mrs. mccaskill: mr. president, this amendment is one of those opportunities where we get to walk the walk. there is an awful lot of talk about how we have to do something about spending. there is a lot of misinformation out there about this amendment. first of all, it exempts emergencies. it exempts -- the presiding officer: please let's have order so we can hear the senator from missouri. mrs. mccaskill: it exempts mandatory spending like u.i. and cobra. it exempts our wars. it exempts emergency spending. it is less aggressive than the president's spending freeze that he has laid out for next year. it doesn't apply until the next fiscal year. this is the moment that we can walk the walk instead of just talking the talk and show the american people that we get it. 2% is not unreasonable in terms of increases every year when we look at the pile of debt that we've got to deal with in the coming decades. i urge the adoption of the amendment. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from

mrs. mccaskill: mr. president, i'm just confused about why the hearing that we had scheduled this afternoon cannot go forward. the subject matter of this hearing is oversight of the contract that is engaged in police training in afghanistan in the contracting oversight subcommittee. this is a hearing that is getting to the heart of the matter that we have a real problem with the mission part in afghanistan on police training because of problems with these contracts, problems with oversight of the state department. we have now canceled the hearing because we have been told we can't have it. the witness from the state department has been canceled. the witness from the defense department has been canceled. the inspector generals that were coming to testify about a g.a.o. report that just came out last week that was damning in its criticism of the oversight of these contracts. the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mrs. mccaskill: i don't get it. the presiding officer: the senator from montan

mccaskill bill and oppose the pryor amendment. i thank the chair and yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. three minutes, if i could, to respond to my two colleagues. first i want to commend both senator sessions and senator mccaskill for their work on their amendment. like i said, i voted for it in previous -- previous editions of it, but one of the -- i think it has one major flaw, and that is it really only deals with discretionary spending. i know it does affect the deficit and that's very important, but its focus is just on the spending. when we did multiyear discretionary spending caps, they were a key part of the 1990, 1993, and 1997 deficit reduction packages, they worked. however, those deficit reduction packages looked at all spending, mandatory and discretionary, as well as revenues. that's what our amendment does. it takes the whole picture. if we are going to walk the walk on having our fiscal house in order, we need to look at the entire picture. i know that -- and i think we need to do it in a bipartisan way just like they did in previous congresses when they really made seri

mrs. mccaskill: mr. president, there are people in this body who will say vote for the side by side because it does more. it doesn't. 50 votes to waive. everybody would love to go after mandatory spending. we don't have the will to go after discretionary spending. it's a joke that anybody thinks that this body is ready to take on mandatory spending. this is a very baby step to control growth by 1% beginning next year for three years. when you look at what state governments are doing and local governments are doing and what america's households are doing and we can't control growth, 1% for three years, we're not cutting nothing. we're cutting nothing. everybody in the country is cutting, but here where we print money. this is a reasonable approach. if we cannot take this baby step, then we have got to admit to the american people we do not get what they are going through, we are completely out of touch. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii is recognized. mr. inouye: mr. president, the senate has

mr. chairman. >> senator mccaskill? >> mr.ollowing up on the sanctions on iran, the iran sanctions ask -- was passed recently there has been attention given to the us many examples are the large south korea and engineering firm that entered into a contract with iran to upgrade oilfields in 2007. and in 2009 the u.s. army gave the same company a contract for $100 million for housing for army in south korea and then a few months after that they entered into another contract with the ran. i and a stand we have not enforce the law because the european allies squawked about it when it was passed and with the company in japan than they squawked and said you did not enforce it with the european countries. brazil we gave a huge import/export loan in order to get oil out of brazil instead of the middle east but then they turn around and have the ahmadinejad come to town and kiss and hug. i am a little worried to make sure we are not contrasting with people who were doing business with iran especially in the oil and gas and petroleum se

mr. chairman. >> senator mccaskill. >> thank you mr. chairman. dr.the obvious and i do want to make sure mr. roberts, there is absolutely nothing wrong with your company making a profit. obviously, your job is to make sure that your company makes a profit. you would be in big trouble if your company wasn't make any profit, so i think i want to ask the basic question. i am i'm assuming you want this urge or because you think you can make more money. >> i stated earlier, we hope to have a positive return on our investment but as the chairman pointed out at the start, not all mergers have worked for shareholders. others like aol time warner or like directv and news corp.. >> you keep using those as examples but i'm assuming you are going forward because you believe you are going to make one a. >> i hope we have made a good deal. >> you have figured out that something that time warner and aol did not dig your out i am assuming and you are telling your shareholders you figured something out because you plan on making money on on the steel. >> we hope the

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator wicker. senator mccaskill? >> thank you, mr. chairman. following up on some of the sanction stuff on iran, you know, the iran sanctions act was passed 14 years ago. and we've never enforced it. and recently there has been some attention given to this and one example of many examples is a south korean engineering firm that entered into a contract with iran to upgrade oil fields in i were. in 2007, there was a $700 million contract. in 2009, u.s. army gave the same company a contract for $100 million to build housing. for our army in south korea and then just a few months after that they entered into another contract with iran. you know, i understand that we have not enforced this law because our european allies squawked about it when it was first passed. and then when we tried to enforce it with japan, a company in japan, they squawked well, you didn't enforce it against the european countries. brazil, we just gave a huge import/export loan too to get some oil out of there instead of the middle east and what do they do they have mahmoud ah

