mr. sanders: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank the senator from maryland not only for his important remarks now but for year after year the strong work that he is doing in trying to create jobs in america in sustainable energy. now i'd like to yield to the senator from rhode island for his thoughts. mr. whitehouse: thank you, senator sanders. i want to go back to this question of the jobs and the economic value that we get from clean energy. the department of energy reports that the clean energy sector alone directly employs nearly 1.6 million in the united states. nearly 1.6 million families depending on the paycheck they get from the clean energy sector within that, we've -- it's growing, the u.s. has created over 100,000 solar-focused jobs. 100,000 solar-focused jobs and at least 75,000 jobs related to wind energy installation in 2010. in rhode island we're seeing that coming on, the newspaper today, "the providence journal" reported on a permit application pour the cable that will connect an off-shore wind faci

mr. sanders, you have a question? spaight whether you were aware. >> i'm not aware of that particular phrase. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> we were not ever. >> thank you. the chairman says when we have our inquiry in 2009 the evidence given by the news international executives was rather helpless. they said was a game plan. but they didn't know anything. they couldn't remember it. so we can get on a reasonable funding what sort of coaching you had today and whose advise you on how to handle them on what advice. with respect to de after scheduling this disappearance, we took advice around with the context of the setting and it is my first time and my father's i think first time in a committee meeting like this mostly logistics and what sort of presence but we were advised fundamentally to tell the truth, and to come and be as open and transparent as possible, and that is my and my father's intent and intention and we hope we can show you that that is what is happening. >> we have a rather handoff approach the point y

mr. sanders: i was saying, mr.president, at this moment before the end of the year's work, it's a strange moment in congress because you have behind closed doors negotiators from the house and the senate, republicans and democrats trying to put together large and complicated bills. and the concern that i have -- and i speak only for myself, but i think other members in the senate feel the same way -- is that we're suddenly going to be given a fait accompli, a complicated and long bill with many implications, many very important provisions. and then we're asked to vote on it with really not having had much input into the bill or even the ability to digest it fully and know what it means to our constituents. let me just touch on some of the issues that concern me. and let me also say that what i am going to be referring to are reports in the media. i don't know what will be in the final product. i'm not sure that anybody does. but here is some of what the media is reporting that might be in the payroll holiday tax bi

mr. sanders: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont's recognized. mr. sanders: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i wanted to say a few words about an issue of enormous importance to the people of the state of vermont and people all over this country and that is the issue of making sure that in america this winter nobody goes cold, that nobody freezes to death, that children do not become ill because the thermostats in their homes are turned down so low. and the issue that i am talking about is to ask for support for legislation that is being introduced by senator jack reed of rhode island and senator olympia snowe of maine which would level fund the liheap program at $4.7 billion. and as most of my colleagues know, the liheap program is the low-income heating energy assistance program. here is the problem that we face, mr. president. we are in the midst of a horrendous recession. unemployment is sky-high. in many cases, wages are in decline. poverty is creatio increasing. and at the same time, the price for home heating oil and propane gas is goin

mr. sanders: thank you, madam president. madam madamadam president, i am offerg today an amendment to modify the u.s. constitution. i do not do this lightly nor have i ever done something like this before. the u.s. constitution is an extraordinary document which has served our country well for over 200 years, and in my view it should not be amended often. but, in light of the disastrous supreme court's 5-4 decision in the citizens united case, i see no alternative but a constitutional amendment. i should add that a similar resolution has been offered in the house by congressman ted deutsche of florida. this constitutional amendment is supported by such grass-roots organizations as public citizens, people for the american way, and the center for media and democracy. madam president, let me go on record as strongly as i can and as clearly as i can in stating that i strongly disagree with the supreme court's citizens united decision. in my view, a corporation is not a person. in my view, a corporation does not have first amendm

desmond lachman, anthony sanders, mr. douglas j. elliot, dr. joshua rosner, mr. bert ely. know at least four of you had testified before. it is standard practice that all witnesses be sworn. if you will please rise. do you solemnly swear that the testimony you give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? you may be seated. let the record reflect that all the witnesses answered in affirmative. seen as you have testified before, if you will see the ones before you. this means what it means when you are at a stoplight. green means go. we will recognize mr. lachman for 5 minutes. >> thank you. forgive me to testify you. in my oral statement, i like to set up the reasons that there of the basic of again participation in the months ahead. it could resolve within the next 12 months. it really does have a sense of urgency. i do not like to care of the risks that they pose. the economic recovery should be an intensification of the crisis and lost to consider the various measures. they have been undertaken by the imf and fed reserve to diffuse the crisis. over

