mr. schumer: i will happy to yield to my colleague. mr. sessions: i know that the senator raised the question of doing for this nominee as for the others, if this goes forward as planned, it would be 48 day from nomination announcement, really, to the first hearing. i think -- i wonder if senator from new york would acknowledge that for justice breyer, 65 days, judge roberts was 55, the shortest and so this would be a shorter period of time that would be given for this nominee who has 3,500 cases. and i would ask if the senator remembers saying with regard to the alito nomination when our democratic nominees asked that it be held over past christmas and at their request it was done so, he said -- quote -- "it is more important to do it right than to do it quickly. and now we have a bipartisan agreement to do that." so we just simply ask for a bipartisan agreement to do it right and not too fast. and i don't know how we can work it out but i think this isable arbitrary date designed to move this thing forward by a certain end game faster th

mr. schumer: i will happy to yield to my colleague. mr. sessions: i know that the senator raised the question of doing for this nominee as for the others, if this goes forward as planned, it would be 48 day

quorum call: quorum call: schumer mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator new york. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. i rise to speak on two issues this afternoon to my colleagues. one is the nomination of judge sonia sotomayor for the united states supreme court, and the second is on the public option in health care. now, first on judge sotomayor. several of my colleagues from across the aisle have come to the floor today to attack judge sotomayor's nomination to the supreme court, and i must say, i think these attacks are entirely misplaced. i've always had a consistent standard for evaluating judicial nominees. i use it when voting for them. i use it when joining in in the nomination process, as i did under president bush and continue to under president obama. and those three standards are excellence, moderation, and diversity. i am confident that judge sotomayor meets these criteria, based on my review thus far of her lengthy and impr

mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: thank you. first let me thank my friend and colleague from illinois for his strong and forceful words, meaningful, bringing it home, as he always does, in a very strong and good way about individuals and how they are affected. i'd like to talk a little bit about where we're at in health care and where we have to go. let me just say, mr. president, that about ten years ago -- i can't remember the exact time -- there was a, one of the major issues we faced was called the patient bill of rights. people felt, doctors felt, patients felt, everyone felt that h.m.o.'s were taking undue advantage of them. doctors, a patient needed desperately a prescription. they'd call up some accountant in a faraway city, couldn't get approval and the patient wouldn't get the medicine. it sort of hit home. there was a movie called "as good as it gets." it had jack ni coleson and can't remember the name of the woman who was the star in there as well. and the family couldn't get the health care they needed because the h

mr. schumer: i thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent i be given five more. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. schumer: the republicans rejected the single-payer plan. and so at the onset of this debate, we met them halfway with a framework that continues to largely rely on private insurers. so then we said if we're going to continue rely mostly on private insurance, can we at least introduce greater competition into the market by having a public plan as one option. the republicans, most at least -- just about all, i think -- rejected that too. we said, well, what if we insured that -- what if we insured that the public plan had to adhere to the same rules as private insurers? thus, guaranteeing a level playing field. the republicans here in the senate -- not in the country -- but the republicans here in the senate still said no, even a level playing field. so, some democrats came up with a new idea. what if we relied on a co-op model that has served rural states well? in a good-faith attempt to consider this idea, i proposed some ideas

mr. schumer: madam president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. carper: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. carper: thank you very much. madam president, in the constitution, we see laid out before us a framework of how our government is supposed to work, three branches, legislative, executive, judicial. and we also find in the constitution what our relative responsibilities are, not with great detail but with some definitiveness. ironically, one of the requirements that the constitution provides for us in this country is that every 10 years we try to count everybody. we have a census, and most nations do that, and we've been doing that since really for over 200 years. it doesn't get any easier. in fact, every year -- every 10 years it gets harder and it also gets to be more expensive. the record of the census does not

mr. schumer: i thank my colleague and friend from illinois for his outstanding words once again on health care. and on the fact that we need some kind of check on the insurance companies -- our colleagues offer nothing, they just point to canada and england which is a totally different system than we are focusing on. second, i thank my colleague from oregon doing a great job in his first year in the senate for his generosity so i can speak for a brief moment, share with my colleagues some words about an act of bravery that occurred in my state yesterday. mr. president, as the senate right now debates some of the biggest national issues of our time, it's important to sometimes take a step back and look to see some of the great acts that are happening every day in our towns, cities and states. so lied like to call -- so i'd like to call attention to an act of heroicness yesterday morning at south orange town middle school in new york, in rock land county, 45 minutes from new york city, a disgruntled man with a gun stormed into the school superintendent and grabbed the superintendent by the

