mr. watt: mr. chairman, my amendment to the legislative branch bill would decrease funding for the office of congressional ethics, the o.c.e., by 619,200 and transfer these funds to the spending reduction account. i have offered this amendment because i believe there is a substantial bipartisan consensus, one that the responsibilities of the o.c.e. are redundant and duplicative of the house ethics committee. two, that the o.c.e.'s operations are substantially staff driven. and the staff has taken the o.c.e.'s mission well beyond what was intended in the statute that created the entity. three, that the procedures of the o.c.e. are unfair and sometimes abusive of the rights of members of the house. four, that a substantial part of the funds we spend on the c.o.e. waste taxpayers' money. and five, that using those funds to reduce our debt and deficit would be a far better use. in these difficult budget times, i believe we have an obligation to judge the o.c.e. on the same criteria on which we measure

. >> -- supervisor mar: mr. watts mentioned the disappointing budget news. was it the prop 1a connectivity funds, how it impacts the central subway? i'm just wondering what is the impact on our ability to fund the central subway. >> it is a statewide proposition, but the governor's action is simply to postpone the moment when that money would be available. fortunately, it will not have an immediate impact on the project as long as the money materializes next year. we understand that the governor's action has to do with rick compensations he is getting from the department of finance related to the state to actually issue that and so on. even though we think it is an unfortunate position, we understand that it is part of the circumstances the governor is dealing with as far as the state budget, and we expect that there will be a revisiting of that topic and hopefully a better set of news next time around. for now, there is no change to the suggestion of the central subway funding plan. what we are looking at potentially is a cash flow issue. project will conti

mr. watt of north carolina, amendment number 5 by ms. hayworth of new york. amendment number 6 by mr. broun of georgia. amendment number 8 by mr. stutzman of indiana. amendment number 15 by mr. thompson of pennsylvania. amendment number 12 by mr. holt of new jersey. amendment number 9 by mr. moran of virginia. the chair will reduce to two minutes the time for any electronic vote after the first vote in this series. the unfinished business is the request for recorded vote on amendment number 2 printed in house report 112-173, by the gentleman from north carolina. mr. watt, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the chair: amendment number 2, printed in house report number 112-173, offered by mr. watt of north carolina. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, -- a sufficient number havin

. >> i love mr. watts. >> sean: awesome had a former football background.republican or democrat? i'm not going to beat you up either way, i don't care. i'm a registered conservative. >> trust me, i know. >> sean: all right, i'm just checking. that red tie means, you are going to run maybe one day as a conservative? >> maybe a democrat. >> sean: you said red. >> democrat. i'll be a democrat. i'm a california boy. >> sean: when you come back the next time -- >> you are going to change my mind. >> sean: putting that aside what you are doing is magnificent. it is tremendous that you take all this time that you spend with the troops, raising money, awareness. i want to thank you for what you are trying. i appreciate it. >> coming up our friend brad pays -- brad paisley shares his secret for staying grounded amid his massive fame. [ female announcer ] ever wish vegetables didn't taste so vegetably? well, v8 v-fusion juice gives you a full serving of vegetables, plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. and try our deliciously refreshing v8 v-fu

mr. watt: thank you, mr. chairman. and let say at the outset that i was a strong supporter in our committee for the creation of the consumer financial protection bureau. and remained a strong supporter of the bureau and its mission. the reason i did that was because all of these regulators had within their authority a consumer protection initiative. unfortunately that consumer protection obligation was subordinate to other obligations that each of the regulators had. and so when we started talng about this, i kept saying to them, look, we need a consumer regulator that has as much authority and as least cumbersomeness as any of the other regulators. so if you're going to create a consumer financial protection bureau, don't give the other regulators authority to reverse them unless you give the consumer financial protection bureau the authori to reverse the other regulators. now, if you think that's fair, do it both ways. this is the only agency that ended up with the other regulators, the federal reserve, the o.c.c., t

mr. watt. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. watt: i think this might be the worst resolution i've seen tpwhever house in the 19 years i've been here. it brings to continuing debate a bill that is already -- that has already been debated yesterday with an amendment but there's only one minute left in the the bait. and the change that is being made requires the passage of an amendment to the constitution of the united states in order to ever raise the debt limit again. the effect of that is that we have one minute, we don't even have it, the majority has the one minute that's left in the debate. we have no time left in the debate. on our side to debate whether we will pass an amendment to the constitution of the united states that literally holds a gun to the head of the economy of the united states. we ought to be ashamed of ourselves, legislating in this way. this is a terrible way to legislate to provide for a constitutional amendment. if we're going to do it, we ought

mr. watt: thank you, mr. chairman. and let me say at the outset that i was a strong supporter in our committee for the creation of the consumer financial protection bureau. and remained a strong supporter of the bureau and its mission. the reason i did that was because all of these regulators had within their authority a consumer protection initiative. unfortunately that consumer protection obligation was subordinate to other obligations that each of the regulators had. and so when we started talking about this, i kept saying to them, look, we need a consumer regulator that has as much authority and as least cumbersomeness as any of the other regulators. so if you're going to create a consumer financial protection bureau, don't give the other regulators authority to reverse them unless you give the consumer financial protection bureau the authority to reverse the other regulators. now, if you think that's fair, do it both ways. this is the only agency that ended up with the other regulators, the federal reserve, the o.

