mr. ellison, i know that you worked on this and please pick up. mr. ellison: i'm glad to talk about this issue of too big to fail. and either the gentleman from ohio or california want to elaborate, i -- i'd just like to pose both of you gentlemen a question, and that is, if some banks are too big to fail, are there then other banks that are too small to save? i yield back. >> that's an interesting question. -- mr. garamendi: that's an interesting question. clearly we have institutions that are too big to fail and that's where the tarp legislation that was the last act, one of the last acts of the bush administration, came into being. the treasury secretary, mr. paulson, who actually was the c.e.o. of goldman sachs, as i recall, came to this house, came to the senate and said, oh, my, oh, my, the world's going to collapse unless you immediately cough up $1 trillion to the banks to stabilize the banks. fortunately this house said, wait a minute, let's see what we're doing here. instead of a one-page bill, giving the treasury department $1 trillion, the

mr. ellison: fine, come on down. mr. grayson: i thank the gentleman for yielding his time temporarily and bringing the important subject of the day which is financial reform in america. i thank the gentleman for this opportunity to talk about one of the key elements in the house bill and senate bill, which is auditing the federal reserve and i want to congratulate the gentleman. in fact, everyone in america, because you now own a hotel chain. congratulations. it's this one right here. you own the red roof inn. i know what you're thinking. you are thinking that's funny, i don't remember buying the red roof inn but the federal reserve has done it for you. they have seen to it that you have the pleasure of ownership of this chain of hotels that extends from sea to shining sea. you, america, you are now the owners of the red roof inn chain. congratulations. let me explain to you how that happened. deep in the midst of history, going all the way back to 2007, a foreign company decided they wanted to do a leverage buyout of th

mr. ellison: thank you. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from texas, mr. gohmert, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. gohmert: thank you, madam speaker. i appreciate that. it's been an interesting week. it's been an interesting time. you know, there are things that we agree about between our parties. i heard my friends across the aisle talking about we need to have an audit of the federal reserve and that is certainly that i agree with and everybody on my side -- i know, agrees with. we ought to have an audit of the federal reserve. as newt gingrich has said repeatedly, if transparency is good for the c.i.a., it ought to be good enough for the federal reserve. we need to know what they're committing us to. we need to know what they're doing. how much trouble they're getting us in. these are things we need to know. i'm delighted to hear my friends across the aisle join us in our cry for an audit of the federal

mr. ellison: mr. speaker, i come to the house floor today to congratulate palestinian authority chairman mahmoud abu and president benjamin netanyahu on talks. i believe the national security interest is directly linked to the resolution of this long-standing conflict. i believe that other conflicts, the israeli-palestinian conflict can be resolved, especially with an active and even-handed leadership of the united states. congratulations to president obama and envoy mitchell who got right to work on middle east peace right after the president's inauguration. and despite huge hurdles, have both been persistent. i hope the president continues to urge all parties to negotiate seriously and move from proximity talks to direct negotiations to reach agreement on final and permanent status issue. the world needs a secure israel, and it needs an independent viable palestinian state. however, simply declaring support for one side or the other doesn't really help either side. both sides benefit from peace. we

mr. ellison for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank you general for being here and sharing your illuminating insight about these issues we are facing here in the reconstruction of afghanistan. last month general mcchrystal questions our reliance on the private contracto in afghanistan. in fact he is quoted as to have said the following. i actually think we would be better to reduce the number of ntractors involved. he went on to say, i tink it doesn't save money, and then he further elaborated by sayg quote, we have created in ourselves a dependency on contractors that i think is greater than it ought to be. according to the gao, in early 2010, there was approximately 107,000 contractors supporting the united states and allied efforts in afghanistan. i guess my question is, do you share general mcchrystal's concerns expressed in these quotes or how do you react to them? >> thank you very much sir. i think what general mcchrystal is saying is generally true from the standpoint of our dependence on the contracting comm

