mr. whitehouse: mr. president, are we presently in quorum call? may i ask that the quorum call be terminated? the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you. mr. president, i wanted to speak on a couple of subjects here. the first is to express my regret that the supplemental funding to help rhode island in the wake of its unprecedented historic flooding was stopped on the floor today by a republican objection. i would have hoped that when a true emergency happened in somebody's home state with a presidential disaster declaration and senators were working to remedy that, the traditional deference for emergency spending would be appropriate, but senator reid has been -- as the senior senator and a member of the appropriations committee the leader on this, and he and i will continue working to get this done for rhode island. it is just, i think, regrettable that the conditions on the floor are such that emergency spending, while we have people still out of their homes, flood damage unp

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i want to rise and join my colleagues in expressing our support for senator wyden's continued efforts to get this rule changed. the circumstances in which these secret holds take place are really quite remarkable. over and over again, you see a committee vote clearing a nominee for the floor. often unanimous or by heavy, huge bipartisan majorities. clearly qualified candidates, clearly candidates who enjoy bipartisan support. in many cases, candidates who are unanimously supported, even in this contentious and cantankerous time in this body. they come through the committee with that kind of support. and then they come to the floor and they come through the floor in some cases 98-0, 100-0. but between that unanimous committee vote and the unanimous floor vote is an endless, endless, endless delay. and many of them stack up and never get that floor vote. we have had as many as 100 stacked up waiting for that floor vote on the executive calendar. what is happening between a un

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island is recognized. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i wish to speak for a moment again about my amendment numbered 3746, which i'm delighted that the distinguished presiding officer is a cosponsor of, and i would like to ask unanimous consent that chairman patrick leahy, senator jim webb and senator bob casey all be added as cosponsors to the amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. so ordered. mr. whitehouse: just to recap it briefly, if you go around the country -- i would be glad to yield to the chairman. mr. dodd: i see my friend from arizona. could i ask my -- did you lay down your amendment, senator? i'm unclear. mr. mccain: i have not laid down the amendment because i understand that the senator from connecticut would move to table, and there are numerous members that want to talk on this issue, this multitrillion dollar issue. so no, i have not -- but i can also assure the senator from connecticut if i propose the amendment and it is tabled without proper debate, there will be an

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. hitehouse: mr. president, let me thank the distinguished majority whip for cosponsoring my legislation. i appreciate his support immensely. and he has a wonderful way of making things clear and helping people to understand just how basic and simple and historic amendment this is. it takes us back to the way the country was through the vast majority of its history. greatest generation served in world war ii and came home and, you know, went to college and built the society we now live in now under these rules. george washington and his men at valley forge served under thighs rules. the civil war and korean war took place under these rules. there's 220 years of solid history behind this. and so i will close with an appeal to my colleagues to continue to show interest in this piece of legislation and particularly my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. if you believe in states' righ rights, this is a good piece of legislation. if you believe in states as laboratories of democracy, a

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: may i inject myself in this debate for one minute to ask unanimous consent for a whitehouse amendment that restores states' rights to protect against exorbitant out of state lenders doing business in one's own state? i would like to ask unanimous consent that senator cochran of mississippi be added as a cosponsor, and i want to just take a moment to let him know how much i appreciate his cosponsorship of what is now a bipartisan amendment, and i look forward to continuing to work to secure additional sponsors from both sides of the aisle. thank you very much. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. the senator from oregon is recognized. mr. merkley: mr. president, before i speak to this amendment, i want to applaud my colleague from connecticut who spoke so passionately and knowledgeably about the challenge that had been faced by subprime underwriting gone astray. if only the letters that he and his colleagues wrote in -- in 2006 and in 200

mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. and i'm delighted to give the distinguished senator from north dakota the chance to clarify that. i'd like to speak just for a minute about amendment number 3746, which i will not be calling up right now, but which i intend to work with chairman dodd to calm later. i just wanted to mention that this afternoon this amendment received the endorsement of americans for financial reform. a coalition of dozens of national and state consumer groups who are working to help pass the critical legislation that we are debating today. in addition to the coalition, as a whole, the amendment has been endorsed by individual members as well including the aarp, the consumer federation of america, consumers action, consumers union, and on behalf of its low-income clients, the national consumer law center. these groups have sent a letter to all of us, to each of my colleagues, which reads in part -- "on behalf of consumers, a.f.r. strongly urges you to support whitehouse's interstate lending amendment. b

