camp, and the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin, will each ontrol 30 minutes. the house will come to order. please take all conversations off the floor. lease members clear the aisle. the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan, mr. camp. mr. camp: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and and to heir remarks include extraneous material on h.r. 3865. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. camp: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. camp: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in support of h.r. 3865, the stop targeting of political beliefs by the i.r.s. act of 2014. to stop the i.r.s. and treasury from restricting free speech activities of social welfare organizations that have been in place for over 50 years. last may we learned that the i.r.s. targeted conservative groups seeking tax exempt status. for over ninth months committee investigators have reviewed hundreds of th

mr. levin: thank you for yielding and thank to mr. smith also, and congratulations on your work. i rise in strong support of house resolution 447, supporting the democratic aspirations of the ukrainian people and their right to choose their country's future and to choose its direction, free from fear or intimidation, whether internal or external. for three months now, countless scores of ukrainians across the country have braved not only the bitter cold but also the constant threat of government authorized violence to peacefully stand up for the universal principles of democracy and respect for human rights. with this resolution, we in the u.s. house stand with them now. a few weeks ago, i joined a large number of members of the ukrainian community i proudly represent in the ninth congressional district to express support for those demonstrating in the still colder winter in ukraine. as a founding co-chair of the congressional ukrainian caucus and original co-sponsor of this resolution, i believe it's important that the house pass this expression of support for the ukrainian peop

thank the gentleman for yielding, i thank him for his leadership on this important issue, to him, to mr. levin and the member os they have ways and means committee, thank you for making clear what the stakes are in this vote on the floor today. mr. speaker, the 14th amendment of our constitution declares and i quote, the validity of the public debt of the united states authorized by law shall not be questioned. that -- unquote. that has always tpwheb -- been the standard upheld and advocated by house democrats. in each of my conversations with speaker boehner, i have conveyed the unwavering support of the house democratic caucus for a clean bill to lift the debt ceiling. that means no goodies for one side or the other. there's nothing you could add to it that would say, ok, since it's something i like, i dent mind if it isn't clean -- i don't mind if it isn't clean. i said even if you added something i cared about a grea deal, that our caucus cared about a great deal that does not make it right. because the full faith and credit should be unquestioned and it is not negotiable. i thank the spea

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin, is recognized for two minutes. without objection. mr. levin: well, we've been adamant about a clear, clean debt ceiling vote. and now it's happening. it should have happened the last time. and because of the republican position, a high price was paid. jobs were lost, 120,000. the stock market plunged nearly 20%. economic growth was slowed. significantly. so this time around we're going to do the right thing. the gentleman from michigan, my colleague, the chairman of the committee, talked about working together and i want to close by suggesting now with this vote in terms of the debt ceiling, we've cleared the deck. let us now take up the other issues of major importance to the people of this country. and one of them is unemployment insurance. as we stand here today, isolated maybe by the walls around this chamber, but i hope not, 1.7 million people have lost every dime of their unemployment insurance, long-term unemployed. all right, we're clearing the decks. now let's pay attention to the business of the american

mr. jonathan levine. mrs. emily levine. ms. bonnie porta. >> the governor of tennessee. >> mrs. barbara schmidt and mr. richard schmidt. >> mr. randall kaplan. >> mr. gary simon. >> mr. and mrs. randall stephenson. >> the honorable elijah cummings and dr. maya cummings. >> glad to be here. >> we just love the country. we came to support france. >> ms. joanna coles and mr. peter godwin. >> we just brought it and it shattered. we heard there is no dancing. [inaudible] i'm about to find out, i think. this is jewelry from sydney in chicago. i am hoping this isn't too fluffy. thank you. mr. ara aprikian. mr. john ruddy. >> ms. elizabeth strickler. >> the honorable tod stern and ms. jennifer klein. mr. and mrs. caleb baloo. mr. andrew tobias. ms. marie brenner. >> the honorable edward randall royce and mrs. royce. [inaudible] >> is there anything you want to say about the day and how things are going? >> enjoy the evening. >> mr. and mrs. lee saunders. >> mr. bill and jane stetson. ms. karen nagasaki. >> mr. bill and jane stetson. >> the honorable daniel gray. >> ms. janique sealey. >

