mr. pierce. if these rents are raised to the extent that myself and other persons who might be able to just nominally afford this wonderful recreational opportunity, we have to move and other people come in to pay these much higher prices, there will be a much different social circumstance in that harbour. the yacht club has worked for years to develop a social atmosphere that serves the neighborhood. i have not sat on any committee since 1999. and then i was given a very nice platform services. i am sorry to say that i do not know as many of the issues we are currently involved in. i feel very strongly about my neighborhood in our privileges in the harbor. certainly, we all agree, as far as i know, that things need to change. i hope that they can change reasonably to serve the interests and citizens of san francisco. and that we will not be left out of the deal. thanks for letting me make a comment. i apologize for not getting in there earlier. >> no problem. any other public comment? seeing no

mr. pierce for one minute. >> thank you for your consideration. mr. chairman, thank you for your service. i'm looking at page four where you talk of a great risks to us financially. i assume that is because of the size and underfunding of the banks. when i look at that size, i consider the pension systems. yesterday, the california pension system said they only got a 1% rate of return. the projection to be solvent is near 7.75%. they have a $500 billion shortfall just on the teachers and that of the smaller of the two. i c-span talk about this. spain is only $1 trillion exposure. can you tell us what the risk is associate with unfunded pensions? >> low interest rates put stress on fan -- pension funds and life insurance companies for the reasons you described. i think our goal basically is to get the ecomy strong enough that returns will rise and things will normalize overtime. pension funds cannot be underfunded forever. if the economy strengthens and goes back to more normal levels, these underfunding problems will not disappear, of course, but ther

rescue efforts are underway the recovery efforts as well emergency personnel are so if indeed mr mr pierce called if indeed there is another round of rains or possible another part two of a deluge hopefully they'll be ready for this time piers corbyn founder of the weather action foundation joining us live from london thank you for coming on the program today thank you. but meantime artie's denise polaski he will join to some of the rescue teams in the desperate search for survivors the devastation had this report to contribute we were told that emergency ministry units just got a call from this neighborhood. people heard loud screaming during the floods and actually right now emergency ministry group with search dogs there trying to find survivors. as you can see right over there. rescue teams always do a thorough examination of every meter of the debris site and may still be oxygen under the debris so there is hope that they could still be survivors trapped underneath. them sadly emergency workers did not find any survivors this time but they went on with their work we spoke to the coupl

mr. pierce for one minute? >> thank the gentleman for his consideration. mr. chairman, thank you for your service. i'm looking at page four where you talk about the great risk, and i assume that is because of the size and the underfunding but when i look at that i consider the pension systems and just yesterday the california pension system said the only got 1% rate of return. their protection in order to be solvent is on the borders the beat justin at one system the 500 billion-dollar shortfall now just on the teachers and then that is the smaller of the two nationwide may be 3 trillion-dollar shortfall. i didn't see that, but i do see that spain talked about it and yet spain is only 1 trillion exposure. could you kind of tell us what the risk is associated with the unfunded pension? >> so the lower interest rates do put stress on the life insurance companies for the reasons the you just describe. i think that our goal is to get the economy strong enough that the returns will rise and that things will normalize over time. obviously the pension funds can't be

mrs. paul r. pierce. he attended east rome high school and graduated from the university of georgia in 1977. after graduation, he developed his passion for theater through working as an actor, director, designer, and booking manager on a number of national touring productions, such as the american repertory theater, flat rock playhouse, and circuit 21 playhouse. following his time on tour, he accepted the position of associate artistic director at the american repertory theater under the guidance of mr. riley. who was not only his mentor but his friend. paul's adventures led him across the country when he accepted the position of managing director of virginia's wayside theater and then as artistic director of the harbor playhouse in corpus christi, texas. he was led back to georgia where he became the artistic director of the springer opera house in 1988. to say paul was passionate about his job is an understatement. he expanded the artistic mission of the springer opera house, and took his potential to n

mr. pierce for five minutes, gentleman from. >> thank you, mr. secretary for being here. as you respond to mr. maloney on the questions of separation of the investment banks from the community bankers would like to be included in that written response. i have to say that you have -- i'm impressed with your resume. dartmouth, john hopkins, department of the -- treasury. chairman of new york fed, not withstanding other gentlemen trying too make you a choir boy and these terrible bush appointees trying to overwhelm you. you have a strong resume and you have accomplished a lot. you recognize there are critics that said you didn't have enough experience when you went with the new york fed. critics who -- y'all said that -- i think the estimation was he marked with the bush administration to minimum nice the effects in 2008 and there are people who strongly questioned whether or not the actions actually did that or they didn't, and so we can accept the fact that there are discussions -- i don't know fancy policy. i'm just a congressman from. we don't have big banking institutio

mr. pierce for five minutes. >> thinks that armchair and mr. dante for your service. i guess as i'm looking at your account, and your reporting of the cftc is solely accountable for protecting the consumers of the financial products and services, i wonder, and you go into some of the failures, homeowners that couldn't understand or couldn't afford devotee to repay is a repeating a theme. so, i wonder if you -- if this efp has taken a close look at what led to those home owners not being able to repay, what caused that process that began to push the loans out of people. have you all done that? >> we work with the backdrop that has come before a delivery agencies and the researchers. thank you for raising. >> i think it's important to come back to what is we got here in the first place to the estimate i'm just asking have you studied that? >> it's relevant to the disconnected you have any authority over fannie and freddie? yes or no? >> yes or no? >> the gse don't of consumer relationships in general. >> but they actually according to -- i don't care if you've read the

