mr. chairman. and to mr. speaker, i'm delighted to join the chairman of the full committee and the ranking member of the full committee in this vigorous debate on the constitution. but i'm also delighted that the ranking member has indicated by his reference to the previous speaker that this is a bipartisan challenge and question about the re-authorization. this does not have a partisan place. it does have a place in the constitution. and as i do this, might i take just a moment, mr. chairman, and ranking member, just to acknowledge the loss of our americans who fell in libya, the ambassador stevens and those who were securing him. it is a recognition that we live in a difficult world. but one of the distinctive aspects of america is that we live in a free country. that we are willing to accept the distinctions and differences of all people and we respect the privacy and the fourth amendment. so i might refresh my fellow colleagues as to what fisa does from the very beginning. it is electronic surveillance, ph

mr. chairman. >> thank you. mr. reagan's. >> thank you, mr. chairman. gentlemen, thank you for being here. the old clichÉ of the devil being in the details, we don't like the details that we are hearing. even though it was us, and i couldn't agree more with my subcommittee chair, chairman roscoe, but it's our fault that it is congresses fault for putting you in this position. it's a lot like somebody holding a gun to your head wanting to take your possessions. you don't have enough possessions so saying, give us a plan on how you're going to get possessions so you can give them to me. it's ludicrous. every time that we come up with how are we going to deal with the sequestration, i can't help but tell my colleagues in congress to look in the mirror. we did this. we passed that idiotic law that now have put you in a situation where we now want you to solve the dilemma that we didn't have the courage not to do. so i don't have any questions, mr. chairman, i just think that we have come as a kind, have to accept the responsibility. we have to find a way to

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, amazingly, the obama administration has denied that they have launched a war on coal, yet the facts are stubborn things. just this week, alpha natural resources announced the closure of eight coal mines. aggressive regulations were specifically cited by the company for the closure of these mines. new regulations proposed by the obama e.p.a. threatened to shut down a coal-fired plant in arizona. this would cost hundreds of jobs and eliminate millions of dollars in revenue for navajo tribal economic development, education and basic services. these lost jobs aren't random events. they are the direct result of the policies and actions of the obama administration. these are the outcomes of the regulatory war on coal. for more than a year and a half, the natural resources committee has been aggressively investigating one of the obama administrations most covert but outrageous fronts in this war, a decision by the interior department to rapidly rewrite a regulation governing coal mi

mr. chairman. today we have before us the city's community safety element which is part of our city's general plan. the community safety plan has a overawe for actions and response and recovery from a major disaster and protect san francisco with natural and human made disasters and maintain community resiliency after the disaster happens. it includes lessons learned from recent disasters like katrina and the sunamma in japan. this is the first in the general plan since this time and represents a collaboration between agencies. we focused on seize mic hardards and the risk of life is from the ground failure and impact and other impacts. this includes the initiative under way and this makes sure these initiatives will continue. implementation of the community safety element will be carried out through a number of city plans including the city hazard mitigation plan and the program's developed under resilient ss initiatives. state and grant funding is contingent on having updated safety element which

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, during my time in congress one important lesson that i have learned -- i yield myself such time as i may consume. one important lesson that i have learned is that good oversight results in good legislation. and bias and partisan oversight results in bias and partisan legislation. the no more solyndras act is a good example of that rule. it's bad legislation borne of biased and partisan oversight. the oversight investigation subcommittee on which i sit as ranking member investigated the solyndra loan in excruciating detail, but after 18 months, 300,000 pages of documents, 14 interviews with key officials, five hearings, and three subpoenas, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have failed to prove any of their inflammatory accusations that they have leveled at the administration. instead, they simply repeat one unproven allegation after another, time to score political points, ignoring key expull patory evidence, and making misleading accusations about the solyndra loa