mr. watt: thank you, mr. chairman. and let me say at the outset that i was a strong supporter in our committee for the creation of the consumer financial protection bureau. and remained a strong supporter of the bureau and its mission. the reason i did that was because all of these regulators had within their authority a consumer protection initiative. unfortunately that consumer protection obligation was subordinate to other obligations that each of the regulators had. and so when we started talking about this, i kept saying to them, look, we need a consumer regulator that has as much authority and as least cumbersomeness as any of the other regulators. so if you're going to create a consumer financial protection bureau, don't give the other regulators authority to reverse them unless you give the consumer financial protection bureau the authority to reverse the other regulators. now, if you think that's fair, do it both ways. this is the only agency that ended up with the other regulators, the federal reserve, the o.

. >> can i answer the questions now, mr. watt stone? u to tell me whether you informed your father that you authorized payments to gordon taylor as a result of him being a victim of a crime? >> the settlement with mr. taylor -- i'm happy to address the matter of mr. taylor in some detail, if you would like -- >> first just let -- >> my father became aware after the settlement was made in 2009, i believe, after the confidential settlement had become public as a newspaper reported on the out of court settlement afterwards. but please understand that the settlement of an out of court settlement of a civil claim of that nature and of that quantum is something that normally in a company our size the responsible executives in the territory in the country would be authorized to make. that's the way the company has functioned, and it's below the approval thresholds, if you will, that would have to go to my father as chairman and chief executive of the global company. >> there were other questions i can ask on this, but there are other colleagues

. >> mr. watt and also went on to say talking about you were in the presence of the murder investigation in providing you with evidence for your newspaper particularly mentions the name of another senior executives, alex -- partly fusing the police officer and his wife. can you tell us more about what that means? >> i can tell you something about it. i was also recalling a meeting in 2002. i was soft reset the pay channel for about the story you are referring to in my recollection of the meeting with entirely different. my recollection of the meeting was on a completely different subject. so i'm only going on what i was told by channel four. they said the meeting in november but that was what was put to me. it checked my diary snatches possible and there's no meeting in november. however, the book was subject with me saying very early january. so it may be at that meeting. that was not my recollection of the meeting. but on the other hand, because of the campaign, i did have some pretty regular mee

we don't know how much but it watts shockingly high. and mr.he witness said, no, no, no, very low. search warrants at house three times. in common sense experience you know the police do not call up and say well be there at 6:45 so be read. they are issued where a legal process is ordered by the judge and the law enforcement officers go "surprise," and they searched the anthony residence and they searched it all. they searched everything. they found in chloroform. in bottles of ingredients. no papers related to it. nothing. so then the issue, what does the chloroform mean? is the chloroform used to poison the child? or was it ultimately alleged found from the decomposition that was supposedly in the trunk of the car? this is no evidence of what it was, but it souped sexy for the media. the heart shape theticker, that deal, the laboratory analysts and the f.b.i. say she saw an image of part of a heart shape on the corner of duct tape, the language i recall, but she went to take a picture of it,

mr. potter. small lenders say they're being threatened by new consumer protection rules under the dodd/frank act. daniel watts is president of forest park national bank and trust company in forest park illinois. watts says notices to customers about rule changes and additional compliance officers are costing banks like his millions of dollars. >> it's not only sending it, it's drafting all of those changes and making sure the customer understands them. it used to be a bank under $200 million would have a compliance officer that would be part time. now we have almost two people doing compliance. >> reporter: community banks with assets under $10 billion have been pummeled by the sour economy. many made loans to developers that went bust. they've also seen demand for mortgages and other consumer loans dry up. last year, 157 u.s. banks failed. all but one was a community bank. so far this year, there have been 51 bank failures and all had assets under $10 billion. >> community banks are the lifeblood of small towns. they help local businesses get off the ground and expand. and, when these institutions struggle,

watt bulbs can't meet. so they're effectively band because -- banned because they can't meet the standard. as has been pointed out by mr. doyle and other speakers, it is also true that industry has developed new incandescent light bulbs that do meet the standard. what they haven't done is developed a new incandescent light bulb that meets the standard at existing cost. what gets left out of the equation on my friends on the democratic side of the aisle is the cost to purchase these new bulbs, whether they're the squiggly tailed c.f.l.'s or new more energy efficient incandescents. we're not opposed, i'm not opposed to c.f.l. lighting or the new incandescents. but i am opposed to telling my constituents they have no choice at all, they've got to go and fork over $1.50 or $2.50 or $6 or in the case of the l.e.d.'s, that mr. waxman referred to, a minimum of $12 and the average price of l.e.d. lighting at home depot or host is $40 a bulb. i'm young enough to remember when i was renter and i would move into an apartment and when i went into the apartment, there were no light bulbs. the people that left took the light bulbs w