mr. greene. >> thank you, congressman ellison, and mr. maffei, and chairman and members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to address your committee. as congressman ellison said, i am joel green with upsher-smith laboratories of minnesota. i'm here and ask your support for legislation that would protect working people throughout america whose retirements, securities -- whose retirement security is imperiled by the madoff fund. i urge your support for the amendment to extend sipc protection to cover the losses of individual members of qualified plans lost in the madoff fraud. i am sure -- but your smith laboratories is a pharmaceutical company formed in 1919 and has approximately 550 employees in the twin cities, denver, and around the country. in 1974, car owners established a profit sharing plan to share the profits with our company's employees, and beginning in 1995, the plan was invested with mr. madoff. over the next 12 years, the company contributed over $8 million to the plan for the benefit of our employees. on december

mr. greene. >> thank you, congressman ellison, and mr. maffei, and chairman and members of the committee. as congressman ellison said, i am told greene, and i work with upsher-smith laboratories of minnesota. i'm here ask your support for legislation that will protect working people throughout america whose retirement security is imperiled by the madoff fraud, including -- including current and former employees of upsher-smith laboratories. i urge your support for the legislation prepared by a the congressman for individual members of qualified plans lost in the madoff fraud. hunter smith laboratories is a family-owned pharmaceutical company. it has approximately 550 employees in the twin cities, denver, and around the country. in 1974, our owners established a profit sharing plan to share the profits with our company's employees, and beginning in 1995, plan assets were invested with mr. madoff. over the next 12 years, the company contributed over $8 million to the plan for the benefit of our employees and on december 11, 2008, mr. madoff

mr. greene. >> thank you, congressman ellison, and mr. maffei, and chairman and members of the committee. as congressman ellison said, i am told greene, and i work with upsher-smith laboratories of minnesota. i'm here ask your support for legislation that will protect working people throughout america whose retirement security is imperiled by the madoff fraud, including -- including current and former employees of upsher-smith laboratories. i urge your support for the legislation prepared by a the congressman for individual members of qualified plans lost in the madoff fraud. hunter smith laboratories is a family-owned pharmaceutical company. it has approximately 550 employees in the twin cities, denver, and around the country. in 1974, our owners established a profit sharing plan to share the profits with our company's employees, and beginning in 1995, plan assets were invested with mr. madoff. over the next 12 years, the company contributed over $8 million to the plan for the benefit of our employees and on december 11, 2008, mr. madoff

mr. greene. >> thank you, congressman ellison, and mr. maffei, and chairman and members of the committee. as congressman ellison said, i am told greene, and i work with upsher-smith laboratories of minnesota. i'm here ask your support for legislation that will protect working people throughout america whose retirement security is imperiled by the madoff fraud, including -- including current and former employees of upsher-smith laboratories. i urge your support for the legislation prepared by a the congressman for individual members of qualified plans lost in the madoff fraud. hunter smith laboratories is a family-owned pharmaceutical company. it has approximately 550 employees in the twin cities, denver, and around the country. in 1974, our owners established a profit sharing plan to share the profits with our company's employees, and beginning in 1995, plan assets were invested with mr. madoff. over the next 12 years, the company contributed over $8 million to the plan for the benefit of our employees and on december 11, 2008, mr. madoff

mr. ellison is talking about. do you realize that on wall street we have very competent professionals who can do asset-management and you should be involved in some of the response that the top money has been used for and developing all kind of consultancies. they are not getting their fair share. so if the government itself stop discriminating against small and minority businesses, many of those resources would be helpful in our community. and so that's what some of mr. ellison is talking four. >> i'm wondering if you have identified and then assign specific members of the congress to sit down with leadership that will be the leadership to craft out the policy details of that as this bill is being finalized here you are issues are being included. >> sure, the leadership of the congressional black caucus sits down with their leadership on each and every bill that moves forward. in addition to that we have 17 subcommittee chairs and for subcommittee chairs who are the take on each and every policy initiative that w

