mr. cummings: i grant the gentleman another 10 seconds. mr. hoyer: then i tell my friends what we ought to do is pass the big deal. we ought to pass a $4 trillion to $6 trillion big deal to get the fiscal house in order of the united states of america. and it ought to include all things on the table, including federal employee pay and benefits, including the military pay and benefits and expenditures and domestic expenditures as well as entitlements. i've said that. we ought not to piecemeal it as this bill reflects. i hope we will support mr. van hollen's bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida. mr. ross: thank you, madam speaker. i'd like to recognize my colleague from the great state of north carolina, ms. foxx, for three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from north carolina is recognized for three minutes. ms. foxx: thank you, madam speaker. and i thank my friend from florida for yielding and thank mr. duffy for introducing this bill. as a consistent opponent of automatic pay increases for members of congre

mr. cummings: i grant the gentleman another 10 seconds. mr. hoyer: then i tell my friends what we ought to do is pass the big deal. we ought to pass a $4 trillion to $6 trillion big deal to get the fiscal house in order of the united states of america. and it ought to include all things on the table, including federal employee pay and benefits, including the military pay and benefits and expenditures and domestic expenditures as well as entitlements. i've said that. we ought not to piecemeal it as this bill reflects. i hope we will support mr. van hollen's bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida. mr. ross: thank you, madam speaker. i'd like to recognize my colleague from the great state of north carolina, ms. foxx, for three minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from north carolina is recognized for three minutes. ms. foxx: thank you, madam speaker. and i thank my friend from florida for yielding and thank mr. duffy for introducing this bill. as a consistent opponent of automatic pay increases for members of congre

mr. cummings. ms. maloney? congresswoman maloney? >> i would just like to add what's wrong with this picture. a woman should have been at that table, and i would add all the tables in america. thank you for you courage, thank you for speaking out and for your testimony today. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> if we had gone to central casting to find a representative to speak for american women, we could not have done better than you here today. and you have performed another service that is an unintended consequence of this hearing. for the first time, those who have paid attention to this issue now know that the affordable health care act covers contraceptives so that women no longer have to pay extra for pills, devices or other means of contraception. thank you for helping us to get that word out, ms. fluke. >> well, thank you for -- >> i do believe that the visibility -- we almost ought to thank the chairman for the shall we say lack of judgment that he had to arouse the, to raise the awareness because it's been very hard over the y

mr. cummings and thank you for your leadership on this issue. the stakes here are very serious. we shouldn't play politics with the tragedy occurring on the southern border. the instability because of drug cartels and unfeathered, free-flowing illicit arms crossing our border into mexico into the hands of drug cartels is very serious business. we ought to look at whole issue and not trying to simply make cheap political points at the expense of the tragedy with an atf family and at the expense of the security of the american people. you all have some questions, and we have to go vote. let's open it up for the questions. >> any questions? >> i have a question. have you guys heard vocal support from the obama administration for your gun trafficking legislation before the testimony we heard today? was it mentioned in the present state of the union address, and why do you think we're now hearing support for it 37 months into the administration? >> it was not in the state of the union, but when we had our first hearing, there were three things that the agents called for. one was to h

mr. cummings: the gentleman from virginia, mr. moran, two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia for two minutes. mr. moran: thank you, madam chairman. i thank my very good friend, the distinguished ranking member of the committee for yielding me the time. to rise in strong opposition to an extension of the current pay freeze for federal employees. this legislation is a cynical attempt to tap into misguided resentment fostered by the far right against the federal government and the two million men and women who serve our nation as civil servants. of those two million let me point out to my colleagues nearly two out of three civil servants work for the department of defense, department of homeland security, the department of veterans affairs, and department of justice. in other words, two out of three federal employees work in jobs related to our national security, at home and abroad, or caring for our veterans. every one of those employees now seems to be the target of this body's misguided anger. that's wrong. most of our fede

mr. cummings, it's a pleasure to be before you. i'm speaking on my own behalf and not on behalf of my law firm or clients. let me briefly walk through what i consider to be some of the most unfortunate implications of what i consider to be a number of other individuals unconstitutional use of recess appointments by the president. first is the case with most, separation of power disputes, they trans trans dend immediate circumstances. they are either agencies involved. i'm not going to predict the prediction that you heard that the courts will not so much, with respect to professor ggerhardt would not nullify them that would have been put out by the two agencies and during the ten-year ones with individuals. i'm not going to talk about mass regulatory uncertainty. when we talk about the constitutional implications which to me is somebody who cares passionately about the institution, most important problem here is that the president's actions put at risk congress' own rights and prerogatives. the most important one, of course, and we

