mr. mchenry will control the balance of my time. >> thank you. mr. lewis, you've been with bank of america and its predecessor companies for how long? >> september would be 40 years. >> 40 years. how many mergers or acquisitions have you personally been involved with in your career? >> i would have to take a few moments and count them up, but obviously probably more than one, less than 10. >> okay, would this be the largest merger or acquisition that your company and the predecessor companies have taken? >> no, the nation's bank, bank of america acquisition would have been -- i would have to think back to the market caps and things, that would be the biggest and this would be one of biggest. >> in terms of how you analyzed these deals, do you have a process within your bank to analyzed appropriate growth measures and acquiring other institutions or merging with other institutions? >> we do. >> and did you conduct that same method with this merrill acquisition? >> we, we did. we used the same methodology. my time has expired and i have other questions

mr. mchenry's amendment will not be eligible to be debated, which is shameful. this is just one example of how the democrats' decision to completely close off the amendment process for this bill is ending up shutting out meaningful debate. the tactics employed yesterday in the dead of the night are completely against the promise of openes and integrity this body is supposed to stand for. i reserve my time. the chair: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from west virginia rise? mr. mollohan: i rise in opposition to the gentleman's amendment. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. mollohan: i want to assure the gentleman that the census bureau will not use sampling to the extent of apportionment. i want to extend that purpose. the supreme court has already ruled and will play no role in the apportionment. existing law prohibits apportionment. this amendment would prohibit the census bureau from completing important aspects of the census that are related to apportionment such as coverage measurem

mr. mchenry to introduce our witness. >> mr. mchenry. >> thank you, mr. chairman. today i have the privilege of introducing our witness whose company is head quartered in charlotte, north carolina, which my district is just to the west of, and as the only member of the committee from the carolinas, i think it's my duty and privilege to introduce our witness. >> kenneth d. lewis is currently the chief officer of bank of america, responsible for 55 million consumer and small business relationships and $1.7 trillion in total client assets. with various business and more than 150 countries and business relationships with 98% of u.s. for tune 500 companies, mr. lewis oversees one of the largest financial services corporations in the world. and is one of the largest institutions head quartered in north carolina. in fact, is the largest institution head quartered in nsk. born in 1947 plrks lose earned a bachelor's degree in finance from georgia state university and a graduate at sanford university. arriving at ntnb in 1969, he served more than 30 years within the bank and

mr. mchenry. >> thank you, mr. chairman. were there specific details that the federal reserve and treasury told you not to disclose to your shareholders? >> no, sir, neither secretary paulson nor the chairman of the federal reserv mr. bernanke, ever told me not to disclose something that we thought should be publicly disclosed. >> okay. mr. kucinich referenced e-mails and i wanted to get on the record, have you seen -- have you seen the e-mails before today? >> no. >> and i want to make sure we got inthat on the record, mr. chairman, with all due respect to you. as i asked earlier, you've been involved in a number of merger and acquisitions, your institution has been involved in dozens upon dozens over your career with the bank. to your knowledge have there been material adverse change clauses included in previous deals of this sort? >> virtually every acquisition would involve some material adverse change clause and not totally uncommon to have them invoked. >> has your institution invoked this clause before? >> yes, sir, w

mr. mchenry made a comment in its introduction to you that bank of america has business relations with 98% of the fortune 500 companies. what i want to know, what are the ten companies that aren't doing business with them? >> i don't know but it's a very interesting question. >> get home and check that. >> mr. lewis, in some regard, we have important questions that we're trying to resolve with reforming regulatory authority in the united states, so to that extent, these hearings are helpful. but i don't hear anything thus far, either by my colleagues or yourself in responding that there was some perceived threat or abuse of action on the part of federal regulators. i'll ask you directly. do you think mr. bernanke or anyone working under the federal reserve chairman took unauthorized illegal or improper action toward you or the bank of america during these trying times? >> i do not. i would say they strongly advised and they spoke in strong terms but i thought it was with good intention. >> if i had to characterize in a i was thinking if the titanic were going down and some of us were in th

mr. mchenry's questions, that it is hard to see for your participation and did and where paulson's began and i tiki to your own statement. one of the first things to say in your background is, bankamerica announced an agreement. i did not play role in arranging this transaction in the federal reserve assistance was promised are provided in connection with that agreement. is that accurate, yes or no? >> yes. >> albright. then you go want to talk about all the things it did do. i am confused. let's talk about this whole situation with one of the things you did. this is your statement. it says, responding to the bank of america in the discussion, i, talking about yourself, expressed concern in invoking the mac would until significant risk and then you go on to talk about that. we had mr. allyssa testified before us that he has been an experienced guy in this whole banking stuff for many years. he took this mac situation very seriously and then paulson comes along and you come along, and your own testimony and you say you know, i don't think that you are right on this. but basically it sound

mr. chairman. >> congressman mchenry from north carolina. >> chairman bernanke, thank you for your testimony. i know this is certainly not easy to recall what happened in this very busy days in the fall, and you've certainly had a very challenging ten year with the federal reserve. it did not come in at easy the thank you for your service to your country. and, during your testimony in front of financial services, which i am on, in your numerous comments, he worked very closely in the fall with the former secretary of the treasury, mr. paulson. is that correct? >> that is correct. >> some testimony, some comments it is almost daily or hour by hour conversations throughout the fall with your counterparts there. >> daily, certainly. >> and, with the then new york fed head, tim geithner, you also had significant involvement with him on a very regular basis. it is that true? >> that is correct. >> so, the combination of the two in context of this event, this controversy that we are analyzing today, did you have conversations with those two about bank of america? >> i had conversations with secreta