mr. chairman, i reserve -- mr. gosar: mr. chairman, i reserve -- i yield myself such time as i may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. gosar: i'm pleased to put forth an amendment to protect the residents of arizona from the attacks on the navajo generating station. there are certainties surrounding proposed e.p.a. regulations and their affects on the navajo generating station was one of the first things brought to my attention when i was sworn into congress. it would effectively shut down this critical and unique plant. a closure would dramatically increase the amount of water and power for my constituents and eliminate thousands of tribal and nontribal jobs all for no discernable improvement in visibility. again, according to the federal government itself, no discernible improvement in visibility. you see, this plant is unique because it is owned by six entities, chug includes the federal government. it was part of a plan created by visionaries so they could provide water to move water from the colorado wate

mr. chairman. mr. leiter and mr. wicker had said that although the chances would've been less likely, the circumstances, this tragedy at fort hood could indeed occur again today. could you reflect on your thinking whether it could occur today, and also what would you give for your recommendations to try and not have -- the greatest legacy we can give to these families that have lost loved ones are, i think the greatest legacy is this wouldn't happen again to another american. could you comment on what you think in that regard? >> is difficult to answer a hypothetical about specific events as occurred at fort hood but what i will say is, highlight the nationwide suspicious activity reporting initiative. one of the things that we are really successful on with this initiative is able to bring together a lot of different voices across levels of government and outside the government to identify a process for doing suspicious activity reporting that addressed privacy civil liberties concerns but also operational effectiven

mr. chairman. mr. olson, i want to follow up on the series of questions that the chairman raised with you about the attacks in benghazi that cost the lives of four americans. first, i will tell you based on the briefings i have had, i've come to the opposite conclusion and agree with the president of libya that this was a premeditated planned attack that was associated with the date of 9/11, the anniversary of 9/11. i just don't think that people come to protest equipped with r.p.g.'s and other heavy weapons and the reports of complicity, and there are many, with the libyan guards who were assigned to guard the consulate also suggests to me that this was premeditated. nevertheless, i realize something you're still looking at, the f.b.i. is still looking at, but i for one believe that the reports are a very forthright conclusion by the president of libya is more likely the correct one. but putting aside the issue of whether this was an opportunistic attack or a premeditated one, the issue of the security

mr. chairman, mr.anking member, members of this committee, we thank you for the opportunity to provide an opening statement in the matter involving maxine waters. in july 2009, the house of congressional ethics submitted a report to the ethics committee in the one hundred 11th congress concluding the representative waters may have violated house conflict of interest rules when she called the former treasury secretary to set up a meeting with one united bank. in light of the fact that representative waters' husband was a former board member and current stockholders in the bank, further investigation was warranted. an investigative subcommittee adopted a statement of alleged violations. that sav alleged three accounts of this kind of misconduct. before the committee held a hearing on the matter, the matter was recommitted to the isc on the basis of newly discovered evidence and the congress ended without the committee taking further action on the matter. on july 20, 2011, my partner and i were retained a

mr. chairman. >> thank you. mr. riddle. >> thank you, mr. chairman. have some and ask unanimous consent to do so. >> without objection. >> well, i appreciate my friend, mr. defazio's questioning. i have only been here two years and i've got tell you, i am struck by the whole nextgen debacle, but maybe it's not a debacle, but it feels like it when i listen to your comments. and i guess i'll start with dr. dillingham hand. has the faa ever suffered from lack of funding for nextgen? i'm beginning to wonder if it's by the time i get this done. >> we have not seen any evidence for lack of funding has been a major contributing factor to the issues we have seen with regard to set very. similarly, we have not seen a situation where technology specifically has been a major contributing factor. >> okay, do you believe there are stakeholders that are committed to nextgen? >> our work shows stakeholders are part of the op domestic maybe. stakeholders we talked to would like to see some evidence. the site to see a small victory as some sort with regard to set there