mr. cummings and i, mr. hoyer and others, have introduced legislation to do just that. it's hr-3858. the democratic leadership asked that we be able to bring that up on the suspension calendar today. we were denied that opportunity. and so i now ask unanimous consent that after we complete debate on this bill we add to today's suspension calendar hr-3858 so that we can vote as a body on freezing congressional pay. >> is there objection to the gentleman's unanimous consent agreement? >> i do object to unanimous consent. >> madam speaker, this illustrates the point exactly. we just heard mr. duffy -- >> the gentleman will sa pend. under the guidelines consistently issued by successive speakers as recorded on page 752 of the house rules manual the chair is constrained not to entertain the gentleman's request unless it has been cleared by the bipartisan floor and committee leaderships. >> we have been denied that opportunity by the republican leadership so i want to be clear, we were denied the opportunity today to have an up over down vote on freezing congressional pay. that's what we s

mr. cummings. i'm sorry you did. we now recognize mr. lynch for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. senator, i want to say how pleased i am to have you come before the committee. i appreciate your words and are cooperation, your assistance with this matter. oath, ve to acknowledge, r so this is really just a chat. it's one that i'm enjoying but we do have another panel of witnesses that i would like to get to, so with all due respect i'll yield back the balance of my time. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> that was quick. >> i can take an oath, if you want me to, by the way. >> you took an oath already, senator. we think that's more than sufficient for ourselves and for the other body. we now go to give me a second to make sure i don't bypass anyone. we go to the gentleman from north carolina for five minutes. >> senator, thank you for being here. i certainly appreciate your testimony and thank you for the work you're doing, heavy lifting you're doing in your first term with the united states senate. with that i'd like to yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from s

mr. cummings for his round of questions. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i respectfully disagree with what you just said. our staff worked very hard on that report. by the way it is based on the evidence that the majority presented, that the majority presented. you all heard the same evidence we heard. basically looked at the fabts and presented them. mr. attorney general i want to thank you again. i'm sorry my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have made completely unsubstantiated allegations against dedicated and hardworking fbi agents, dea officials, and others. i want to thank all of them for what they do every day to protect the american public. to face a challenge, i have to ignore the political side show and keep my focus on the very real problems that led to these flawed operations. as our report explains, we have no evidence that you approved gun walking. we have no evidence that you knew about it. the same

mr. cummings asked the chairman to bring kenneth nelson as a witness. he said he is willing to come as a witness. in fact, he even testified or talked and interviewed with staff for both parties. they asked him if he ever approved gun walking. he said he had not. they asked if he was ever briefed about gun walking, he said no. he was aware if the senior justice department officials were ever thorsed gun walking. he said no. surely if the details of operation fast and furious were approved at the highest levels of justice as has been judged -- or accused. then mr. nelson would have known about it. this, is however, what he said in that interview. i quote, i don't believe i had knowledge of the specific tactics used in fast and furious until the facts started to be disclosed in the media. so mr. melson said he never justified gun walking. he wasn't aware of it in the fast and furious operation. and he never briefed the attorney general or anybody else about it. i think that is pretty dire information. this interview took place seven months ago. chairman i

mr. elijah cummings from maryland. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. cummings: i'm very pleased we are extending the payroll tax cut through the end of the year which is essential to support our continued economic recovery. i'm also pleased we are providing unemployment benefits to ensure the millions of americans have access to benefits they so urgently need and that we are implementing the doc fix to ensure that seniors who are on medicare can continue to see the physicians of their choice. that said, there are a number of provisions in this agreement that deeply disappoint me. for example, this agreement will reduce by 30 weeks the maximum number of weeks of unemployment insurance available to residents of states with average unemployment rates, while the unemployment picture is certainly improving in january with the creation of 243,000 jobs, and a reduction in the unemployment rate of 8.3%, there's still 12.8 million people unemployed in this nation and

mr. elijah cummings from maryland. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. cummings: i'm very pleased we are extending the payroll tax cut through the end of the year which is essential to support our continued economic recovery. i'm also pleased we are providing unemployment benefits to ensure the millions of americans have access to benefits they so urgently need and that we are implementing the doc fix to ensure that seniors who are on medicare can continue to see the psicians of thr choice. that said, there are a number of provisions in this agreement that deeply disappoint me. for example, this agreement will reduce by 30 weeks the maximum number of weeks of unemployment insurance available to residents of states with average unemployment rates, while the unemployment picture is certaiy improving in january with the creation of 243,000 jobs, and a reduction in the unemployment rate of 8.3%, there's still 12.8 million people unemployed in this nation and milli

