mr. reed: thank you, madam president. madam president, i come to the floor -- the presiding officer: quorum call. mr. reed: excuse me. madam president, i would ask that the calling of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: thank you, madam president. i come to the floor this evening to express my hope that the bipartisan effort that brought us this three-month bill here to the floor can be sustained as we go forward so that we can swiftly help the 1.3 million long-term unemployed workers who are cut off from these benefits on december 28. as many of my colleagues have discovered going back to their home states they are in many cases desperate. this was the difference between things that we take for granted, having a car to be able to get to a job interview, having a cell phone so that you can get a message saying you have a job interview. paying for heat in cold weather, putting groceries on the table. for many people, this is truly an emergency. that

mr. reed: madam president, i would first ask unanimous consent that ellen mclaughlin be granted athe privileges of the floor for this session of the 113th congress. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: thank you very much, madam president. i now ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment to call up my amendment, number 2703. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. reed: thank you. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: mr. reed proposes an amendment numbered 2703. mr. reed: i would scu ask unanimous consent to waive the reading of the amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: madam president, my amendment would require the federal emergency management agency to study and report on the advisability of establishing voluntary community-based flood insurance policies under the national flood insurance program, the nfip. the government accountability office would require to review and comment on the study.

of wax poetic on whether it could be used for bad as we have the same conversation about in life mr reed we have to take a very short break now but when we come back the clever use of technology can help leticia get elected but can be thing to acknowledge g.b. used to how the voters keep those elected in check that's coming up in a few moments on a well to part. leg it was terrible they weren't very hard to take out. once again there is a place that has sex with her right there no legs don't want. to. play. live. a. lot of wonderful strong arm and a lot of. new knowledge base just like you and mona. lenny. pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i roll researcher. welcome back to worlds apart from really discussing politics and technology with harper reed who used to work for president obama as the chief technology officer mr reed i know that at some point of your life you go to addicted to the so-called personal informatics tracking your way to. what have you stopped and i wonder if it's possible to develop. some sort of application that would allow or did they were both politic

themselves you cannot use technology to make a bad candidate good you can only elect a good candidate and mr reed let me push you on that you just said that four years is not that long of a time but i think if you are sitting around the room when it will. happen big country can get through and you know like look at syrian for you know difference between life and death so a lot can happen in that period if that's where you have to make sure you elect the right president and how do you really make sure if as you just agreed that you are applying all that marketing tools to the political campaigns you're making a jump and i think this is an important jump distinction is that even with a product we're talking about a product i can say that this is the best stereo and i can use all the marketing in the world but if the stereo sucks it doesn't matter how much money i pour into marketing i think that happens a lot with candidates where you have candidates that aren't very good and you have candidates that are very good and the people largely choose which one they want regardless of the marketing the mar

of wax poetic on whether it could be used for bad as we have the same conversation about tonight mr reed we have to take a very short break now but when we come back the clever use of technology can help leticia get elected but can be same technology be used to how the voters keep those elected in check that's coming up in a few moments on worlds apart. tanya the lady well tell me how you were my little grandson. i don't like i don't like. was being cut off. except it as an ecovillage that the spiritual side is destructive. i tried to convince her to try to preach that it was a sect but it's dangerous that she had to leave it was a story she had lost her mind. you know you see we'll come back i know it was and i will wait even if it means i must wait until my dying day. as a new physician i swear to abide by the hippocratic oath. to the best of my ability and judgment. i will prescribe for the good of my patients. i will not give deadly doses to anybody. or advise of those to do so. i will never do harm to the. doctors of the docks on october. general and i guess you all know lee. in a f

mr. reed: mr. president, could you instruct me when i reach the four-minute mark, so i may reserve a minute at the very end? the presiding officer: yes. mr. reed: thank you, mr. president. i rise to urge all my colleagues to support this notion to bring this legislation to the floor to begin a debate. 1.3 million americans have been pushed off an economic cliff on december 28 when their unemployment benefits or extended benefits ended. they're searching for work. they have to search for work. they're in a market where there is typically two or three applicants for one job. yesterday i read a story from "the washington post" that talked about the opening of a new dairy plant in maryland. they're expecting a lot of interest in the 36 jobs. 1,600 applicants. i would wager many of those applicants never thought in their lives after being the vice president of sales in a company or a sophisticated manager of a financial aspects of a company would be applying to work in a dairy. someone i expect might ev