mr. ellison: mr. speaker, consumer financial protection is not a punishment to business. it is a level playing field so that consumers and businesses who want to transact a fair deal can do so. consumer financial protection which is in the financial reform bill will allow consumers and lenders who want to do a fair deal to get rid of the hidden fees, tricky terms that landed our economy in such an awful condition. we are climbing out. we are addressing the issues that affect the american people and we are doing it now. the fact is, is that we want to see good lenders stay good. lenders who want to have clear terms, well disclosed, underwritten to make sure consumers can pay that money back are what we want to see in this economy. and people who want to have fine terms, funny terms, hidden fees will not be able to continue to do that. our economy will be better for it. it will be stable, transparent, and clear and we will see the continued economic growth in the american economy once we pass consumer financial protection. i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: pursuant t

mr. ellison: mr. speaker, i rise today to talk about the importance of continued support for jobs for americans. when america faced massive unemployment in e 1930's, our government stepped up with a w.p.a. and the c.c.c. it's time to continue that drive as t demratic congress has been doing without much help from our republican colleagues the fact is that local governments have been hardest hit in the area of job cuts. the local governments have lost over 140 jobs in 2008 and 2009 and the numbereeps growing. anher 53,000 jobs will be lost by july 1 if we don't act. another 128,000 be lost by fiscal year 2011 if we don't act. anso, mr. speaker, i'm asking my colleagues to step forward for people whoeed to work. this summer we're looking at young people not having enough jobs, and we need this congress to act. we've seen job creation. we've seen job growth. we've seen 290,000 jobs created last month but this drive needs to stay alive. the democratic caucus is committed to it. we hope our republican coll

mr. ellison: mr. speaker, right now our unemployment rate hovers around 10%. little bit lower than that but when you think of all the people who are unjoyed in some sectors, it's twice that. in some parts of our country it's much more than that. the fact is we need a jobs bill, a real jobs bill that will put americans to work. i propose that we support a local jobs bill that will help provide not only jobs for working americans but also to provide for vitally needed services in our cities. all over america, we have districts that are looking off laying off teachers, looking at laying off firefighters, police officers, public works officials. we need these vital services to keep our cities moving properly. local officials around this country know that the federal government should be responding to these difficult shortfalls and cuts that are resulting in service cuts all over this nation. we have work that needs to be done and we have people ready to do it. it's time for congress to step forward with a real local jobs bill. thank you very much. i yield back. th

mr. ellison, come to this floor pretty regularly, maybe not every week, at least every other week, and he puts up a blue post that are says, progressive.com or whatever that particularly website might be, and he's proud of the progressive agenda. but the progressive agenda, if you go read it, you find it on the socialist website, they're proud of it, too, and they're proud of the progressives claiming the agenda that the socialists strive. those are facts. they are not refuteble and i can flip the pages out here and put them on posters of the floor of the house without too much differy. now, bernie sanders who served in this house -- difficulty. now, bernie sanders who served in this house argued many times that these microphones, and i debated with him occasionally, was elected to the united states senate a few years ago and became the first socialist in the united states senate. bernie sanders. progressive. he's the only progressive in the united states senate that's listed at least on the progressive's website, he's proud that have, he's proud of being a socialist and the argument abou

mr. blumenauer, who has been thv strong proponent ofrong prpon infrastructure over the yearsase thisr is a timely hitting and ii appreciate the opportunity to testify about my proposal. it's a proposal along with representatives keith ellison,ma steve israel and elanthony wieny and yes, it is about to create a national infrastructure bank, and i will also say i am honorem to be on this panel with peopleh who are such strong proponents of smart infrastructure investment with peter defazio and daniel lipinski, the mayor n rendell and we share the podium and a stage oftentimes and the mayor villaraigosa. he the science of the infrastructure crisis are allaru around. in 2003 the northeast a major and id widespread black out. we will never forge t the broken levees after hurricane katrina were the major i35 bridgehe m ollapse of minneapolis.in just this month, boston inm toward a catastrophic pipe break the shot off the water for 2 million people. fr with the human costs they arecoh heavy economic costs. lost opp ortunities for jobr creation and economic growth we need to remain competitive in in the 21st century. china puts 9% of its gdp gdp infrastructure. indy 500 of 5% and rising. here we spend less than 2% of gdp. down fro