mr. president. joining me now is senator bernie sanders, independent from vermont. he's trying to roll back the gop's attempt to protect corporations in the citizens united ruling. senator, we'll go into your plan in a minute. but first, how far will republicans go to protect the rich, in your opinion? >> i think there's no stopping them, i think that is what they conceive their political mission to be. they receive a lot of funding from campaign contributions from the wealthy and large corporations. and they're going to go down the line fighting to make sure that we continue to have the kind of horrendous income and wealth inequality in this country, fighting to preserve all of these incredible loopholes that enable enormously profitable corporations, in some case, al, making billions of dollars a year, not to pay one nickel in taxes. and then on the other side, what they want to do is balance the budget by slashing social security, medicare, medicaid and education. there's a lot of discussion about class warfare. i think these guys are waging class warfare against

mr. brokaw's comments. but first, mad as hell, senator bernie sanders joins us next on the disconnect between washington and the rest of the united states. plus, the holiday menu in washington, pigs in a blanket, mini meatballs, and a healthy serving of wall street cash ealth probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you up to thousands of dollars. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp

sanders and then mr. ely. >> um, again, i see mr. elliott's point. a delay might make some sense. however, the problem is that if you look at many major banks around the world -- europe, the united states -- if you mark their books to market on all their asset-backed securities and mbs, they'd all be insolvent. so i think that signal's already out there. so under those set of circumstances, i don't see the necessity the fed to keep everything blind. >> okay, let's go to mr. lachman. >> i think in this day and age it's naive to think you can keep the markets ignorant to what's going on. there's an enormous amount of chatter that takes place in the money markets and the analysts. but the real downside of trying not to disclose information in any kind of approaching realtime basis is rumors develop. and so people may make judgments and basically kind of see false negatives in the sense that they will assume that maybe the problem is more widespread or spread to a particular institution when it, in fact, is not. >> okay. >> the downside is not disclosing information. >> thank you very

mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator sanders. >> i think it is just important to reiterate to make sure we have it in the record that after all of the attacks about the quote unquote hostile work environment that in the major surveys that are done on various government agencies in terms of being the best places to work time after time on issue after issue, the nrc comes out to be number one and number two out of 30 or 31 agencies. that's pretty good. i would congratulate leadership for the nrc and others for making that happen. there is an issue that has concerned me for a while. other members of the senate have to vote, we got onto the table. we say yes, we say no and two seconds the whole world knows how we vote. but you guys have a much more obscure and complicated process. and it concerns me very much. so i am going to ask you a very, very simple question. to increase accountability for the american people know how you are addressing in 39. important issues. but each of you commit to conduct both in public, where people can

sanders is professor of finance in the school of management at george mason university. douglas elliott is a fellow at the brookings institute. joshua roger is with rand fisher and company. mr. birch e. lee --burt ealey is an adjunct scholar at the cato institute. four of you have testified as before, but it is standard practice of receiving government reform committee that'll witnesses be sworn so please rise and raise your right hand. do you swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the old truth and nothing but the truth? you may be seated. let the record reflect that all the witnesses answered in the affirmative. seeing as you have testified before if you will summarize your statement you will see red, yellow and green lines before you. when yellow pops up that means just what it means when you are at a stoplight. hurry up. so obviously green beans go and read means stop. i recognize dr. laughlin for five minutes. >> thank you, chairman mchenry and members of the committee for giving me this honor to testify before you this morning. in my oral statement what i would like to do is three things. the things -- there's going to be significant an

you saw berny sanders vote against extending the payroll tax cut because of their various issues with social security. host: here is a tweet from james allen. mr. allen writes this, which is economists agree, economy suffers from lack of demand. payroll tax holiday is designed to increase consumer demand. let's go back to telephone calls. the next one here is kevin. republicans from more shal, texas. hey kevin, you're on. caller: thank you, c-span. i'm against extending the payroll tax holiday. i think it was a brilliant move by the president and the democrats. i mean, a tax cut to republicans is like a bone to a dog. if you can throw one out there they'll chase it every time. but the problem is redistribution, this is exactly what this is. when we have half the country not paying any income tax, some of them do peyton manning roll tax. but if you're going to get rid of that too, you get into a form that more people are not paying taxes than people that are paying taxes. and then every other situation like that in a democracy, the call will always be to raise taxes. i mean why would anyone want to raise taxes if you're not paying taxes. i beli

sanders. i will take mine at the end. >> i'm not comfortable with the direction in which this questioning is going. i think the door was open by mr. barasso. we were asking the chairman to comment on issues he was not aware of. the door was opened by senator barasso and the other senator, so i'm going to ask another question. >> this is what huffington post said, "in an effort to overthrow the chairman of the nuclear regulatory commission, and its most likely successor if the move was successful served as the -- the company that owns the nuclear power plant in fukushima, obtained by the huffington post." another comment, "when magwood was nominated in 2009 to become the commissioner nearly 100 environmental groups along with the government and project oversight urged his defeat to the group tasked at reregulating it." "magwood has watered down regulationed in those made public following the feekshumia disaster. they have made an effort to increase safety standards. an effort being watched closely by nuclear companies across the globe." let me ask -- we have to ask some questions as well. this article suggests that if for whatever