mr. chairman. i have pared that down somewhat so that i don't go on for 20 or 30 minutes and i will try to stick to the five minutes, certainly. good morning, and thank you to the members of the committee for inviting me to testify today about the report released yesterday, which details a pattern of serious failures in both atf and the u.s. attorney's office in handling the investigations and fast and furious and wide receiver and the justice department's response to congressional inquiries about those lot operations. this is my first opportunity to testify before the congress since i was sworn in five months ago and it is an honor to be here today. during the confirmation process, i made a commitment to the congress and to the american people that i would continue the strong tradition of my office for independence, not partisanship, impartiality, and fairness. those are the standards that i and my office applied in conducting this review and in preparing this report. as in all our work, we abided

mr. chairman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from vermont, mr. welch, for five minutes. mr. welch: thank you. mr. speaker, the american people are going to make a decision on november 6 about future leadership of this congress and this country. and they do every four years. two fundamental questions, one, who can be in charge of the cash register? who will best manage the economy? the second question is, who will be a firm hand in protecting america's foreign policy interests? if we look at the past two years with this republican-led congress that has accomplished nothing, and in fact done damage, the question on who is best in charge of the cash register is quite clear. the ryan budget that was passed by this house, stalled in the senate would actually increase the debt. the whole point supposedly of the republican agenda coming into congress was to lower the debt. the budget they passed would uncrease it by $6 trillion. why is that? first of

mr. chairman. i think the panel for their testimony. at -- my republican colleagues would like us to believe that the sky is falling in terms of enrollment, benefits, premiums. these projections have turned out to be incorrect, and since passage of the hca medicare advantaged enrollment has increased and premiums have decreased. is that not correct? i am sure that this happened last year so that it just is not a one time event. this is a trend. could you just discussed from moment the distinctions between medicare advantage and the romney ryan voucher war premium support program that the republicans would have less -- how did they differ? >> there are so many plans floating around that i will answer generally. but basically under medicare advantage beneficiaries always have the option to return to medicare traditional medicare. they get the same benefits whether they are in medicare advantage of traditional medicare and plans are required to pay those. they have a national medicare program and stro

mr. chairman, mr. ranking member, members of this committee, we thank you for the opportunity to provide an opening statement in the matter of representative maxine waters. brief background, twine, the ose submitted a report to the ethics committee in the 111th congress concluding that representative waters may have violated house conflict of interest rules when she called the former treasury secretary to set up a meeting with one united bank. in light of the fact that representative waters' husband was a former board member and current stockholder in that bank, the oce recommended that the committee further investigate those allegations. an investigative subcommittee was empanelled, and on june 15th, 2010, that isc adopted a statement of alleged violations. that allege the misconduct based on representative waters' chief of staffs continued assistance to one united bank after representative waters, herself, determined she should no longer work to assist that bank. before the committee held an adjudica

mr. chairman. i know i'm way over my time. - >> if you want to did for another minutings that's fine. >> if i may. let me turn to you, mr. hughes, if i may. do you see any issues or problems with these ads? >> well, i agree. i think they create an expectation that everybody's entitled to a wheelchair, and from a medical point of view, it really doesn't speak how limiting the medicare coverage criteria is. all the ads show folks active, almost universally outside for the majority of the activities, and so much so that i think it creates demand, and, i mean, that's what ads are supposed to do. i suppose from the company's point of view, they are doing what nay are supposed to do, but they create tremendous demand, and they put physicians and practices in a difficult situation. >> you referred, in your testimony, and i'm going to quote, "our review experience demonstrates that errors would drop significantly if attention were directed to some of these non-medical record issues," are these the kinds of issues attention should be de

chairman issa has also alleged that mr. brewer is actually advocating god walking to the mexican government. as evidence for this claim, chairman issa points to senior officials from february 2nd, tony levin at the data discussed in deliveries, he was with the note said and i quote mr. brewer suggested allowing strong purchases to cross into mexico through the mexican federal police force can arrest the mexicans attorney general's office can prosecute and convict such coordinated operation between the united states and mexico and may send a strong message to arms traffic. so when you report come you draw a sharp distinction. >> asking of us can send the gentlemen have additional time without objection. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you draw a sharp distinction between gun walking and controlled deliveries. do you consider coordination with mexico to be the same as advocating for caguas? >> we found as we noted in a report that controlled deliveries are different from gun walking and we would draw a distinction between the two