mr. jonathan levine. mrs. emily levine. ms. bonnie porta. >> the governor of tennessee. >> mrs.arbara schmidt and mr. richard smit -- schmidt. >> mr. randall kaplan. >> oui. oui. mr. gary simon. >> mr. and mrs. randall stephenson. >> the honorable elijah cummings and dr. maja cummings. >> glad to be here. >> we just love the country. we came to support france. >> ms. joanna coles and mr. peter got one -- godwin. >> we just brought it and it shattered. we heard there is no dancing. [inaudible] i'm about to find out, i think. this is jewelry from sydney in chicago. i am hoping this isn't too fluffy. thank you. mr. ara aprikian. mr. john luddy. >> ms. elizabeth strickler. >> the honorable tod stern and ms. jennifer klein. mr. and mrs. caleb baloo. mr. andrew tobias. ms. marie brenner. >> the honorable edward randall royce and mrs. royce. [inaudible] you want toanything say about the day and how things are going? >> enjoy the evening. >> mr. and mrs. lee saunders. bill and jane stetson. >> the honorable daniel gray. >> ms. janique sealey. >> the honorable mr. karen in and leslie eur

thank the gentleman for yielding, i thank him for his leadership on this important issue, to him, to mr. levin and the member os they have ways and means committee, thank you for making clear what the stakes are in this vote on the floor today. mr. speaker, the 14th amendment of our constitution declares, and i quote, the validity of the public debt of the united states authorized by law shall not be questioned. that -- unquote. that has always tpwheb -- been the standard upheld and advocated by house democrats. of my conversations with speaker boehner, i have conveyed the unwavering support of the house democratic caucus for a clean bill to lift the debt ceiling. that means no goodies for one side or the other. there's nothing you could add to it that would say, ok, since it's something i like, i dent mind if it isn't clean -- i don't mind if it isn't clean. i said even if you added something i cared about a grea deal, that our caucus cared about a great deal that does not make it right. because the full faith and credit should be unquestioned and it is not negotiable. i thank the speaker for

we've also been joined by ranking member levin and pleased to recognize mr. levin for questions. >> thank you, and welcome mr. commissioner. >> thank you. >> i think it's not surprising, but unfortunate that this hearing with the new commissioner has taken this approach. i remember when we had a hear ing with the inspector general when the chairman talked about a culture of corruption, and there's never been any evidence of that, or political influence. e-mails that were just put forth here came from a gentleman and we pulled the story about him that goes back to june 18th, and i read it. the head line is conservative republican at irs defends treatment of tea party. john schaefer, who described himself as a conservative republican told congressional investigators he flagged the first application for tax exempt status from a tea party aligned group that he and lower level agents came across in february 2010, because it was a new, high-profile issue. this is from mr. schaefer who describes himself as a conservative republican. and all of these efforts to tie this to

. >> up next, the book -- the great debate" mr. levin, the founder of the quarterly journal, national affairs, talks about the origin of political left-right debate. he spoke with jonah goldberg of the national review. >> host: hi, yuval. hello. >> host: welcome to c-span. i'm going to be grilling you on your new book, "the great debate." and i'll try to do my best by lan, which means a lot of profanity, and we'll see writ goes. let's just start right off the bat. who wassed -- who was edmund burk, a political thinker and writer in thiolase 18th 18th century. northern 1729. lived until 1797. his political career it from the late 1760s until his career, an intellectual career. was as much a thinker as a politician, and the thinking he did was about how to help his country through a period of intense change and tension and crisis from the american war through a crisis through the french revolution and the european war that followed. burke was a voice for sustaining continuity through change and was an enemy of the radicalism of the french

dear roche administering and helping bring hope and redemption to those incarcerated mr. levin studying in the important justice issues. the question that i would ask of all five of you is in your judgment based upon the different experiences you have had, is there an appropriate role for solitary confinement? is there a need for it? and in what circumstances it at all? and i would welcome the views of all five witnesses. >> in my mind right now, yes. but in a limited sense. that is because i have said that there are some diseases for which there are no cures. that does not mean that we don't keep trying to find the cure for the disease. what i have been told by my clinician's is that we have four to five in our system that if they are let out of administrative segregation they will kill someone. they lay their responsibility on me, and i get that. but i also understand that in all other areas that there is so much room for improvements. let's figure that group out. let's take care of on the other members sitting in administrative segregation that at this point i think there ar