mr. cummings -- >> what happened was that we ask for two witnesses. it was miss fluke and a gentleman and the majority, chairman issa said we could only have one and we said we want ms .fluke. they said now. . we have already said we would not accept the gentle man and we only wanted her so we were denied entry appealed. we then wrote a letter saying would you please reconsider. they said no. >> here we are gathered today and thank you for fighting the fight, in this room which we are happy to have a room but the leadership told us that we could not have a house recording studio and take this public so we thank the members of the press who are here for their resourcefulness with the technology to get the message from this room out which has been barred by the republican majority. it is amazing what legs they will go to so that they don't have to listen to the voices of women for it we are honored that you are here. thank you for your courage. please proceed with your testimony as you wish, miss sandra fluke. >> good morning, and thank you for calling

mr. cummings -- >> what happened was that we asked for two witnesses. it was miss fluke and a gentleman and the majority, chairman issa said we could only have one and we said we want ms.fluke. they said no. we have already said we would not accept the gentleman and we only wanted her so we were denied entry. we then wrote a letter saying would you please reconsider. they said no. >> here we are gathered today and thank you for fighting the fight, in this room which we are happy to have a room but the leadership told us that we could not have a house recording studio and take this public so we thank the members of the press who are here for their resourcefulness with the technology to get the message from this room out which has been barred by the republican majority. it is amazing what legs they will go to so that they don't have to listen to the voices of women for it we are honored that you are here. thank you for your courage. please proceed with your testimony as you wish, miss sandra fluke. >> good morning, and thank you for calling this hearing o

mr. elijah cummings from maryland. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. cummings: i'm very pleased we are extending the payroll tax cut through the end of the year which is essential to support our continued economic recovery. i'm also pleased we are providing unemployment benefits to ensure the millions of americans have access to benefits they so urgently need and that we are implementing the doc fix to ensure that seniors who are on medicare can continue to see the physicians of their choice. that said, there are a number of provisions in this agreement that deeply disappoint me. for example, this agreement will reduce by 30 weeks the maximum number of weeks of unemployment insurance available to residents of states with average unemployment rates, while the unemployment picture is certainly improving in january with the creation of 243,000 jobs, and a reduction in the unemployment rate of 8.3%, there's still 12.8 million people unemployed in this nation and

mr. cummings and the ranking member of the subcommittee, mr. davis, for their considerable support and assistance and mr. chairman, like you, i will be brief, you and i are the only ones here who have a vote in committee on this matter. the district of columbia special election reform act is subject to legislation i introduced last congress which, with the help of the chairman, was passed without objection by the house committee on oversight and reform and with his help, quickly got to the full house for a vote. final enactment of the bill was prevented not by this house but by an anonymous hold in the senate which fortunately no longer allows such holds in that chamber. this bill is of great importance to the district of columbia, particularly now that the city council is faced with an example of a vacancy that this bill was designed to address and had the bill passed in the senate, the senate could have addressed. however, instead of holding the special election that we are now required to hold on april 3 , the day of the city's primary, the

mr. cummings, for his round of questions. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, and i respectfully disagree with what you just said. our staff worked very hard on that report, and by the way, it is based upon the evidence that the majority presented, that the majority presented. you all heard the same evidence that we heard. and we, basically, looked at the facts and presented them. mr. attorney general, i want to thank you again, and i'm sorry my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have made completely unsubstantiated allegations against dedicated and hard working fbi agents, dea officials and others. and i want to thank all of them for what they do every day to protect the american public. we face a real challenge today. i have to ignore the political sideshow and keep my focus on the very real problems that led to these flawed operations. as our report explains, we have no evidence that you approved gun walking. we have no evidence that you knew about it. the same can probably be said of former attorney general mukasey. i assume that if either

mr. cummings -- >> what happened was that we ask for two witnesses.s miss fluke and a gentleman and the majority, chairman issa said we could only have one and we said we want ms .fluke. they said no. we have already said we would not accept the gentle man and we only wanted her so we were denied entry appealed. we then wrote a letter saying would you please reconsider. they said no. >> here we are gathered today and thank you for fighting the fight, in this room which we are happy to have a room but the leadership told us that we could not have a house recording studio and take this public so we thank the members of the press who are here for their resourcefulness with the technology to get the message from this room out which has been barred by the republican majority. it is amazing what legs they will go to so that they don't have to listen to the voices of women for it we are honored that you are here. thank you for your courage. please proceed with your testimony as you wish, miss sandra fluke. >> good morning, and thank you for calling this hear

