mr. secretary, the floor is yours. it's a pleasure to be before you, my first time appearing before you about the treasury's budget and i look forward to having a close working relationship and i look forward to having to answer the very important questions you raise in your opening statements. while we see some initial signs of economic improvement, and i think you could say that the force of the storm is weakening a bit. and although the financial system has begun to heal, our country faces substantial economic and financial challenges. the president and administration are working to meet these challenges and we're working hard to get our americans back to work and to get our economy back to a growth path again by committing to restoring fiscal discipline and fiscal recovery and by making the health care reform in energy and education necessary to improve the productive capacity of our economy and to ensure that over the longer term we enhance the competitiveness of the u.s. economy. to achieve these goals we're work

mr. secretary another issue that keeps coming up is regulatory shopping. in other words financial instituti institutions will figure out which regulator gives them the most advantages. i saw this on the state level 20 years ago where we would have a financial institution come in and threaten to switch to a federal charter because our audits were too tough or our consumer protections were too strong. i don't think that it's a coincidence that aig bought a small federally chartered threat or established a small federally chartered thrift in order to get on the regulation on the office of thrift supervision ots. which is generally viewed as being a weaker regulator than the comptroller of the currency. are you looking, as part of your reforms, on combining the ots with the occ? that's what my bill does to me, i think it's a brilliant idea and needs to be done. >> senator, you're absolutely right, one of things that help produced this crisis was in our country, we allowed people to choose the regulator. to put risk in areas where it would be least well regulat

mr. chairman. secretarygeithner, you mentioned that we're reluctantly in a position of holding shares of general motors and perhaps in a position of controlling other institutions, but we're doing so reluctantly. i'm so reluctant to be one of those holders of that stock, that i'm introducing a resolution as a sense of the senate resolution that we begin the process to divest ourselves of the stock ownership over a reasonable period of time, making clear that we're only a temporary shareholder and that we should take all steps to protect the american taxpayer dollars and begin to invest the ownership as expeditiously as possible and call for a gao study to help determine the period of time that it may take to return gm and chrysler's solvency and complete its divestiture. i think that says what i'd like to say. in addition, i've heard it said that for those who worry that somehow we're drifting into socialism, that socialism is where the government wants to take over profitable ventures as opposed to being wh

mr. chairman. welcome, secretary geithner. everyone knows over the past year that we have had a major economic storm raging, a great damage to everyone, the federal government. we responded to the crisis with aggressive and unprecedented, but unfortunately at hot, actions through taxpayer funded bailouts corporations to big to fail. -- but unfortunately ad hoc. we have seen some green shoots, but there are some wondering whether those will wither away. consumer debt is remaining high , significant leverage is happening, and the lingering questions about the solvency of banks. are we seeing a dead cat bounce in the markets? economic recovery occur or be sustained and so we just the root cause of the crisis -- until we adjusted the root cause of the crisis. president obama told us in january that we cannot have a recovery until we get the toxic assets out. these are questions i want to follow up with. of the size of the stimulus is now causing questions from the federal reserve. if we get into the position of monetizing our debt

mr. secretary, that you gave to this issue, how could there possibly be a lack of adequate training in regard to avoiding civilian casualties in afghanistan? >> very complex environment, for an extended time, complex change of platforms involved in the fight. exposed some deficiencies from a trading standpoint that we have to back all the way up into our schools here and make sure that that is trained with in a reversal exercises, etc. as the fighting changes over time, we constantly adapt. what we found from this investigation very thoroughly is there were some things -- there's an awful lot of things that went well. there are some things from a training perspective that we have to face. >> with their excess of deficiency in this case? -- was their excessive deficiency in this case? [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> up next, a house hearing on the privacy issues involved in internet advertising. then syndicated columnist george will from thursday's "washington journal." and the ceo of the chicago federal reserv

mr. secretary, is there evidence and reports that mistakes or problems that you both mentioned contributed directly to the civilian casualties and does it rise to a level where there needs to be disciplinary action? >> again, without going into the specific details of this, this was a light the fire fight -- this was a long fire fight. this was along the line of seven, eight hours. it is very intense. it was handled very well by the young captain on the ground who was in charge of it. at least in my review, i found nothing that would lead to the need to take any specific action along the lines of what you are asking. it was a tough fight. what he was mostly concerned about was defending his people. there were some injuries. there was a medevac involved in this. i thought what he did, with the capability he had, was supportive of his overall requirement at the time. but it went from day to night, it was a complex operation, sustained, etc., and were there some issues along the lines of what i talked about that we have to adjust? absolutely, and we will do that. >> i think it is worth making

