mr. merkley: thank you. mr. president, i have come to the floor to talk about the homeowners flood insurance affordability act. this bill is a bill that is designed to fix the damage that has been done by the biggert-waters act, and this damage is extensive. this bill would freeze dramatic rate hikes, and these rate hikes have several impacts. we have, of course, the impact on families that currently have flood insurance that will be paying much higher levels than they bargained for when they bought their home and may not be able to afford those much higher levels, raising questions about their ability to stay in those homes. we have the impact on commercial enterprises and the fact that now that they are paying higher rates, they may not feel that they can add onto their business in that location. and then we have the impact, of course, on selling your property, whether you are a homeowner or you are a business because the folks who might be buying might have to jump to a full rate that would be many times in s

mr. merkley: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: madam president, in a moment i will ask unanimous consent to withdraw this amendment of i think there is a better way to tackle this particular issue, but i'm going to use this moment to note for my colleagues that i appreciate all the senators who have come to me to say they share the outrage at the exploitative pricing of insurance on our home owns. this drives homeowners into foreclosure, which is not good for the ohm owners, communities or the u.s. government because we ensure the vast bulk of these mortgages. therefore, if you're going to be responsible from an accounting sense for the investment of the u.s. taxpayer -- the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mr. merkley: -- this needs to be addressed. so, madam president, i ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment 2709, as modified. the presiding officer: without objection. the amendment is withdrawn. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: very brie

mr. merkley, proposes amendment numbered 2709 as modified. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. i think i will take this occasion to just make a couple of remarks about the content of this amendment. this amendment is about a predatory practice that is involved in the flood insurance world, and that predatory practice is that when a servicer of mortgages places insurance, flood insurance on a property, be it a home or be it a business, they sometimes arrange a very expensive policy to be placed on the property, and the reason they do this is that the insurer, the insurance company that has prepared the policy, is charging many times the market rate, but in exchange they pay the servicer a large bonus. now, we can remember how bonuses in the subprime world were used to steer families from prime mortgages into subprime mortgages. in this case, the bonus is being paid to the servicer so the servicer will steer the family into an expensive insurance policy rather than a fair market rate policy. my amendment just takes a very simple approach and says that these bonus payments or ince

mr. merkley: thank you, mr. chair. this is an example of the cigarettes -- or cigarillos my colleagues were talking about. this one is flavored apple and this one is flavored sweet cherry. and how about this one that's strawberry. these products are all about addicting our children. and here is the long and short of it. in 2009 this chamber and the house signed a bill that gave the f.d.a. the power to regulate these products. the president signed that bill, and since then the f.d.a., the food and drug administration, has done nothing to utilize that power to regulate these addictive products that are going to destroy the health of our children in the years to come. finally, from june of 2009 until october of last year, so more than four years, they finally sent a draft deeming regulation to g.a.o., general accounting office and there it sits. so to summarize, let us not accept inaction by the f.d.a.. let us not accept inaction by the g.a.o.. let's have the courage that the surgeon general had 50 years ago to take on da

mr. merkley: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i'm going to speak briefly. my colleague across the aisle has noted that he'd like to speak next. but i'd like to take a moment and talk about what has been unfolding here on capitol hill with the house and the senate, with the republican caucus, with the democratic caucus working together to produce an appropriations bill, a spending bill, a bill we refer to here as an omnibus, meepg tha meaning tt covers all 12 sections that are normally allocated within the appropriationappropriations or d bill. i'm a new member of the appropriations committee, and this is the first time that i can stand here and feel like i've gone through a process that's something similar to what our colleagues have done in a bipartisan way over many generations, but that bipartisan collaboration has been sorely missing in the time since i first came to the senate, and i'm glad to see this particular moment it is a ray of hope that perhaps we can restore a rational budgeting and spending bill process to

mr. merkley: thank you, madam president. i want to make a few very brief comments and the first is this: in the budget agreement that was hammered out right before we left for the holidays, a provision was inserted by congressman ryan that changed the cola details for our veterans. this provision is an outrageous provision. it's changing the retirement deal in the middle of a person's service or for many of our veterans, even after they have retired. between the time they've retired and the time they reach age 6

mr. merkley: thank you, madam president. i want to make a few very brief comments and the first is this: in the budget agreement that was hammered out right before we left for the holidays, a provision was inserted by congressman ryan that changed the cola details for our veterans. this provision is an outrageous provision. it's changing the retirement deal in the middle of a person's service or for many of our veterans, even after they have retired. between the time they've retired and the time they reach age 62. in these coming days of this week i hope this body can come together and reverse this provision which unfairly changes the terms of retirement for our veterans. our veterans have stood up for us as a nation when they're overseas and we must stand up for them here at home. the second, madam president, i want to express hope in the bipartisan spirit that just led to an agreement to debate the bill regarding restoring emergency unemployment. i've had eight town halls over the weekend and i can tell you that it strikes

mr. chairman. >> senator merkley. >> thank you, mr. chair and thank you, dr. yellen. i don't believe any nominee for this position has come with such an extensive set of qualifications and fascinating to read the diversity of your writings over the last four decades. i wanted to give a special welcome to carla chambers, who represented oregon very well on the board of directors of the federal reserve bank of san francisco. a number of issues have arisen in the international banking community just sit the melt down in 2008, including libor rate manipulation, energy market manipulation, the "london whale,", massive issues related to money laundering, robo-signing fraud on foreclosure documents. the fed plays an important role in regulation and supervision. can the fed under your leadership help restore faith in our regulatory system? >> senator, i feel that is an exceptionally important goal and one i'm happy to espouse and work toward. i absolutely feel that's essential and appropriate, yes. >> thank you very much. and as a second i wanted to ask you to address the rul