mr. isakson: mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent that the remaining time for the majority be reserved. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. isakson: mr. president, i would like to be recognized as if in morning business, which i guess we are in morning business. the presiding officer: that's correct. mr. isakson: first of all, i want to commend the senator from colorado and try and ratify really what i heard him say. i came in at the last part of the speech, but i know his focus was on the elementariary and secondary education act and no child left behind. he is exactly right, there are reforms that do need to take place. we have gone three years without a re-authorization, and re-authorization hopefully can happen this year, and when it does, we can improve the plight of our children and we can reform the way we do some of the things to open up new opportunity for our kids, but accepting the status quo, he is right, is not good enough. we need to make those reforms and we need to ma

mr. isakson: i would like to be recognized as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. isakson: i come at the end of a long day for all of us to talk about a subject off the subject of the current bill on the floor but one of tremendous importance to the united states and to the recovery of our economy, and also to just point out for the record and hopefully also for the right people that we are at a critical point in terms of housing in america with dodd-frank having been passed and the new rules being promulgated, it's essential that we do not make the mistakes that led us to the last collapse that caused the tragedy in housing in 2007, 2008, and 2009. as i'm sure the the president's aware and of the senate, there was a dodd amendment called the presence of residential mortgage. which was coauthored by senator landrieu, senator hagan and myself, to ensure that the risk retention provisions of dodd-frank would not apply to a well underwritten, well-qualified loan. risk retention, as the chair would remember, is the 5% reten

mr. isakson: thank you, madam chairman. i rise today to acknowledge the second anniversary of a tragic event that happened on march 11, 2009, in the nation of benin in africa. on that tragic day, a young lady by the name of kate pouzy was tragically murdered in her sleep in her house at night. kate pouzy was a volunteer from georgia from the peace corps who went to benin with all the dreams and hopes and aspirations of the program that john kennedy created over a half century ago. she had served there for months. she was teaching young african children, she was sharing wisdom, she was sharing knowledge and she was sharing her love for mankind and she was representing the united states in the way that the peace corps intended it. unfortunately, her life was lost. i didn't know kate pouzy before her death. i only know her after her death. but i know her through her parents, through her schoolmates and through her fellow peace corps volunteers in africa who told me the story of kate pouzy, and also tragically stories of other

mr. isakson: thank you, mr. president. there is a pending amendment by senator hutchison dealing with medical waivers which prompts me to come to the floor for just a minute and talk about that issue as it is affected georgia today and in particular it talk about it in the context of what our governor and legislature are having to deal with in terms of the mandates of the health care bill signed on march 23 of last year by president obama. on the signing of that bill there were a couple of statements i reflect back on those debates that i would like to repeat. one was speaker pelosi saying about a month before the house passed the health care tbhail you had to pass it to find out what's in it. that was a funny statement at the time but it became prophetic today as we're beginning to discover the unintended consequences of the legislation on our states and medicine. secondly, vice president biden declared the magnitude of the impact of the health care bill. that is turning out to be higher cost, less benefit and more regula

mr. isakson: madam president, on june 27, 2010, president obama made the following statement, and i quote -- "i hope some of those folks who are hollering about deficits and debt will step up because i'm calling their bluff." end quote. well, i'm stepping up. at the same time, i also want to call the president's bluff because i think we're at a serious point in time in our history and we need to be realistic about what confronts us ahead of time. first of all, the biggest bluff in year and in the -- this year and in the congress and washington was the 2012 budget presented by the president which did not take any of the recommendations by his own deficit commission. which, by the way, i was one of the republicans that supported his deficit provision. and instead, locked in the 25.4% increase in spending over the last two years and made it permanent by calling it a freeze. to raise taxes in the out-years and dedicates a high regulatory environment in the united states of america. none of that does anything to reduce the debt or the deficit. in fact, the president's budget actually makes it

mr. harkin: you're right on, and senator isakson. it is a bipartisan -- it should be a bipartisan effort. i talked to a number of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who feel the same way as we do about this. so hopefully we can have a good bipartisan approach on this. mr. president, i just wanted to take a few moments to talk about the budget and what we're confronting right now here in the congress. first of all, we all agree -- i think we should all agree that the deficits we have now are unsustainable. they are a drag on our economy. they jeopardize our future. they've got to be brought under control. and i am committed to finding a bipartisan approach to try to get us through this and to have this important goal of bringing the budget under control and balanced for the future. i might just say, mr. president, for the last three decades i'm proud that my party, the democratic party has been the party of fiscal discipline and balanced budgets. that may come as a shock to some people. let's review the president. when bill

mr. chairman, for allowing me to make a statement. >> thank you. senator isakson >> i cannot help but think when i was listening to senator kerry speak that i ran a company for years and we worked through various mediums to sell the product. we would always take the media, whether it is tv or radio or display in a magazine, by trying to pick the medium that we thought the most potential customers for our product would actually go to. that made me do a lot of thinking. what the internet has done and technology has done is allow that anonymous information that was subject to guesses to become a potential commodity that could be sold for purposes of that determination. i think it is a very proper time for the commerce committee to look at this, because of the expense of the internet, expense of the information, and what has taken place and the revelation that it has brought to the american market. i look forward to being part of the committee and working with senator kerry, senator pryor, but to fight the right message to send -- to find the right message to send and

do-not-track but what i would like to do is go to senator bayh isakson since the vote started in the then senator kerry. >> thank you, mr chairman. mr. leibowitz, in your front page of your prepared testimony, you have the number of cases then you brought over the last 15 years in various categories and fair credit reporting act for the children's protection.cd is that volume by categoryvol proportionate to the number ofpe complaints that you get, or is it just ---- >> well, we keep a database, consumer sentinel, and that is one important way we developdevp cases. there are other ways as well. ar and so, we like to think it's not a perfect symmetry, but we like to think that it's in esoportion to the need to brings cases, as you know we are a very small agency, so we try to leverage our limited resources. but we think -- we try to gom ir where the harm is or is going t become so we think it'sand we ti reflective of that.nk but i will get you some consumer co complaints.ints, but but wewe also -- as you know, being a member of thisthis committee, it is sometimes you will see something you will reao about or the commissio