mr. chairman, as soon as you finish. >> what i'm saying is we're not asking the secretary to come back at this time. >> mr. chairman -- point of order, the secretary is hear to speak on the single most important piece of legislation, most far reaching piece of legislation in my 15 years in the united states congress. there are at least four members here, at least four, maybe five or more, who have not had an opportunity to question her. we fully understand her schedule. she has important things to do. that's perfectly all right. it would be unreasonable for this committee given the scope of legislation that is moving to ask the secretary to come back sometime before this bill moves to full committee. >> what i'm saying to you, and i will repeat again is the following. the secretary is here to give the administration's response to the discussion draft. i am not asking her to commit at this time to come back. first of all i don't know her schedule. i don't know whether that's possible. miss blackburn can ask, but i don't want her to feel she has to mitt. >> point of order, mr. chairman. >>

mr. chairman. ma dm secretary i'm in the broom closet behind the kid's table which is where they keep me on this committee. during your -- and welcome to our committee this morning. during your confirmation hearing before the senate, i believe the statement was made, you said if confirmed i'll not only be an eager partner to work with congress, but that i understand bipartisanship. is that a reasonable fact similar lee of the testimony that day? >> yes, sir. >> i know that this senate health committee, the ranking member has sent a letter june 16th and a follow-up to a request submitted on june 10th sent by the ranking member of the senate health committee they note that the despite providing technical assistance to the majority regarding the affordable health choices act that same courtesy had not been made available to the minority of the committee. when can we and i'll tell the senate to expect that you're going to help them with the republicans on the senate health committee the same technical assistance that

mr. secretary, you say that people were sent to the convention center. there was no water, no food, no beds, no authorities there. there was no planning. it is fair to say you're thinking about running for president in 2008? >> is fair, yes. >> i felt like i was hitting a home run off the best pitcher in the league. >> i have not had so much since my last interrogation. [laughter] [applause] >> tonight, we dedicate this dinner to the headline, tony snow, and tim russert. these were fine journalists. >> ladies and gentleman, the court later chad program of fox news. >> this is one of the first time to present what to watch somebody from fox for a few minutes. [applause] this is a special part of our program or recognize our colleagues with a the david bloom awards. these honors recognize some of the best reporting in the business. the first award as a nun -- is a not to outstanding achievement in covering public policy and politics on capitol hill. previous winners come from national public radio, nbc and cbs, and cnn. this year's judges were betsy fisher

that is very much on the radar screen and it should be soon. >> thank you very much madam secretary. >> thank you mr. chairman and then secretary. it is great to have you here and i want to associate myself with the common bipartisan sentiment by directing money toward specific diseases. if i was drawing on personal examples i would talk about alzheimer's and ms in my family. if i was looking at my district i would talk about diabetes and the native american population. once we go down the slope we would have a lot of arguments here that would be well intentioned but probably not productive for us and i don't think i have opened the door for two and not open it up for all. let me ask you specifically. i think, but i want to make sure, is the president's position on healthcare now that it would be mandatory everybody participate, somewhat of a shift from the campaign, so has the made that decision yet? >> he has not congressman. key, as you know in the campaign he supported a mandate with regard to parents with children. he did not support any individual mandate. i think what he has it pretty consist

mr. chairman. madam secretary, i introduced legislation with then congressman rahm emanuel, and congressman chris smith from new jersey, called the independence at home act, and the bill created a medicare pilot project focused on improving the coordination of care and reducing costs for the vulnerable medicare beneficiaries, those with multiple severe chronic conditions, such as alzheimer's, als, parkinson's and other complex debilitating diseases who also need help with two or more activities of daily living, such as dressing, feeding, et cetera. cbo has reported that 5% of medicare beneficiaries account for 43% of overall medicare spending, and cms has noted that approximately 20% of medicare beneficiaries are with five or more chronic conditions account for 66% of program spending. could you talk a little bit about how we can focus on those medicare beneficiaries with multiple chronic diseases, and how perhaps a program like that focusing on home and better coordination can help reduce the costs? >> well, we h

