mr. rockefeller, how much is enough? to which he replied it just a little bit more. [laughter] if you are involved with money it is never enough so i point* that out in this book "right on the money" we need to give ourselves some perspective a man's life is not consists of the abundance of what he possesses and there is no way that money will satisfy somebody broke it is just more zeros you could add, so why? it does not make you any happier are stronger or live longer or anything except the fact you have another zero on your bank balance. so if you have a couple more is still does not mean anything. all of the rich toys five and 10 and $20 million houses, the latest high-speed $40 million aircraft and the rest of it it still does not satisfy them. we need to understand when we talk about money it does not satisfy. that is for starters. we also need to understand in terms of finance the average person has got to know how to manage their money. i understand at least 50% of the merck told this court in america is caused by money. -- marital discord fights over money h

mr. chairman. >> thank you. the chairman of the committee, senator rockefeller. i want to make him a general, but -- >> thank you, chairman lautenberg. first of all, i want to apologize. i'm not on the judiciary committee. the white house is anxious to have all senators meet with judge sotomayor before recess, i have been assigned a time at 3:15. that's kind of for life, for her, should she win, which i think she will. so i have to excuse myself but i do that without any misgivings, because this is frank lautenberg's passion and has been for years, really more than anybody. so i also welcome all of you, including governor rendell, i just told him, i never see him in person, it's always on television. and it's kind of exciting, you know to meet somebody like that >> mr. chairman, you don't know how exciting it is. i've worked with him. >> now, i agree totally with senator lautenberg that the -- on the excitement of high speed passenger rail. i've spent 10, 12 years either chairing or being ranking on the aviation subcommittee of this body. and it just occurs to me

ranking member on the subcommittee, senator thune, and then we'll hear from chairman rockefeller and ranking member hutchison. mr. thune: thank you, mr. chairman, for calling this timely hearing and we've got a dwibbed panel i want to welcome as well and look forward to hearing from all of you. my state is one of the few in the country that doesn't have passenger rail and you have to hearken back a long ways in theages of history to a time -- in the anals of history to a time when we did. i recall my father who is now almost 90, talking about back in the 1930's taking the railroad from my hometown about 130 to 140 miles, that was a fairly frequent thing, people at that time traveled by passenger rail a lofment it's been some time since we had that in south dakota. we're dependent on freight railroading. i can probably approach this issue more

mr. chairman, you along with chairman committee rockefeller, committee ranking member hutchinson and said committee member demint requested our office began an extensive investigation into some of the issues brought to light during the hearing. we have already begun work on this review. today, i will first address to a major weakness is related to faa oversight of the aviation industry and then move onto operational differences between main line and regional carriers. first, the subcommittee hearing in april 2008 how late it weaknesses and faa risk-based or sipe system and air carrier compliance. wahler were identified save the lapse in southwest airlines' compliance, many stakeholders were concerned that they could be symptomatic of much deeper problems with faa's air carrier oversight on a systemwide level. for example in 2002, we reported faa needed to develop national oversight process is to insure that it is effectively consistently implemented. in 2005, we found inspectors did not complete 26% of plan inspections. last year we reported that weaknesses in faa implementation allowed c

mr. kennedy would be interested it's called the informed choices, senator rockefeller has endorsed it in the senate commerce woman schwartz and i have introduced here. it provides a label which would streamline and it would make a consistent what was being offered so people could understand what's being offered. second it creates a federal office of health insurance oversight to deal with the oversight regulation obviously the states have a major portion of that the federal level it would be helping monitor to that effort. i would love to get your thoughts and take conceptually at whether or not this is something that can fit in with the health care debate. let me move quickly to food safety. and i know you've had a little bit of time to settle into the department and you do cchair the food safety working group. i was wondering what you see as the most important goal and objective. how do you believe we ought to measure the success. a final comment is you know where i stand on the issue of food safety functions and taking them out of the fda in an agency that has its own commissioner a

rockefeller ten minutes ago. >> okay. very good. well, thank you, mr. lopez. i'm just summarizing everything.it is always good to get it once, twice or three things, don't you think, like all those signatures you require when we buy cars. so the -- so the plan here would be that they would be able to be a dealer and we feel we have some profitable dealers in minnesota that would be very interested in doing that. so that's -- any other commitments that we can get here for helping these guys? >> on our continuation agreement, we will be meeting with the nada this week to -- friday, actually to address their concerns about our continuation agreement for those dealers going forward with us. thank you. >> okay. very good. one last question, just for you, mr. press, i know it is getting late, for -- did fiat require you guys to reduce the number of dealers? >> fiat did not require a number. the agreement does have a new dealer organization, viable dealer organization going forward as one of the requirements and we're producing that. they did not require a reduction. >> all right. okay. thank you. t

