mrs. hutchison: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mrs. hutchison: mr. president, i have not wanted to pursue this issue because the debt ceiling issue has absorbed all of the air in the room and in the united states, as it should. it's a huge priority. but i have to set the record straight a little bit about how this came about. first of all, let me say, i agree with the house position. i would reverse the n.m.b. decision because i think it's wrong. however, what happened here is that after 20 extensions of the f.a.a. bill because of disagreements on several issues, the house decided to put this one -- well, actually, to be honest, the house didn't even bring up n.m.b., they put another issue on the extension language and it's the essential air service language, which we have been trying to negotiate but have not yet come to a full agreement among all of the parties. but it's really the n.m.b. issue that is causing the house to shut down the f.a.a. so the entire f.a.a. -- not the air traffic controllers, thank goodness, but 3,492 employees of the f.a.a.

mr. hutchison, a fair amount of criticism has come out with how the white house handled the jobs crisis particularityn black communities. has president obama been unfairly criticized over the past few weeks, especially? >> i think we have to be realistic. there's a lot of frustration and impatience and anxiety in african-american communities of course over the jobs situation and the escalation of poverty. naturally, there's going to be frustration with the president and a lot of fingers are pointed to the president. is it fair to the extent the frustration is there? i'm not surprised. i'm ser the president is not surprised. the second part we have to be clear on is what can the president do? everybody is anticipating the jobs speech next week. one thing we are looking for and are concerned about, this has been said many, many times, mr. president, yes, you have to go big on jobs and put proposals on the table, infrastructure, more spending, transportation projects, education, unemployment benefits, these are all important. one other thing, you have to specifically talk about the black jobs crisis. th

senator hutchison. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i have introduced in the last two sessions weather modification legislation, not to do it, but to start doing research, to determine if there is a benefit to trying to modify the ferocity of tornadoes and hurricanes, if it can be done. and if it is the end, doesn't affect other areas? -- and it is done, does it get effect other areas? do you think that this is an area we should pursue? can that be done computational degree of accuracy? and how would you pursue trying to determine a way to mitigate the enormous damage we see now? it seems to me that it is so much different from the past. i grew up in galveston county, so i've seen hurricanes, but we never had the kind of katrina, the alabama tornadoes, the damage just seems to be so much more and the ferocity seems to be so much more in the last 10 years than it was in the previous eras. with that, would research cut? could it be done with computers? and where would you go from here? >> i would begin by discussing what bob ryan brought

mr. dove, i've overrun my time. i'll be back. senator hutchison. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. chairman. i would like to ask both mr. offutt and mr. dove the, differences in the two bills that have been introduced basically one a grant program in one and the other is a bank would be more of a revolving loan fund. and it would require a revenue stream. and my question is. my question to you either of you if that would fix a difference in projects that would be put forward and would it attract more private sector leverage funding, if you have the bank concept with the revenue stream as or can there be cases where grants can be an enhancement? >> senator. good question. i think the important thing to understand you have heard from many people in the panel and indeed some, some of your colleagues, there is a need to generate difficult sources of funding for infrastructure. and the infrastructure bank which i propose around the sort of eib model is a bank which makes loans and guaranties and seeks repayments that is not to say that grants can't continue. the grants ar

again thank kay bailey hutchison, my friend from texas, for saying that she stands with chairman rockefeller and she believes we should do a clean reauthorization. with that, mr. president, i think i've made my points, but i'm going to make sure i continue to make them throughout this recess, and i would suggest that senators go home and look at the projects in their states that have been stopped due to this republican hostage taking. they are against workingmen and women having accident rights. they're holding this bill hostage. that's what it's rulely all about. it is a very, very sad day. i thank you very much for all this time i've had. and i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

hutchison, republican senator from texas, who worked with the chairman of the committee, jay rockefeller, to try to work past this. she agrees with senator rockefeller this is unreasonable they have done this. mr. president, what i want to do is read a column that i, out of the "new york times," july 29. and he introduces his column by saying the facts of the crisis over the debt ceiling aren't complicated. republicans have in effect taken america hostage threatening to undermine the economy and disrupt the essential business of the government unless they get -l policy concessions they would never have been able to enact through legislation. well, that's where we are with the f.a.a. problem. he goes on to say as i've said it's not complicated, yet many people in news media apparently can't bring themselves to acknowledge this simple reality. news reports portray the parties as equally intransigent. pundits fantasize about some kind of centrist uprising as if the problem is too much partisan on both sides. some of us long complained about the cult of balance, insisting on portraying both parties as equally wrong. never mind the facts. i joked if one party declared the earth was flat the headlin

hutchison, and that caused him some problems. when rick was running for lieutenant governor, and george w. bush was running for re-election, karl wanted mr. bush to be able to run up the numbers, rick was in a close race, he wanted to go negative, carl wouldn't let him, rick won. again, that caused problems. and then we get later on into all of this, and rick makes his unguarded comments about george bush being a country club republican. george bush not really being a conservative fiscally or socially, and then karl jumps over and runs kay bailey hutchison's race for governor in the gop primary against rick. so they're completely separate now. i can't envision any moment when they're sitting at the same table. >> i guess -- i want to know, your opinion, does rick perry need karl rove? >> no. >> does he have to have karl rove on this team to get this job done? >> he doesn't. carl has this crossroads super pack out of dallas. it's raising a lot of money. i think what ultimately happens as time goes by, the donations to this super pack go down when rick becomes the apparent nominee. and carl may ultimately end up riding shotgun on the perry