mr. secretary. >> chris. how are you. >> the members from the foreign service here. >> a lifetime appointment. a lifetime honorific. >> you just finish? >> i'm going to another thing. >> you just finished the show? >> yeah. >> good. nice to see you. >> i can't believe it. he has been reporting that he and the vice president thought -- you never know what it is -- that the interrogate temperatures over in iraq to try to get information out of a guy because they thought they could demonstrate that iraq was tied to 9/11. that was their political purpose for torture? it comes out the purpose of torture was to get information, security information. >> i would be off the reservation on that issue. >> trying to prove that iraq had wmd when it didn't. now we fine out maybe, if it's proven, we were using a pretty terrible message to prove a political point. >> what do you make of the press conference today? >> i didn't think it was successful. >> killed you see what rove wrote in "the wall street journal." >> i think

mr. secretary, thank you, and good luck. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> starting tomorrow, look for our newly redesigned web site for booktv.org. you can share the videos you are watching with everyone you know. the redesigned booktv.org. look for it, starting tomorrow. >> in a few moments, alaska senator murkowski on the energy bill. after that, president obama talks about the future of health care. later, we hear from treasury secretary timothy geithner. on "washington journal" tomorrow, we will discuss the supplemental spending bill with jane hamsher. dr. bernadine healy in on at 9:00 a.m.. unexpected encounters. "washington journal" on c-span, every day, 7:00 a.m. eastern. a couple of live events to tell you about on our companion network, c-span3, tomorrow. a subcommittee holds a meeting on insurance industry oversight at 10:00 a.m. eastern. they will look at policies that might threaten the financial system. later, the senat

mr. secretary, whichever hagee you may be wearing can go to one of the bankrupt of companies. senator kyl has joined. >> i support the kyl-bennett -- just kidding. [laughter] the joint to excellent ideas together on something critical. first american people are really fed up with this notion of the federal government taking over business and running those businesses. and part of this is response to that, but there is a very good governance aspect of this i want to bring to your attention. you know, the government of the united states of america is made up of the people. the people came first. adis week, the people come to form the union and get the government some of our rights and then we will see where it goes from there. so the people are the government of the united states. when we talk about the government owning something it is the people who own it and so it is the people who should have share of stock, not the government. and that is the first great idea here. that the stock in this company the people now alone would be held by the people. now it's not just an abstract

mr. secretary, whichever hat you may be wearing gang goes to one of the bankrupt auto companies. >> i support the kyl-- i'm just teasing. i am proud to be a co-sponsor of the alexander bennett amendment because they joined to excellent ideas together in something i think is critical. first of all understand, the american people are fed up with the notion of the federal government taking over businesses and running those businesses. barda this is in response to that, but there is a very good governance aspect of this that i want to bring to your attention. you know the government of the united states of america is made up of the people. the people came first. it is we the people in order to form a more perfect union get together and give the government some of our rights and then we will see where it goes from there because are the people of the government in the united states. when we talk about the government on something, it is the people who own it, so it is that people who should have the shares of stocks, not the government. that is the first idea here, that the stock in this company tha

mr. secretary, thank you for your time here today. we're going to allow you to leave, of course and go about your business of saving the american economy or lunch, whatever is on your schedule. but we thank you very much for being here. we'll send you some questions that you might'?'?'?'?'?'?g?g?gc >>> pleased to welcome douglas shulman, well ee mersed as the 47th commissioner of the internal revenue service. thank you for your service and pledge to lead the irs from good to great. each year irs employees make hundreds of millions of contacts with american taxpayers and businesses and represent the face of our government. approximately 93,000 employees and the accounts receivable department of the u.s. and fiscal year 2008, the irs collected 2.7 trillion dollars, 96% total federal receipts. the more revenue the irs collects, the more they have to deal with the challenges to face our nation and ease the tax burden on the citizens we believe to be deserving of that. conversely, the less revenue, the less revenue they have for tax cuts o

mr. chairman. madam secretary, thank you for taking on this difficult job leading the pitiful state of kansas. >> our home state i share with the senator. yes. >> today has been hearing secretary gates testified this morning. he is from which a call. >> yes indeed. >> went to a very distinguished grade school. i would like your attention, mr. chairman. [laughter] >> we are talking about kansas, it's important. >> he went to a very distinguished grade school called college held although he went to the sixth grade and i went there not quite the same time, but the same school, and governors from kansas and a town not too far from russell. so much from the pleasant -- plus entries, governor pete degette [laughter] to have an nih budget of $442 million as a sharp pretreat from what the chairman used to insist on 3.5 billion a year increases. senator harkin wouldn't settle for anything less for most of the decade. i guess it isn't entirely true. occasionally he settled for 3 billion. but if you take a look at the cost o