technology with harper reed who used to work for president obama as the chief technology officer mr reed i know that at some point of your life you go to addicted to the so-called personal informatics tracking your way to your like cation what have you stopped and i wonder if it's possible to develop you know some sort of application that would allow or do they were both politicians performance on the yardsticks that they have personally interested in you know to keep politicians in check there's a few really good organizations that are doing this right now one of my favorites is pro publica and the united states is doing a lot of work to build software around journalism and politics to try and make sure that the people we're electing are actually doing the things and saying the things that are fact checked i think that's a really good summary of it because a lot of times especially when it comes to congress you have a lot of words that are being said and there's so much just kind of b.s. you never know what's real and so there's a lot of good organizations that are doing this and exciti

of wax poetic on whether it could be used for bad as we have the same conversation about in life mr reed we have to take a very short break now but when we come back the clever use of technology can help leticia get elected but can be seen technology be used to how the voters keep those elected in check that's coming up in a few moments on worlds apart. tanya the lady well tell me how you were my little grandson. i don't like i don't like. was being cut off. except it as an ecovillage that the spiritual side is destructive. i tried to convince her to try to preach that it was a sect but it's dangerous and she had to leave it was a story she had lost her mind. you know you she will come back i know it and i will wait but even if it means i must wait until my dying day. on june sixteenth one thousand forty one we had a graduation party at school and the war broke out. the shops were always full of goods. in september leningrad was blocked. one day mom went to sort it all the shelves were empty. in the embers of the bomb of the day of steel warehouses it was the main storage place for all t

of wax poetic on whether it could be used for bad as we have the same conversation about in life mr reed we have to take a very short break now but when we come back the calabria use of technology can help get elected but can be same technology be used to how the voters keep those elected in check that's coming up in a few moments on a well to part. her . basic needs of economic ups and downs in the final tolerable months day belong to the old saying i and the rest that life is going to be taking will be every week on a league. player in the future. is here so we hit the road to focus on new technologies. on this month's show no parties complete with old school shootings. and we learn about the next day in the fields to live aleutian this has the potential to save lives. knowing the update. we've got the future is covered. live. live live. live . welcome back to worlds apart from really discussing politics and technology with harper reed who used to work for president obama as the chief technology officer mr reed i know that at some point if your life you go to addicted to the so-called

mr. reed: i will be happy to. mr. durbin: i would like to direct a question to the senator from rhode island through the chair. there's been debate on the floor here, and we've heard it off the floor, about whether or not we should pay for unemployment benefits. historically, if i'm not mistaken, most of the decisions to extend unemployment insurance benefits have been considered emergency measures and not paid for. and now there's a suggestion from many republicans that we need to cut spending in areas to compensate for these extension of unemployment benefits, which if i am nea not mistaken are ine area of $26 billion a year. one of the suggestions yesterday from the republican senate leader mitch mcconnell would address, is not surprisingly, the affordable care act, so-called obamacare, and would eliminate the basis for one of the basic protections in that law. what senator mcconnell proposed yesterday was to eliminate the responsibility of every individual who had health insurance that was put in the law so we cou

mr. reed: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: first let me thank the senator from illinois for his great leadership on the appropriations defense subcommittee and for joining me in rhode island to see those great workers at electric bode. i want to commend chairwoman barbara mikulski and chair woman murray. we would not be here without their extraordinary efforts, herculean efforts by two extraordinary individuals. i also want to thank my colleague from the great state of alaska, lisa murkowski, for her work. she is an extraordinary colleague, collaborator, and we worked together to make this subcommittee bill a very good one. chairman ken kalb on the house, ranking member jim moran collaborated on this effort. jim is retiring. i want to thank him for his distinguished service to virginia and to the nation. i am very pleased in particular in this interior subcommittee bill that we could make a strong investment in clean water, in drinking water through the revolving funds, or known, the s.r.f. funds. this is not only about t

