mr. nelson. in a recent paper, it was estimated dead ducks cpp program along with the temporary liquidity guarantee program increased the value of the programs with $40 billion represented an indirect tax subsidies to banks. it seems clear that many of the programs implemented by the federal reserve, including the purchase of mortgage-backed securities, also provided significant financial assistance to banks. you think the assistance from these other programs and other agencies enables large banks to repay their t.a.r.p. funds more quickly? i know these efforts were coordinated between treasury, the fed, and the fdic. was there some discussion about this, and if so do you think these other programs allowed some of the costs of t.a.r.p. to be shifted to what i would call less-scrutinize programs? you have any thoughts on that. -- on that? >> the federal reserve responds could be brought -- divided up into two categories -- one would be the liquidity through a discount window. those facilities were

mr. nelson: mr. president, i ask consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: mr. president, i ask consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: mr. president, you heard a lot of talk about with the trouble in the middle east. people are saying that oil prices are going up, and, therefore, the pain at the gas pump is being felt because there is this shakiness on the oil markets. now you hear the commentary, we ought to be solving this problem by drilling more in the u.s. and, of course, in essence what people are talking about is they want to drill more in the gulf of mexico. of course there's plenty of opportunity to drill in the gulf of mexico. there are 30 million acres that are already under lease that have not been drilled. there are 7 million acres that are being drilled under lease. but there's an additional 30 million acres in the gulf of mexico under lease. and so there's plenty of opportunity. so there's a lot more opportunity for domestic drillin

mr. nelson: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator nebraska. mr. nelson: mr. president, i rise today to speak on the amendment that i've just submitted to the desk dealing with cutting the senate budget by at least 5%. you know, mr. president, when i go home every weekend and i'm at the grocery store or i'mality a hardware -- or i'm at a hardware store, i have people coming to me saying they're concerned about the growing deficit, the increasing debt. and they're asking what can congress do, what can the senate do specifically to avoid having this unsustainable growth and debt and deficit. they're concerned. in many respects, the growth of that debt is the most threatening thing to the national security of this country. mr. inhofe: would the senator from nebraska yield? for a question. i ask the senator from nebraska, the minority leader has just introduced an amendment that is pending right now. and i was going to speak on that amendment rather than go to another one. would you yield for just about -- oh, three or four minutes so i could at least weigh in on

mr. nelson. in a recent paper, it was estimated dead ducks cpp program along with the temporary liquidity guarantee program increased the value of the programs with $40 billion represented an indirect tax subsidies to banks. it seems clear that many of the programs implemented by the federal reserve, including the purchase of mortgage-backed securities, also provided significant financial assistance to banks. you think the assistance from these other programs and other agencies enables large banks to repay their t.a.r.p. funds more quickly? i know these efforts were coordinated between treasury, the fed, and the fdic. was there some discussion about this, and if so do you think these other programs allowed some of the costs of t.a.r.p. to be shifted to what i would call less-scrutinize programs? you have any thoughts on tt. -- on that? >> the federal reserve responds could be brought -- divided up into two categories -- one would be the liquidity through a discount window. those facilities were i

mr. nelson. mr. nelson: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. lson: i rise to speak on my amendment proposing a sense of the senate agreement to cut the senate's budget by at least 5%. when i go home every weekend, people come up to me at the grocery store, hardware store and elsewhere, and they tell me they are concerned about our national debt and deficit. they want washington to cut spending and bring down the cloud of debt that hangs over our economic environment. as chairman of the senate appropriations legislative branch subcommittee, i have been pursuing a 5% cut in this year's budget for congress and agencies and offices on capitol hill. we can cut -- we cut this budget a year ago, we're cutting it this year, and we'll be back for further cuts next year. my amendment says that as congress pursues comprehensive debt reduction while conducting major military action on two fronts all in the midst of a fragile economic recovery, congress still shouldn't be exempt from the pain. fiscal restraint starts at home and with our own budget. thank yo