rockefeller, welcome back. and thank you for holding this very critical hearing today, mr. chairman, because obviously we're all grappling with the devastating effects of the sad state of affairs when it comes to the domestic autosthri, the past leadership that did not provide the rec we sith thoippings -- and more than $70 billion to chrysler and general motors. now we're coming up on the worst economic recession since the depression, and now we hear in the news more than 2,000 autodealerships that are facing closures nationwide more than 18 in my state are going to be disenfranchised arbitrarily through no fault of their own, they are loyal long-standing businesses in the communities as we've already heard yet the companies represented here in afternoon have provided no clarity toronto how or why they have come to these specific decisions that they have made let alone provide any transparency twropt these decisions or the arbitraryness of the time frame in which these autodealers are compelled to make these decision stotts a very heavy-handed approach. more than that they

mr. chairman. madam secretary one area i've been working extensively with chairman wax man and senators rockefeller and whitehouse on is legislation that would strengthen the federal health care quality infrastructure in order to identify and track key health indicators as well as to develop and implement new science across the states. what this bill does that we introduced would tab national priorities for health care quality and specifies that pediatric health quality is one of the first. and a lot of this legislation has now been incorporated into discussion draft that we're talking about today. but the draft bill also contains a provision that requires the director of the agency for health care research and quality to work with you, as secretary, to develop quality measures for the delivery of health care services in the united states. i think this is an important requirement but i'm worried about the implications for pediatric health care quality measures because even though discussion draft requires the measures to be designed to assess the delivery of health care services to individuals, reg

chairman rockefeller, welcome back, and thank you for holding this very critical hearing today mr.cause obviously we are grappling with a devastating affects the sad state of affairs on a comes to the domestic auto industry. the two not provide the requisite leadership television ingenuity to transform the industry and also a lovely has led us the taxpayers to provide a massive infusion of more than $70 billion to chrysler and general motors and now we are confrontingç the reality for te worst economic recession and i sense of depression and, of course, we now hear more than 2,000 auto dealerships that are facing closure and will be disenfranchised think no fault ofç their own and their loyal d longstanding small businesses in the communities in you have already heard and the companies represented provide no clarity with respect to exactly how wide it has come to the specific decision that they have made little longer provide any transparency with respect to these decisions for theçç arbitrariness of the time frame in which is of use are compelled to make these so it is a very

mr. rockefeller, proposes an amendment numbered 1347. mr. reid reid: i ask further reg of the amendment be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: it's my understanding that there is a cloture motion at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the dorgan amendment number 1347 to s. 1023, the travel promotion act of 2009. signed by 17 senators as follows -- mr. reid: mr. president, i would ask consent that further reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: but die ask for the yeas and -- but i do ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. there is. 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: t

mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the letters that i received from actually -- actually senator rockefeller and i received from mr. henderson and mr. press, g.m. and chrysler respectively, would be made a part of the "congressional record" along with my statement. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mrs. hutchison: thank you, mr. president. and i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. binge map ding man: mr. bingaman: mr. president, twice in the last two weeks i have requested unanimous consent to consider calendar number 97, and i'd like to do that again that the time. we've advised the republican side of the aisle that i will be doing that, so i will proceed with that at this point. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent -- mrs. hutchison: mr. president? excuse me. mr. bingaman: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 97, the nomination of hillary chandler tompkins to be the solicitor of the department of interior, that the nomination be con

mr. casey: thank you. this is cosponsored by senators dodd, rockefeller, brown, whitehouse and sanders. i'll highlight some of the features of it. first of all, it starts with a recognition that the medicaid program is a cornerstone of the nation's health insurance infrastructure. it notes in the resolution that medicaid covers a quarter of all children in the country -- one quarter -- and half of all poor children. it notes as well that medicaid has been shown to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care and provides coverage for two out of every five african-american american and children. it provides benefits for infants and young children. it has care coordination benefits to support at-risk children and its administrative spending -- medicaid's administrative spending is lower than that through heist insurance. here's the end -- through private insurance. here's the end of the resolution. i'm summarizing here. it is the intent of this resolution to say that the nation's health care system shall benefit all children -- all children -- and that no child shall be worse off a