mr. whitehouse: are we in morning business? the presiding officer: yes, we are. mr. whitehouse: are we in a quorum call? officer yes. mr. whitehouse: i ask that the quorum be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i rise today at that introduce legislation that would address some loopholes in the tax codes that provide for superhigh-income americans, ways to pay lower tax rates than are paid by regular hardworking middle-class families. these middle-class families feel that they are struggling to get by, and then they find out that some people with really extremely high incomes are actually paying a lower tax rate than they are. that's, to them, just not common sense and i think that's just to all of us not common sense. americans deserve a straight deal and right now they are not getting one from our tax systeme unfairness of our current tax system, we don't have to look much farther than the national headlines. according to a forbes magazine report last fall, billionaire warren buffett -- and i quote -- "paid just 11.06% of his adjusted gr

mr. whitehouse and for your opening statements too. ms. veasley, your entire statement will be made a part of the record. please pro veed. >> as director of the nvi and organization that serves a long neglected and stigmatized women with chronic vul have a pain, as a sufferer myself, it's truly a privilege that i do not take lightly to be before you today to share what some of americans are experiencing in their daily battle against chronic pain. we're very grateful for the committee's work, calling on the iom to study what the iom concluded was a national crisis that we have a moral imperative to address. the iom report and today's hear having given us renewed hope, hope that our country is listening to us, cares about our plight, and is ready to enact long overdue change to help us regain some quality of life in our ability to contribute to society. i survived a near fatal accident when i was 15 years old and also found a resolution to the debilitating vulvar pain i experienced in my 20s, but i've had residual back and neck pain. and sin

mr. whitehouse: thank you, madam president. i rise today to speak in support of the transportation reauthorization bill which is currently before the senate. it's called "the moving ahead for progress in the 21st century act." so we call it by its acronym, m.a.p.21. and it's a critical piece of legislation that will put americans back to work and lay the foundation for future economic growth. madam president, our transportation infrastructure has long been at the heart of america's success. from the transcontinental railroad to the interstate highway. yet across the country, the infrastructure that helped build our great economy has been allowed to fall into disrepair. for evidence of our nation's crumbling infrastructure, one need look no further than my home state of rhode island. anyone who drives to work or school in our state sees the problems. bridges that are subject to weight restrictions. highways with lane closures. and roads everywhere marked with potholes. only one-third of our highway miles are rated in fair or goo

mr. whitehouse: i thank my chairman and yes, it is kind of astonishing the breadth and the scope of this amendment. as if c.e.o.'s don't have enough power over their work force, as if they haven't done enough to offshore jobs out of american factories and over to factories overseas, now they would be able to dictate what kind of health care their employees can receive, not based on marketplace considerations, not based even on health considerations, but based on their own unchecked moral or religious beliefs. and i think it's a terrible mistake to go down that road. but i think it's a double mistake. i think it's wrong to go down that road in the first instance, but it's also wrong while we need jobs so urgently, while our highways crumble and our bridges deteriorate and waterworks continue to fail and we have the ability to put people to work in america at good jobs, you can't offshore a job building an american highway, you've got to do that here in this country, these are important jobs, this is important work, we should be getting about this and i think it sends a terrible signal to

mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator whitehouse. >> thank you very much, chairman. dr. elmendorf, welcome back. >> thank you. >> first a comment and then a question. the comment is that as we face the issues the problem of our healthcare system remains enormous. you and i have discussed before hand the scoring problems of at cell -- of addressing delivery reform. i hope that as you, as an important voice in this debate go around and talk about this that you don't become the captive of your methodology and avoid discussing the potential benefits to our economy of delivery system reform, simply because it's not quantifiable by the metrics of your organization. i think that we have two separate questions here. one is what you can score and the other is what's the right thing to do? and i hope that you will point out as often as you can that solving the excessive cost in our healthcare system by improving the quality of care is a very good thing to do, even if omb can't score it. cbo can't score it. >> yes, senator. so of course, there's a tremendous distinction between thi

. >> and give a straight answer -- >> senator whitehouse is recognized. >> welcome, mr. zients. >> thank you. >> for as long as there has been discussion about medicare, there has been opposition to medicare and there has been resentment that medicare exists. the forces that opposed medicare initially and that have resented it since are still out there. there is enormous value to certain sectors in the private sector of turning medicare over to private control. giving people vouchers and sending them off into the private health insurance industry for instance would be a significant windfall for the private health insurance industry. so i think it's important that we recognize that political fact and recognize that the debt and deficit problems that we have can be used to become a leveraging vehicle for this long-standing opposition to and resentment of medicare and a desire to disable or change that government program. we saw dramatic and i think very unhelpful changes and actually passed by the republican house of representatives just recently and i think the american p