mr. chairman, and, mr. speaker, i urge this body to reject this bill. you know, the surveillance bill raises several serious constitutional and civil liberties issues that congress needs to address and has not addressed in this bill. and i'd like to discuss just one of those. congress should prohibit the

mr. chairman? [laughter] >> no, sir. >> and members of the panel i would hope that you would consider the feelings and the opinions of what we consider to be a historic district, the mission district. and it's certainly a neighborhood that i recognize as a neighborhood. so please, you know, do your due diligence and understand that we're looking forward to a good outcome for all of your hard work. and i want to thank each and every one of you, understand that each and every one of you have been on this panel for all of eight months. no easy task. thank you very much and good luck in your deliberations. >> thank you very much. why don't you put that over there and i'll use this one for now. sally ross? >> good morning, again. my name is sally roth. i live in district eight. i am speaking in support of keeping the sunny side as i have been doing. people in district eight have worked long and hard from the beginning to help save it from destruction. and some of us who are friends of the conservatory h

mr. chairman.our forecast doesn't get back to full employment for nour years. could these new bond purchases go on for years? and can you give us a better idea if you have specifics in mind on when you'll know it's time to stop. >> yes. we'll be looking for signs that the economy is strong enough to promote improvement and sustained improvement in labor market conditions and declines in unemployment. i mean that's -- we're not going to be able to sustain purchases until we're all the way back to full employment. that's not the objective. idea is to quicken the recovery to help the economy begin to grow quickly enough to generate new jobs and reduce the unemployment rate. so that's the criterion we are looking at. >> christina peterson with dow jones. statement indicated that the highly accommodative stance would be maintained until after the recovery starts to strengthen. but there aren't any specific economic conditions that are described. could you describe what those would be or is the fed -- fe

mr. chairman. >> mr. andrews and mr. conaway? one walloping that will be unfair, that's what members of congress get to do -- we have to convey to our constituents and others, a sense of how far you have come versus how far you have to go. i don't know you want to put it on a percentage basis or whatnot, can you give the committee and our constituents a sense, we have to have something that takes away, something that says we are halfway there were two thirds are in we can get our short 32nd, talk to folks that are looking at their watches and the clock doesn't work. >> you think they could get away with the football analogy? >> i will regret this, but i think we are midfield. i also think we just got rubber grip in the third and he is looking good. and we have some momentum on our side. we did in practice this answer. i and by my colleague to question. we have the ball and we are on the offense, that would be the analogy i would offer you. >> what do you think? >> well, in terms of dollars, i think we are probably about 30% they

mr. chairman. i'm involved with a simultaneous hearings to hear and judiciary sought had to play catch-up. i apologize for my belated arrival. good to have you all with us. mr. scoble, i suppose the trip to jerusalem will not depart today? >> it certainly won't. i regret to say. >> i want to go but not today. mr. porcari, deeply there are any stakeholders not fully committed to the proper implementation of nextgen? >> at this point i believe all the stakeholders are committed to it, and we've worked hard on stakeholder interaction and understanding their needs to make sure that they see the benefits. so i believe the stakeholders are committed. >> so now naysayers that safe no to you? >> i do think there's a program skepticism from everyone involved, that would get the proper benefits for the investment. >> mr. huerta, how will nextgen improve the productivity of air controllers, a, and b, deeply nextgen has delivered and increased productivity? >> to answer the second question first, i do but i thi

