mr. chairman. the chair: the gentleman will state his point of order. mr. carter: i make a point of order against the amendment because it proposes to change existing law in an openings bill and, therefore, violates cause 2, rule 21. the rule states in part, an amendment to a general appropriations bill shall not be in order if changing existing law and it requires a new determination. i ask for a ruling of the chair. the chair: does any member seek to speak in opposition of the point of order? if not the chair is prepared to rule. the chair finds that this amendment includes language requiring a new definition of whether a corporation discloses certain contributions. the amendment, therefore, constitutes legislation in violation of clause 2 of rule 21. the point of order is sustained and the amendment is not in order. excuse me. i didn't see the gentleman from new jersey in the well. for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey rise? the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. andrews: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. t

mr. chairman, and i want to thank mr. aderholt, my good friend from alabama, for queeling for the purposes of this colloquy. i commend you for bringing this important legislation to the floor and for your hard work during this difficult budget times. as chairman of the committee with so authorizing jurisdiction over the transportation security administration in the house, i welcome our continued collaboration on transportation and security issues, specifically today i want to discuss with you the need to increase the number of explosive detection canines within t.s.a. for aviation and service transportation security. within the area of passenger screening, we all know that explosive detection canines are one of the most effective screening means and do it without many of the concerns and costs of other types of detection technology. they do not impede the flow of traffic and avoid privacy concerns because they do not come in direct contact with passengers. we know the military canine units in iraq and afghanistan can we d

mr. chairman, mr. ranking member, and the distinguished members of the committee, i have a detailed statement which i'll submit for the record. i want to focus on a few key points that i will make that will be helpful for you as you er and the leadership

mr. chairman. in august 2010, i.c.e.'s policy of releasing dangerous criminal aliens proved deadly. according to the freedom of information act which i have, illegal aliens carlos mantano was sentenced to over a year in jail for a second d.w.i. and released from i.c.e. custody wearing only a g.p.s. tracking device. this is in direct violation to section 236-c. tragically, on august 1, montano got drunk, got behind a wheel and collided head on with a vehicle carrying three nuns. this head-on collision killed 66-year-old sister jeanette moser of virginia. to protect innocent citizens from criminal illegal aliens, i firmly believe we need to enforce immigration laws, especially section 236-c that mandates the detention of dangerous criminalily legal aliens and urge my colleagues to support this amendment to prohibit taxpayer funds from being used in violation of section 236-c. thank you and i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from alabama. mr. aderholt:

mr. rogers of kentucky. the chair: the chairman of the appropriations committee, the gentleman from kentucky, mr. rogers, is recognized for five minutes. mr. rogers: i thank the chairman and thank chairman aderholt for the time. more importantly, thank him for the great work that he has done in perfecting this bill and bringing it to the floor, along with the accolades that have already been said about the staff and the other members of the subcommittee. so, mr. speaker -- mr. chairman, i, of course, rise in support of this bill. when i became chairman of this committee, i promised to return to regular order open rules and the completion of as many appropriation bills as possible prior to the august recess. and i intend to stick by that promise, and i appreciate the cooperation of my ranking member, mr. dicks, who has been very, very helpful in this process already. i look forward to an open amendment process, lively debate over the next several months. i also vow, mr. chairman, we would cut spending wherever possible to help balan

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, my amendment would eliminate one of 20 different programs that usda operates, the water rehabilitation program. the chairman of the subcommittee, my good friend from georgia, has stated during debate on funding for agriculture programs that he hopes to see a reduction in the number of federal programs included in this bill. i understand that some of my colleagues have a vested interest in this program. but when we have a program, its funding projects in only a handful of states, we must take a long, hard look at our priorities. mr. chairman, even the president did not request funding for this program. it cannot be understated that we are facing unprecedented fiscal challenges in our nation. we just simply have to stop spending money that we don't have and we have to start creating jobs out in the private sector. and my amendment will, by cutting this program, will help to stop the bleeding economically that we're having. the consequences of failure to reduce spending jeopardi

mr. chairman. i want to thank you, mr.for your service to this great nation of ours, for coming here today, because i know as the others mentioned it cannot be easy for you to do that. my questions, a couple of questions your personal, how did you find out about the minnesota team challenge program? >> i was actually in jail. i had gotten my 700th dui it seemed like, and i made a phone call to tell my sister to pick up my son for a trip to wisconsin dells, and i saw an advertisement on the wall, and to my brothers picked me up from jail and i heard the advertising on the radio and i said okay, i think that's a sign. a week later i told work i've got to go get better and i will be gone for a year. that was how i heard about it. and my family had known about it because it is a faith-based program, and my mom is a very religious person. and so should mention it actually previous but i said come on, 13-15 months. >> thank you. do you think that it would be beneficial for those who're serving in the military today is actually b

