mr. menendez: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that i be recognized for four minutes in following my -- and following my four minutes, that the distinguished senator from iowa, ranking of the judiciary committee, be recognized for six minutes. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. menendez: thank you, mr. president. i rise to strongly support the nomination of judge michael shipp for the united states district court for the district of new jersey. all of us in new jersey, everyone who has dealt with him, everyone who knows him is very familiar with judge shipp's strong qualifications and reputation for excellence. he is an exceptional candidate for the federal bench, an accomplished jurist with impressive credentials. i recommended judge shipp to president obama and i urge all of my colleagues in the senate to support his nomination as the judiciary committee did. with almost five years experience as a federal magistrate judge for the district of new jersey, he is well

mr. menendez: mr. president, i ask the opportunity to enter into a colloquy with the majority leader, senator reid, and the distinguished chairman of the finance committee, senator baucus. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. menendez: mr. president, let me begin by clearly stating i understand the majority leader later today will issue a unanimous consent request to move forward on the african growth and opportunity act trade bill and the burma sanctions package twels cafta d.r. those are all efforts that i supported as a member of the finance committee, voted for and ultimately want to see passed. i believe that trade is an effective development tool and that by investing in people we can make a long-term and sustainable change in developing countries. but at the same time, mr. president, i'm very concerned about our failure to reauthorize the cotton and wool trust funds which are crucial to sustaining jobs in the united states and jobs in my state of new jersey. for the past -- well, for so

mr. menendez: madam president, i'm pleased to join my colleagues in speaking about the disclose act and why this is so critically important for our democracy. and i appreciate the leadership of several of our colleagues in this respect. for the last two years our democracy has been hijacked by powerful special interests, and tonight we have the opportunity to begin repairing the fabric of our nation's democracy before permanent damage is done. unfortunately, republicans decided not to put our democracy back on the right track. out there in this presidential election season, murky special interests are spending unlimited amounts of corporate money. it's possible even that foreign governments could determine it's in their interest to funnel vast amounts of money to influence american political elections. think about, madam president, a country that does currency manipulations, that violates trade agreements, that steals intellectual property rights. those of us who oppose those actions of countries who take those type of actions against the national economic interests of the united states cou

menendez. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you chairman bernanke for your service. i want to speak to you about the interest rate manipulations by large banks since the fed plays a key role in insuring the integrity of interest rates that affect consumers, small businesses and cities and towns across the country. you know, i look at these most recent set of allegations on the libor manipulation and once again it exposes to me a culture of greed, a culture of cheating, of lying, at least at one large bank and probably many more. which is why nine of my colleagues and i wrote to you and other banking regulators in the department of justice the last week asking for a robust investigation in the role of these banks and how this ultimately affected consumers in this country, investors in this country, cities in this country, because libor is a very -- it's far more than a benchmark. it's a very significant indicator here that's used. i know that the federal reserve bank of cleveland found that 45% of prime adjustable rate mortgages are indexed to libor, 0% of the subprim

menendez. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, chairman bernanke for your service. i want to speak about interest rate manipulations by large banks since the fed plays a key role in insuring the integrity of rates that affect small businesses, cities and towns across the country. i look at the most recent set of allegations on the libor manipulation and once again it exposes a culture of greed, cheating, lying, at least one large bank, and probably many more which is why nine of my colleagues and i wrote to you and the department of justice asking for a robust investigation in the role of these banks and how this alternately effected consumers in this country, investors in this country, cities in this country, because libor is far more than a benchmark. it is a significant indicator that is used. the federal reserve bank of cleveland found that 45% of prime adjustable mortgages are linked to libor. 80% of sub-prime use libor as a benchmark. this is a huge issue. it goes to the integrity of our financial system and the lack of faith that the american public and many

menendez. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, chairman bernanke for your service. i want to speak about interest rate manipulations by large banks since the fed plays a key role in insuring the integrity of rates that affect small businesses, cities and towns across the country. i look at the most recent set of allegations on the libor manipulation and once again it exposes a culture of greed, cheating, lying, at least one large bank, and probably many more which is why nine of my colleagues and i wrote to you and the department of justice asking for a robust investigation in the role of these banks and how this alternately effected consumers in this country, investors in this country, cities in this country, because libor is far more than a benchmark. it is a significant indicator that is used. the federal reserve bank of cleveland found that 45% of prime adjustable mortgages are linked to libor. 80% of sub-prime use libor as a benchmark. this is a huge issue. it goes to the integrity of our financial system and the lack of faith that the american public and many