now mr. reed to go over the financial. >> very quickly the numbers are slightly higher. this was probably one of the other times in my history of cfo that was hoping the cost would be higher that would trigger the eligibility. that was higher for a couple of reasons. the bottom line is some additional hazard cost and mitigation cost for loads, slopes and bridges and slightly higher cost. bids coming in higher on the power distribution and so, that is still being balance withdraw our ability to temporarily borrow existing appropriation as mr. carlin mentioned we have all the information to fema and government's office and all the forms have been completed. that concludes my report. >> thank you. so, if there is no objection, we'll call for public comment. i would like to start with david, please. >> it was a short general managers report. obviously there is very little going won this agency. well done. i had some comments on the budget priorities power and the ssip. let me just go through throws on the budget priorities i look forward as always to our annual workshops. so

mr. reed: mr. president i ask that dr. jeff fine and lawrence mehan, fell flows fell flows my office, be granted the privileges of the floor for the dur ravings this congress. the presiding officer: woiks. mr. reed: i stand to speak on the reed-heller bill which would extend unemployment insurance for three months. it is the right thing and the smart thing to do for ow commitment of unemployment insurance has been around since the 1930's. it has received historical support and i'm pleased that senator heller has joined me, so this is a bipartisan bill also. and it's something that we have to deal with today. it is a huge crisis. aces i said, 1.3 million americans have lost their benefits as of december 28, but we can expect through this next year approximately 3 million more to exhaust their state benefits typically 26 weeks and not have this federal long-term benefit available to thevmentvery many. this has awless received federal support on a long term basis. it is something that impacts this ent

mr. reed: mr. president, i ask that dr. jeff fine and lawrence mehan, fell flow fell flows my e granted the privileges of the floor for the dur ravings this congress. the presiding officer: woiks. mr. reed: i stand to speak on the reed-heller bill which would extend unemployment insurance for three months. it is the right thing and the smart thing to do for ow commitment of unemployment insurance has been around since the 1930's. it has received historical support and i'm pleased that senator heller has joined me, so this is a bipartisan bill also. and it's something that we have to deal with today. it is a huge crisis. aces i said, 1.3 million americans have lost their benefits as of december 28, but we can expect through this next year approximately 3 million more to exhaust their state benefits, typically 26 weeks, and not have this federal long-term benefit available to thevmenvery many. this has awless received federal support on a long term basis. it is something that impacts this entire country. it impacts people who

reid, for mr. reed of rhode island, proposes amendment numbered 2631. mr. reid: i ask for the yeas and nays on that amendment, madam president. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. reid: i have a second-degree amendment at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an amendment numbered 2632 to amendment numbered 2631. mr. reid: i have a cloture motion on the reed of rhode island amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the amendment numbered 2631 to s. 1845, a bill to provide for the extension of certain unemployment benefits and for other purposes. signed by 17 senators follows -- reid of never -- mr. reid reid: with the consentf the senate, i ask that the names not be read. the presiding officer: is there obje

. >> mr. reed, apparently you can afford your own attorney?eporter: the allegations against curtis reeves become more jaw-dropping the more details emerge. it happened at the movie theater during the previews in monday's matinee of the movie "lone survivor." 71-year-old reeves and his wife were sitting one row behind this man, 43-year-old chad olson and his wife nicole. witnesses say reeves became very irritated when olson began texting during the previews. what was so pressing for olson? his 2-year-old daughter. >> the young child was with a babysitter, and the father was communicating with the babysitter concerning the daughter. >> reporter: but reeves was so annoyed about the texting he left the theater and complained to management. when he returned to his seat, he started arguing with olson. >> he came back very irritated with theater management. they started arguing again about the cell phone. there seems to be almost a confrontation. and then bang he was shot. >> reporter: how could it escalate from an argument over a text to a shooting?