pierce the military's heavy armor. >> pelley: the question becomes are the rebel mrs. unified than they used to be? >> reporter: talking to rebels on the ground it's clear there is still no centralized chain of command or coordination among the various groups one major concern is that because of that vacuum extremists are making their way into syria claiming to act on behalf of the opposition and already further muddy ago deeply complex situation. >> pelley: clarissa, thank you. in another bombing today, at least six people were killed in an attack on israeli tourist in bulgaria. it happened in the city of burr gus and in addition to the dead more than 30 were wounded. the israeli prime minister blamed iranian agents. senior correspondent john miller has been looking into this for us. john, what did you find out? >> reporter: well, scott, since suitcase bombs were found on an israeli tourist bus in bulgaria back in january israeli officials have warned tourists to be vigilant. today their fears were realized. the bomb tore apart its victims and ripped the roof a the bus. the israeli tourists had ju

mr. bernanke herd a different tune during his testimony. hampton piercere and has details. >> he wrapped up two days of congressional testimony fending of criticism to help aid the economic recovery and telling lawmakers the fed can only do so much. >> i don't think it's the case there has been no progress. we had in the last quarter of '08 and first quarter of '09, we had a collapse in the economy, the employment rate went about 10%. it's true that the recovery has been slower than we would have liked, but clearly we have made progress on unemployment and job creation. bernanke spent the last few days telling what congress plans to do to avoid going over the fiscal cliff. how that is adding to the slow down in the economy since the beginning of the year, and he says there is no breakthrough on the horizon as far as the european debt crisis is concerned. >> i don't think they're close to having a long term solution that will solve the problem. until they find those long-term solutions, we will continue to see periods of financial market value valuety -- v

mr. ruiz, it might have been a saving grace for him that he actually had piercings and that he was removedl population so he doesn't have to answer any of those questions. >> well, as you know, i'm from orange county jail. >> just hours before he would answer to the judge. ruiz used his time in isolation to write a letter to his girlfriend who he had not spoken to since his arrest. >> baby, i'm sorry for not picking you up at work. i was in a police car at the time. i hope you're there when i get out. the only thing i can dream or think about is all the right things i'm going to do when i get out. this is too hard for me right now. to be continued. >> okay. we're back in session, back on the record. on case number 10-sf-0604, people versus richard edward ruiz. mr. ruiz is richard edward ruiz jr. your true name? >> yes. >> the following day it's preliminary court hearing ruiz was charged with felony possession of narcotics which could carry a lengthy sentence behind bars. he entered a plea of not guilty and had one supporter at the hearing, his girlfriend, samantha dunn, who spoke to us aft

and piercing parlor regulations that are going into effect and in addition there is a law that says that any car designated by the national motor vehicle title information system as a jumper, in mr a big sticker on it so that you cannot be persuaded to buy something that has already been designated as salvage. >> it will be labeled? for everyone to see. >> yes. and finally, anti bullying legislation. all schools will be required to train their personnel in anti bullying tactics and also bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identification will be provided along with police and for other reasons. those also took effect yesterday. >> let's talk about the ballot measures that failed, there was one that failed, a little interesting? >> it has been there several times, every year someone writes a hand written note that says " we wanted on the ballot ". every district and assembly senate district is to have two representatives, a male and female. basically making sacramento into a new was arc for all of the districts. it never gets enough signatures and failed again this year but i am sure that it will be back in two years for us to consider. >> it is always fun to ge

mr. president, hope for the best is no substitute for regular medical care. one year later, eleanor -- eleanor pierce suffered a massive heart attack. she racked up $60,000 in medical debt. so again, are we going to leave people like eleanor without coverage, with mounting debt and declining health just to make some political point? these are real people. these are real people that the affordable care act is now helping. they're now helping. well, mr. president, as i've said before, the affordable care act is for every american. many of the benefits that are there now republicans would take away by voting to repeal it. and many like eleanor, who will be helped when it is fully implemented in 2014, will be denied -- denied -- the ability, the wherewithal to have affordable health care coverage, so that they can have good preventive health care measures, so they can get medical care before they have to go to the emergency room, and yet tomorrow i'm told that the house of representatives will once again vote to repeal the affordable care act. mr. president -- and once again they are on the wrong side of

mr. speaker, today i had 17 members of the south florida chapter of the association of builders and contractors saying that this law is going to adversely effect their businesses. roger duveragey, -- from fort pierce, florida, is considering who he will have to leave off of his insurance coverage or who he will have to completely get rid of from his business. the president and c.e.o. of st. mary's hospital in west palm beach is concerned about how he will be able to run the hospital and also the type of care he will be able to provide. dr. mark powers of the or the peedic specialists is -- orthopedic specialists is concerned of what he'll be able to provide as as a small business owner. i ask for 15 seconds more if i could. mr. graves: i ask permission to yield the gentleman 15 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. west: mr. speaker, this is not about taking anything away from the american people. we can keep what is good. but this is bad policy that had to be passed in order for us to find out what was in those 2,700 pages. let us do what is right for the american people. repeal this onerous monstrosity that is nothing more than a tax law and develop a health care sol