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from virginia, mr. goodlatte, who is the chairman of the intellectual property subcommittee of the judiciary committee. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. goodlatte: i thank the chairman and i very much also appreciate this debate on the constitutionality of this issue and i had the honor of leading the reading of the constitution on the second day of this new congress. and i want to make it very clear because there's a lot of confusion on the part of a lot of people who think this is a first to file, even if you're not the inventor, gets the patent. that is most assuredly not the case. this is first inventor to file. you must be a bona fide inventor to qualify for this. our constitution grants exclusive rights to inventors. now, in point of fact, when our constitution was first adopted and our patent office was established, there was no interference provisions and it was 80 years later before that took place. and in fact in at least one case patents were granted to more than one

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, this would combat the misguided report language written to attack local and regional food systems. by passing this amendment, we will send an important message to farmers, consumers and community leaders around the -- around the country. helow call and regional food systems are critically important. they provide economic opportunities for rural communities and healthy food for consumers. local food systems are the back bone of economies across the country. in order to ensure local food systems work to their maximum potential, congress must support research, driving programs and devote more, not less funding to promote this work. no matter what group i'm talking to, whether it's members of credit unions or realtors or teachers, when i start talking about improving the quality of food we serve our kids, improving local food systems and knowing where your food comes from, i look around the room and everybody is nodding. across the board, these issues are important to people. and

mr. chairman. i'm ing to be brief. mr. langevin, you have expressed a level of restraint regarding this bill, in that if you think we strengthen in certain areas and i'm curious to say i know that we want to send the best bill that we can to the senate, and then again we can persevere as you have indicated. how do you think we can strengthen this bill? >> well, a couple of things, congressman rush. i'd like to see the approach that we're taking here addressing the challenges to the bulk power system broadened to include other areas of critical infrastructu infrastructure. because some of them would be in this jurisdiction of the full energy and commerce committee. others may be in the area of the financial services area committee. but i think the approach that you're taking here is a positive one, with respect to the electric grid. in addition to that, i would like to see this bill address distribution systems, not just transmission but distribution systems. as i said, it's my understanding that because distribution is not

mr. chairman. mr. weich, from what i can see, the department of justice has worked hard to comply with the committee's very large document request. not only have you gone to considerable lengths and cost, you have worked with majority committee staff to prioritize documents of great interest. you have briefed the committee not only on your ongoing processing of documents but on a case itself. on top of delivering many documents, you have made the most sensitive documents available for review by committee staff in ways that protect the documents' integrity. it seems to me that the department is cooperating with the committee's extraordinary request and i say extraordinary because not only is the scope of the request very large, but because of its timing. during ongoing criminal investigations as well as an ongoing i.g. investigation. flashing back to when the committee was investigating blackwater, during the previous administration, a member of this committee now in the majority said that quote, we are

mr. chairman, i move to strike the last word. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. >> and yield my time to the gentlewoman from new york, mrs. lowey. the chair: the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. lowey: i thank the gentleman and i'd like to rise for clarification. with great respect for my colleagues and understanding the importance of homeland security dollars, i am very concerned that this seems to be a misunderstanding. i would like to read again the quote from the 9/11 commission. quote, federal homeland security assistance should not remain a program for general revenue sharing. it should supplement state and local resources based on the risks of vubblenerblet that merit additional support. congress should not use this money as a pork barrel. i would also like to remind my good friends that under the homeland security grant program there are many other sources of funding for these communities. california, for example, is getting $153 million,-- $153,953,988, connecticut is getting over $12 million, nevada

mr. chairman. mr.ambassador, could you tell us again why cuba was put on the state sponsor or -- of terrorism list in '82? >> cuba was put on the state sponsorship list for supporting foreign terrorist organizations engaged in activity primarily in this hemisphere but, again, for repeated acts of support of international terror. >> okay. and then in answering questions from my colleague, mr. rivera, you outlined some of those terrorist activities. can you tell me what the differences between cuba and vens rail what? -- venezuela? >> i think it's important to underscore that the process of putting a state on the list and the process of taking another state off the list are two very different things. we have a very high bar for taking countries off the list. we want to make sure that when we put countries on the list, that we're not setting such a low threshold that we will both incur, create side effects that will undermine our efforts and our broader national security interests. as a result, um, the --