whitehouse? >> thank you, chairman. >> mr. secretary, welcome. we are gearing up towards another background, maybe two of them i gather. the last as understand only address to american bases. you just said the question in the upcoming would be what infrastructure should we reduce in this country is there a way to and should we in the next round of domestically and overseas bases, particularly given the extent to which so much of it is done can now be done from the remote location because of our electronic capabilities. we fly aircraft from remote locations far away from theaters of operations for instance. >> senator, we have the authority that we need to close the bases abroad. wheat closed about 140 bases in europe and we are looking at another 40 to 50 basis will be closed. so, we do -- we do have the authority to look at the infrastructure abroad and try to reduce that. when it comes to this country, the only way we can do it obviously is with the approval of the congress, and that's why the process was developed. >> and i get that is a polit

whitehouse has been talking about. so there's plenty of opportunities here for some common ground, and i look forward to continuing the discussion. thank you, mr. chairman. >> i want to take this moment to recognize once again the remarkable amount of serious work that senator wyden has produced without the benefit of the chairmanship. on healthcare reform, and i just want to thank him for it. your honor, i think it's an enormous contribution. senator sessions? >> can -- while she's preparing, i would join in that. it is a tremendous amount of effort that it takes and senator wyden i appreciate your leadership and all of us in the senate watching your work and we appreciate it. >> senator ayotte is recognized. >> i understand that you testified before the house committee yesterday that we can get to 2013 without raising the debt ceiling again, or without additional extraordinary measures. so my question to you is this. we're at a point where we've -- the president has requested and the congress has allowed the debt court of appealing to go to 16.4 trillion. our total debt right now is about 15.3 trillion and surpasses the size of our economy.

whitehouse. >> thank you, chairman. mr. secretary, welcome. we are gearing up towards another brac round, maybe two, i gather. the last brac route, as i understand it, only address the american bases. you just said that the question of the upcoming brac route would be why infrastructure would be reduced in this country -- what infrastructure would be reduced in this country. is there a way to include in the next brac round domestic and overseas bases, particularly to the extent that so much of what is done cannot be done from a remote location, because the -- our c -- can now be done from rural locations, because of our electronic capabilities? >> senator, we have the authority, but we needed to close bases abroad. we're looking at another 40 to 50 basis that will be closed. -- bases that will be closed. we have the authority to look at the infrastructure broad and try to reduce that when it come -- and when it comes to this country, the only way we can do oft witis with the approval congress and that is why the brac process was developed. >>

whitehouse. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. welcome back. first a comment then a question. the comment is that as we face these issues the problem of our health care system remains enormous. you and i have discussed beforehand the scoring problems of addressing delivery system reform and i appreciate and understand those. i just hope that as you as an important voice in this debate go around and talk about this that you don't become the captive of your methodology and avoid discussing the potential benefits to our economy of delivery system reform simply because it's not quantifiable by the metrics of your organization. i think that we have two separate questions here. one is what can you score and the other is what's the right thing to do. i hope you will point out as often as you can solving the excessive cost in our health care system by improving the quality of care is a very good thing to do. even if o.m.b. can't score it. c.b.o. can't score it. >> yes, senator. of course the tremendous distinction between things that we estimate and the effect we estimate, and the set

mr. chairman. >> let me just say that in fairness to witnesses, if we ask a question, we got to give the witness a chance to answer the question. senator whitehouse is next. >> we would ask that the witness answer the question. >> you've got -- let me just say, when we ask a question here, a witness deserves the chance to answer. that's the way the house committee will be conducted. senator whitehouse -- >> you can listen to this entire hearing on c-span 3 at 7:00 p.m. eastern. we're going live to the house. members taking votes on measures debated earlier today. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: on this this 303, the nays are 89 with one member voting present. the journal stands approved. the house will come to order. members will kindly clear the well and take their conversations outside of the chamber. the chair lays before the hous

mr. chairman. thank you for appearing before us. i have two questions. one first on pakistan and then on iran. with regard to pakistan this august, senator whitehouse, senator blumenthal and senator michael bennett and i traveled to those afghanistan and pakistan was really one focus of the trip and that was this question of the ied and the material components thereof. and the four of us to send you a letter just recently that you may have gotten a number of days ago and i would just about that topic. to focus your attention on the pakistanis have done or not done despite the assurances they gave us on our trip and i mean assurances that the highest level of their government that they would take this matter more seriously, that they would institute a plan that they had in writing and that they would present it to us and it's my judgment that they have been to say that they are very slow in implementing that especially focusing on the networks that are moving these component parts that become the foundation of the roadside bombs that are killing our troops on a regular basis and afghanistan wounding them. thank you for your leadership. you've been f

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i rise today to join my senior senator, senator reed, in tribute to the memory of a great public servant and a great friend, j. joseph garrahy, former governor of rhode island, who passed away last week at the age of 81. at his funeral services this week, he was remembered by an enormous crowd for his warmth, for his kindness, and for his steady leadership of our state. joe garrahy was born in providence, rhode island, to a blue-collar irish immigrant family. he worked his way through catholic school and he served in the international guard and in the air force during the korean war. he came back home from the war and went to work as a beer salesman for our narrangansett brewery. he was what they fittingly called a narrangansett goodwill man. and as senator reed has explained, joe garrahy brought goodwill wherever he went. he turned to politics and to public service with the 1960 presidential campaign of john f. kennedy. joe followed his path himself ultimate