. >> mr. reed, apparently you can afford your own attorney? reporter: the allegations against curtis reeves become more jaw-dropping the more details emerge. it happened at the movie theater during the previews in monday's matinee of the movie "lone survivor." 71-year-old reeves and his wife were sitting one row behind this man, 43-year-old chad olson and his wife nicole. witnesses say reeves became very irritated when olson began texting during the previews. what was so pressing for olson? his 2-year-old daughter. >> the young child was with a babysitter, and the father was communicating with the babysitter concerning the daughter. >> reporter: but reeves was so annoyed about the texting he left the theater and complained to management. when he returned to his seat, he started arguing with olson. >> he came back very irritated with theater management. they started arguing again about the cell phone. there seems to be almost a confrontation. and then bang he was shot. >> reporter: how could it escalate from an argument over a text to a shootin

mr. reed: mr. president, i ask that dr. jeff fine and lawrence that dr. jeff fine and lawrence >> mr. president thank you very much first and ask unanimous consent that fellows of my office of the we granted historical support and i'm pleased that senator heller has joined me, so this is a bipartisan bill also. and it's something that we have to deal with today. it is a huge crisis. aces i said, 1.3 million americans have lost their benefits as of december 28, but we can expect through this next year approximately 3 million more to exhaust their state benefits, typically 26 weeks, and not have this federal long-term benefit available to thevmenvery many. this has awless received federal support on a long term basis. it is something that impacts this entire country. it impacts people who work. you cannot get this program unless you have a job and through no fault of your own you've lost that job. and in this economy people who lose jobs are competing with many, many others from for very few jobs. 1.3 million americans were pushed off an economic cliff just

mr. reed: the pending amendment is the reed amendment, will be accepted by a voice vote and i yield back my time. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, the question is on the amendment. all in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it, the ayes do have it. the amendment is agreed to. there are now two minutes equally divided -- the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: move to reconsider and lay on the table. the presiding officer: without objection. there are now two minutes equally divided on the amendment from senator whitehouse of rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: i hope my colleagues will vote enthusiastically for this amendment across the country ciewnts and local organizations are trying to revive rivers that have been damned and blocked -- dammed and blocked and when they go foaferred to put in a fish ladder, when they redesign a culvert to allow for water passage they h

mr. reed: mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent that at the conclusion of my brief remarks, that senator lee be recognized, and after senator lee, senator harkin be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, as the leader indicated, we are working to try to develop a response to the 1.3 million americans who on december 28 lost their unemployment benefits, the extended benefits, and since that time the number has increased. about 70,000 americans are week are losing their unemployment insurance benefits, and this number is now approaching roughly 1.5 million americans, and it will approach a significantly higher number of americans throughout the year. about 70,000, as i said, each week are losing these benefits. this is an emergency. these people have worked, they are in a job market where typically there are two applicants for every job, and we're seeing a job market that is moving sometimes forward and sometimes sideways. the n

mr. reed: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to express my supreme disappointment that we have blocked the senate from moving forward on this critical legislation. there are 1.5 million americans who have lost their unemployment insurance since december 28. every week, 70,000 more lose that protection. so my disappointment is severe, but their situation is much more desperate. and we had within our power today, the ability to move this senate forward to help our people, to help people who only qualify for the program because they work and because they're still looking for work, in one of the most difficult job markets we've seen in many, many decades. it is extremely urgent that we act and today we failed to act. we have to continue to move forward. the majority leader has procedurally put us in a position so we can call this measure up again very quickly. we have to continue to work towards a solution. we have to keep the economy moving forward and creating jobs and that's what this was about, giving people some mo

joining us now is the mayor of atlanta, kasim reed, mayor since 2010. mr. mayor, thanks for joining us. first question: has everyone been rescued? >> the answer is no. everyone. in the city of atlanta is fine, but we still have interstates that are blocked and congested and have frozen ice so we're working to clear up the interstates right now with our state partner. >> pelley: mr. mayor, you learned some bitter lessons as mayor of at than in 2011 when there was another big ice storm that had a similar effect. why was this ice storm not handledded any better than 2011? >> well, scott, i would push back on that. we here in day one of this snow event and we have our city moving again with the exception of the freeways. during 2011, that was a four-day event that had much worse results than this. >> pelley: so you would say that the situation in the city of atlanta, which you're responsible for, is what now? >> i would say that it's significantly improving. 80% of our roads are passable. we had zero fatalities. we had very few major vehicle accidents. we had 7