. >> so your point, mr. levinlow for more innovation, more investment, and i just wonder, again, going back to the consolidation that occurred, of course, under your decade at the helm of time warner, you know, the idea was that the future will belong to media companies that have both content and distribution. do you see this as a validation of that model in a way that obviously the aol deal at the time was not? >> kelly, i don't necessarily see it as a validation because comcast, your parent, was already in the movie business, the network business and the cable business. the way i see it, brian roberts is a cable guy. that's what this is about. this is about the cable business. it's not necessarily you have to have distribution. frankly, i would say that's probably in the a bad idea. >> all right. gerry, always good to talk to you. hope you're doing well. stay safe as the storm heads your way on that part of new england. thanks for joining us. >> thanks, bill. thank you, kelly. >> gerry levin joining us, making t

mr. chairman? >> before senator levin speaks, again, keep in mind, senator pryor, last august -- really no participation. there was a lot of blowback. we modified that so within the manager's amendment we did provide a date for it -- prc. not to the extent they have under current law but divided a significant change. we provided a further significant change with the second-degree amendment that is before us that would say -- 2015 cpi goes in effect, and forward and in 2017 if there is negotiation between the postal service and the prc on changing the rate structure, the postal service can propose whatever they want. nothing happens unless the prc agrees. if the prc does not agree we stay at cpi. that is pretty simple but -- simple. a positive $7 billion cash position, even assuming we can't -- the revenues 8, 9, 10 years out. uppity postmaster general, did you want to,? and i want to recognize senator levin. >> i just want to reiterate the point you made at the end of your statement and that is, we had every incentive to work with the prc and industry because of we didn't we would be at cpi. so the ince

mr. harkin: i ask unanimous consent elizabeth levins and mary pope be granted floor privileges for the duration of today. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. harkin: mr. president, i want to talk today about a subject that has immense implications for america's future. in fact, i often talk about it as being perhaps the darkest cloud hanging over the future economic well-being of our country that no one ever really talks about and it's been hugely ignored and that's the issue of retirement income. and what people are going to do when they retire in the future. i've been focused on this for several years. my help committee has over the last two or three years had 10 hearings on this issue. we have met with a lot of the investment community and retirement benefits community to take a look at what's happening and to see whether or not we can have a -- a better system for retirement than what we have. right now young people who are working to pay off a student loan debt, maybe buy a new home, put a little money away for their own kids' education later on, or if it's people who

levin. [roll call] >> mr. chairman, on the vote of those present the yeas are six and is therefore. on the votes by proxy the yeas are four and nays are one. on this but the a's are ten and nays are five. >> thank you. i wanted thank my colleagues for their vote. this is not the finish line. there will be plenty of time for us to talk further on this. i want to commend senator baldwin. i would ask, if we could, if we could -- i don't want to run out of time and run out of members. if we could go to senator i can't with an amendment, i think we have a number of others. okay. good point. now that we have amended the baldwin second-degree amendment, do we need to vote on baldwin as amended? all in favor say aye. opposed say nay. the roll-call vote. if not, then the eyes appear to have it. the eyes to have it. the amendment as modified is agreed to. thank you all. thank you for your patience. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i call up number three. i don't want to belabor a long discussion here on every detail of this fairly late the amendment, but i want to respond to senator coburn his sug

levin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. just to reiterate the point you made it the end of your statement that we have every incentive to work with the prc and the industry because if we didn't we would have to be a cpi so the incentives in the amendment really force us to work very closely with the prc, which we would do to try to complete an agreement as to an acceptable rate structure. >> thank you. >> gentlemen, first of want to thank senator baldwin. i happen to think this is the fair approach and involves the prc in a significant way because the power to say no is the power to shape. it is also the power, as far as i'm concerned, you are not precluded from having any pre implementation review. does not say you may not permitted to simply says that there will. if you want to listen to stakeholders or have any other input, you are not precluded, but you have the final right to say no to a proposal. that would not be there but for senator baldwin. so i'm not going to vote for permanent. i do want to say that we are at a

