mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that my intern rachel travis be permitted on the floor for the balance of this pending legislation. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. pherpl pherpl thank you. i rise -- america america i rise to -- mr. merkley: i rise to address the obama-boehner debt deal and it is an issue i have been immersed in, wrestling to understand the impact on unemployment, the impact on investments that will strengthen our nation down the road. certainly the impact on programs that strengthen our families. and it is in that context, trying to understand how do we build the strongest possible nation for working families, how do we do that. and is this obama-boehner debt deal the right path? and i must conclude that it is not the right path. and i conclude that for four reasons. the first is the impact on jobs. we are facing a gathering storm on the job front. we have five million to eight million additional foreclosures that are suppressing success of ou

mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that my intern rachel travis be permitted on the floor for the balance of this pending legislation. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. pherpl pherpl thank you. i rise -- america america i rise to -- mr. merkley: i rise to address the obama-boehner debt deal and it is an issue i have been immersed in, wrestling to understand the impact on unemployment, the impact on investments that will strengthen our nation down the road. certainly the impact on programs that strengthen our families. and it is in that context, trying to understand how do we build the strongest possible nation for working families, how do we do that. and is this obama-boehner debt deal the right path? and i must conclude that it is not the right path. and i conclude that for four reasons. the first is the impact on jobs. we are facing a gathering storm on the job front. we have five million to eight million additional foreclosures that are suppressing success of ou

mr. merkley? >> thank you mr. sure. i was interested in oregon that we have an exemption from any company that applied and said it's just not feasible to provide privacy and flexibility in the great time in the setting, and so we assume a number of companies would to get vantage of that situation, and what actually transpired was not a single organ company has asked for that exemption. some have exported and basically tried to understand what is required of them and how can they make it fit and they've gotten advice on how other companies have tackled it, and i think it really is a testament to the fact that when people pause, they realize what profound value it is for the women to be able to express milk. there is no substitute for it, for the child, and it is not only good for the child's health, it's tremendous for the mother's health. we had testimony in this very committee from dr. colburn, who said when i first introduced the amendment, senator merkley hadn't begun to say ought i's and adjust to it. so i think it

mr. chairman? >> senator merkley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. in 2009, expanded by creating more protocols for interaction with the public. a couple months ago in june, ms. miller, you posted public testimony on the rate increase. it was the first public testimony on rate increases in 10 years. were you required to do that by law or was this an interesting experiment? >> this was the first time in 20 years that we conducted a public hearing on a rate filing. this was the first public hearing. we were not required by law to do that. >> you were skeptical about how that would unfolds. wasn't unable? -- you were skeptical about how that would unfold. was its valuable? -- it valuable? i heard from consumers that they so appreciated the opportunity to be heard and testify and have their opinions listened we also -- the way we structured the hearing, i asked the company about 10 questions then we had the consumer advocacy group ask questions and people left comment cards that said things like i have a lot more confidence in the work the otheror insura

mr. president. some of the senator from oregon is recognized.he >> i ask consent that might be a lot of privileges to the floor for the balance of the pending u legislation. >> without objection, so ordered.mr merkley: >> mr. president, i rise to address the obama boehner debtni deal, and i must say it is an to issue that i have just beenr nao immersed in rustling tohe the impact on investment that will strengthen the nation downn the road.xt, certainly the impact on programs that strengthen our families. and it is in that context to try to understand how do we buildhis the strongest possible nation oa forma working families.h? how do we do that?ath. and as this debt deal the right path? and i must conclude that it is th not the right path, and i conclude that for four reasons. the first is the impact on jobse we are facing a gathering storms on the job front.th of we have five to 8 million h additional foreclosures that art suppressing the market and driving down the value of house, and having a devastating impact on the beattempt of recovery.hat second, the unemployment benefits, the extendedill unemployment benefits expire duction of this year, aro and the rough estimate is that that will blo re

mr. o'sullivan's union and others who we will not have worked for if the federal program is not maintained at current levels. >> senator merkley. >> yes? >> the number that i mentioned earlier was with a 36% cut about a 630,000 job loss to our agency alone, the l.a. county metropolitan transit authority. about 1.4 billion. so it is a very, very sizable impact on the job market, but also on our ability to fund important projects. >> senator, a lot of talk and a lot of discussion rightly so on the current job situation in america in all of our states. and in that is certainly an area that we look at in the short term, especially for the creation or sustaining jobs in the construction market. but to me, the idea of investing in ourselves and investing in the infrastructure establishes much more than that. expotentially more than that. if we think about the investment that our nation put into the interstate system, and where we are at today with the economy, and where we would be without it. i think that rebuilding our system, our national system if you will, to get it to back to where we were, or better than where we were 20 year