mr. chairman. mr. inspector general, when i met with you several weeks ago, i left the meeting cautiously optimistic that we'd receive a thorough, balanced report, and my optimism was rewarded because of you and your staff. i also shared -- no small part because of your service in the southern district of new york and the department of justice. your career as a prosecutor gave me that optimism, and i shared with you -- this was never about politics to me. i don't care which party is in power. it was about a dead border patrol agent and holding the institutions of government responsible for what they have done. i think it's wonderful at one level we have app independent entity like you to investigate. i just naively thought that's what the department of justice was. i naively thought the attorney general as the top law enforcement official and department of justice was that independent entity that we could trust. whether it's the letters in march, in february of 2011, whether it's testimony that's been

mr. chairman. >> mr. johnson is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. think an important but perhaps overlooked issue that we should bear in mind is we look at tax reform is the role on joint committee on taxation plays with respect to it's revenue estimates, which are based on analyzes tax changes. you may be familiar with the july 21st "the wall street journal" editorial washington's tax oracles, that editorial calls in to account jct complete revenue miss with respect to the 2003 capital gains tax cut. bottom line instead of the cost the government revenue the capital gains cut generated tax revenue significantly higher revenue, i think, as we seek to do reform it's critically important we can rely on the revenue estimates from jct. given your experience with the last major reform effort, as jct's chief, you know doubt can appreciate the importance of getting revenue estimates right, mr. brockway. don't you believe there is indeed a need for city nam -- dynamic impact when it comes to lower capital gains. don't you believe it can have a positive macr

mr. chairman. mr. leiter and mr. winter had said that although the chances would have been less likely that the circumstances of this tragedy at fort hood could, indeed, occur again today. could you reflect on your thinking whether it could occur today, and also what would you give for your recommendations to try and not have -- the greatest legacy we can give to these families that have lost loved ones are, i think the greatest legacy is that this wouldn't happen again to another american. could you comment on what you think in that regard? >> um, it's difficult to answer a hypothetical about the specific events that occurred at fort hood, but what i will say is highlight the nationwide suspicious activity reporting initiative. you know, one of the things that we were really successful on with this initiative is being able to bring together a lot of different voices across levels of government and outside the government to identify a process for doing suspicious activity reporting that addressed privacy/civil libert

mr. chairman. and mr. cordray, i'm hearing a lot of concern about how dodd-frank will reduce the credit availability because of some of the proposed rules, particularly for a qualified mortgage of increased liability in residential mortgage that requires a 20% down payment. what kind of analysis and nation is being undertaken to understand the impact of the cost and availability of mortgage credit between interaction of the u.n. and the qr and proposed rules? >> thank you for asking the question. it's one of the issues that is eating up a lot of time and effort at the bureau, the rightly so. so the issue is we are required by law, congress passed a law degree implemented, to read various mortgage tools that will attempt to improve some of the problems perceived in the mortgage market that helped lead to the financial meltdowns and resulting recession crisis. there is no question but that was a problem and part of the problem with banks in the market were not regulated here that was never going to work as a

mr. chairman. cordray, thank you so much for what you are doing. i just wanted to talk about unbanked and banked, and what i've been trying to do is redice the number of unbanked and under banked, and have more work with the institutions. yesterday, the fdic released its national survey of banked and under banked households. they reported that the percentage of unbanked households increased from 2009 to 2011. i was disappointed, of course, because of the increase. can you discuss the bureau's efforts to increase access to mainstream financial institutions for the nation's nearly 10 million unbanked and 24 million underbanked households? >> thank you, senator. this is a very urgent concern, i think, for anybody who is mindful of the real consumer experience in the financial market place. there are many millions of americans who have no bank account, and some are barred from the banking system because of previous difficulties. there are many others who have a banking the, but they find for a variety

mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i support h.r. 5544, the minnesota education investment and employment act. this bill will rectify a decades-old injustice that was impose by congress during the carter administration to ensure that funding for schools and education in minnesota is carried on. when minnesota became a state, it received certain parcels of lands from the federal government set aside to help fund education. these lands known as school trust lands were specifically established to provide funding for minnesota public schools. responsible timber management, mineral development and other economic uses of these lands would generate the revenue that would benefit every child in the state. however, in 1978, congress designated the boundary waters canoe area wilderness in a portion of these trust lands -- and a portion of these lands became trapped inside the wilderness area and inaccessible therefore for economic development. this caused a decline in funding then for local schools. h.r. 5544 would impl

mr. chairman. last week we have -- we observed the 11th anniversary of the horrific attacks of september 11, 2001. we again remembered the victims and the heroes of that day. and we acknowledge the dedicated military intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security professionals who have worked together to bring terrorists to justice and to prevent another large-scale attack within the united states. and i want to join the chairman in thanking each of you for your hard work in that endeavor. tragically, however, we have also witnessed violent attacks on the u.s. consulates in benghazi, libya, that resulted in the killing of our ambassador and three other brave americans. while these attacks remain under investigation, it is difficult not to see shades of the 1998 attacks on our embassies in kenya and tanzania, which were among the many precursors to the attacks of 9/11. this tragedy once again underscores the ongoing threat we face both abroad and at home from violent islamists extremists. in t

mr. chairman.lier this year two occasions the fed took policy actions which you defended as extremely important for the economy but as you mentioned there hasn't been on improvement in the labor market in the beginning of the year. why should people believe this will make a difference? it suggest as .4 reduction on the unemployment. is that a limit what fed policy can do going forward? >> our assessment, i talked about this in my remarks at jackson hole and our assessment and research literature the policies we've undertaken had real benefits for the economy. they have provided some support. that they have eased financial conditions and helped reduce unemployment. all that being said, monetary policy as i said many times is not a panacea. it is not by itself able to solve these problems. we're looking for policymakers in other areas to do their part. we'll do our part. we'll try to make sure that unemployment moves in the right direction. but we can't solve this problem by ourselves. >> do you thin

mr. chairman. we appreciate the up today to testify. our test might focuses on three things. the specific programs are members have implemented to improve the effectiveness of care. second, the value medicare vantage plans bring to beneficiaries and. the new premier in texas against health plans and medicare granted as well as those serving employers and individual purchasers are partnering with doctors and hospitals to change the way care is paid by paying for the effectiveness of care provided read it and the volume of services delivered. we're working to change what is purchased by rewarding successful outcomes and employing other strategies to ensure patients receive the right care and the right setting for example, health plans offer customized programs and support services that are integral to a boarding house will remissions and reducing emergency room visits. while it is also addressing health care disparity providing hot lines and personal growth records. these programs and tools have been

mr. chairman. i have pared that down somewhat so that i don't go on for 20 or 30 minutes and i will try to stick to the five minutes, certainly. good morning, and thank you to the members of the committee for inviting me to testify today about the report released yesterday, which details a pattern of serious failures in both atf and the u.s. attorney's office in handling the investigations and fast and furious and wide receiver and the justice department's response to congressional inquiries about those lot operations. this is my first opportunity to testify before the congress since i was sworn in five months ago and it is an honor to be here today. during the confirmation process, i made a commitment to the congress and to the american people that i would continue the strong tradition of my office for independence, not partisanship, impartiality, and fairness. those are the standards that i and my office applied in conducting this review and in preparing this report. as in all our work, we abided

mr. chairman. i've been involved the simultaneous hearing between hearing judiciary, so i've had to play catch up. i apologize for my delayed arrival. good to have you all with us. mr. scovel, the proposed trip to jerusalem will not depart today? >> is certainly won't i regret to say. >> i wanted to go, but not today. mr. porcari, do you believe there are any stakeholders not fully committed to the proper implementation of nextgen? >> all stakeholders are committed and we have worked hard on stakeholder interaction and understanding their needs to make sure. so i blew stakeholders are implemented. >> so no naysayers. >> i do think there's appropriate skepticism from everyone involved that we get the proper benefits for the investment. >> supported. >> how well set three improve the product to video bear controllers and do you believe that nextgen has delivered and increase productivity? >> to answer the second question first, i do. >> can you pull that make a little closer to you? >> how is this? >>

