mr. lynch: mr.speaker, i would like to yield at this point to the lead sponsor of this resolution, mr. marshall of georgia, for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: gentleman from georgia is recognized for five minutes. mr. marshall: i don't think it will take me five minutes to cover this one. the resolution simply congratulates the warner robbins little league world softball team on winning the 2009 little league softball world series. their victory follows fairly hard on the heels of a victory in 2007 by the warner robins little league boys team and the little league world series. baseball series. and so it's quite a treat that warner robins now is the only city in the united states that has had teams successful on both the girls sides and boys side as little league world champions. i think it's particularly poignant that not only do all members of the georgia delegation co-sponsor as original co-sponsors, this bill, but many members of congress are also a co-sponsor of this bill. i want to spe

mr. lynch, for managing this bill. i also want to thank mr. israel who has worked with me on this important resolution for years. . it is important to highlight the effort of those organizations that work so hard to help youth of america who have lost or are considering leaving their -- who have left or are considering leaving their homes for a life on the street. if the gentleman has no further speakers, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts. >> thank you, madam speaker. i want to urge my colleagues to support jerez lution, 779, and i yield back the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the sgrelt yields back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to -- and support her resolution, 779. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and agree to the resolution. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. without objection, the resolution is agreed. to >> i wo

mr. lynch: mr. speaker, as chairman of the house of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the united states postal service, i am pleased to present h.r. 3951 for consideration. this legislation will designate the united states postal service facility located at 2000 louisiana avenue in new orleans, louisiana, as the roy rondeno, sr. post office building. introduced by my colleague, representative cao of louisiana on october 28, 2009, and reported out of the oversight and government reform committee on november 18, 2009, by unanimous consent h.r. 3951 enjoys the support of the entire louisiana house delegation. a native of new orleans, louisiana, roy rondeno, sr., served his beloved community as a dedicated employees of the united states postal service for over 30 years. notably he worked at the united states postal service facility at uptown station located at 2000 louisiana avenue in new orleans the very facility that we seek to designate in his honor. the true embodiment of the old adage that ne

mr. lynch. mr. lynch: i yield myself such i'm as i may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lynch: i would like to thank chairman frank and chairman peterson and chairman waxman for their great work on this bill and thank those three chairmen for supporting this amendment. my amendment solves a problem and seeks to close a gap in the underlying legislation. madam chair, what many members of congress and the public don't realize is that the u.s. derivatives market is about $605 trillion, which is more than five times the value of the stocks traded on the new york stock exchange. more importantly and simply the scale of the derivatives industry is the fact that according to the comp. controller of the currency, a total of 97% of the derivatives trading is just controlled by five banks, so it is a near monopoly. four of those five banks were top recipients and during the recent financial meltdown, these same banks engaged in risky behavior involving complex derivatives which endangered t

mr. lynchod afternoon, madam speaker. i move that the house suspend the rules and agree to senate 303 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 303, an act to reauthorize and improve the federal financial assistance management improvement act of 1999. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch, and the gentlewoman from illinois, mrs. biggert, will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts. mr. lynch: thank you, madam speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to add any extraneous materials. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. lynch: thank you, madam speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lynch: madam speaker, on behalf of the committee on oversight and government reform and chairman ed towns, i'm

sessions of texas, amendment number 5 by mr. lynch of massachusetts, amendment number 6 by mr. murphy of new york, amendment number 7 by mr. frank of massachusetts, amendment number 8 by mr. stupak of michigan, amendment number 9 by mr. stupak of michigan. the chair will reduce to five minutes the times for any electronic vote after the first vote in this series. the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number 1 as modified printed in house report 111-370 offered by the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. frank, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the ace prevailed by voice vote -- ayes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 1 printed in house report 111-370 offered by mr. frank of massachusetts as modified. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a 15-minute vot

kucinich: i yield three minutes to the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch.he speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. lynch: i thank the gentleman. i also come here with enormous respect for mr. berman, ms. ros-lehtinen, my friends, and if i thought for one minute that this bill would help the united states or protect israel or undermine mr. ahmadinejad i would support it. but i do not. and i do however take great comfort in the chairman's and the chief sponsor's earlier comments that in the conference process that he is open and willing to adjust the bill and perhaps if these adjustments and improvements are made i can support it at that time. but i am faced with the bill before me and let me just say that i think that this bill will help ahmadinejad, that this will have the same effect that we have seen as embargos and other sanctions. i point to a couple of examples. one being the example in cuba where we put in an embargo there and ever since then the castro regime has been able to blame everything that has gone wrong in c