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, senator reed. senator fischer. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you both for being here today. you've presented us with a lot of interesting information. in discussing the conclusions on the strategic choices and management review, secretary hagel said that chairman dempsey would lead an effort to find $50 billion in savings through changes to compensation. now, today you've said that retirement changes won't be part of the coming budget request. but can you tell me what the status is of general dempsey's review on the compensation part? >> we were challenged as a sort of a stretch goal to try to find, i don't think it was 50, i thought it was less than that, something like 40, but a decent-sized number for compensation savings. and other areas of the d., by the way, were equally challenged in other ways to find savings. we worked very hard to do that. we actually came up with a set of proposals that would be required to make that mark. and we found too severe. and, so we have been working on a set of less severe proposals that we will c

reed's background, mr. char's background as a u.s. attorney himself, his involvement in these types of investigations and really to take his advice as to who should be subpoenaed and quite honestly the order in which they should come in to testify. that's really where we are now. there's really a very unique period in this investigation, i think, where it's going to appear that there's a lull. but the reality is we're in the process of gathering information. and i think rushing through this, not to put you in this category but to meet the press's demands for this or the public's demand for this, to really read the last chapter of the story is not going to be providing really true justice to the people that are involved. i've said time and time again, i think this needs to be a very deliberate, methodical approach and that's why we're going to be following the advice of counsel step by step to make sure that the integrity of this investigation is upheld. i just want to go back to your comments about the numbers on the committee again.

scene during the worst of atlanta's icy weather, and joining us from atlanta, the city's mayor kasim reed. mrtter part of the week in 2011, and after that, you wrote in part, this -- the snow and ice storm of 2011 was a lesson in humility for me, and elected leaders across the metropolitan region. for three days, mother nature showed that even with today's advancements, she can still bring a major american city to a standstill. in atlanta, we have the world's busiest airport and more than a dozen fortune 500 companies. metro atlanta cannot afford to shut down for days in the midst of a major snowstorm. the storm taught local governments across the region the importance of collaboration and communication, and we will work together to get moving as fast as we are able. so, mayor, i've been watching the coverage, the interviews you've been doing over the past 24 hours. >> yes. >> i first want to know what happened this time. we're talking about two inches of snow that was predicted on monday. >> yeah, the fact of the matter is, it started snowing on tuesday at 12:15. on yesterday by 2:00 p.m., a

but i did want to follow up on where senator reid -- senator reed was headed. mr.ogoff, not asking you to state a policy position on a preferable way to finance this area in the future, but i would be curious to know just in your mind, what options might be available for congress to look at? and again, i'm not asking you to state a preferred course. >> well, there's a wide universe of options, senator, as i mentioned earlier, the one the president's discussed most recently is the opportunity that corporate tax reform could present to deal with our infrastructure challenge. i'd direct you, also, to a lot of measures that have been taken in the states recently, whether it's pennsylvania, wyoming, virginia, a variety of mixes of taxes, user fees, done on a bipartisan basis. in the case of pennsylvania, done by our republican statehouse state senate and governor to restore their trust funds that includes a mix of the taxes, taxing oil at rack, moving to excise taxes in lieu of per gallon taxes, doing a variety of measures, as well options unique revenue that may be spe

reed. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think there are two clear issues emerging with broad consensus. one is we have to correct this issue, and my sense is that has to be done very quickly, immediately. for many reasons. one is the issue of what signal we're sending to forces in the field. i understand, the chairman may correct me or respond, that we could move such a bill through the committee without a paid for. were not responsible to pay for it, is that i could? >> that is accurate. i think the one bill that has been referred to the committee, we are doublechecking is, however, is the bill of senator hagan and senator pryor applet that does not have a paid for. if there's a pay for, and offset in other words, that i believe will be referred to a different committee. but this committee am i believe, will have the ability to act prompted on a deal, and hope that we will and not wait for the commission. because there is a clear consensus we should clear the air on this issue. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate that clarification. and again, i do sense that this is a consensus a