mr. secretary, thank you for being here. good luck. [applause] >> president obama is in chicago today to talk to the american medical association about his health care plan. congress begins working on that plan this week. president obama is at the ama's annual meeting to explain it. we have coverage of the president's comments in the 10 minutes at 12:50 p.m. eastern on c-span to. -- c-span 2. legislative work starts at 2:00 p.m. eastern. along the inspector general overstanding -- overseeing more spending and limiting the impact of four lawsuits against u.s. journalists. now, i look at conservative leadership with the senior communications fellow at the heritage foundation. this is about half an hour. >> >> cumming caution was one of the smartest things that i did. returning after graduated in hitting the pavement looking for that first job was very critical. you see behind me 3 statements with the clare booth institute. i would like to add focus on changing lives. we will talk about how each when you can impact your culture and her co

mr. secretary, thank you for your time here today. we're going to allow you to leave, of course and go about your business of saving the american economy or lunch, whatever is on your schedule. but we thank you very much for being here. we'll send you some questions that you might'?'?a >> congress is expected to work on a number of measures next week, including a supplemental bill of more than $100 billion that includes funding for the wars in iraq and afghanistan. the house could vote on that by tuesday. later in the week, house plans to spend -- take a spending for the justice department. you can see the house live on c- span. in the senate, a key procedural vote is set for tuesday on a measure aimed at post -- at boosting foreign tourism to the u.s. several committees will start to mark up their versions of health care, with congressional republicans scheduled to unveil their plan. the president hopes to sign a bill by october. it said return on monday and you can watch the senate live on c- span2. >> there is still time to get you

mr. chairman. madam secretary i want to make a comment and i will get the legislation to you. i think my colleague 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 believ

mr. secretary. >> i support -- i'm just teasing. i'm proud to be a co-sponsor of the alexander-and amendment because they joined to excellent ideas together in something i think is critical. the american people are fed up with this notion of the federal government taking over businesses and running them. part of this is in response to that. but there is a very good governance aspect to this that i want to bring to your attention. the government of the united states of america is made up of the people. the people came first. it is we the people, an order to form a more perfect union, get together and give the government some of our rights and we will see where it goes from there. the people are the government in the united states. when we talk about the government owning something, it is the people who own it. so it is the people who should have the shares of stocks, not the government. that is the first great idea. the stock in this company that the people now own will be held by the people. it's not just an abstract notion. the sec

mr. speaker a message from the senate. the secretary: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i have been directed by the senate to inform the house the senate has passed s. 962, cited as the enhanced partnership with pakistan act of 2009 nrning which the concurrence of the house is requested. the speaker pro tempore: the committee will resume its sitting. the chair: the gentleman from arizona. the gentleman from arizona has 5 1/2 minutes remain, the gentlewoman from california has 6 1/2 minutes remaining. mr. franks: have i yielded just four minutes thus far, two minutes to myself, mr. mckeon one minute, mr. turner one minute. the chair: the gentleman from arizona went 30 seconds other his time. mr. franks: i'll yield the gentleman from alabama, mr. griffith, one minute. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. griffith: madam chair, congressman franks, i appreciate this difficult situation. i believe that as the budget was formed and the decisions were made, north korea was not as aggressive, nor was i

mr. speaker, the shadow house secretary has said he'll be dealing with it on a zero basis and he wants the unit cuts considerably reduce rather than increase. he said this morning that he wants a 10% reduction in the xharmental limits. i think before the conservatives ask for more spending on the house service as you talk to the shadow chancellor and the shadow secretary. >> mr. speaker, will the prime minister affirm the labour government's commitment to maintaining funding for public services such as housing, universities, police and law and order, transport and pensions and reject the torie policy 10% across-the-board cuts which will take this country back -- which would take this country back to the worst days of thatcherism. >> mr. speaker, specifically the shadow house secretary said a 10% reduction in the departmental expenditure in the department. it is a very tough spending requirement, he said. and he said the job of the shadow chancellor is to be clear is where the spending restraint bites. there can be no doubt the choice whenever it comes is we have a government that is prepar

equally concerned as i am by the remarks of the health secretary that he's going to be cutting spending in the vital areas that are important to our country. mr. speaker, the shadow health secretary has said he'll be reviewing national health's organizations on a zero basis. he says he wants to ensure the unit cuts considerabley reduce rather than increase. he said this morning that he wants a 10% reduction in the departmental limits. i think before the conservatives ask for more spending they should talk to the shadow counselor and shadow health secretary. >> mr. speaker, will the prime minister affirm the labor government's commitment to maintaining funding for public services such as housing universities, police and law and order, transport and pensions and reject the policy of 10% across the board cuts which would take this country back -- which would take this country back to the worst days of factories. >> hear, hear. >> mr. speaker, specifically the shadow health secretary said this morning over three years after 2011, a 10% reduction in the departmental expenditure limits for other departments. it is a very tough spending requirement,