mr. nelson: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: madam president, i ask consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: madam president, i ask to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. madam president, you remember a year ago before we passed the health care bill that everybody testified that medicare was set to go into bankruptcy in seven years and you remember back then, just a year ago, medicare paid doctors when seniors got sick and medicare was focused on the quantity of care instead of the quality of care? and back then, medicare paid hospitals more if a patient got an infection that could have been avoided in the hospital and they paid hospitals less if they avoided that infection in the first place because medicare, whatever the cost was, medicare paid it. and remember back then that doctors would perform the same test over and over again for the same patient because they hadn't been encouraged in a law to work together and to share resu

mr. nelson: mr. president, i ask to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. nelson: mr. president, i want to talk about our anything's financial troubles. over the years, i have supported a balanced budget, i have supported amendments that did that, i have supported spending caps and spending cuts. and recently, we had an issue here on a proposal to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. i voted against it because i felt like we needed to do more than what that amendment proposed. the fact is, we need to do much more. i agree that congress should cut expenses, but, mr. president, taking whacks at only 12% of the budget, that part of the budget that is the so-called discretionary spending, which is outside of defense, that is not part of the mandatory spending, such as all of the entitlement programs -- and that's only 12% of the budget, and it includes funding for education and roads and bridges and medical research and nasa and environmental research -- even if you whacked all of th

mr. nelson: i thank the senator for his erudite analysis. mr. schumer: and i thank my colleague for the erudite question and yield the floor. mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business for 20 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. whitehouse: thank you so much. madam president, abraham lincoln began his famous house divided speech with simple homespun advice, that we should first -- and i quote -- "know where we are and wither we are tending before we judge what to do and how to do it. we are embarked on a journey of great consequence regarding what to do about our nation's budget and how to do it. this is a vital conversation. we simply must reduce our annual federal deficits and our nation's debt. but it would seem wise at this important time to take president lincoln's advice and examine where we are and wither we are tending, as we go about making these decisions. so i will touch on a

mr. nelson: i rise to speak about the two budget bills that we'll be voting on that purport to cut spending in washington. i appreciate the comments of my good friend from missouri, senator mccaskill, in pointing out many of the shortcomings of the two pieces of legislation. i'm here to deliver a eulogy. both bills are dead and they deserve to be dead. one bill cuts too little. the other bill has too much hate. neither one is serious. most important, neither will pass and they shouldn't pass because their unfair. they're not in the best interest of nebraskans and taxpayers across our cufnlt the only thing they're serious about is guarantee shutting down the government. nebraskans want serious spending cuts but these bills are loaded up with tricks, treats, gimmicks and games sms on one side we see a bill that simply cuts too little. now it purports to cut spending by $50 billion, but when you push through the thicket of gimmicks, it actually only cuts about $6 obama. about $6 billion. a cust about a half a percent just isn't enough. it won't get ru runaway governmt spending under control no

sergeant nelson says if anybody has seen mr. cessna, call any law enforcement agency.hey would all like to bring him back to sant anita jail. >> officers arrested seven people who refused to leave a campus building during protests about education budget cuts. >> shame on you! >> you see some of the arrests there. the takeover at wheeler hall was not violent. the berkeley protest was part of a statewide ban action of schools across california. it came as washington and sacramento threatened to cut grands and other aid to help students pay for their higher education. >> a grim picture of a possible police coverup at a san francisco hotel known for drug dealing. george gascon says his office will investigate but it could jeopardize drug cases citywide again. leslie brinkley has the story. >> taken in december and january on the 5th floor of the henry hotel, this surveillance video shows undercover officers in a hallway following up on a drug tip. public defender says in one instance the officers ended a unit without first getting consents. in another as you see here, some

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator nelson.ust your comment about maiden voyage for these metrics, double-check with your staff on that, because these metrics have been reviewed by us, presented to us for many, many months in a different form, but it has been a long battle and senator nelson has been in the lead in terms of metrics but we have seen these numbers and battled over the numbers for the last year. >> and we have the chairman levin metrics as well. these are a little bit different, but -- >> in a much more readable form, i'll say that. >> point well taken, sir. >> senator collins. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me echo my colleagues in thanking you both for your service. general petraeus, you've answered the call to duty over and over again and we are extraordinarily grateful for that. nevertheless, i do have some difficult questions that i want to ask you today. madam secretary, in your testimony you spoke of our goal as achieving a "durable outcome." admiral mullen has testified that one of the necessary condition