mr. cummings is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you. on may 2nd, 2011, 44 republican senators sent a letter to president of the united states to the objection regarding the consumer financial protection bureau. the republican senators did not express concerns regarding the qualifications of a particular nominee for the cftc for to position rather than the gang of the 44 republicans objected to the fact that the dodd-frank act is now the law of the land and that the consumer financial protection bureau would be able to protect consumers from unscrupulous mortgage services, paid a lenders and debt collectors once the director was installed. now ali would like to point your attention to slide number three and here is what those republican senators actually stated, and i quote, for too much power would be vested in the csb without any checks and balances. accordingly, we will not support the consideration of any nominee regardless of the party affiliation to be the director until the structure of the consumer financial protection bureau is

mr. cummings: thank you very much. and i thank the gentlelady for yielding. mr. speaker, i rise in opposition to h.r. 1734, the civilian property realignment act. although i support the efforts to improve the process used to dispose of federal property, i believe that in its current form, this legislation inappropriately limits the access that service providers for the homeless have traditionally had to surplus federal property. current law requires that all federal surplus properties be considered for use by entities that provide assistance for the homeless. this legislation would create a bright light commission to dispose of unused federal property, would require a majority vote of this commission before any specific property could be considered for homeless assistance. this provision is misguided and should have been elimb nat -- eliminated before this legislation reached the floor. i committed to the rules committee a commonsense amendment that would have fixed this problem. my amendment would have ensured that section 501 of the homeless assistant act which

mr. cummings: thank you, madam speaker. i want to thank the gentleman for yielding. i want to thank ms. slaughter and mr. walz for your tremendous work. i stand here and urge our members to support this bill, but certainly i have my concerns. the house republicans stripped out of a bipartisan bill that passed the senate overwhelmingly key provision that is were supported by democrats and republicans alike. senator grassley and senator from iowa who i worked with quite a bit as ranking member was among the first who criticized their actions. and after they stripped out his provisions to require greater transparency over so-called political intelligence, consultant senator grassley said and has been said again and again and i think it needs to be plated in the d.n.a. of every cell of our brains it's astonishing, these are his words, and extremely disappointing the house would fulfill wall street's wishes by killing this provision. that is an incredible indictment and i share his disappointment this bill does not go far enough to require the transparency that we need. will the me be clear,

mr. cummings: thank you, madam speaker. i want to thank the gentleman for yielding. i want to thank ms.laughter and mr. walz for your tremendous work. i stand here and urge our members to support this bill, but certainly i have my concerns. the house republicans stripped out of a bipartisan bill th passed the senate erwhelmingly key provision that is were supported by democrats and republicans alike. senator grassley and senator from iowa who i worked with quite a bit as ranking member was among the first who criticized their actions. and after they stripped out his provisions to require greater transparency over so-called political intelligence, consultant senator grassley said and has been said again and again and i think it needs to be plated in the d.n.a. of every cell of our brains it's astonishing, these are his words, and extremely disappointing the house would fulfill wall street's wishes by killing this provision. that is an incrible indictment and i share his disappointment this bill does not go far enough to require the transparency that we need. will the me be clear, no memb

mr. cummings has asked the chairman to bring in as a witness. mr. nelson indicate he is willing to come as a witness but, in fact, he even testified, or talk and was interviewed in the close interview with staff from both parties. they asked him if he ever approves gunwalking. he said he had not. they asked if it had been briefed about gunwalking. he said no. they asked if he was aware if the senior justice department officials have never been authorized and gunwalking, he said no. surely, if the details of operation passengers were approved at the highest level of the department of justice, as has been accused, then mr. nelson, the driver of the atf presumably would have known about it. this is however what he said in the interview and i quote, i don't believe i acknowledge of the specific tactics used in fast and furious into the facts begin to be disclosed in the media. so mr. nelson to the coming he never authorize gunwalking. the justice department or authorized a. he wasn't aware of it. in fast and furious operation. and he never briefed the a