. >> it just gives the secretaries the authority. >> mr. chairman? >> we trust the secretary for everything else in this bill. why can't we trust the secretary to make that evaluation? >> mr. chairman? >> well, first of all, the end of the line legislation calls for the creation of a data analysis center so these work horse programs will be tracked very closely. one of the problems that gao has commented on repeatedly it the lack of data, the lack of standards and benchmarks and within the end of the line legislation we create that framework. i think the question of accountability is accountability where, and i think if we create a program which we are several programs in this legislation, we ultimately have to be accountable for whether the program is terminated and the level of funding. routinely each year the secretary of every department makes that recommendation to us in the budget. they put some money in to a program and some programs they zero it out. in fact, there are a number of programs i would suspect that hhs today that have some up with

also provide assistance to the secretary of the treasury, who has the overall responsibility for these programs. >> very good answer. and one last -- this is my last question, mr chairman. secretary paulson, last summer when he was given the authority, if you will, to -- to act as a conservator for fannie and freddie, mentioned that before he left he was going to give a statement about what the ultimate outcome of those two organizations ought to be, the events of the day and the crises that continued sort of prevented that from happening, or if it happened, it was overwhelmed by other news that were happening at the time. you've been at fannie and you're a smart guy. and i'm wondering if while we're all here, since it's a major responsibility of all of us on this committee, if you could just tell us what you think, as we moved through this crisis, what the ultimate outcome should be with fannie and freddie. a lot of people have talked about privatization. a lot of people have talked about, you know, we ought to only use them as insurers. there's all kinds of things that have been stated. you've lived it and breathed it, and i wonder if you might share with us

concerned as i am by the remarks of the shuttle house secretary that he is going to be cutting spending in the vital areas that are important to our country. mr. speaker, the shuttle health secretary has said he will review -- shuttle health secretary will -- want to ensure the unit cuts reduce rather than increase. he said he wants a 10% reduction in the department limits. i think before the conservative ask for more spending from the house service, you should talk to the shadow chancellor and the house secretary. >> mr. speaker, will the prime minister a firm the labor government's commitment to maintaining funding for public services such as housing, universities, police, law and order, transport, and pensions, and reject the tory party policy of 10 percent across-the- board cut that would take this country back to the worst days of factualism? >> specifically, the shuttle health secretary said this morning over three years after 2011 a 10% reduction in the department expenditure limits. it is a tough spending requirement indeed, and he said the job of the shadow chancellor is to be clear about where the spending restraint is. there can be

mr. salazar, secretary salazar, raising concerns about coal mining and mountaintop removal related issues and secretary salazar responded to that letter on the 4th of june. as i understand it, senator coburn also wrote and his letter was to miss tompkins, raising questions about whether she was, in fact, committed to enforcing the law when she was the solicitor. and she wrote him back and said she is clearly committed to enforcing the law which, of course, would be part of other oath of office. and based on those exchanges of letters, i'm informed that both senator bunning and senator coburn are satisfied that her nomination can go forward at this time. i would ask unanimous consent at the end of my re, a to include the correspondence between those two -- response, to include the spoarpdz between these two senators -- correspondance tweencorrespond betweencorrespod problem is. why we cannot get this nomination cleared. i raise it at this point. i put people on notice -- or the senate on notice that if we're not able to get it cleared, i will, once again, come to the floor and ask unanimou

mr. treasury secretary except that. with respect to talf, the program for asset backed securities, we have extensive protections that i would be happy to detail if you give me a few minutes. we are very comfortable that this program will be very effective in opening up markets to consumer credit. including loans. at the same time, i think that the credit risks to the fed itself are quite minimal. >> as the fed implied to what extent we will have to borrow from those savings pools? in order to meet debt requirements in the future? >> we certainly look at that. an interesting point, even though the federal government's borrowing has skyrocketed, the current account deficit, a measure of what we do from abroad, is lower than it has been in some years, suggesting that the increase in federal borrowing has been substantially offset as banks and households we leverage. in the sense of availability, there is the availability to meet the needs of u.s. governments and other governments. as i mentioned in my testimony, to make th