nelson. >> thank you, mr. chairman. the problem is that if we try to do these things one at a time, we will not get it done. you have to take that comprehensive approach. i do not know how bad it has to get before we can get everybody to the point of being all willing to pull up and hit you -- and hitched up their belts to do a comprehensive approach. you mention the six things, six major components. one of them was health-care cost containment. you know, why should medicare be paying the premium price for drugs instead of the discounts that the u.s. government gets in the drugs for medicaid? we know why. why is there will to payments that are not being paid for the extraction of oil from the gulf of mexico? that is a tax expenditure. we know why. so if you try to take individually items on, you're not going to be able to get -- you're going to get beat because the powerful interests are there that can always beat you on an individual basis. so now i want to ask a question. you all have put social security as part of th

nelson. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and also, let me add my appreciation, admiral olson, for your service and and best wishes for your future. the international military education training, imet, is a very important part of what i would hope to be our outrage to the world. in a way that makes good sense i've had military officials from egypt and my office before who have been here getting the imet training. and i've been impressed with their appreciation and their understanding of what kind of military, of what military should do in connection with government. my question would be, you think that the difference between the way the military has behaved in libya, and the military behaved in egypt is at least in part due to their imet training? >> i think there's no doubt it is contributed, sir. each nation has its own history, its own culture, but i think the ethical performance by the egyptian military was impacted by their time spent in our schools over these last decade. >> and the same would be true in the case of tun

mr. sanchez. it's showing it very clear, we do the site permit submitted on the 2006 and because they have three planner changes. the first one, we view it as jesse nelson and then they changed it to somebody else and then later on they sent to it somebody else. i have a meeting particularly with the grand planning department last year because i wanted to find out the status. what's happened? why did it take so long? they told me they didn't have a plan. i said no, i have a record. this is on their city commuter. they received our plan but they lost it. they didn't even ask us to redo the conditional use. but that's not fair because we do all the processes -- processing. if they have no comment they should submit it to the building department. why are they holding it so long and then finally they sent us a letter -- commissioner fung: ms. tong, you need to answer the following question. why did you wait four to five years? >> actually, because we have a lot of projects that are ongoing. that's while when we file, they already take so long to do the commission and then we changed our -- a few times already. the first architectural project for us was out

nevada, inouye, nelson ofa, florida, white house, conrad, c the kimmage, yuval of mexico, h, in, menendez, casey, shaheen, klobuchar, carns, boxer, franken, feinstein and bingaman. >> mr. president i ask consent demand for a quorum under the ak rule 20 to be waived.nder >> without objection. the presid m i now withdraw my motion andw proceed. >> the center has that right.hen >> mr. president? when an american sits in theurch kitchen after table and sorts fs through their finances as they oftenen do, partisan politics don't figure into the equation. when the families we represent calculate their own budgets, when they add up the cost of gas and groceries, tuition in some instances, and other b necessities, they care more about the bottom lines and the l news headlines. and when a family was desperately counts the dwindlinf number of weeks before the sun and plymouth insurance runs oute that family doesn't have time to the most political points durink any given week.sc that's because when you have toc make the tough decisions that go into any budget those decisions have to be practical, not political.practical, not they have to be realistic, notlr ideological.gues t se

i'll tell you who they are: casey, manchin, tester, nelson of nebraska, bennet, warner, menendez, stabenow, merkley, rockefeller and you, mr. president. sherrod brown of ohio. we're willing to say if there is no budget deal, we shouldn't get paid. and i don't know whether the american people understand this, but if they did, you know, i think they would really be very upset because we have a special statute that protects our pay.o. to my north the people who work -- to my knowledge, the people who work here are not protected. members of congress and the president are protected in the case of a shutdown. there is a special statute. they get paid. and all we're saying is, that's wrong. if this government shuts down, that's wrong. or if we fail to raise the debt ceiling and we start not making our payments and defaulting and america goes into a cycle that we've never seen before, we don't deserve a penney of pay. -- a penny of pay. and, bi by the way, our bill sa, no retroactivity either. the american people have a right to expect us to work. social security checks must continue to arrive. veterans must receive their benefits