mr. senator. >> senator schumer. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it is good to call you mr. chairman. i have three questions. i will get them done quickly. i know you have to get to the house and do the same thing here. so my appreciation and sympathies. first on hate crimes. i know you spoke about the need to pass improved hate crimes. i believe we have to move this legislation quickly. it is hard for me to believe that people oppose hate crime legislation aimed to protect any group, whether it be religious, racial, ethnic, or sexual orientation. would the administration support a move to bring hate crimes up very quickly here and help us try to get that through you. >> i testified on behalf of these hate crimes legislation, so i don't think this is something we're doing in great haste. this is something we've been thinking about for a decade, and given the recent events we have seen in that this station, i think the need for that legislation is all that much more apparent. >> second, my staff has been working with yours and the white house on a reporter shield bill. senator spectre

mr. chairman, i do have an opening statement but i would be happy to let senator schumer introduce the nominee. i would be happy to. >> please go ahead. >> okay. mr. chairman, thank you. thank you forolding this hearing. i have met with mr. genikowski and am, too, very impressed. i think he certainly has the capability to handle this job and it is a big one, as the president -- i mean as the chairman has said. eloquently. i want to talk about a couple of areas that i think are very important and where the fcc is going to have a major role. of course, broadband. we know that there was a major commitment to broadband help in the stimulus package and the fcc is currently putting together a broadband map. i believe it is so important that we assure that everyone has broadband access before we go into underserved areas. unserved should come before underserved as a matter of a level playing field where some have already made an investment, but also because our rural areas must be able to have broadband before we go into an area that has some but not enough. secondly, broadcasters have certainly been

mr. attorney general. >> thank you, senator. >> senator schumer? >> thank you, mr. chairman. it's good to call you mr. chairman. i have three questions. we'll try to get them done quickly. i know you have to get to the house and do the same thing here. so my appreciation and sympathies. first on hate crimes, i know you've spoken on the need to pass improved hate crimes legislation. i think we have to move this legislation quickly. it seems -- it's hard for me to believe that people oppose hate crimes legislation aimed -- you know, aimed to protect any group. whether it be religious, racial, ethnic or sexual orientation. would the administration support a move to bring hate crimes up very quickly here and help us try to get that through? >> absolutely, senator. this is a priority for us. i testified on behalf of this hate crimes bill 10 years ago when i was the deputy attorney general so i don't think this is something that we're doing in great haste. i mean, this is something we've been talking about for a decade and given the recent events that we've seen in the nation, i think the need for this legi

mr. chairman and ranking member hutchison have laid before him and i'm proud to introduce him to this committee. thank you very much for letting me testify. >> thank you very much, senator schumer. we value you greatly and your presence is most welcome. >> i would like to call now on senator clobuchar. >> mr. chairman, i'm very pleased today to be here for mr. genikowski's nomination. i see his family is here which is very exciting. i met his young son out by the bathroom, which was also very exciting, and i'm very pleased after meeting with him and just his focus on what he wants to do at the agency. one of my pet peeves is while the agency's website was at one point a really ground-breaking website, i think it's kind of fallen behind and a lot of people complain about access on the website. i was glad that he wanted to look at that. i was telling him outside that the dtv transition is going at least in my state, i won't speak for anyone, better than we thought and that the fcc commissioner mcdowell and i talked about this on friday, and the commerce department have worked together on this and i think a lot of our fears were unfounded. of course, there are problems and glitche

mr. chairman. i want to go back to comments that both senator schumer and senator shelby made.senator shelby raised the point of, like your analogy, we got this bear, aig, and we don't know what to deal with it. and senator corker and i when secretary geithner was in recently -- >> senator warner, let me apologize. i did not see bob corker walk into the room. my colleague from tennessee. >> i was about to say good thins and you cut me off. >> no, my apologies, and my apologies to my colleague from my colleague from tennessee. senator corker? >> i'll let him ask his first question and come back. >> he thinks so highly of you.