mr. chairman. i yield back. >> mr. andrews? >> thank you, mr. chairman, for giving us a little for the opportunity to explore this. i also want to ask about the personnel training in a bit more detail. one thing that i work together has really taught us is that we can have really well thought out software systems and we can clean up some of the other problems, but if the people are not properly trained to use the system, it doesn't work. what would each of you identify as our principal problem right now in the personnel training area? what's our biggest efficiency or flaw? and what you think we need to do to fix it? will be the number one problem you would point to? >> i will start, and then again this is an organized -- i would ask my colleagues for those who want to, to comment. we don't right now have a framework in the defense community that allows us to require training across the board. we have a lot of courses, and i think our training is generally pretty good, but it's not come as i say there's not a framework. and one of the things we ca

mr. chairman. mr. leiter, mr.winter has set although the chances would have been less like the in the circumstances in this tragedy at fort hood could indeed occur again today. can you reflect on your thinking, whether it could occur today and also what would you give for your recommendations? the greatest legacy we can give to you, family who have lost loved ones. i think the greatest legacy is that this wouldn't happen again to another american. could you comment on what you think in that regard? >> it's difficult to answer a hypothetical about the specific events about what occurred at fort hood. one of the things that we are successful on with this initiative is being able to bring together a lot of different voices across levels of government and outside the government to identify the process for doing suspicious activity reporting that addressed privacy civil liberties concerns but also operational effectiveness and through that process were able to identify 16 behaviors for preoperational criminal planning

mr. chairman, the truth should matter.uldn't take it. >> they are so anxious to win and get up in the polls that they have developed a strategy. and the strategy is we're going to say that the president waived working -- if you're receiving welfare and no matter what the fact checkers say, we'll stick with it. they've done it over and over again. while it will probably work with the base, i don't think it's going to work with all of america. people will grow to resent the fact there are no facts being presented. >> erin, eric cantor was asked by fortune magazine if ryan was being hypocritical for attacking the president's savings on $716 in medicare when his own plan calls for the same cuts. cantor was at a loss for words saying quote, the sumps that the -- the -- the -- again, i probably can't speak to that exact way, so i better just not. very interesting. wouldn't you think so? >> you know, eric cantor's a very smart man and articulate. i actually have a good relationship with him. i'm stunned he could not respond. but

mr. chairman. mr. paul, thank you for your work. your vision and your goal for information sharing that will help prevent future attacks on this country and just help law enforcement in general, and mine, are similar, or showed really. so i thank you for the work. and in subsequent hearings or a pastor and come with all the agencies, dhs, state, but information sharing between those agencies and some of the things that i've learned that if someone, and i would use the case of maybe of these overstay, and someone, dhs was looking into someone who may or may not have overstayed their visa, and addressing the background of the person sometimes they had to come out of one database or system and actually log into another and come out of that system and actually log into another and i even heard and ms-dos type program our database is still being used and that kind of had even heard the word dos in some years that kind of caught me by surprise. busters all passwords, entry level. so instead of having one password or one biometric system w

mr. chairman.thank you. we should probably give you the word of the highest level sarcasm we've heard in this committee in a long time. currently the president of the league of women voters and the leading voice in the right to protect all america's right to vote. ms. macnamara, please go ahead. >> thank you, mr. chairman and leaders of the committee. today an assault on voters is sweeping across the country. state-by-state this is one of the greatest self-inflicted threats to our democracy and our lifetime. these new laws threaten to silence the voices of those we started really listen to in this country. the elderly racial and i think minorities young, disabled and even veterans. since 2011 we've seen a huge increase in the number of new voter suppression laws enacted at the state level. nine states have passed the restricted photo i.d. laws. three states passed laws requiring documented proof of citizenship is a prerequisite to voting. four states have made it more difficult for groups like the