madam secretary, and since-- >> mr. chairman i am happy to join you in welcoming the secretary to the hearing. thank you very much. >> thank you. i will leave this record open for your statement. >> please proceed as you so desire. >> thank you chairman harkin and senator cochran and members of the committee. i want to thank you for the impartation to come and discuss the 2010 budget and for a start by thanking you for your hard work gang leadership on a fulbright the of health issues. we certainly face great challenges in the country today and i look forward to working with you to tackle those challenges together. health reform is one of the issues i know that is front and center and the senate and house right now and i think that there is great agreement, we can't continue with the status quo. the president is committed to health reform. we have seen businesses and governments and families and providers come together two of knowledge that the crushing costs are influencing families bottom line, the competitiveness of o

. >> thank you secretary sebelius. thank you mr. chairman. >> thank you mr. chairman. i join my colleagues in welcoming you. madam secretary many of us were shocked and saddened by the horrific murder of dr. george tiller over the weekend in four years the bush administration went out of its way to protect doctors from being forced to provide services they found objectionable, yet did nothing to shield physicians providing legal and life protecting medical care to women from ongoing harassment, threats and violence. this is unconscionable and must change in my judgment. the federal government must send the gibbet-- that acts of violence will not be tolerated. i was pleased to learn that attorney general holder has indicated that the u.s. marshal service will begin protecting certain abortion clinics and doctors, and this is a good first step. today "the new york times" also pulled on attorney general holder to revitalize the national task force on violence against healthcare providers. that was originally established in the 1990's. i realize this task force would be und

mr. geithner, secretary of the treasury. here is former president bush. so this group forms our new clue travel edition and as we move forward, i think again it is important that the american public know who made the call to force these car companies into bankruptcy, who made the call to lie to 9,000 auto workers at eight plants across the country and who made the call that even though they don't cost anybody any money, we have to close all these dealerships and put people out of work. and you know, i keep hearing, and the gentleman has heard it too, that the -- this task force doesn't want to run the day-to-day operations of chrysler or g.m. but sadly for them, there is a -- an article that appeared on may 11 out of detroit that indicated chrysler wanted to spend $134 million in advertising in the period of its bankruptcy and this unelected task force told them they couldn't spend money on advertising. they finally relented and said, ok, you can spend half of it. but for a bunch of folks claiming they don't want to run the car company, they've set up the

mr. speaker, a message from the senate. the secretary: mr. speaker. i have been directed by the senate to inform the house that the senate has agreed to h.j.res. 40, to honor the achievements and contributions of native americans to the united states, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. diaz-balart: i'd like to thank my good friend, the gentleman from florida, mr. hastings, for the time. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. diaz-balart: first i would like to say a word about the session of the general assembly of the organization of american states, o.a.s., held last week. it was an embarrassment. fidel castro and cuba wants the u.s. to apologize to him for having kept the u.s. market and its millions of tourists and billions of dollars in financing from him and from having denied him full diplomatic recognition for decades. he also wants the international community to kneel before him and apolog

mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the speaker will receive a message. the secretary: mr. speaker, i have been directed by the senate to inform the house that the senate has passed with an amendment h.r. 1256, an act cited as the smoking prevention act and conclusion of the house is requested. >> i ask unanimous consent that i be removed as a co-sponsor of h.r. 2254. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. for what purpose does do you rise? ms. norton: i ask unanimous consent that i be removed as co- sponsor of h.r. 848, the rights performance act. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> i move to suspend the rules and pass house resolution29. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 529, resolution condemning the violent attack on the united states holocaust memorial museum on june 10, 2009 and honoring the bravery and dedication of the united states holocaust museum employees and security personnel. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from west virginia, mr. rah