mr. chairman. i want to go back to comments that both senator schumer and senator shelby made. senator shelby raised the point of, like your analogy, we got this bear, aig, and we don't know what to deal with it. and senator corker and i when secretary geithner was in recently -- >> senator warner, let me apologize. i did not see bob corker walk into the room. my colleague from tennessee. >> i was about to say good thins and you cut me off. >> no, my apologies, and my apologies to my colleague from my colleague from tennessee. senator corker? >> i'll let him ask his first question and come back. >> he thinks so highly of you. very smart of you, senator warner. >> i'm learning, mr. chairman. i'm learning. but we pressed -- we were very concerned and i think a lot of folks were very concerned about the whole aig situation. we were concerned about the fact that 100% payoffs with the counterparties with aig, and no haircut taking and secretary geithner said he didn't have authority and now there's a precedent set and consequently even if we tried to give him authority perhaps it co

mr. leahy: i thank the distinguished presiding officer and my friend. i also want to thank senator menendez and senator schumer for their outstanding statements in the senate today. they spoke about judge sonia sotomayor, and i could not help but think as i reviewed judge sotomayor's record in preparation for her confirmation hearing on july 13, a review that i would assume all senators are doing, i was struck by her extraordinary career and how she's excelled at everything she's done. i know how proud her mother, selina, a registered nurse, is of her accomplishments. and i was delighted to -- this goes across political lines. i was delighted to hear laura bush, the foreman first lad they recently too she's proud president obama nominated a woman to serve on the supreme court. you know, i -- i recall that justice ginsburg said she was cheered by the announcement and that she's glad she's no longer going to be the lone woman out of nine members of the court. now, i contrast this to reaction to president bush's naming of justice o'connor's successor a few years ago when justice o'connor conceded her disappointme

thank senator schumer for taking the time to introducing me and for his decision 24 years ago to give a young college graduate his first job. thank you for the chance to introduce my family. mr. chairman, it's a tremendous honor to have been nominated by president obama to serve as the chairman of the federal communications commission. and while this hearing is an honor for me it's even more so for my family. it's a celebration of the hopes and dreams that brought my parents to the united states about 50 years ago. my parents are immigrants. my father fled the nazi terror and ultimately came to the united stas. my mother joined him and together they raised a@@@@%7rrrr but the core lesson has remained with me. communications technology has the power to transform lives for the better. we've all seen and lived and many of the members spoke about it in their heap oeping statements. the i wemplications of the communications revolution. we saw the world reshaped by communications technology. the telephone, radio, television, satellite, computers and the birth of the internet. now in 91st century, communications has a potential to unwave newlea new waves s nh innovati innovation. t

schumer box. i wondered if he really offered you that. but i chose not to do that because you had such a nice and positive hearing, we won't end that way. thanks, mr. genachowski. >> thank you. anybody else have any other questions? thank you very, very much for your time here today and for making yourself available. and i know you visited with many of us if not all of us privately in our offices, and we appreciate that. and i also think something that others have alluded to is very true and that is this agency is extremely important and will really benefit from your leadership and your management style there. and i just think it's going to be a great era for the fcc. so thank you for your public service, and if there are no more questions, we'll excuse you and your family. if you would like to stay, you can. if you'd like to leave, that's completely up to you. i will say one last thing before you leave is that we are asking all the senators who have follow-up questions to get those to you or get those to us by 6:00 p.m. today. and that's a good sign for you because that means we're going to try to expedite your confirmation as much as possible. b

senator schumer for taking the time to introducing me and for his decision 24 years ago to give a young college graduate his first job. thank you for the chance to having introduced my family. mr. chairman, it is a tremendous honor to have been nominated by president obama to serve as chairman of the federal communications commission. and while this hearing is an honor for me, it is something even more for my family. it's a celebration of the hope and dreams that brought my parents to the united states about 50 years ago. my parents are immigrants. my father fled the nazi terror and ultimately came to the united states. my mother joined him, and together they raised a loving family and became role models for their children. my father is a hard working businessman, my mother is a hard working homemaker, both completely committed to family and community. from my parents i learned the meaning of the american dream. i learned something else too. my father came to the u.s. to study engineering. i'll never forget the day i was in high school about as old as my oldest son is now. my dad and i were on a college trip to boston. i remember him leading me into the dusty stacks of mit lib

mr. schumer: mad p