mr. wyden: mr.president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, as the new chairman of the senate finance committee, 16 working days on the job, it is humbling to be parachuteed late into the issue of reimbursing doctors for medicare services, and i intend to be brief here at the outset of this debate. mr. president, all sides agree that the current system for paying doctors known as the s.g.r. doesn't work well for seniors, the many gifted physicians who serve them or taxpayers. devised in 1997, the grr sets an annual cost target for medicare physician payments, and it is honored more in the breach than in the observance. when the s.g.r. isn't met, the congress says that's okay, we'll just apply a patch and we'll punt. patch it up and let that s.g.r. limp along just as it has year after year after year. mr. president and colleagues, there have now been 16 of these patches, 16, and every senator that i talked to says that that just deifies common sense, and it seem

he was born in washington and is well versed in pacific northwest issues, as my colleagues mr. wyden and mr. merkley will note. he is a graduate of the university of oregon, but he also went to law school at the university of washington. he has handled a diverse portfolio of legal matters including representing counties, public utility districts, fruit growers, medical clinics, brokers and individuals and he brings more than 30 years of legal experience to the federal bench, including 25 years in private practice. as well-rounded and experienced from all sides of the legal process from civil and criminal trials to mediation and arbitration and negotiation of various parties throughout his career, he has shown a dedication to justice and equal access to the law. as an experienced trial attorney, he has earned the support and recognition of his peers. when i interviewed him, i was impressed by his respect for legal precedent and his commitment to the rule of law, his work to improve access to justice and a local knowledge that is very important to serving eastern washington and all of

mr. cobb, i think you will be next. >> chairman wyden -- >> mr. nawaz, would you like to add to that -- mr. mcelrath. spent i have nothing to add. >> thank you for inviting h&r block. we are pleased to participate in this important discussion about protecting consumers from incompetent and unethical prepares to as the world's largest consumer tax services provider, competence and ethical tax return preparation is something we take very seriously. faster we found more than 22 million u.s. individual income tax returns, about 15 million returns and the more than 10,000 offices and another 7 million to our software offers. we know a lot about consumer views on taxes and know what it takes to maintain expertise in is always changing tax landscape. in order to protect taxpayers from incompetent and unethical tax returns prepares, the rtp items that must be addressed. first, minimum standard for tax return preparers, and second, consistent fraud prevention others across all tax preparation methods. first and we support legislation that sets standards fo

wyden. >> thank you mr. chairman. ms. loonin you recently wrote a report on sallie mae that is doing both servicing under the tracks to bomb program and still has outstanding old federal guaranteed loans. sallie mae touts its status as the loan service or with the lowest default rate so i recently sent a letter to sallie mae asking for more information about its default prevention strategies because i think it's important to understand the default aversion programs the our worst use whether it's a deferment, forbearance, income-based repayment for something else and i asked for data on all of the federal loans including federally guaranteed in the direct loan program. sallie mae recently responded to my late letter but it did not respond to the extensive data requests. instead sally mason three pieces of data related only to to the direct loan program. it's direct default rate in its income-based repayment rate. ms. loonin i wanted to ask are these data sufficient to build an accurate picture of sallie mae's default reten

. >> we are going to hear from senator wyden in just a minute, mr. lewis, and i wonder, is there anyone in d.c. who is on your side and why does congress seem so silent on this? >> first, this book has been out for 24 hours. i don't know who is on my side and who is not on my side. what i know is the fbi has launched an investigation since the book came out and the new york attorney general seems very interested in the subject. >> i believe the fbi investigation was going on for awhile. >> they announced it. i don't know. yeah. it was announced yesterday, right? so i can't tell you who is on my side and who is not. i don't really think of myself as having a side. i really would just like a clean and fair marketplace. >> on that note, michael, thank you so much for a lively conversation. >> yes. always a pleasure. >> likewise. >> thank you very much. all right. gentlemen, thank you as well. to be continued. obviously. let's go to washington. joining us now from capitol hill is senator ron wyden, democrat from oregon. senator, you are chairman of the s

wyden, thank you for inviting me here today. mr. chairman, thank you for holding this hearing on the need this is a consumer protection issue as well as a revenue protection issue. either congress needs to give irs the authority or the state to enact such laws. have issued a model act to encourage states to adopt such laws. when i began this work, i assumed that tax preparers were licensed professionals with certain educational credentials. the tax return is the most important financial transaction during the year for many individuals. it would only make sense that consumers place their trust that -- preparers are unregulated in 46 states. contrast this with other professions that do require statesng in all our most like hairdressers or landscape architects. the lack of regulation for tax preparers has resulted in an environment that breeds incompetence and fraud. this raises questions heard how accurate our tax returns prepared by used car dealers? that themagine incentive for accuracy will take a backseat to profit. we found serio

mr. clapper sent a letter to ron wyden on march 28, indicating there have been queries of u.s. persons of communications that he says were lawfully acquired under section 702. look at what the fisa court said two years ago in 2011, the observed that the nsa acquires more than 250 million internet communications each year, pursuant to section 702. that was in 2011. beant to probe how it could that we would collect this data, looking at foreign persons, on a 51% basis of confidence that the person is a broad, and then feel for u.s. persons. how does i comply with the fourth amendment in your judgment? >> i think everything has been done is consistent with the fourth amendment. that only goes part of the way. the president has said just because we can do certain things doesn't mean we should do them. , we're looked at 215 looking at section 702 heard i think we will have modifications that we will propose there, as well. >> let me ask you, in terms of whether you think we have legal or constitutional limits in receiving information on american citizens in the united states that ha