reed shaw will be counsel for the committee investigating. mr. shaw made bones in some of the highest profile cases in the country. rob blagojevich was accused of trying to sell president obama's former senate seat to the highest bidder. jurors credited his cross examination. blagojevich was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison. rob blagojevich is a democrat. after the trial ended attorney shaw said he hunts for justice regardless of the politics. >> i think it is fair to say that the u.s. attorney's office is an equal opportunity prosecutor of public corruption. 99% of public officials and government employees across various levels of the city, county or state and federally are honest. there have been a number of high profile cases. for those individuals we can say they didn't get the message. >> this honest public official didn't get a message for over a decade. it was reed shaw's job to make sure they did. now it is his job again. late today the new jersey assembly announced members of their new special investigation committee. tomorr

reed. i had seen "it's a wonderful life" and she is mrs.e bailey, the most beautiful creature ever so i very much want to go to where she was born. i wish i hadn't confessed that. i'll be in terrible trouble after this. >> i want to ask a question about maps. [inaudible] i have to surround myself with maps so i can get a sense of where you are and learn the geography with you. my question is, when you're writing these books do you surround yourself with maps? or are these all in your heads because they are not in my head. i spent an immense amount of money because a lot of the books are about the sea or the coast. i go to new york not a gold and i'm just about to begin a big book on the pacific ocean and the first thing i did was to buy all the major charge of the pacific ocean. i a dork maps. i have a huge map cabinet which i bought many years ago. i have a huge number of books. but my pride and joy, i adore them and particularly have to say the maps of the u.s. geological survey. works of art in and of themselves. and the book which proba

reed amendment number 2631. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: the next vote, mr. president, will be 5:30 p.m. on monday on the confirmation of wilkins. if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until some of today's debate on extending the jobless benefits. majority leader harry reid unveiled a revised bill that would extend unemployment benefits until november and include a provision barring those receiving social security disability payments from also receiving unemployment benefits. republicans objected to the new bill saying they aren't being allowed to offer their own amendments. this is 30 minutes. >> i think you madam president for recognizing me. i was trying to be recognizing the four the majority leader decided to what we later called fill the tree which means taking away the opportunity for amendments to be offered although we had an attempt in a moment to offer some. i'm disappointed because we were close to reaching an agreement which w

reed. thanks for coming in, mr. mayor, glad to be with you. >> you know how angry people are at you?at people are angry at me. i think they have a great deal of frustration. >> you don't think people are angry at you? >> this is the deal, carol, what i've been doing is working nonstop to alleviate a tough situation. we got 1 million people out of the city. we haven't had any fate tagalite got all of the children who are in the system off the buses. and i've been communicates with people on a regular basis. >> there are plenty of people who say the school children should never have been placed in that position. that schools should have been closed? >> well shg, carol, if you're b fair, you would point out that the public school systems makes the call when the schools are closed. you ought to be fair. the atlanta public school systems calls and the school systems independently call when they close. so what we did was communicate. and yesterday, immediately, i said that i thought it was a mistake for business, government and the schools to announce those closures. which caused people to

mr. reid: following my remarks, the senate will resume consideration of the unemployment insurance extension. filing deadline is 3:00 p.m.tained at deadline for all second-degree amendments to the reed styt substitute is 4:30 today. there have been some discussions going on. the republican leader and i have spoken, i have spoken to democratic and republican senators, as i'm sure my frienden shall th the republicar has done. we have one vote at 5:30 on robert wilkins to be a circuit court judge. we will see if we will go afford with the two additional votes on cloture tonight or put them over until tomorrow. we are not in a position today, either the republican leader or me, to do anything other than -- if we get something worked out, it will be before we have the first vote and maybe we'll put this over for a reasonable period of time. if we can't, we'll have to have these two votes. mr. president, it's often said that actions have consequences and that's an understatement. but in the senate, inaction also has consequences. my republican colleagues have been very effective at creating gridlock in this body, at preventing the senate from doing its job. while this type of obstruction