mr. chairman, i yield that. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. we flow along the lines of what mr. wilson brought up earlier in this database talking about the job done being determined by conditions on the ground, movement towards the afghan security forces, police been able to take over security. my concern comes from the future of this operation at an economic level. the afghan security forces are taking over more geography. but are we creating a situation where we've created such a large afghan army that the afghan economy just will not be able to support that? i think we have to look at this if the crystal ball says we will be drawn down to a condition sort of like what we have in iraq right now by 2014, what is the dollar amount the afghan government has to generate in the u.s. support is still going to be there in a financial sense? >> that is something we are looking at in great detail. one question is the level of threat is degraded. how big of an army of police force do you need? they may well be smaller than what we are currently planne

mr. chairman. the chair: mr. speaker, the committee on the committee of the whole house on the state of the union having had under consideration h.r. 2017 directs me to report it has come to no resolution thereon. the speaker pro tempore: the chairman of the committee of the whole house on the state of the union reports that the committee has had under consideration h.r. 2017 and has come to no resolution thereon. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the house will stand in quite the house is in recess. when they come back, they will -- >> the house is in recess. when they come back, they will resume work on the spending bill for fiscal year 2012. the house this week kicked off consideration of the annual spending bills, beginning with homeland security. how is it going so far? >> as you can see, they are taking a good amount of time on this. there are a lot of amendments. it has been a lively debate. >> what will be next in line for the house on the 2012 spending bill? >> they will take of the military constructio

mr. chairman. director, you certainly deserve the widespread accolades and expressions of gratitude that you are receiving from virtually every member of this committee today. i want to add my own thanks for your willingness to continue to serve our country during such a difficult time, but like my colleagues -- now the hard questions start. i want to start with libya. you have repeated today the administration's goal that colonel gaddafi must go. what then? if there's any painful lesson we have learned from our experience in iraq, is that if we do not have a plan in place after we have been posed a high rent, that chaos and violence in seuss -- have deposed a tant, that chaos and violence ensues. you have a plan for dealing with libya post-gaddafi? do we really know who we are dealing with in the opposition? >> i know that secretary clinton is spending a great deal of her time working with our allies to respond to that concern to try to work with those in the opposition who have come together. to

mr. chairman and mr. alvarez. just one question. has the dramatic and i believe welcome the increase in transparency, including your own initiatives and those called for in the wall street reform act of 2010 had any adverse or troubling consequences either for policy-making at the fed or for the financial institutions that you regulated and interact with? >> we think the increases in transparency particularly around of monetary policy that we have taken in the last few years has been very helpful and responsive and have improved understanding of the federal reserve and the actions come policy actions we are trying to take. we provided a lot of detailed information about the credit transactions we engaged in during the crisis. there has been -- conagra's we think struck a very important balance between the need for access to the information and providing the delay so that participants in the transaction don't experience stigma that often occurs when there's an immediate release of information, allowing their for an explanation for wh

mr. chairman. the attack on the iranian nuclear facility. that was just a very smart way of very smart people figuring out how to disable a nuclear power plant in iran from a distance. thank goodness however those people a were able to disable it and not cause a nuclear disruption. there may be others that are not so benign in their, in what their objectives are and the harm they can do. i just think this isn't something where you self-identify yourself as potentially being a problem. i think we have to decide is there a oblem and al qaeda is out there. do you agree with that, mr. mcclelland? >> yes. i would add one distinction. nerc has submitted a standard where critical assets, now there are several designations for critical assets. assets that serve nuclear facilities are now deemed critical assets. the commissioner has requested additional information. critical assets are not the assets covered by the standard. there are critical cyber assets. the commissioner asked one of the lines of questio

mr. chairman. mr. ambassador, could you tell us again why cuba was put on the state sponsor or -- of terrorism list in '82? >> cuba was put on the state sponsorship list for supporting foreign terrorist organizations engaged in activity primarily in this hemisphere but, again, for repeated acts of support of international terror. >> okay. and then in answering questions from my colleague, mr. rivera, you outlined some of those terrorist activities. can you tell me what the differences between cuba and vens rail what? -- venezuela? >> i think it's important to underscore that the process of putting a state on the list and the process of taking another state off the list are two very different things. we have a very high bar for taking countries off the list. we want to make sure that when we put countries on the list, that we're not setting such a low threshold that we will both incur, create side effects that will undermine our efforts and our broader national security interests. as a result, um, the -

mr. chairman. i thank mr. bartlett from maryland for making the case. i tell my friends that when they say women and children first, it means to save them, not to throw them overboard. women and children first means that they are the most vulnerable and need to be lifted up, need to be protected, need to be given the handup, not the handout. ladies and gentlemen of this house, i rise in opposition to this bill, and i thank my friend from maryland, for whom i have great respect. i think in fact he did put this in context. we will not balance the budget on the backs of children. we will not balance this budget on the backs of women who need nutrition and health care. that's not how we're going to balance the budget, and the gentleman from maryland made that point i think very effectively. if we cut out all defense and discretionary spending, we wouldn't balance our budget. that's the magnitude of the problem that faces us, but a great country, america, should not ask our children who need nutritional