mr. dougan as he goes up against carl levin and senators upset about the same kind of swiss bank accountyeah, i have lots of swiss bank bunkers hansspecial nichols has visited. thank you very much indeed. looking forward to "surveillance " in just over 20 minutes' time. how are the european markets? manus cranny at the touchscreen. markets.ly has been you are looking at equity markets that hit 60 or has yesterday around europe. growth -- hit six year highs estimate iran europe. 6 year highs yesterday around europe. you have chinese authorities lowering interest rates and banks being more cautious in terms of lending to property developers. cusp ofina be on the what we saw in the u.s. in 2008? s&p futures indicate .25% higher, housing data. hump of badthe weather. home sales, footfalls always har 3%. expected to fall over in europe, a couple stocks. day. taking a fairly tough they gave us their strategy yesterday which is all about convenience. lower by 4%. they are going for convenience, this is our major discount airliner, down over 400%-- down over 4.8%. >> coming up, fancy a pint? dis

mr. chairman. >> senator levin. >> the department of justice, are they represented here today because i know they have major concerns with this amendment? many of them being issues of construction, are they represented here today? i know the postal service's position has been clear. i think we need to understand, however, that the opinion of the judge was that the parking lot is one thing, but inside of a federal building is another thing. the former in that case being unconstitutional for a gun to of estricted but in terms inside buildings it is constitutional. this amendment does not make any such distinction. i think for us to proceed to adopt this amendment on this bill at this time rather than leaving it for the floor and hopefully getting the justice department opinion on this would be a mistake. >> one other point, though, is that the post office is appealing even allowing them in the parking lot. so we have the full force of the post office appealing and saying they don't want you to have your shotgun even in your car in the post office parking lot. so that's what we are talking about. we

mr. chairman, i would like to clarify the amendment i offered numberepted was levin four as modified. o the we will republican side, and you, you arepaul, recognized. please proceed. >> thank you, mr. chairman. last week there was questions about -- >> is this amendment number one? called -- this is amendment number three. >> amendment number three. >> last week there were questions whether this amendment which would allow the carrying of guns on postal property, whether it that would up lie to post offices in malls or federal buildings. we do not believe that original wee which allow that, but have distributed this in red, thirde changes, and the in thiswe say nothing section or an amendment they by this section shall be construed to affect the rights of private property owners or the application of laws in relation to federal property not a post officer postal property. we think this explains the concerns, and we would like to have a vote. >> i would ask you to know back and repeat for us slowly what you just -- i want to make sure i understand. >> it is a mandate to make explicit if

mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the adjournment or recess from thursday, february 13, through be monday, february 24, the majority leader, senators warner and levin, be authorized to sign duly enrolled bills or joint resolutions. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the upcoming recess or adjournment of the senate, the president of the senate, the president pro tempore and the majority and minority leaders be authorized to make appointments to commissions, committees, boards, conferences, or interparliamentary conferences authorized by law, by concurrent action of the two houses or by order of the senate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the appointment at the desk be -- that it appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that major leslie l. somaro, united states air force officer currently serving as my defense legislative fellow this year be granted floor privileges for the duration of s. 1982, the veterans comprehensive bill. the presiding officer:

mr lopez helped to organise. so while tensions continue to be high here in venezuela, on sunday, so far, it's been rather peace: >> once again rachel levin reporting from caracas. >> a weekend ski trip end trajjicly in colorado, in leyedville, the bodies were found on sunday. a group of skiers triggered the slide. two others were hurt but managed to make it to safety. six people died from avalanches in colorado so far this year. >> people on came codd and massachusetts -- cape cod and massachusetts are digging out from a massive storm. 10-15 inches of snow fell. 20,000 lost power. 5,000 are waiting for the electricity to come on. snow is expected to hit the area on tuesday. meteorologist rebecca stevenson has the latest forecast. >> a series of storms will continue to move in from west fof east across the -- to east across the west. it's a storm that is bringing in a lot of rainfall to the valley. by the time we get through the day monday, we'll add up to three feet coming in from the weekend. as we look to the east there's another storm headed in here. we have been seeing snow work its way from the mid-atlantic, from the midwest to the