mr. reid: senators should expect the first votes of the day to begin about 10:30 in the morning in relation to the nelson of nebraska and the snowe-landrieu-coburn amendment. additional roll call votes are expected to occur throughout the day. under a previous order, senator blumenthal will be recognized at 12:00 noon for up to 20 minutes in order to deliver his maiden speech. if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until >> earlier today, indiana senator, dan coates diverred his first speech to the senate floor talking about the u.s. economy and budget cuts. this is 25 minutes. >> mr. president, returning to the senate is like in many ways having a chance to relive a part of your life, and yet doing so with a benefit of experience, the experience i gained in serving in this body before and also service from the private sector, and it allows you to see things differently than you saw them before, and while i've discussed with my colleagues what is the same here in

of nevada, inouye, nelson of florida, white a package coming udall off new mexico, hagan, menendez, casey, shaheen, klobuchar, carvin, boxer, franken, feinstein and bingaman.en, >> mresident, i ask unanimous consent of the quoruma under the rule 20 to be waived. >> i now withdraw my motion to mrreid: proceed. de the senator has that right.ri >> mr. president, when an american family sits in the tabe kitchen at the table and sorts s through their finances as they , often do, partisan politics pols don't fit into the equation. fas when the families we represent calculate their own budgets, they have the cost of gas and groceries, tuition in some r instances and other necessitiest they care more t about the bottm lines and the news headlines. da when a family dispute recountsng the dwindling number of weeks before its the unemploymentks insurance runs out, the familynt doesn't have time to keep track of which side scored the most political points during anyho given week. that's because when you have tol make the tough decisions to go into any budget, those decisions have to be practical, not political. the have to be realistic, not ideological. ha often tell ourselves

follows, reid of nevada, inouye, nelson of florida, whitehouse, conrad, begich, udall of new mexico, casey, shaheen, klobuchar, cardin, boxer, franken, feinstein and bingeham. mr. reid: i ask that the mandatory quorum call under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i now withdraw my potion to -- my motion to proceed. the presiding officer: the senator has that right. mr. reid: mr. president, when an american family sits in the churchillen at their table and sorts through their finances, as they often do, partisan politics don't figure into that equation. when the families we represent calculate their own budgets when they add up the cost of gas and groceries, tuition in some instances, and other necessities, they care more about the bottomlines than news headlines. when a family desperately counts the dwindling number of weeks when the unemployment insurance runs out, that family doesn't have time to keep track of who scored the political points. when you have to make the tough decisions going into any budget those decisions have to be practical, not political. we often tell ourselves and our colleagues that we should be as re

follows, reid of nevada, inouye, nelson of florida, whitehouse, conrad, begich, udall of new mexico, casey, shaheen, klobuchar, cardin, boxer, franken, feinstein and bingeham. mr. reid: i ask that the mandatory quoru call under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i now withdraw my potion to -- my motion to proceed. the presiding officer: the senator has that right. mr. reid: mr. president, when an american family sits in the churchillen at their table and sorts through their finances, as they often do, partisan polits don't figure into that equation. when the families we represent calculate their own budgets when they add up the cost of gas and groceries, tuition in some instances, and other necessits, they care more about the bottomlines than news headlines. when a family desperately counts the dwindling number of weeks when the unemployment insurance runs out, that famil doesn't have time to keep track of who scored the political points. when you have to make the tough decisions going into any budget those decisions have to be practical, not political. we often tell ourselves and our colleagues that we should be as responsi

mr. nelson: mr. president, i ask to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. nelson: mr. president, i want to talk about our anything's financial troubles. over the years, i have supported a balanced budget, i have supported amendments that did that, i have supported spending caps and spending cuts. and recently, we had an issue here on a proposal to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. i voted against it because i felt like we needed to do more than what that amendment proposed. the fact is, we need to do much more. i agree that congress should cut expenses, but, mr. president, taking whacks at only 12% of the budget, that part of the budget that is the so-called discretionary spending, which is outside of defense, that is not part of the mandatory spending, such as all of the entitlement programs -- and that's only 12% of the budget, and it includes funding for education and roads and bridges and medical research and nasa and environmental research -- even if you whacked all of th