mr. chairman. i'm ing to be brief. mr. langevin, you have expressed a level of restraint regarding this bill, in that if you think we strengthen in certain areas and i'm curious to say i know that we want to send the best bi that we can to the senate, and then again we can persevere as you have indicated. how do you think we can strengthen this bill? >> well, a couple of things, congressman rush. i'd like to see the approach that we're taking here addressing the challenges to the bulk power system broadened to include other areas of critical infrastructu infrastructure. because some of them would be in this jurisdiction of the full energy and commerce committee others may be in the area of the financial services area committee. but i think the approach that you're taking here is a positive one, with respect to the electric grid. in addition to that, i would like to see this bill address distribution systems, not just transmission b distribution systems. as i said, it's my understanding that because distribution is not deal

mr. chairman. >> i thank you. we'll recognize the gentlewoman from ohio; ms. smith. >> thank you issue mr. chairman, for holing this hearing. it shouldn't be of surprise to anyone there's a special link between venezuela and iran, and that perhaps it should be no surprise that hugo chavez is looking to strengthen ties with iran. if you look at what just occurred in the last seven years, i think the documents -- the facts speak for themselves. in 2006, venezuela integrated itself with iran by alining with cuba and syria as the only country to vote against the u.n. atomic agency solution reporting for the failures to comply with sanctions. in april of 2008, they signed a pact of mutual military support. in april 2009, the two countries inked an agreement to create a development bank whereby each country invests $100 million for bilateral economic development projects. in october 2010, the two countryings signed 11 mutual cooperative agreements on issues trade, energy, shipping, finance, and public ho

mr. chairman. >> mr. secretary, last year, you transfer money to the department of energy to pay for a nuclear program, because as i understand, you are concerned about the neglect that had befallen us. how concerned are you that the house is considering appropriations legislation, that we would cut the program by almost 10% from what the president suggested, and what are the implications to failing to fund the modernization program? >> i am very concerned. if i recall, the actions taken by the house cut about $1 billion from this modernization program. this modernization program was very carefully worked out between ourselves and the department of energy, and, frankly, where we came out on that also played, i think, a fairly significant role in the willingness of the senate to ratify the new agreement, so the risks are to our own program in being able to extend the life of our weapons systems, to modernize them, not in the sense of capability but in the terms of security and reliability, and this require

mr. chairman. he said these words. as a career law enforcement officer who has had to investigate the deaths of police officers, children, and others at the hands of armed criminals, i was and continue to be horrified. and this is the piece i want us to concentrate on. i believe that these firearms will continue to turn up at crime scenes on both sides of the border. for years to come. with that, mr. chairman, i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman. we now -- oh, members may have seven days to submit opening statements and materials for the record. we now recognize our first panel. the distinguished senator charles grassley is the ranking member of the senate committee on judiciary. i had an opportunity to work with the senator on patent issues and many other issues of law enforcement. but today, the senator is here to speak about a joint investigation that has spanned many months and has ultimately consumed a great deal of the senator's personal time and attention. and i thank you for being here. y

mr. chairman, this concludes my testimony. i look forward to answering any question you are other members of the committee may have. thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. lord. and now we will hear from the chief pleased. >> thank you, mr. chairman, ranking member hutchison, my testimony today is in response to the emergency -- emerging threat to rail in this country. that was recently highlighted by information obtained from the osama bin laden compound. during a prior period before this committee, i testified that the threat against rail was very real and i described the manner in which amtrak had responded by focusing on threats related to improvised explosive devices in stations, on board a train, or by an active shooter scenario. the recent events serve as a stark reminder that these threats continue to be viable and then a new twist was added, that terrorists are considering derailing trains. this is of particular concern to amtrak operates high-speed rail trains were catastrophic losses could occur. this begs a question

mr. chairman. >> i thank the gentleman. i will yield myself five minutes but announced we will likely be able to have repeated questioning. i think the time will permit that, but i will start off with five minutes. i first want to ask unanimous consent to admit an article for the record from bloomberg on the $80 billion secret of loan without objection. i want to refer to one document, and this document from the material that we got from the federal reserve is called a chart pack of monitoring metrics for fed facilities, and i'm sure you know all 29,000 pages as you know exactly what i'm talking about. but it tells you about the problem that we have in trying to find out information, and this particular document has 327 pages to it. but in this particular document it had some interesting material that i did not know about and i want to ask about it, and it reveals there was a previously undisclosed fed lending program known as the open market operations and its referred to as stomo. this is somethin

