appreciate the opportunity to testify before the rules committee today. and i'll do so in the favor of legislation to repeal the democrats' deeply-flawed health care bill. the cornerstone of health care law, this bill repeals is individual mandate. that's a mandate that requires all americans to either purchase health insurance or pay a fine. this mandate is clearly outside the scope of the enumerated powers of the constitution grans the federal government. in fact, i find four places that i believe obamacare violates the constitution in my reading of it. specifically, the individual mandate is supported by neither the commerce clause, nor congress' power to lay and collect taxes. the congress' power only covers commercial or economic activity, and that is the production, distribution or consumption of commodities. an individual decision not to purchase health insurance is not a commercial or economic activity. in fact, it's not an activity, it is a non-economic enacttivit

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i've not prepared an opening statement because i didn't know we were going to have opening statements for rankings and the chairman of the subcommittees, but i'll make an opening statement nonetheless. i have always believed that this problem is the wrong problem and it is a solution in search of a problem. if you look at the evidence over many years and i've looked at the evidence since 1986 consideration of reforms to this problem in the new york state assembly when i was a member there, i've been involved with this off and on for 25 years, you find that the real problem is not the excessive costs of malpractice or that -- the excessive costs of malpractice insurance is not caused by lack of the so-called tort reforms that are being advanced here and that have been advanced over the years, namely making it harder to get attorneys capping fees or capping recoveries. but these recoveries -- capping the recoveries would simply be unfair to people who are very seriously injured

mr. chairman. i want to thank both of the witnesses for being here today. recognizing that we're in difficult times. there are lots of -- i'm sure -- let me say i'm sure it's not easy to sit there and take the questions, but there is a lot of frustration. i wanted to start off by saying this, that my observations so far is that what we're talking about is failed government regulations and programs, an today, what we're talking about, or some people are talking about is what other government programs can we add on top of that to try to makehe failed ones work as if though more government regulation, more government programs is going to be the answer? i'll tell you, i've heard a couple people from ohio talk about ohio being the epicenter of foreclosures, i would welcome them to come down to fort myers, florida, to lehigh, to cape coral. i'll tell you what my stilts are telling me, they're telling me stop. we don't want more of this government kind of control. we don't want the idea that government is

mr. chairman. >> senator claire mccaskill. >> this is a case study in the incompetence at contract competition, this whole debacle from beginning to this moment. contract competition for something like this has to be a core competency. i want to know, in this instance, what punitive actions have been taken? we can call it an accident, but it is incompetence. what punitive actions have been taken from the person who made the mistake? >> from what i read in the documents, the people who were involved in making the mistake are no longer employed at the aeronautical assistance center. >> so they were fired? >> they have been moved. >> where have they been moved? >> i do not know. >> i would like to know where they are. i would like to know if they are making the same amount of money and if they will resurface in another position of responsibility. i have complemented secretary gates, because he provided accountability at the top level in many instances where we have had problems. i just think this is b

mr. chairman. >> let me just clarify one point. because we've had three different statements, it seems to me, mr. shirley from you. one we know from that the record that the certain who opened up that file said that they looked at it or about 15 seconds. when i talked to you earlier today, when i asked you the question, you said you determined forensically that it was opened for a few minutes. now you are saying that the computer was open, not necessarily the file, but the computer was open for about 20 minutes. >> yes, sir. >> do i have it straight? if not, straight it out. >> yes, sir, the computer was powered for about 20 minutes. >> how long was the file open? >> the -- >> approximately how long was the page visible? >> my recollection from the briefing from my examiner was roughly three minutes, sir. >> three minutes. >> okay. i think it's important that we get our terms straight, okay? now -- >> chairman could i add to this as well. >> of course. >> from what i read in the documentation, the person who was responsible for open

mr. chairman. dr. elmendorf, welcome, and of start out by saying how much i and other members of congress and committee appreciate the professionalism and integrity of your office. i know the numbers you report are often battered around and spun in different ways which must be a source of tremendous frustration to you, but you always seem to keep your cool despite that. it's important we get good numbers and thank you for that. >> thank you, senator, that means a lot. >> unfortunately, we talk about the budget and economic outlook, i feel like mark twain when he said everyone talks about the weather but nobody ever does anything about it. i think congress is guilty of that. that's why i was pleasantly surprised, mr. chairman, when you and other members of the president's fiscal commission came out with what i thought was a bold and dramatic and a sobering report. i hope we will take the opportunity to deal with this crisis and i do believe it is approaching a crisis. we do not know when the tipping poi

