mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: thank you mr. president. later this week we will consider a spending measure to fund the united states government through the remaining six months of this fiscal. while the majority leader so the floor, i want to thank him as well as appropriations chairman inouye and senator patty murray for their hard work in negotiating an end to the budget stalemate and preventing the threatened government shutdown. the battle over that spending measure brightly illuminated the contrast between the priorities of the two parties. the priority of the house republicans, i believe are completely upside-down. in the debate over the spending bill they fought to cut programs that help the middle class and for extreme tea party policy riders that had nothing to do with the budget. these included a prohibition on funding for women's health and eliminating the environmental protection agency's ability to protect us against carb

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i have been listening to the remarks of my friend from wyoming and i noticed that he repeatedly indicated that what we needed to do here in this building was to keep the military funded, to deal with the deficit, and to cut spendi spending. and it is my firm belief that if we were sent a bill that kept the military funded, that dealt with the deficit and that cut spending, it would pass in the senate very readily. indeed, we've already agreed to $73 billion in spending cuts. as senator mccaskill said earlier, the problem is that the republicans won't take "yes" for an answer. the issue that is dividing us at this point is not the need to keep the military funded. we completely agree on that. it is not the need to deal with the deficit. we completely agree on that. indeed, the last time we successfully dealt with the deficit, it was under democrats. and clearly we have gone way more than halfway by agreeing to cut $73 billion in spending. so as to t

mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. we have come to the end of a long process that has had some signal moments to it, clearly one signal moment was a few days ago when the tea party activists came to the capital, came to this building, gathered outside and were led by republican house members in chanting about the united states government, "shut it down, shut it down, shut it down." shortly after that, there was a discussion between the republican speaker and the members of the republican caucus in which the speaker indicated that they were to prepare for a government shutdown, and the response was a standing ovation, reported by "the washington post." as the distinguished senator from maryland knows, we've salt through our caucus -- sat through our caucus meetings. there's never been anything like an ovation on our side for the concept of a government shutdown. there's silence, maybe an occasional groan of disappointment when we've heard about how the goal posts have been moved yet again to keep an agreement from being

mr. obama on the white house facebook page. at facebook.com/whitehouse. >> cool. >> pretty cool. >> speaking of cool, there is cool weather out there. i had spritzes on my window today. >> it's light. we have some falling behind me. that is the key this afternoon. nothing like what they dealt with in north carolina. 133 tornadoes. that's the center that reported from friday's storm. most were in alabama. go to saturday's storm and see them all in north carolina and west virginia and maryland. the triangle is the tornado. i counted 90 in north carolina. longest on the ground for 63 miles from here to stockton. the winds up to 160 miles per hour. you saw the lowe's store, the one that hit that lowe's story. take a look outside. the bay bridge and the golden gate bridge wet right now. it's turning into fog and drizzle. .01 to .02 so far so it looks worse than it is. take a look at the live doppler7 h.d. there you go. up and down the peninsula. we have the radar returns. a few in the east bay valley but they are moving to the central valley. this may be the

mr. obama on the white house facebook page. at facebook.com/whitehousel. >> pretty cool. >> speaking of cool, there is cool weather out there. i had spritzes on my window today. >> it's light. we have some falling behind me. that is the key this afternoon. nothing like what they dealt with in north carolina. 133 tornadoes. that's the center that reported from friday's storm. most were in alabama. go to saturday's storm and see them all in north carolina and west virginia and maryland. the triangle is the tornado. i counted 90 in north carolina. longest on the ground for 63 miles from here to stockton. the winds up to 160 miles per hour. you saw the lowe's store, the one that hit that lowe's story. take a look outside. the bay bridge and the golden gate bridge wet right now. it's turning into fog and drizzle. .01 to .02 so far so it looks worse than it is. take a look at the live doppler7 h.d. there you go. up and down the peninsula. we have the radar returns. a few in the east bay valley but they are moving to the central valley. this may be the last goo