mr. chairman. i yield back. >> i'm going to jump in here real quick because we'll have a series of votes coming up here in a bit. i don't know when they are. i do have a question to you mr. hall. you mentioned earlier and i heard this, too, about possible bias out there against making it harder for franchisees. i've got friends who are trying to get loans on startups that are new franchises, and they get that impression that there is a bias against that or it's that much tougher. can you expand on that? and i'd be very curious to hear what the others have to say in the banking community. >> well, you know, i think historically people have had a negative thought about restaurant industry and about startups just in general. because the sba program is not about giving away money to loans that will pay back. it's a program where you really have to pay the money back. there has to be a plan in place. so, i think there probably has been traditionally a bias against the franchises, but i think we are turn

mr. chairman. mr.oom, did you know when you were working at the treasury that gm was paying their loan with the taxpayer dollars from one pot to another? did you know that? >> when general motors -- >> that's a yes or no. did you know that? >> i'm going to try to give you a complete answer if i could. >> can -- i'd just like a yes or no. >> we knew they were using their corporate resources which were legally theirs to pay the loan. >> l and it was taxpayer funding, you knew that, right? >> we knew all funds had come from either ourselves or the canadian government. >> okay. did you have any sense of responsibility to the american people to divulge that? i mean, this is the treasury. this is the, this is the group that handles the manages the nation's wealth. and it's being pillaged. did you not have a sense of responsibility to let the american people know that a corporation that had defaulted was playing a shell game with taxpayer dollars? >> i don't think in any way, shape or form that we deceived th

mr. vice chairman, and mr. chairman, how difficult such moves would be politically and require broad bipartisan consensus. to show that we can accomplish that would create kind of a celebration in financial markets people think, finally the u.s. has solved its problem. mr. vice chairman, we point to the beginning of my testimony and highlight the urgency of action. in a traditional recession that lasts 11 months of so and then the recovery three 1990's that goes five or six or 7 percent in the year that we get out, if you have a really well timed stimulus you may take a person or to grow out of the recovery and moving into the recession. if you're growing five, six, 7% and that could be something that everyone would want to consider. the difference this time is that we know from the work that the recovery from the financial crisis lasts maybe a decade. if we take that approach what will happen is the hangover is going to be present in the slow-growth time and maybe even if you're an optimist about the effect of

mr. chairman. mr. sunstein, i think you can tell we are all hearing from constituents they are frustrated what is coming from this administration. i started in january to a listening sessions with our employers in our districts. they were jobs related listening sessions. i mention that to you the last time we talk and they are incredibly frustrated. as one of my constituents said, you know, we used to get a good unable periodic, one page at day. now the regulation comes in reams and reams and reams of paperwork. into such a heavy burden that the jobs numbers today should not surprise you all because what you are doing isn't working. so they should be good to you and i hope we can work with you on this. and i know that you all are saying well, we've got draft proposals out there. we need input. and the input coming back to you is you are on the wrong track. so if you're on the wrong track, sir, please advise the administration to change what they are doing. now, i know that the executive order, the 165

mr. chairman. thank you, senator lieberman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i first of all want to say that we are blessed and grateful to have the service of all three of you for the country and i want to thank your family is an old that served under you for what you have done, and we have a great confidence in all with your qualifications. i wanted to ask the vice admiral mcraven in your evidence policy questions, your asked what are the weaknesses and shortcomings in the current effort to combat terrorism in insurgency in afghanistan, and in one of your answers, you said the weaknesses and shortcomings a rise of from the strategy or the efforts of the soldiers, marines, air men and civilians on the ground, of the diminished resources, lack of long-term commitment and any decrease in international assistance. vice admiral, can you elaborate for me what you meant by that statement in terms of the concerns about diminished resources or lack of long-term commitment? >> yes, ma'am. this is basically focu

mr. chairman. i'm deeply concerned that the accumulative effect of the regulations will be a vacuum. that will be the huge sucking sound of capital out of our market into other markets across the globe, and this is at a very time where companies are starved for capital in order to create jobs. this week, japan's second largest bank predicted our regulations on western banks will help double their lending. this is a great example of the loss of competitiveness, and i hope that the regulators will understand this that our folks are starved for capital, and we need to get more capital on the streets so we can create jobs. i look forward to hearing from the panel. thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. mezula? 30 seconds. >> we talk about the international context when still i have companies back home, factories with orders, business people who are unable to get their lines of credit renewed because of capricious and arbitrary actions on the parts of the examiners. this has to stop. for years, complaining thes