mr. chairman, may i -- mr. dreier: madam speaker, i'm happy to yield my friend an additional 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 30 seconds. mr. canseco: thank you. policies enacted in washington like the health care bill have injected uncertainty into our economy that has eroded the confidence of americans to start new businesses or expand current ones to create jobs. the american people have made it clear, they want the health care law repealed and replaced with commonsense alternatives that will lower the cost of health care while also increasing quality and access. after meeting and speaking with thousands of texans in the 23rd district over the past year, this is their message. repealing and replacing the health care bill is one of the promises made to america in the pledge to america. today we are working on that promise as we work to -- the speaker pro tempore: the time has expired. mr. canseco: thank you. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the

mr. chairman. i want to thank all of our witnesses. i truly believe all three of you are here to do what you think is in the best interest of our patients and of the united states. i feel the same way about the members that we have up here, but we all have specific constituencie constituencies. as much as i love the chairman, i know there are times that he's from texas and he has a texas constituency. the gentleman from arkansas has an arkansas constituency. gentlewoman from florida has a florida constituency. that's what we tell everybody, the gentleman from florida, the gentleman from arkansas. i think it's important that we know when you're testifying who your constituencies are and two of our witnesses have set that forward an the congresswoman adams asked what i think is a fair question to miss doroshow, and that is, if sheould just be willing to give us your sources of public funding and your membership, would you make those publico we know who those constituencies are? >> well, we're a501c-3

mr. chairman. on the issue of entitlements, you mentioned that is the biggest area you would like to create a contract with the obama administration. quite the biggest area of contrasts -- i would say all of the budget. >> and thomas is the biggest part of the problem -- and entitlements is the biggest part of the problem? you talk about the road map and the budget which seems like less of a likelihood. you also want to put the spending cuts out there before the state of the union. are you backing all of the willingness to go after this? >> we are cutting the congressional budget. we will put bills on the floor. i cannot speak to the timing of before or after the state of the union, but we will be bringing spending cuts of all first corder long. i am not suggesting the budget will be one thing or the other. i do not know the answer to the question. i do not have a baseline. it is a collaborative process. we have not gone through that yet. we have not had our committee hearings. we have not done the

mr. chairman, i have a quick power point presentation on this item. you have a hard copy in your packets. i will be very brief. if i could have the power point? there we go. as was said earlier, this is fulfilled in section 131303, requirements for the public utilities code prompting an adoption by this board, going beyond what was adopted in the prop k plan. as you know, the authority has other roles. the local sales tax, under the role of complying strategic roles

mr. chairman. i appreciate the secretary being here today. i was ve pleased at the state of the union that the president meiod that there are flaws in the health care bill that need fixing. he specifically mentioned tort reform. of course a year and a half ago at the american medical association conventio he promised that the health care bill would have tort reform and a permanent doc fix. neither one of those thgs wound up in there. today's hearing is designed as another marketing tool for the health care plan. i don't think we can fault the millions that have been spent on the marketing. it's been voluminous, but it's the policy that's flawed, not the marketing plan. it's easy to pick a few paragraphs out of a 2700 page law to find a few provisions that are popular. apparently the purpose of the hearing today is to identify those few issues in the law law that enjoy support. that's often from both sides of the aisle. usually a hearing is to seek solutions. unfortunately, the reality is americans w

mr. chairman. first, mr. bernanke, let me pursue the question that revolves around your confidence about being able to prevent inflation. you know that you remain on unwaveringly committed to price stability in your statement, and in testicular maintaining inflation data level consistent with the mandate. it bears emphasizing that the federal reserve is doing all it needs to ensure that it would be smoothly and effectively exited from the program at the appropriate time. we could know precisely when and when the suit exit, and if you do so smoothly. i have noticed that the bond market, and the almost consensus view around wall street and investors is that bonds are a bad investment, and that presumably they expect a realistic legality of any increase in interest rates in the future as a result of quantitative easing, deficits, and the like. it looks to me like, would you not agree, that investors are getting nervous already? >> well, senator, first, in your earlier comment about the 100% certainty, what i was