mr. chairman, ranking member cummings, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of the u.s. chamber of commerce and the hundreds of thousands of businesses that the chamber represents. the chamber strongly supports the goal of enhancing consumer protection. but we're extremely concerned that the recess appointment is actually going to have the opposite effect. creating confusion and uncertainty for businesses that want to comply with the law and imposing unnecessary and duplicative costs on legitimate businesses. rather than focusing on the constitutional issues, which i agree with ambassador gray, it's been well discussed, i would like to focus on these constitutions for consumers, for businesses, and for the economy of the judicial determination that the appointment of the director violates the constitution. and i think it's important to understand that the dodd frank act provided prior to the appointment of a director some of the powers of the bureau could be exercised by the treasury secretary. these included rule making under federal consumer laws that predated dodd fr

mr. cummings for his round of questions. >> are respectfully disagree with what you just said. our staff worked very hard on that report. by the way, it is based upon the evidence that the majority presented. you all heard the same evidence that we heard, and we basically look at the facts as presented. mr. attorney general, i want to thank you again and i am sorry my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have made completely unsubstantiated allegations against dedicated and hardworking fbi agents, dea officials and others, and i want to thank all of them for what they do every day to protect the american public. i have to ignore the political sideshow and keep my focus on the real problem that led to these flawed operations. as our report explains, we have no evidence that you approved gun walking. we have no evidence that you knew about it. this and can probably be said of the former attorney general. i assume that if either of you actually heard about gun walking, you would have put a stop to it. hundreds of weapons went to criminal networks on both sides of the border b

mr. chairman and ranking member cummings for the invitation to come here and address you and the other members of the committee. it's an honor to address you today. i'm here to address the constitutional prog tives of congress. regardless of whatever political concerns i might have with these nominations, my overriding, dominating concerns here is not partisan. rather, it's an institutional and a constitutional concern that i'm here to explain. and then answer any questions that you might have regarding those concerns. president obama's january 4th, 2012, appointments are unconstitutional because they did not comply with the requirements for appointments set forth in the constitution. those requirements, i might add, are important because as the founding fathers discussed in that fateful convention in the summer of 1787 that occurred in philadelphia, the founding fathers were unwilling to grant this power on an unrestrained basis to an executive as they would argue that it would not be wise to, quote, grant so great a power to any single person as the people would think we are leaning too much

mr. cummings: thank you, madam speaker. i want to thank the gentleman for yielding. i want to thank ms.laughter and mr. walz for your tremendous work. i stand here and urge our members to support this bill, but certainly i have my concerns. the house republicans stripped out of a bipartisan bill that passed the senate overwhelmingly key provision that is were supported by democrats and republicans alike. senator grassley and senator from iowa who i worked with quite a bit as ranking member was among the first who criticized their actions. and after they stripped out his provisions to require greater transparency over so-called political intelligence, consultant senator grassley said and has been said again and again and i think it needs to be plated in the d.n.a. of every cell oour brains it's astonishing, these are his words, and extremely disappointing the house would fulfill wall street's wishes by killing this provision. that is an incredible indictment and i share his disappointment this bill does not go far enough to require the transparency that we need. will the me be clear, no

mr. cummings for his round of questions. >> are respectfully disagree with what you just said.ur staff worked very hard on that report. by the way, it is based upon the evidence that the majority presented. you all heard the same evidence that we heard, and we basically look at the facts as presented. mr. attorney general, i want to thank you again and i am sorry my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have made completely unsubstantiated allegations against dedicated and hardworking fbi agents, dea officials and others, and i want to thank all of them for what they do every day to protect the american public. i have to ignore the political sideshow and keep my focus on the real problem that led to these flawed operations. as our report explains, we have no evidence that you approved gun walking. we have no evidence that you knew about it. this and can probably be said of the former attorney general. i assume that if either of you actually heard about god and walking take thuringia up if you heard about gun walking -- it either of you had heard about gun walking, you would

cum laude. she held part-time jobs on campus and was a department store salesclerk and a hollywood extra, appearing in several motion pictures, including the 1935 film "becky sharp." mrs. nixon taught at at a high school in the late 1930's where she met her husband who had returned to his hometown to practice law after graduating from duke law school. approximate richa ryan and richard nixon were married in 1940, and was true of so many couples their age, she worked here at home while her husband served in the military in world war ii as a naval officer in the pacific. mrs. nixon campaigned with her husband as he was elected to the house of representatives in 1946 and 1948. and to the united states senate in 1950. there's a charming photograph of the nixons with their infant daughter, trisha, taking at the tidal basin with the cherry blossoms in bloom in the spring of 1947. julie, their younger daughter, was born the following year. with her husband's election as vice president and dwight eisenhower's office in 1962, she traveled the land. for more than two months in asia and the pacific in 1953 and to south america in 1958 where the couple demonstrated courage in car