mr. ryan, chairman of the budget committee. the speaker: the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized for five minutes. mr. ryan: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i understand why this might be confusing to my friends on the other side of the aisle. after all, they didn't bother to pass a budget last year. our friends on the other side of the rotunda in the senate didn't bother to pass a budget this year. we have a budget crisis. we've got a $1.5 trillion deficit. we've got a debt that is getting out of our control. and what do you do when you have a problem like that? you pass a budget. the reason we are doing what we are doing today is because our partners on the other side of the rotunda in the senate didn't pass a budget. house republicans did. we passed the budget. and we are acknowledging and living within that budget. if our friends on the other side of the aisle bothered to pass a budget, we wouldn't be in the situation where we are today. now, let's discuss about what our budget does and what it does not do. number one

mr. chairman, i want to congratulate chairman culberson, ranking member bishop, all the members of the subcommittee and my ranking partner, mr. dicks, for great work on this bill and of course to again say how much we appreciate the work of this fine staff. both on the committee, both on the minority and majority level. a great work. i believe this bill is an excellent representation of the good work that we can do in congress, when we work together. both as we support our troops and veterans and as we work in regular order to fund our government responsibly. i urge colleagues to support the bill. and yield back. the chair: the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from georgia. mr. bishop: mr. chairman, i am delighted to yield four minutes to the distinguished ranking member of the defense subcommittee and of the full appropriations committee, mr. dicks. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for four minutes. mr. dicks: thank you, mr. bishop, and i want to congratulate you on -- -- on being the ranking member and also chairman culberson who is -- has i think done an outstanding job and of

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, this underlying bill muzzles the federal watchdog agency now responsible for regulating agriculture, energy and financial markets. mrs. davis: while letting speculators run loose. by cutting 44% from the if the's budget request for the -- for the president's budget request for the cftc that we've been talking about, we're saying it's ok, it's just ok to have fewer and less qualified regulators to protect us from market abuses. to protect our constituents from market abuses. haven't we learned any lessons? speculation on wall street has caused massive harm on main street. not sufficiently funding the cftc will hamper our efforts to recover from the recession and hinder middle class prosperity. commodity futures and option markets are complicated systems, we know that. they require a complicated skill set to understand. and some of the smartest people are engaged in doing this. but this bill ensures that the playing field is tilted toward those who are in favor of the same risk

mr. chairman. >> yes. >> mr. chairman, first of all, i'm going to support both the second degree and senator lugar's amendment but, you know, it's with mixed feelings. i mean, i think this underscores what we're doing here. i mean, we can't fight hostilities with 100 generals, you need eight commander in chief who -- you need a commander in chief who has full authority to do what he needs to do and this thing comes to us in just a messy, messy background. you know, we've got nato commitments we've got to think about, we have other essential security issues around the world including afghanistan and pakistan and yemen and somalia. we got looming insolvency of this country which gets worse every day and a lack of a definitional goal of where we're headed in turkey and to put all these things together and try to make these constitutional and other decisions, it couldn't -- it couldn't be in a worse case scenario and background than what we're dealing with here. so i'm going to support it but i have real reservations

mr. chairman, i yield back. >> thank you. mr. andrews? >> thank you, mr. chairman. admiral mullen, it is an honor to be in the process with someone whose integrity is as unimpeachable as yours, both in the quality of your advice and strength of your character. we thank you for p it. and madam secretary, thank you for your terrific contributions here. madam secretary, i think you've succinctly stated our purpose in afghanistan, that we ultimately leave behind an afghanistan that will never again serve as a base for terrorist attacks of the united states and our allies. i've always thought that al qaeda was the parasite and the taliban was the host in afghanistan. and our military mission essentially has been focused on destroying the parasite and either weakening the host or making the host unwilling to become the host for the parasite. and i note that admiral mullen says we need to support an afghan political process that includes reconciliation with the taliban who break with al qaeda, which i think is a wise and understandable view. so with that framework of what

mr. chairman you need to know something. i said what you went through set a protocol that 25 years later one another president faced the future and the republican congress was doing it, we adopted your rule. that became the template that we used. that is not a bad legacy for a tenement kid from new jersey. he perked up and he said okay, i think actually we can go out to dinner. come on over. sadly it was not to be because a couple of days later chairman rodino passed away at the age of 96 but i was always grateful for him to take enough time. want to lead time for questions in this book has hundreds if not thousands of them yet so i will leave you with a couple of quick ones. the president obviously gets up -- -- ends up getting impeached into say we are unwanted when we get there could be a euphemism and it was a bipartisan lack of appreciation for our president. we were told very early on that in fact trent lott told me the republican leader, he told me i don't care if you have pictures of this guy standing over a dead wom