mr. ellison is talking about. do you realize that on wall street we have confident professionals who can do asset management and to should be involved in some of the response that the t.a.r.p. money has been used for and developing all kinds of consultants. they are not getting their fair share some of the government itself stopped discriminating against small and minority businesses, many of those resources would be helpful in our community, so that is somewhat mr. ellison is referring to. >> i am choice jones of black enterprise. i'm wondering if you have identified and assigned specific members of the caucus to sit down with leadership, the democratic leadership to craft out all the policy details as this bill is being finalized here. if the issues are included? >> the leadership of the congressional black caucus its them with their leadership on each and every bill that moves forward. in addition to that we have 17 subcommittee chairs and full committee chairs where the table one each and every policy initiati

mr. ellison: mr. speaker, i have some documentation i need to set up so i'll claim the time and i got to go get that. mr. ellison: mr. speaker, my name is keith ellison, congressman he willson, and i'm here to claim the time -- ellison, and i'm here to claim the time on behalf of the progressive message. we come to discuss critical issues and a progressive perspective on these same issues. the progressive message is put on and organized by progressive caucus members who happen to represent one of the largest caucuses in the congress and the purpose of this message is to focus on critical issues from a progressive perspective. that means a perspective that all americans are welcome and concluded -- included, that be-- we need civil rights, human rights, we need economic justice for working people and working families, we need to address poverty and we need to address peace in the world. the idea that america, a country blessed, could help bestow blessing upon other people in the world through example an

mr. ellison: let me just say. i was home this weekend and i was walking along one of the trails that we have in minneapolis. we have a lot of parks in minneapolis. it was cold and i wanted to get my legs stretched from working so hard last week. i was walking along one of our many trails and i decided to sit down at a park bench and looked like a pretty old looking park bench. the rust was there. and i noticed that it was sturdy. and we sat there talking to a few friends. when i got up to leave, there was a plaque and it said on it, w.p.a., 1934. for 75 years, that park bench been sitting there. for 75 years, that thing has been given comfort to people who are just walking by. but 75 years ago, we had a job crisis then. and our country, our congress responded to the needs of unemployed americans. you know, we need to respond to the needs of americans today. our people are putting pressure on food shelves and people don't have money for lights, as folks who have two and three jobs that were part-time, now lost them

mr. ellison: mr. speaker, after nearly a decade of handing over middle-class tax dollars to the wealthiest 1%, after nearly a decade of policy that encouraged $1 million c.e.o. bonuses over raises for american workers, we are witnessing the results of nearly a decade of complete republican control of the federal government. they handed president obama and this congress two wars, hundreds of billions of dollars in debt, crumbling national infrastructure, a home mortgage foreclosure crisis. one in eight mortgages in default or in foreclosure. a global climate crisis, and a financial sector ravaged by greed. this should be called the republican recession, and then they handed it all off to president obama and now have the audacity to ask, where are the jobs? well, the jobs are coming. the jobs are being built right now because democrats are focusing on jobs. democrats are committed to a jobs program that talks about our infrastructure and retaining public employees and building america's future again. th

mr. ellison and as a follow-up to our last testimony to reduce some of th@@@@@@@ @ @ s >> reaching many,any people. we were always looking at ways to troy to help make sure this would reach people would could hopefully reach. >> if i could, i'll pick up on the point. that is the deliberate decisions. it has created an irony against the back drop. backdrop of the sub-prime mortgage crisis that started with zero down loans and 100% financing. we now are creating modified loans supported by the united states government that have 110% loan-to-value ratios, 20% loan-to-value ratios, 125% loan-to-value ratios. we have no experience with long-term payment of deeply under water mortgages, but the little bit of data that we do have available, about even modestly under water mortgages, suggests that over the long term, second only to the question of affordability of the payment, long term, being under water on mortgage means that people are unlikely to continue to make their mortgage payments, so i want to push back on this little bit. are we creating a program in which we are talking about potent