mr. dingell. gentleman from georgia. >> thank you. madam secretary, the chairman metacomet during the markup of the american recovery in reinvestment act which said at the is unlikely you'll find millionaires like to medicaid. when the the concerns of this bill arises in the minds of many of us is whether or not we are treating low income citizens as second-class citizens by automatically enrolling them in medicaid. my question would be this, why do you believe that a family making $29,000 a year is not as able to make choices as a family making $30,000 a year and why would it be better to simply automatically enroll them with no choice and medicaid as opposed to giving them a subsidy to allow them to go into the private insurance market? >> congressmen, some of those families, a limited number, are in jobs right now where they have employer provided coverage. they certainly would not ship that coverage. a large number, particularly single adults who are at the 100% or below the poverty line, who are making off in a very small amount of money, have n

assistant secretary. mr. koh's academic credentials are amazing. a marshal scholar at oxford, a graduate of harvard law school, editor of the harvard law review and he went on to be a clerk at the supreme court across the street, which is about as good as it gets going out of law school. since 2004 harold koh was a dean at a law school. he's been awarded 11 honorary degrees and 30 human rights awards. i don't know that you could present a stronger resume for a man who wants to serve our country to be involved in public service and step out of his professional life as a lawyer in the private sector and with law schools. he's been endorsed by leaders, legal scholars from both political parties including former solicitor general ted olson, ken starr, josh bolten, seven former department of state legal advisers, including three republicans, more than 100 law school teens and 600 law professors from around the country what more do we ask for someone who wants to serve this country? several retired high-ranking military lawyers have written if the u.s. f

i also see we have the counter to the secretary of the treasury with us here today. remember mr.geiger at that time was with the new york fed and at that time the new york fed, he was considered the architect of the bailout of the ig bailout and this administration adopted mr. geithner as their treasury secretary so i think there is the pity that this adminstration is continuing on in the mold and continues with the bailout and that is why a number of us thought it was wrong then and continue to fight now with our legislation and what we will rollout later on. with the history not clarified, mr. alvarez i see in your testimony you say employees expose a firm to see that the risk and importantly improperly designed compensation programs may inside a wide range of employee behavior. you also say we should adjust compensation so employees bear some of the risk associated with their activities and employees looks likely to take an important risk incentive payments are reduced or limited. i agree. how does that occur and the fed right now with the activities the employees take that ha

mr. connolly, was mentioning, secretary gates himself said long-term security challenges require the government to operate with unity, creativity and agility and committing more resources to nonmilitary instruments of national power. mr. speaker, the united states must be more serious about its dip plo lowe mattick commitments, responsibilities, and presence overseas to ensure a more secure future for her own citizens. i open hope all my colleagues will join with us in supporting this legislation and send an important message that will be heard loud and clear around the world. thank you. i yield the remainder of my time. the chair: the gentlewoman from florida. ms. ros-lehtinen: i continue to reserve. the chair: the gentleman from california. mr. berman: how much time is remaining? the chair: the gentleman from california has 20 minutes remaining, the gentlewoman from florida 10 1/2 minutes remaining. mr. berman: i'm pleased to yield to the gentlelady from california, ms. woolsey. the chair: the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. ms. woolsey: as a member of the committee, i thank our chai

mr. ignatius that the secretary reached out? >> he is accurate in the sense that i reach that to david ignatius and arrange the interview because the secretary firmly believes, as the articulate to mr. ignatius, the general jones is doing a terrific job, and in fact is he characterized it to ignatius, jones he believes is the glue that is holding this team together. he is the one who he thinks is most responsible for the fact that it has chilled and come together as quickly as it has, that this is not a team of rivals as it was originally billed think as to jones's leta maggette is truly a national security team. there is, as you are all no doubt aware, a lot of chatter in washington about the job that he is doing and the secretary felt strongly enough that he wanted to be on the record as a guy knows a lot about how the industry works and his work with the great many national security advisers over the course of his career, in sync its misestimation at this point jones is up there with the pesty is work with. >> is it a little

mr. treen, thank you. i have no formal statement. i will wait for the secretary's statement and hope to have the chance to ask some questions. >> [inaudible] >> thank you, mr. chairman. it is good to be with the committee today and i appreciate the greetings from my fellow kansan and ranking member of the subcommittee representative tiahrt and it's good to have mr. lewis today. i appreciate the opportunity to come and discuss the president's 2010 budget for the department of health and human services and this does mark my first appearance before the committee is secretary and i want to thank members of the committee for your hard work and leadership. i know we face tremendous challenges in the nation today and i hope we can work together to tackle those challenges. one task we need to complete to get there is health reform. and as you consider the budget before you you and your colleagues are working on a historic effort to reform health care system. like you i know america cannot simply afford the status quo when it comes to health care. we have all heard from peo