mr. wittman, thank you so much for coming on. >> thank you. >> stephen: okay. you've got a fascinating job. you are a former senior investigator and founder of the f.b.i.'s arts crime team. during 20 years of your career there, you recovered more than 225 million dollars worth of stolen art and cultural property. now you've got your own firm, robert whitman incorporated, and your memoir is called "priceless." okay. how does one become an investigator in art crime? they say it takes a thief. are you a cat burglar turned good? >> new york i think what you have to do is you have to have a real deep understanding and love of art. i think that that helps. and then also you have to have an understanding of the art business. because, you know, when we talk about art and art history, you know, people know the stories of rembrandt, and they know the stories of renoir and monet and being blind and that type of thing, but that's not what we do when we talk about art crime. art crime is all about the art business and the business of art and how to make a deal in the art wo

mr. wittman: i rise in support of this legislation -- mr. whitfield: i rise in support of this legislation and i think that president obama, the leaders in the house and the senate shall be given a warm congratulations on being able to come to some agreement to prevent america from defaulting on its debt. we all know that this is not a perfect piece of legislation. but one of the real positives of this legislation is the joint commission that's going to be established by six members from the house, six members from the senate that will come up for recommendations to reduce federal spending. and we do know that exempt from that is social security, veterans benefits as well as medicaid. those who really need health care the most. but i've heard a lot of discussion today about this is not about jobs and i would just point out that getting our financial house in order is very important but we all recognize if y read any newspaper recently, you will find out that in this administration the excess of regulations coming out, particularly from e.p.a

mr. wittman: i rise in support of this legislation -- mr. whitfield: i rise in support of this legislation and i think that president obama, the leaders in the house and the senate shall be given a warm congratulations on being able to come to some agreement to prevent america from defaulting on its debt. we all know that this is not a perfect piece of legislation. but one of the real positives of this legislation is the joint commission that's going to be established by six members from the house, six members from the senate that will come up for recommendations to reduce federal spending. and we do know that exempt from that is social security, veterans benefits as well as medicaid. those who really need health care the most. but i've heard a lot of discussion today about this is not about jobs and i would just point out that getting our financial house in order is very important but we all recognize if you read any newspaper recently, you will find out that in this administration the excess of regulations coming out, particularly from e.p

mr. wittman: i rise in support of this legislation -- mr. whitfield: i rise in support of this legislation and i think that president obama, the leaders in the house and the senate shall be given a warm congratulations on being able to come to some agreement to prevent america from defaulting on its debt. we all know that this is not a perfect piece of legislation. but one of the real positives of this legislation is the joint commission that's going to be established by six members from the house, six members from the senate that will come up for recommendations to reduce federal spending. and we do know that exempt from that is social security, veterans benefits as well as medicaid. those who really need health care the most. but i've heard a lot of discussion today about this is not about jobs and i would just point out that getting our financial house in order is very important but we all recognize if you read any newspaper recently, you will find out that in this administration the excess of regulations coming out, particularly from e.p