. >> senate majority leader harry lou reed responded to remarks by senator mcconnell. this is 20 minutes. >> mr. president, the republican leader in i do not agree on everything. but we do agree on some things in the one thing that no one can dispute that we agree on and that is our love of baseball. we both love baseball and we have an opportunity when we go home to turn on the tv and watch a few winnings of baseball. for some this is a slow opportunity to watch this. but we have talked about baseball and we have a great affection for it. and the reason i mention that is today we have a great baseball hero, one of the greatest of all time to be conducted in the baseball hall of fame. he is an extremely nice man and a man of humility and i have gone out to dinner with him and his lovely wife a few times and i know his brother well who is also a professional baseball player. and he's the first to talk about averages. i am not a great athlete. but one of the best of all-time, he started his career with the chicago cubs and he went on to win 355 professional major league baseball games in four con

let's bring in kassim reed, the mayor of atlanta. mr. mayor, good morning to you. >> good morning.w are you? >> fine, thank you. there seems to be great debate over the answer of this one. mr. mayor, you have did the information you needed? did you have the forecast you needed to make the right calls before this snow arrived? >> the answer is yes, but it's not solely about my call. in the city of atlanta, we have the state, we have myself, and we have the school system which are all separate. and in the city of atlanta, we started our snow treatment at 9:00 a.m. after getting our weathercast between 4:00 and 5:00. and almost every photo that you just showed is not in the city of atlanta. in fact, within 24 hours, the roads in the city of atlanta were more than 80% passable. so i just reviewed your report, and it focused almost exclusively on our city's highways. which the city does not have jurisdiction for, and most of those simply were not in the city of atlanta. >> and i'm trying not to play the blame game here. >> sure. >> i'm not pointing fingers at anyone, but then let me mak

mr. mayor. people are angry at you. and by midday, perhaps after seeing the vitriol directed against him, all over twitter, mayor reed had updated his message. >> i understand that people are frustrated and angry. we made a mistake by not staggering when people should leave. so i'll take responsibility for that. >> now, we should point out the city of atlanta is not actually responsible for clearing the interstate highways where most of the gridlock is. that job lies with the state of georgia. last night, as the storm hit, governor nathan diehl put it this way. >> we have been continue fronted with an unexpected snowstorm that has hit the metropolitan atlanta area. >> i'm sorry. did he say unexpected? unexpected? well, there were all those weather reports, of course. governor deal, like mayor reed, decided to amend his comments by midday today. >> i did not to imply that we didn't know something was coming. what i was referring to was that the national weather service had continually had their modeling showing that the city of atlanta would not be the primary area where the storm would hit. >> see, that's not really true

reed of rhode island substitute amendment. if cloture is not invoked there will be a srebgt cloture -- secd cloture vote on the underlying bill. mr. president, we've had some good discussions. and i'm going to, as i know the republican leader will discuss, if there is a way to move forward on unemployment insurance. i hope there is. at 2:30 today, after our caucuses, we'll come out and see if there is some agreement that we can -- consent agreement that we can present to the senate and move forward with the legislation. if that's possible, we're certainly trying. mr. president, each day bloomberg releases a list of the 300 richest individuals in the world. the bloomberg billionaires index. the list includes 67 fortunate and fabulously wealthy americans, more than any other country in the world, we have 67 of the 300. last year the index added $524 billion in new wealth to their net worth. listen to that, mr. president. last year the billionaires index, these 67 people, added $524 billion of new wealth. not million. billion. $2 billion per person last year mr. president, these 300 fortunate individuals flooded with their already f

