mccain: will the senator yield for a question in how much time -- mr. wyden: i am about one minute away. cane cannecane can i thank the . -- mr. mccain: thank the senator. o- mr. wyden: so the last amendment would allow us to advantages the institute of medicine. they have made a number of thoughtful proposals that i think are going to give us a chance of promote our national security and reduce obesity and we certainly should pursue them through this farm bill. the last comment i'd make, madam president, is i think oregonians got it right, and i think we ought to be building on the work done by nor stabenow and -- by senator stabenow and senator roberts. this bill, at a crucial time in american history, can help us grow more jobs. it can help us improve the health of the people of our country without spending additional money. it is an opportunity to protect our treasured land and air and water. and finally, it is a lifeline for these rural communities, these communities that i've described as walking on an economic tightrope. i intend to work with my collea

mr. wyden: madam president, i ask unanimous consent to vacate the quorum call and to speak as if in morning business for up to 20 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. wyden: madam president, i'm going to take just a few minutes to outline the amendments that i plan to offer on the farm bill, and in the beginning, i particularly want to commend the chair of the committee, senator stabenow and senator roberts. i think we all understand that if you want to tackle a big issue, an important issue, you've got to find a way to come to something resembling common ground. this bill is especially important. this is a jobs bill at a time our country needs good-paying jobs. it is an extraordinarily important health bill, particularly one with great implications for how america tackles the issue of obesity. it is an environmental bill because it has great implication s for conservation. and of course it has extraordinary impact on rural communities, rural communities that are h

mr. wyden: mr. president, i have served on the intelligence committee for 11 years now, and i have seen during that time plenty of leaks, and i have tried with every bit of my energy to demonstrate how serious an issue this leaking matter is. in fact, i teamed up with senator bond, our colleagues her senator bond, of course, and i sponsored legislation to double, double, mr. president, the criminal penalty for those who leak, for those who expose covert agents. so i don't take a back seat, mr. president, to anybody in terms of recognizing the seriousness of leaks and ensuring that they are dealt with in an extremely prompt and responsive fashion. what is at issue here is whether or not we're going to give an opportunity for u.s. attorneys, professionals in their fields, to handle this particular inquiry, and i see no evidence, mr. president, that the way the u.s. attorneys are handling this investigation at this time is not with the highest standards of professionalism. now,

mr. wyden: mr. president, yesterday, i joined with chairman bingaman to introduce legislation to address an urgent threat to america's national forests. the lack of resources to fight serious wildfires that at this very moment are burning on more than 300,000 acres in our country. to date -- and it is certainly early in the fire season -- more than 830,000 acres already have burned. the heart of the problem, mr. president, is as the fires have gotten bigger, the forest service air tanker fleet to fight these fires has gotten smaller. in 2006, the forest service had 44 large air tankers under contract in their fleet. last week, they had just 11 large air tankers under contract, and ten of those averaged 50 years of age. now, after very tragic events of this past weekend in which one of those air tankers crashed and its courageous pilots were killed and another had a failure of his landing gear and sustained serious damage, the forest service is down to nine large air tankers. this is an extraordinari

wyden. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think it's been a good hearing, mr. chairman, and i think we've sort of had a wake-up call for just how tough this is going to be to actually write a bill, and let me start, if i might, for the last five years i've worked with two very thoughtful conservatives here in the senate, senator gregg and now senator coates and another democrat senator begich and we've produced a tax reform bill. it's modelled after the '86 legislation where you clean out a lot of the clutter, hold down the rates and keep progressivity, and it's been joined by the tax committee as essentially generating revenue. one of the toughest parts of actually sitting down, and senator gregg and i spent week after week after week for almost two years, was dealing with these issues that we're talking about here today, the energy question, and i came to those discussions saying, highlighting a point we've heard this morning, that natural gas is a huge, strategic american advantage. i mean, people ought to understand that right at the get-go, and we ought to

mr. chairman. it's by pleasure to be here. thank you senators murkowski, wyden as well. you asked what is the current landscape of china's investment and it's been delineated a little bit by the last two speakers. i chi china is committed to achieving air superiority aircraft as part of its pivot to asia. that is to say, the united states air force is not thinking of turning to european or asian suppliers to supply its number one strike aircraft. developing leadership is the highest national security. and china is not thinking of it in their comparative advantage. i say that because it has to inform, then, our own response to china. and i want to emphasize, not just china. i remember in february of 2009 i was invited to a white house meeting to discuss the future of green technology in the obama administration. and there was a debate between those who in the administration who wanted to become proactive with various kinds of incentives to promote green energy and other market -- traditionally, market-oriented officials who argue that we don't want winners and lose hers,

wyden, and landrieu. and i ask unanimous consent that senator kerry be added as a cosponsor. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. commonly, in advocating or introducing bills, senators will have photographs or visual aids, and i thought about doing that today and then realized that the photographs appropriate for this bill are of mangled, cruelly torn animals, animals that died in the midst of torture, a blood sport that really has no place in any of our american towns or cities or countrysides. a blood sport that involves animal fighting. this activity is not only cruel and inhumane, it is also a sport that fosters and promotes and encourages illegal activity, including drug dealing, gangs, gambling, and it is a source of really the worst instincts. it encourages the worst in the human condition and the worst in the individuals who participate and who come to watch it. and so the congress has recognized this fact in the past, as recently as 2007, but upgrading the federal law against animal fighting. it is prohibited, and the act of 2007 made the interstate transport of

mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, i call up my farm to school amendment 2388. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from oregon, mr. wyden, proposes amendment numbered 2388. mr. wyden: i ask that further reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: mr. president, the american academy of pediatrics, the country's pediatricians, is recommending to the united states senate that this amendment be passed to encourage healthier foods for our kids. and the congressional budget office has stated that this amendment has no cost. this rammed would for the first time test out farm-to-school programs through a competitive pilot project with at least five farm-to-school demonstration projects, so it would be possible to fill in the information void about what works and what doesn't. the agriculture department's own economic research service reports -- and i quote here -- "data and a