mr. chairman. mark noted in his presentation that the proposed interchange fees standard has to meet the statutory requirement that the interchange fee be reasonable and proportional to an issuer's kogs. i noted in looking through the public comments that a number of commenters indicated that in rankings for public utilitieuti the interpretation that would typically be given to the term reasonable would include some markup to allow for a fair rate of return. >> so getting back to the costs that the board is prohinted the from considering those would be costs not specific to a particular transaction. a rate of return overall on your debit card program is difficult to attribute to a particular transaction. i would also say many of the rate making cases use a term just in reasonable rates. we have a different term here. reasonable and proportional to cost. congress wanted us to rely on this. they could have used that term. they did not. we were interpreting it differently. >> thank you very much. >> o

mr. chairman. i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. moore: thank you so much, mr. chair. i can tell you that one of the most heartbreaking experiences that i have had as a member of congress is to watch this congress attempt to balance the deficit and the budget on the backs of infants, on the backs of children who need their educational opportunity, and on the backs of seniors. we have seen gargantuan efforts to cut medicare, the main program to prevent poverty for our seniors, medicaid, women, infants, and children's program, nutrition programs for children, effort to decimate educational opportunity for young people while we refuse to end tax breaks for big oil. the oig five companies made nearly $1 trillion -- the big five oil companies made nearly $1 trillion in profits in the last decade, yet we continue to insist on providing tax breaks for these profitable companies. every year, every year we provide subsidies to oil companie

mr. chairman. >> thank you. i yield five minutes to mr. green context is. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank the witnesses for appearing as well. and i'm interested in the central banks of other countries, as compared to our country, and this that they compare in. i know the systems are not going to be the same, but with reference to disclosure come can you give some indication, have some sort of comparison? >> so, the practices of disclosure vary quite a bit across the world. but i believe the federal reserve is one of the come if not the most transparent central banks. many central banks in developed countries and do not, for example, announce their policy decision or the votes that are taken, the federal reserve does both of those and they do not announce or provide minutes for their meetings. the federal reserve does provide minutes three weeks after each meeting. many foreign central banks do not publish at all the transcripts of their meetings and the federal reserve publishes a transcript fiv

mr. chairman. general, do you know of any military leader that recommended in 2009 the the president make an announcement in 2011 and travon of troops? >> i do not, senator. >> deal with any military leader that recommended the drawdown plan the president announced last week? >> i do not, senator. >> does it surprise you that after the president's announcement that president sarkozy, the british, of their allies have now announced they will be withdrawing from afghanistan? >> it does not. >> did you see the picture in the paper over the weekend of president karzai and the ayatollah khomeini sitting down at a meeting pledging friendship support for one another? savitt i didn't see the picture but i was aware of the meeting. >> is it true that the ied and in effect in iran are still coming across the border into afghanistan and killing americans? >> i believe they are, sir. >> did you hear of a statement of the leader, the taliban field commander told the daily beast of his reaction to mr. obama's sp

mr. chairman, i move to strike the last word. e chair: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes without objection. mr. culberson: i agree with the gentleman's sentiment, it's important that we don't spend any money to name things after ourselves. i would think -- it's inappropriate, it just ought not be done. i know that my colleague from texas -- of this rule is in place for the house of representatives and ought to be in place for the senate and president of the united states. but unfortunately, the gentleman's amendment imposes a duty on federal agencies in violation of clause 206 rule 21. so i regret, reluctantly, have to raise a point of order against the gentleman's amendment proposes to change existing law and therefore constitutes legislation in our appropriations bill in violation of clause 206 rule 21 and in that the amendment seeks to impose additional duties on a federal agency. i ask far ruling from the chair. the chair: does any other member wish to be heard on the point of order. if not, the chair will rule. the

mr. chairman, i just wanted to add, mr. rigell, i believe is his name, asked our panelist whether the prison yard of the supermax prison in colorado is monitored. i'd like to ask, mr. chairman if you were to join us in a letter to really get to the bottom of whether in fact the response we received with that is accurate as it should have been. >> show me the letter, i will consider signing it. >> thank you. >> i'm sure members on this side of the aisle are just as concerned about gangs, for example, mr. lungren who spent his career fighting gangs. i recognize the gentleman from south carolina. >> i thank the administration for working with you on this issue. according to the website, a news story today, the obama administration has been working with you to address this issue and notes that secretary napolitano is setting up a task force to look into radicalization in the prisons. it's a real issue. it's amazing that we can talk about gang activity in prisons but it seems to be off limits to talk about radicalization within