mr. whitehouse: i want to congratulate senator wyden and senator grassley for their long effort to eliminate the secret hold in this body. they thought they had succeeded in 2007 with a mechanism that would scrub secret holds and make them public after six days, but it turns out that a number of our colleagues on the other side discovered a loophole in the rule, whether it's called the old switch rao or revolving -- switch-a-roo, they found a way to defeat the purpose of a rule voted for by 84 members of the senate on a strong bipartisan basis. that is why we are back here today. i want to add to the role of honor on this subject, claire mccaskill, who has done the lion's share of the work of shepherding in some cases 100 stalled nominees, blockaded on the executive calendar through those 207-year procedures so that we could get to the point of proving that there were in fact secret holds, and that despite the rule, hold laundering was taking place. and the rule was not being put into effect, and holds were being kept secret. i suppose an asterisk on the role of honor should go to senator co

i welcome senator whitehouse for his perspective and i thank you, mr. chairman, for your leadership on this issue. >> thank you very much. senator whitehouse has introduced legislation to revise the civil and criminal provisions. we welcome him to the committee to make a statement about that bill. go right ahead. >> thank you, senator bingaman. [unintelligible] first of all, thank you for holding this hearing. i encourage you to review the penalty and liability framework governing offshore drilling and enact chans to this framework so that we can prevent future disasters like the one now unfolding in the gulf. thank you all for inviting me for making a few remarks about my outer continental shelf plan bill. the bills seeks to enhance penalties for faili to meet workers' safety and environmental hazards on offshore rigs. this is just one piece of the public. my colleague has introduced two 0 bills to raise liability caps and to eliminate birth the caps. the co-sponsor of both of these bills, and i commend his leadership on this issue through look for to w

i welcome senator whitehouse for his perspective and i thank you, mr. chairman, for your leadership on this issue. >> thank you very much. senator whitehouse has introduced legislation to revise the civil and criminal provisions. we welcome him to the committee to make a statement about that bill. go right ahead. >> thank you, senator bingaman. [unintelligible] first of all, thank you for holding this hearing. i encourage you to review the penalty and liability framework governing offshore drilling and enact changes to this framework so that we can prevent future disasters like the one now unfolding in the gulf. thank you all for inviting me for making a few remarks about my outer continental shelf plan bill. the bills seeks to enhance penalties for failing to meet workers' safety and environmental hazards on offshore rigs. this is just one piece of the public. my colleague has introduced two 0 bills to raise liability caps and to eliminate birth the caps. the co-sponsor of both of these bills, and i commend his leadership on this issue through look for

mr. hayes if you have a position on that? >> we agree with senator whitehouse that it's appropriate to, and your point in your opening statement, mr. chairman, that it's appropriate to revisit that financial assurance requirement. that seems anachronistic, frankly, $150 million financial assurance certainly for a situation like this for a company like b.p. fortunately it does not appear to be coming into play here, but we do think it's appropriate just as we look at potentially revising upwards the statutory penalties, we look at revising upward the financial assurance requirements. >> senator? >> mr. chairman, i just want to make sure that i understood clearly your statements to the chairman. is it correct to state then that both of you would agree that we should not have the current $75 million liability cap? that it should be an unlimited cap? >> i think for the future, for activities such as deep water drilling where there is a risk of a similar major oil spill, i think we think that there should not be that cap. >> are you differentiating between deep wate

lemieux, levin, mikulski, prior, reid, risch, sessions, shaheen, snowe, tester, warner, whitehouse, and tom udall. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senator proceed to the immediate consideration of s. res. 524, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 5 524, supporting the goals and ideals of national stuttering awareness week 2010. the presiding officer: is there any objection in proceeding to the measure? without objection, so ordered. mr. kaufman kaufman: mr. presidi ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements related to the resolution be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. kaufman: thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: urn the previous order, the senate will stand in recess until 2:00 p.m. >> supreme court nominee elena kagan is meeting with senators in advance of her