whitehouse. >> i wanted to ask mr. cloud and mr.neslin when deputy administrator perciasepe is your use diesel fracting under the same drinking water act. are you aware of what used this day aliment of the fracting fluid? >> senator, as i mentioned in my testimony we are currently investigating the issue. it is not complete yet. >> would it be -- let me ask you and give mr. cloud a chance to answer. >> i just want to emphasize that we do not allow correct fluids and clean through facilities through difference through were thoroughly through cycle through your so it doesn't reach your water supply. >> is that -- you of no concern that the deployment of the fracting fluid in the world could ever reach your water supply? >> we always have that concern, but we are shared by our practices that doesn't happen. >> between the first -- >> s., it is submitted 200 feet of out there producing so, so it can't reach and we have filled the inspectors that witness that process and what it's undergone. >> why isn't it helpful to simply know what is

whitehouse. >> i wanted to ask mr. cloud and mr. neslin when deputy administrator perciasepe is your use diesel fracting under the same drinking water act. are you aware of what used this day aliment of the fracting fluid? >> senator, as i mentioned in my testimony we are currently investigating the issue. it is not complete yet. >> would it be -- let me ask you and give mr. cloud a chance to answer. >> i just want to emphasize that we do not allow correct fluids and clean through facilities through difference through were thoroughly through cycle through your so it doesn't reach your water supply. >> is that -- you of no concern that the deployment of the fracting fluid in the world could ever reach your water supply? >> we always have that concern, but we are shared by our practices that doesn't happen. >> between the first -- >> s., it is submitted 200 feet of out there producing so, so it can't reach and we have filled the inspectors that witness that process and what it's undergone. >> why isn't it helpful to simply know what i

whitehouse. >> i wanted to ask mr. cloud and mr.neslin when deputy administrator perciasepe is your use diesel fracting under the same drinking water act. are you aware of what used this daaliment of the fracting fluid? >> senator, as i mentioned in my testimony we are currently investigating the issue. it is not complete yet. >> would it be -- let me ask you and give mr. cloud a chance to answer. >> i just want to emphasize that we do not allow correct fluids and clean through facilities through difference through were thoroughly through cycle through your so it doesn't reach your water supply. >> is that -- you of no concern that the deployment of the fracting fluid in the world could ever reach your water supply? >> we always have that concern, buwe are shared by our practices that doesn't happen. >> between the first -- >> s., it is submitted 200 feet of o there producing so, so it can't reach and we have filled the inspectors that witness that process and what it's undergone. >> why isn't it helpful to simply know what is being

whitehouse. deputy associate attorney general, earned her bachelor's at syracuse university, master's at ohio state, her law degree at northeastern university school of law. mr. leery, good to have you here? >> it's a pleasure, senator leahy. chairman leahy and distinguished members of this committee, thank you so much for inviting me here today. i'm leapleased to talk about wh we do in order to fulfill our obligations to victims of crime. the department of justice's office of justice program has a broad mission, but it includes providing resources and leadership to support key services for crime victims. my own personal commitment goes well beyond the office of justice programs as the senator just said. i was a former united states attorney in the district of columbia and a local prosecutor in massachusetts. i've been working with victims pretty much my entire career. i'm very proud to have served as the director of the national center for victims of crime, national non-profit here in washington. as you know, this is national crime victims rights week. just last week, the attorney general at a special ceremony honored men and women from across this country

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i am honored to join my senior senator from rhode island, jack reed, today on the floor of the united states senate to honor the brave service of specialist dennis c.puland who died of injuries sustained while serving his country in afghanistan. specialist puland or danny, as he was known, had been assigned to the kunar provincial reconstruction team in afghanistan. i have visited on several occasions the kandahar provincial reconstruction team, and i am well aware of the demands that are put on the security teams who allow the provincial reconstruction offices to do their vital work. danny's vehicle overturned while he was conducting a mounted combat patrol, causing severe injuries. sadly, as a result of those injuries, he passed away on march 31, 2011, at at the medical center, surrounded by his family. he was born in pawtucket, rhode island, where he lived for most of his life. he joined the army national guard after graduating from high school and served with the nation