mr. ellison, is recognized for five minutes. >> let me welcome you and say good morning to both of you, ambassadorneral. is good to see you again. was with you only a few weeks ago. we talked a lot about 30000 extra, but what about the civilian surge side of this? could you elaborate on that, ambassador eikenberry? what is our projected number? what are we hoping to arrive at, and how is that process going long? >> thanks, congressman. good to see you again. >> absolutely. >> we have made very significant progress over the last 12 months in increasing our civilian numbers and our survey and capabilities in afghanistan. by january next year, here in about a seven week timeframe, look back over the last month, we will have a threefold increase in our civilian presence in afghanistan. very importantly, in support of general mcchrystal's efforts, a six fold increase in the field. numbers roughly been that we are talking about early next year, january and february timeframe, we'll be looking at about 1000 civilians over all in afghanistan. about 400 of those we project to be out in the field. it's a ve

mr. ellison and as a follow-up to our last testimony to reduce some of the proposals that i had been promotingfor quite some time with regard to emergency mortgage assistance programs and i look forward and thank you all for agreeing to meet separately on those issues. >> were right, those are two areas where there's a lot of ideas out there and ways we can help modify this program and you are also right to emphasize this program was not designed and this is a conscious choice we made not to start with the principal reduction and we made that choice because we thought it would be dramatically more expensive for the american taxpayer, harder to justify, create much greater risk of an fairness and our program was not designed to do that. our program is doing what it is designed to do which is reaching many, many people across this country with substantial reductions in monthly payments and we are always looking at ways to try to help make sure this program reaches people who can reasonably reach. >> thank you. >> if i could mr. secretary i will do is pick right up on that point and that is the d

mr. ellison and as a follow-up to our last testimony to reduce some of the proposals that i had been promotingfor quite some time with regard to emergency mortgage assistance programs and i look forward and thank you all for agreeing to meet separately on those issues. >> were right, those are two areas where there's a lot of ideas out there and ways we can help modify this program and you are also right to emphasize this program was not designed and this is a conscious choice we made not to start with the principal reduction and we made that choice because we thought it would be dramatically more expensive for the american taxpayer, harder to justify, create much greater risk of an fairness and our program was not designed to do that. our program is doing what it is designed to do which is reaching many, many people across this country with substantial reductions in monthly payments and we are always looking at ways to try to help make sure this program reaches people who can reasonably reach. >> thank you. >> if i could mr. secretary i will do is pick right up on that point and that is the d

mr. ellison is talking about. realize on wall street we have very competent, professionals who can do asset management and who should be involved in some of the response that the t.a.r.p. money has been used for and developed all kinds of consultancy's. they are not getting their fair share. the government itself, stop discriminating against small and minority businesses, many of those resources would be helpful in our community but that is some of what -- >> i am wondering if you have assigned specific members of the caucus to sit-down with leadership to craft out all of the policy details of that as this bill is being finalized. issues are included. >> the leadership of the congressional black caucus sits down with our leadership on each and every bill that moves forward. we have 17 subcommittee chairs and full committee chairs at the table on every policy initiative that we are on. and the whip. mr. cliburn is our voice in meeting where members are not invited. he is our whip and former member of the black cauc

mr. ellison and as a follow-up to our last testimony to reduce some of the proposals that i had been promotingrd to emergency mortgage assistance programs and i look forward and thank you all for agreeing to meet separately on those issues. >> were right, those are two areas where there's a lot of ideas out there and ways we can help modify this program and you are also right to emphasize this program was not designed and this is a conscious choice we made not to start with the principal reduction and we made that choice because we thought it would be dramatically more expensive for the american taxpayer, harder to justify, create much greater risk of an fairness and our program was not designed to do that. our program is doing what it is designed to do which is reaching many, many people across this country with substantial reductions in monthly payments and we are always looking at ways to try to help make sure this program reaches people who can reasonably reach. >> thank you. >> if i could mr. secretary i will do is pick right up on that point and that is the deliberate decision not to dea