sanders. i want to thank the c.e.o. of the marshals museum jim dunn and jim johnson and soon they'll be conducting nationwide campaigns to see that the funding is possible to construct this museum. mr. speaker, i'm proud to have sponsored this legislation. i also want to thank my friend john boozman, my predecessor, who began this process in a previous congress and will work hard in the senate to champion this legislation through the other body but i'm proud to have been the sponsor, but more than anything i'm proud of what the u.s. marshal service means to our country and i am anxiously looking forward to the construction of this museum so that we can showcase the museum, the institution of the marshal service, and the great city of fort smith and the third district of arkansas to all who will come and see. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. meeks: i yield myself such time as i may consume. mr. speaker, i'm a proud -- i am proud to support h.r. 886, the united states marshal services' 225th anniversary commemorative coin act this bill honors our nation's oldest law enforcement, oldest federal law en

sanders. i will take mine at the end. >> i'm not comfortable with the direction in which this questioning is going, and i think the door was open by mr. barrasso. i think we're asking chairman to comment on issues he's not even aware of. we're into this meeting of your wife business. the door has been opened. it was opened by mr. barrasso, the door was opened by senator vitter, so i'll ask mr. magwood a question. it was quoted from the "new york times," and i'll quote from "huffington post," one of the larger internet publications in the country. this is what it says on december 12th, to 20* 11. "the man at the ender of the effort to overthrow the chairman at the nuclear regulatory commission and likely successor if the move is successful, served as a -- and part of the nomination and confirmation process which is obtained by the huffington post. another comment in the piece, "when magwood was nominated by president obama in 2009 to become a commissioner, nearly 100 environmental groups along with the project and government oversight urged his defeat in the senate arguing he was too close to the industry to regulate it." further quot

you saw berny sanders vote against extending the payroll tax cut because of their various issues with social security. host: here is a tweet from james allen. mr. allen writes this, which is economists agree, economy suffers from lack of demand. payroll tax holiday is designed to increase consumer demand. let's go back to telephone calls. the next one here is kevin. republicans from more shal, texas. hey kevin, you're on. caller: thank you, c-span. i'm against extending the payroll tax holiday. i think it was a brilliant move by the president and the democrats. i mean, a tax cut to republicans is like a bone to a dog. if you can throw one out there they'll chase it every time. but the problem is redistribution, this is exactly what this is. when we have half the country not paying any income tax, some of them do peyton manning roll tax. but if you're going to get rid of that too, you get into a form that more people are not paying taxes than people that are paying taxes. and then every other situation like that in a democracy, the call will always be to raise taxes. i mean why would anyone want to raise taxes if you're not paying taxes. i beli

desmond lachman, anthony sanders, mr. douglas j. elliot, dr. joshua rosner, mr. bert ely. i know at least four of you had testified before. it is standard practice that all witnesses be sworn. if you will please rise. do you solemnly swear that the testimony you give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? you may be seated. let the record reflect that all the witnesses answered in affirmative. seen as you have testified before, if you will see the ones before you. this means what it means when you are at a stoplight. green means go. we will recognize mr. lachman for 5 minutes. >> thank you. forgive me to testify you. in my oral statement, i like to set up the reasons that there of the basic of again participation in the months ahead. it could resolve within the next 12 months. it really does have a sense of urgency. i do not like to care of the risks that they pose. the economic recovery should be an intensification of the crisis and lost to consider the various measures. they have been undertaken by the imf and fed reserve to diffuse the crisis. ov

mr. udall: i would thank the chairman for working with me on this. i think he gave us a modification that's a good one. this amendment i'm offering with senator schumer and senator sanders closes the buy american loopholes and applies buy american requirements to solar projects that are funded by the department of defense to meet energy goals in this bill. if american taxpayer funds are used to improve our military bases' energy security, then american solar firms should have the ability to compete. we know that other nations like china are spending vast resources to become leaders in the solar power market. think about it this way: china does not spend its tax dollars on u.s. solar panels pat chinese military bases. the presiding officer: the senator will suspend. the national is not in order. a senator: regular order. the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. udall: why should congress provide -- the presiding officer: the senator has used his one minute. time has expired. mr. udall: and i thank senator mccain. i thank senator levin. i ask that my full statement be included in the record and i appreciate their help on this amendment. mr. mccain: i yield