kucinich: i yield three minutes to the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. lynch: i thank the gentleman. i also come here with enormous respect for mr. berman, ms. ros-lehtinen, my friends, and if i thought for one minute that this bill would help the united states or protect israel or undermine mr. ahmadinejad i would support it. but i do not. and i do however take great comfort in the chairman's and the chief sponsor's earlier comments that in the conference process that he is open and willing to adjust the bill and perhaps if these adjustments and improvements are made i can support it at that time. but i am faced with the bill before me and let me just say that i think that this bill will help ahmadinejad, that this will have the same effect that we have seen as embargos and other sanctions. i point to a couple of examples. one being the example in cuba where we put in an embargo there and ever since then the castro regime has been able to blame everything that has gone wrong in

the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch to suspend the rules and aee to house resolution 727 as amended on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 727, resolution supporting the goals and ideals of national ovarian cancer awareness month. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and agree to the resolution a-- as amended. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 382, the nays are zero. 2/3 being in the affirmative -- the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 385, the nays are zero. 2/3 being in the affirmative, the

the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3951 on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 3951, a bill to designate the facility of the united states postal service located at 2000 louisiana avenue in new orleans, louisiana, as the roy rondeno sr. post office building. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 417, the nays are one. 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the

mr. bernanke and paulsen were negotiating with merrill lynch and bank of america and sort of came to an agreement, yet they didn't disclose this, didn't want to put it in writing the transactions that were about to embark on here and about to approve and had been working with. and my understanding is that at once they did that, that would have been a discloseable event that the s.e.c. would have been able to come in to and be a part of and have some oversight over. is this a -- what is your opinion of this transaction, how it all happened and this unwillingness to put this in writing? >> well, congressman, what the law -- what the securities law require is that if that understanding had solidified to a material contract, then it would have been required to have been disclosed under what is known as form a case. bank of america would have had to make a disclosure if it rose to the level of an enforceable contract. and, you know, that's -- >> but isn't this skirting the law? by them saying we're going to have a little wink and nod agreement here and let's don't put this in writing, let's have a gen

mr. bernanke and paulsen were negotiating with merrill lynch and bank of america and sort of came to an agreement, yet they didn't disclose this, didn't want to put it in writing the transactions that were about to embark on here and about to approve and had been working with. and my understanding is that at once they did that, that would have been a discloseable event that the s.e.c. would have been able to come in to and be a part of and have some oversight over. is this a -- what is your opinion of this transaction, how it all happened and this unwillingness to put this in writing? >> well, congressman, what the law -- what the securities law require is that if that understanding had solidified to a material contract, then it would have been required to have been disclosed under what is known as form a case. bank of america would have had to make a disclosure if it rose to the level of an enforceable contract. and, you know, that's -- >> but isn't this skirting the law? by them saying we're going to have a little wink and nod agreement here and let's don't put this in writing, let's have a gen

mr. rice. members of the committee. on december 5, 2008 the shareholders of bank of america voted to approve a merger with merrill lynch.retary of treasury hank paulson initiating a process that led to addses 20 billion bailout of the merge are and a promise of government insurance for losses up to $118 billion. the chronology of events strained belief. was it true that the financial situation at merrill lynch shifted so dramatically in that short amount of time as ken lewis said? or did top management know or should they have known about the deteriorating situation at merrill lynch much earlier? did they fail to make necessary disclosures to shareholders? bank of america would be in legal jeopardy if it failed to disclose information to shareholders about large losses at merrill lynch known or knowable before the shareholder vote bp the subcommittee investigation found evidence of possible security laws violations at bank of america. bank of america unreasonably and negligently relied on internal fourth quarter '08 forecast created by merrill lynch that omitted any forecast of how the cdo, cds and other toxic assets wo

mr. rice. members of the committee. on december 5, 2008 the shareholders of bank of america voted to approve a merger with merrill lynch.nly 12 days later ken lewis, ceo of bank of america, made a call to then secretary of treasury hank paulson initiating a process that led to addses 20 billion bailout of the merge are and a promise of government insurance for losses up to $118 billion. the chronology of events strained belief. was it true that the financial situation at merrill lynch shifted so dramatically in that short amount of time as ken lewis said? or did top management know or should they have known about the deteriorating situation at merrill lynch much earlier? did they fail to make necessary disclosures to shareholders? bank of america would be in legal jeopardy if it failed to disclose information to shareholders about large losses at merrill lynch known or knowable before the shareholder vote bp the subcommittee investigation found evidence of possible security laws violations at bank of america. bank of america unreasonably and negligently relied on internal fourth quarter '08 forecast created by merrill l