mr. chairman, if i may, i want to note that my hearing requests was a broader discussion about the amendments that have been haed and the status of the ordinance, one report that aos related to that is the recent report from the labor and standards so we'd like to hear from them. >> so, we will maer from lsd, supervisor, compos? >> yes, good afternoon, mr. chairmen, members to have committee, i want to provide some context of how we got to this point, the health and security ordinance was introduced by my predecessor who's currently in the assembly and it was passed by a super majority of the san francisco board of supervisors in 2006. the health and security ordinance created what is known as the healthy san francisco program as well as an employer spending requirement for worker health care. supervise or yam yan know at the time assumed he had written the ordinance so that all employers of the same size would have the same spending obligations as laid out in the law, and he and i have had many conversations where he's made it clear where that was always his understanding, and late 2010, sev

mr. chairman. mr.grove, in your testimony before the government reform committee in july and again today, even though cmf enacted a demonstration seven times larger than any since 1995, > the -- combined budgetary effect of the demonstration and has no control group to judge the outcome of the demonstration program and insofar as to suggest to the demonstration should be cancelled -- is that right? >> we did recommend that the secretary cancel the demonstration. >> ms. ignani, president obama, during the large discussions around the passage of the new health-care law, made much of the argument that if you like or plan, you'll be able to keep it. can you reflect on how the reality is of what your members are dealing with in their ability to offer products that existed before the enactment of the health care law, and what they are dealing with now? >> first of all, in the medicare advantage irina and the commercial arena, we are doing everything we can to break costs down and improve quality. that is wha

mr. chairman. i'm going to pick up where you left off because mr. tangherlini and i have exactly the discussions that you just did when we were talking on the phone. i think this is a difficult issue. how do you ensure accountability and appropriate authority, and to whom should it be vested. i served as regional administrator of the small business administration for new england in the final year of the first president bush's administration. i loved the job. i felt we made a real difference at a time when new england was going through a lot of bank failures. but i also heard from the employees i was privileged to work with about previous regional administrators and some previous administrations, who, how shall i say it? did not take the job as diligently as i did. so i think this is a difficult call because these are short-term political appointees. some of them are terrific, believe in public service, excellent managers, have terrific skills. some of them, frankly, are being rewarded for helping the president be elected. and it may not have the ski

mr. chairman, that's a lot of money. >> a lot of money. >> the question i have, why won't he tell us whats -- you know the big three deductions. >> house, charity, state and local. that's where the money is. lee sutton says go where the money is. how is he going to go there without affecting anybody? >> i don't take issue with your point, it is a legitimate point. there's a great deal of specificity that has to be put on the table. my hope is when we get to debates, we will get through some of that. the american people need to know. likewise, the same true for the president, laying out some of the specificity of keep the middle class tax cuts from bush years in place, how do you cover that $3 trillion that costs. >> russell long, said, don't tax me, don't tax you. no, don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind that tree, somebody you never met. >> taxing the rich a lot more is not going to cover the cost of the health care system or protecting all that he wants to protect in education, all these new teachers he wants to pay for, all this money he wants to flow back to the states.

mr. chairman. mr. speaker, some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle wish to change the law, and that's fine. they just need to do it navigating this testy little thing that we call the constitution and respect the separation of powers between the various branches. mr. speaker, i want to read the proposed rule to you in part. h.h.s. has the authority to waive compliance with this work requirement and authorizes the states methods other than certificate forth in section 407 including definitions of work activities and specify limitations, verification procedures. and then the next sentence, mr. speaker, is essentially this -- and i'll paraphrase this. it's by the h.h.s. secretary. trust us, trust us that we're going to have the right motives when we waive what congress has expressly said to do. and to my lawyer friends on the other side, i want to ask you this. why do we have something called substantive due process and procedural due process? and i'll tell you why, mr. speaker. because the