mr. diehl, he is up for re-election, i spoke to a democrat on the state ust union night for the georgia delegation who thinks this will help democrats in the governor's raice. mayor reed is a rising star in the democratic party and gop says mayor reed has just the same amount of problems as governor diehl did. interestingly enough, i don't think -- the democrats hope to get phil brown from the state of georgia. >> daughter of former senator running for the senate and still facing a primary but has been doing national fundraising as well. the big henry waxman retirement announcement today. another democrat, first to you, luke, that's your beat on the hill there. then i went chris to weigh in on it. joining george miller already from the pelosi forces, the california delegation, that's 40 years in the house. >> it's a tremendous amount of experience. two things, greg walden, who is chairman of the nrc, representative from oregon, he met with us about an hour ago, this is proof that democrats do not believe they can win the house this cycle. george miller and henry waxman who are like this with nancy pelosi, it's proof that they are retiring because this know she can't g

reed from rhode island are trying to do. democrats support it, independents, but republicans in congress don't and they've said so. republicans complained that the majority never allows the minority to offer amendments is, mr. president, false. it's not true. it's another diversion. during my tenure as majority leader, it's -- there have been volumes of stuff written about the obstruction we've had with my republican colleagues during the last five years with the obama administration. think of the obstruction that took place when barack obama decided to run for reelection. well, that was a little interesting because the republican leader said his number-one goal as a united states senator and leader of the republicans is to make sure he wasn't reelected. well, he fell real short on that because he was elected overwhelming. so during that period of time, obstruction, obstruction, obstruction, obstruction. and after he was reelected, it continued. during my tenure as majority leader, the senate has voted on minority amendments at a higher rate than it did during either of my republican predecessors. the largest number of minority amendments probably in the history of the senate. but let's just talk about rep

mr. hogan. >> a live look at the senate floor. they begin preliminary consideration to a bill extending unemployment benefits expired on january 28 by three months through march. that legislation being offered senators jack reed of rhode island, a democrat and senator republican of nevada, senator reed on the far side of the screen on the democratic side. they're voting now. this is a procedural vote on whether to move forward on the the bill. you can follow live coverage of 2.t on c-span we expect to bring you reaction from senators reed and others the the vote sometime in upcoming half hour or so. we'll have that live for you. president who's expected to speak at 11:40 eastern about unemployment benefits. we'll have that live for you as well. while we wait to hear from we bring you ts, back to our conversation from this morning's "washington focus on this time a the president's climate change policies. desk now oined at the by dan weiss who serves as the director of climate strategy at progress. of american the hot topic of conversation in a ironmental circles was 60-minutes report from sunday that seemed to conclude that the federal government has little to show in the heavy investment in green technology

mr. reed: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank the senator from michigan and my chairmaned on the armed services committee. i simply want to make a few comments about this afternoon's proceedings with respect to unemployment insurance. the reason we were here -- and we can't lose sight of it -- is that 1.3 million americans, as of december 28, lost their extended unemployment benefits. they are without the support, modest support, roughly $300 to $350 a week. every week, 70,000 more americans lose their support. we are going to see this number grow and grow and grow and grow while we talk and talk and talk. along with senator heller, we proposed a very straightforward mechanism. 90 days of the extension and picking retroactively up those who had lost it, unpaid for so that we could work on some of the difficult issues that my colleagues have all explored this afternoon. and in listening to my colleagues, we made the determination that there was a sincere concern and desire on the part of my republican colleagues pa

mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the cloture motions with respect to reed of rhode island amendment 2631 and s. 1845 be vitiated. that the motion to reconsider to commit an amendment number 2631 be withdrawn, that a substitute amendment which is at the desk be made pending, that there be up to five amendments related to the bill from each side in order for the substitute amendment, further that each of these amendments be subject to a side-by-side if the opposing side chooses to offer one. amendments under this agreement must be offered no later than 4:00 p.m. wednesday, january 15, that no other amendments or motions to commit be in order and that no points of order be in order to the substitute of the underlying bill. that each amendment have up to one hour of debate equally divided, that upon the use or yielding back of that time on each of the amendments offered, the senate proceed to votes in relation to the amendments to the substitute in the order offered with any side-been had i side amendment -- side by side amendment vote occur prior to the amendment by which it was offere