mr. president that has serious concerns. the whitehouse the federal reserve, former federal reserve chairman paul volcker, and the chair of the fdic, have raised similar concerns relative to this approach. april 30 2010, sheila baird says this and i quote -- "if all derivatives market making activities were moved outside of bank holding companies most of the activity would no doubt continue but unless regulated and in more highly leveraged venues." unquote. federal reserve staff in a memo say this and i'm quoting again "the prohibition would not promote financial stability or strong credential regulations of derivative or derivative dealers would have serious consequences for the competitiveness of the u.s. financial institutions and would be highly disruptive and costly both for banks and customers." unquote. my point exactly. and then, finally chairman volcker also expressed concerns with the derivatives title of this bill. -- quote -- "the provision derivatives by commercial banks to their customers in the usual course of a banking rela

mrs. mccaskill: we have now gone through the entire list with the exception of about ten judicial nominees that senator whitehousewill be making the motions on. i was hopeful that this week we'd know who's holding these votes. we still don't know. you know, i might make a suggestion. i'm not confident it will be accepted. if the leadership of the republican caucus wants to hold these nominees, senator mcconnell can put his name on all of them, and then the people of america will know that senator mcconnell is holding them and they will see him as a leader of the republicans, and they can judge accordingly. but if senator mcconnell doesn't have objections to them and is not willing to put his name on them, then the people who have the objection should put their name on the holds. we're going to break this bad habit. mr. president, i do want to make a note that there were four judges that i made nominations on that inadvertently got on the list, and they have been confirmed. and we will provide for the record those four names so they can be appropriately noted. so instead of doing 69 today, we're only doing 65. and

me and senators schumer, knell , brown, whitehouse, murray in supporting this essential reform to restore integrity to the credit rating agency system. thank you, mr. president. and i yield the floor. mr. franken: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: a senator: i ask the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: thank you. mr. president, i had not intended to speak tonight, but having heard my friend, the senator from minnesota, speak about the problems with the rating agencies, i thought i would rise to -- to say that in very many respects, the senator from minnesota is correct. mr. wicker: and it's my understanding that the underlying bill as yet has no provision whatsoever dealing with the rating agencies. i think -- i think certainly if that remains, it will be a major flaw in the legislation. i don't know the details of the amendment that the senator from minnesota was referring to but i certainly would welcome a debate about the rating agencies to make sure that they're accurate, to acknowledge so many mistakes that have been made by those

mr. president, i have offered this amendment on behalf of quite a number of senators, senator reed, senator kaufman, senator durbin, senator harkin, senator leahy, senator levin, senator menendez, senator whitehouse, senator freng frankenfranken,senator feingoldr merkley and myself. this amendment provides that the decisions of the supreme court of the united states limiting claims under the securities act for aiding and abetting will be overturned by this legislation. this amendment is very similar to an amendment which was offered in the 107th congress by senator shelby, the ranking member of the banking committee. for many years, the federal law provided a private right of action against aiders and abettors. as of 1994, every circuit in the federal courts of appeals had concluded civil liability in a private lawsuit under the securities act. in a radical departure in 1994, the supreme court held in central bank of denver that aiders and abettors are not liable in private suits. the court's 5-4 decision in stonebridge in 2008 complicated the matter even further where the supreme court held that if the defendant did not make representations directly to the person buying or selling the securities

whitehouse, brown, murray, bingaman and murray for joining us. thank you, madam president, and i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: madam president, i rise today to discuss the amendment that i have offered on behalf of the republicans to greatly improve consumer financial protection. the amendment recognizes that our existing financial regulatory system fails to adequately provide consumer protection. our system is broke and it needs fixing. we realize that. madam president, the recent financial crisis has revealed that our financial regulators were asleep at the switch and had neglected to uphold their basic responsibilities for consumer protection. far too often, our regulators were more concerned about pleasing the entities that they regulated than looking out for consumers. it's clear that we need to refocus the priorities of our financial regulators and to ensure that consumer protection gets the attention that it rightly deserves. make no mistake, republicans here want to strengthen consumer protection. we are all consumers in america. we need to make sure that consumers get clear and understandabl