mr. chairman. thank you for your testimony before our committee. i want to focus on a report that was released yesterday by senators carl levin and john mccain. a bipartisan report that chronicled how credit suisse helped thousands of u.s. americans e vad u.s. taxes by stashing their money in swiss banks. it highlighted abuse where's employees came to the bank to get recruits at golf tournaments and bank sponsored events by telling u.s. officials they were here for tourism. they set up special meeting rooms in airports. billions of dollars of u.s. taxes were dodged in the course of this with the help of the bank. it is doing business in the u.s. under the supervision of the federal reserve board. now, this report very thoroughfathoresearched for failing to prosecute or huge the lever at its disposal of a bank operating out of the u.s. senator levin rightly pointed out if the swiss bank doesn't want toer can't comply with u.s. law, maybe it shouldn't do business in the u.s. this case has reminders or echos of the hsbc case we saw just a year ago, flagrant vial lagszs through transactions carefully structured to keep u.s. officials out of the l

mr. chairman. couple of introductory comments. i'd like to echo senator chambliss' comment to both of you. senator levin and i went to the mideast in the summer. my wife asked me my overall impression when i got back. i said my biggest single impression suzz the quality of people we have working for us, in the intelligence community and state department and frankly we haven't been treating them well with shutdowns and purr -- furloughs and pay freezes. i know it's hollow to say we appreciate it but we're not keeping up with what we ought to be doing but i just want you to convey that there are people that realize, sometimes enge we're getting better service than we deserve, frankly. i wanted to make that statement. the second is, i've been coming to these hearings now for a little over a year and every single one that i've been in, the alarm bells about a cyberattack have been sounded. i remember one of the witnesses said that our number one threat was a cyberattack. the next pearl harbor would be cyber, etc., etc. and yet we in the congress haven't done anything. in 2012, there was a major cyberbill th

mr. chair and thank you for your testimony before our committee. i want to focus on a report that was released yesterday by senators carl levin and john mccain, a bipartisan report that chronicles how credit swiss helped wealthy americans evade taxes by stashing their money in swiss banks and highlighted flagrant abuses where employees of the bank came to seek clients at golf events and saying they were here for tourism. and set up rooms at airports and destroyed account statements that were being reviewed. billions of dollars of u.s. tax dollars were dodged and it is doing business in the u.s. under the supervision of the u.s. forward reserve board. this report very thoroughly researched, and it is critical of our own department of justice for failing to prosecute a bank operating in the u.s. the senator pointed out, if the swiss bank doesn't want to or comply with u.s. law maybe it shouldn't do business in the u.s. this case has reminders or echoes of the hsbc base we saw just a year ago, flagrant violations through transactions to keep u.s. officials out of the loop and once discovered an unwillingness by the bank regulators and the d.o.j. to held anyb

committee is not me it is senator levin and from time to time i looked to him for advice and ask him for his thoughts and i'm going to ask him to share those with us. >> mr chairman, first of all we cannot break the rules. we can't just override the rules that way. way. i believe or else we are going to have an endless overriding of the rules and that means there are no rules. that may sound familiar to some of you and it's what i believe. so senator coburn is correct. on the other hand we can if we wish by unanimous consent to have two amendments be in order, let them be drafted and feet if we can come up with a unanimous consent agreement to proceed at the end of the markup so there's time to adopt or to write these two amendments. so i would suggest to the chair to withhold a vote on adopting the substance until the end of the markup and during that time, the two amendments are prepared to see if we can get a unanimous consent agreement to cause that is within the rules by unanimous consent we can proceed and i would be very careful in just overriding the chair i think it opens up a lawless committee procedure. >> that's good advice. thanks, senator c

levin number four as modified. >> without objection. >> i think senator paul i think you may be the only republican so you're recognized at this time. please proceed. >> thank you mr. chairman. last week when we brought this up, there were some questions -- >> is this amendment number one? >> is it currently called one? >> this is amendment number three. >> all right, amendment number three. >> last week there were some questions whether or not this amendment which would allow the carrying of guns on postal property whether or not this would apply to post offices in malls or federal buildings. we don't believe the original language allowed that but to make it more explicit we've added and i believe it's in red for the changes. and the changes are two and three and the third section we say nothing in this section shall be construed effect the rights of private property owners or the application of federal, state or local flaws relation to any federal property that is not a postle property including a federal courthouse. we think this explains the concerns and we'd like to have a vote. >> repeat for us slowly what you just said. i just want to make sure i understand