mr. chairman. mr. weich, from what i can see, the department of justice has worked hard to comply with the committee's very large document request. not only have you gone to considerable lengths and cost, you have worked with majority committee staff to prioritize documents of great interest. you have briefed the committee not only on your ongoing processing of documents but on a case itself. on top of delivering many documents, you have made the most sensitive documents available for review by committee staff in ways that protect the documents' integrity. it seems to me that the department is cooperating with the committee's extraordinary request and i say extraordinary because not only is the scope of the request very large, but because of its timing. during ongoing criminal investigations as well as an ongoing i.g. investigation. flashing back to when the committee was investigating blackwater, during the previous administration, a member of this committee now in the majority said that quote, we are

mr. chairman. >> gentleman's recognized. >> and to the ranking member and all the members of the committee, thank you very much for having me here. i am going to not read my statement. let me start off by saying that this disaster is very different from other disasters. when representative palazzo talks about katrina, we had obliteration, it looked like the hand of god had just wiped away the gulf coast for blocks, and in some places for miles. we had hurricane-force winds 40 miles inland. and to get people to where they got confident that the coast was going to come back, where they had hope for their families and their communities, where they were willing to return home was an enormous part of the job. in this case, keeping people calm. you know, you had an oil well blow out 100-plus miles away from be our coast. and i should say at this point this experience for us was a little different than for louisiana. louisiana was closer to the well, they got wet, brown oil into some of their areas. we di

mr. chairman and mr. sunstein. ld like to talk about the importance of regulations on protecting the economy and an advance of the hearing you wrote german upton and chairman stearns sharing our concerns of burdensome regulations and investment and chasing jobs overseas. i have an industrial base and i share that concern. although i am concerned about some of my republican colleagues that the regulations regardless hurt the economy, and let me give you an example of the years of deregulation brought the market to the point of collapse in 2008. the federal reserve had the authority to stop the practices that fueled thus the prime mortgage market and chairman greenspan refused to regulate the industry. the security exchange commission relaxed its that cattle will in 2000 for aligning investment banks to increase the ratio to 33 period one. the treasury proposed legislative efforts for the transparency and oversight concerning foot trading in energy derivatives. the office of thrift supervision and control remained for

mr. chairman and mr. sunstein. i would like to talk about the importance of regulations on protecting the economy and an advance of the hearing you wrote german upton and chairman stearns sharing our concerns of burdensome regulations and investment and chasing jobs overseas. i have an industrial base and i share that concern. although i am concerned about some of my republican colleagues that the regulations regardless hurt the economy, and let me give you an example of the years of deregulation brought the market to the point of collapse in 2008. the federal reserve had the authority to stop the practices that fueled thus the prime mortgage market and chairman greenspan refused to regulate the industry. the security exchange commission relaxed its that cattle will in 2000 for aligning investment banks to increase the ratio to 33 period one. the treasury proposed legislative efforts for the transparency and oversight concerning foot trading in energy derivatives. the office of thrift supervision and control remaine

mr. chairman. i come at this question from the point of view of having been a foreign service officer as you mentioned in your opening remarks for 17 years before i came to homeland security, and perhaps similarly to what ms. villarosa was posted overseas during times when i had to write the first draft of the counter terrorism country reports that have been submitted back to washington and further amplified by the washington interagency community and i know the state department has specific instructions with respect to legal changes that took place in the country at that time and prosecutions, ect., and from our point of view, absolutely, if the training that icbp has done with respect to smuggling, if that should be included, we report that through other channels. we'd be happy to include that. >> this is june 2011. this is a june 2010 report. i hope dhs and state can update this report, so that the other branch of government, that being the congress, can do its job, and so my time is way over ex

mr. chairman. >> the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. ryan. we have a few more members -- [unintelligible] >> 5 minutes is not enough time to get into all of this. a couple of things -- it was said that we wanted to go away or something like that. we all represent around 700,000 people. our relatives are on medicare. it is probably one of the most important programs the federal government has ever had. we want it to work and we want to save it. here is our problem -- we have 10,000 baby boomers are retiring every day with fewer workers coming into the work force to pay for it. health care costs are going up faster than inflation you are telling us the trust fund is going bankrupt in 2024. the cbo says faster than that. something has to be done. i want to ask you a couple of questions. do you both agree that you cannot say the savings in medicare is going to pay for the affordable care act and extend the solvency of medicare? you agree with that? a quick yes or no. >> i believe that. >> i assume you do, bob? >> from a unified budget standpoint,