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator mccaskill. senator klobuchar, welcome. >> thank you, mr. chairman.a member of the judiciary committee and have taken a particular interest in medicare and medicaid fraud, just because when dollars are so tight and people can hardly afford to pay their premiums, it's just outrageous that we are losing about $60 billion going out of this system to places that it should never go. >> was this an issue you had some interesting in your previous work back in minnesota? >> i did. as a prosecutor we really beat up our white-collar fraud area, and we did a lot in this kind of medicaid medicare fraud and it was always the most vulnerable people that we're getting ripped off. and the money was going to storefronts with names that don't even provide any services. the other thing i learned since coming to this and ending on the judiciary committee, is an obvious fraud sometimes takes place in certain hotspots they call them, and the department of justice. certain areas that have the least efficient healthcare systems where, not only is the government not checking

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator chambliss. senator mccaskill>> i know there has been talk about unit costs. i have not heard an estimate for the entire program. can somebody give me that number? perhaps i am sorry, i do not have that number. we do not have that number with us. >> i think we need to know that number. i am a little worried you would come to this. without that number, to be honest with you. i think everybody having a handle on what the overall costs are compared to what the were predicted to big, we are stuck and i'm sure this will be a great jet, but we want to learn from this. we do not want to do this again. if we do not have competition and i am a big fan of the product boeing puts in the air. for accountability purposes, i think whenever this group of people assembles, you should have a number of the overall program will be a. there is the shortfall. the home in st. louis, i know what the tactical aircraft means to our services now. i know that as you talked about more and cheaper, secretary carter, there is a shortfall. it h

mr. chairman. >> thank you senator mccaskill.ar. >> thank you as a special guest to join this committee for one our outward like cinderella. i am actually a member of the gg sherry committee and have taken a particular interest in medicare and medicaid fraud, just because $1 when dollars are so tight and people can hardly afford to pay the premiums it is just outrageous that we are losing about $60 billion going out of the system to places that it should never go. >> was this an issue that you had in your previous work? pie did. as a prosecutor we have beefed-up our white-collar fraud area and we did a lot of this medicaid medicare fraud. it was always the most vulnerable people getting ripped off in the money is going to storefronts with names that don't even provide any services. the other thing i learned since coming to the senate and being on the judiciary committee is a lot of this fraud takes place in certain hotspots they called them in the department of justice, certain areas that have the least efficient health care syst

mr. chairman. >> thank you senator mccaskill. >> thank you as a special guest to join this committee for one our outward like cinderella. i am actually a member of the gg sherry committee and have taken a particular interest in medicare and medicaid fraud, just because $1 when dollars are so tight and people can hardly afford to pay the premiums it is just outrageous that we are losing about $60 billion going out of the system to places that it should never go. >> was this an issue that you had in your previous work? pie did. as a prosecutor we have beefed-up our white-collar fraud area and we did a lot of this medicaid medicare fraud. it was always the most vulnerable people getting ripped off in the money is going to storefronts with names that don't even provide any services. the other thing i learned since coming to the senate and being on the judiciary committee is a lot of this fraud takes place in certain hotspots they called them in the department of justice, certain areas that have the least efficient health care systems

mccaskill. secretary of defense robert gates is in the saudi capital after three days in afghanistan where he knew the crossed that with the iranian president ahmadinejad. mr. gates accuses iran of playing a double game in afghanistan and working to undermine the security u.s. forces are trying to help build. the secretary is in saudi arabia to meet with king abdallah and senior leaders on how to respond to in grandpa's nuclear program. a woman who has been in u.s. custody since october, a convert to islam, said that she was willing to be a modern. she called herself jihad jane online and is accused of recruiting fighters in moving to europe to kill a swedish artist. intelligence officials say the number of names on the no-fly list has doubled to about 6000 people, the increase coming after the christmas day bombing incident. the names included the al qaeda in yemen. more on the resignation of new york congressman eric massa. steny hoyer spoke earlier and said, some people are trying to politicize the situation surrounding the representative who resigned after accusations of sexual harassment. meanwhile, eric cantor declined to directly address the stateme

mr. sessions: this is the sessions-mccaskill amendment. senator mccaskill, my colleague from missouri. this is a bipartisan amendment. it is one that i think is very, very important, and i hope my colleagues will give it serious consideration. we're close to enough votes to make it law, and i am absolutely convinced that it is one thing that will work to reduce the surging deficits in our country. last week i traveled -- i guess week before last now. six days of travel, and people continue rally expressed to me -- and people continually expressed to me the condition of our country. they want us to do something about it. i heard some of my colleagues express things like, well, this is just populist anger. it will pass off. you know, we need to keep a cool head here. we don't really have to change how we do business. things are going to work out somehow, some way, although nothing in the numbers show that, and mr. bernanke, the chairman of the federal reserve, said last week in his testimony before congress, our path is unsustainable. not the first time he's said that. virtually every ec

mr. sessions: i would call my colleagues' attention to this serious bipartisan effort with senator mccaskill of missouri to contain our penchant in this body to violate or manipulate the budget and spend more money than we intend to spend. sometimes we're our own worst enemies and truly members of both parties have been guilty of that. so i originally offered a very similar amendment that adopted the budget amounts that were passed by this congress, our democratic leadership, and would make those amounts that we said would be our top spending amounts, the budget maximum, that we would make that a statutory cap, a statutory limit and say that we were going to violate that -- if we were going to violate that limit, it would take a two-thirds vote to do so. a number of people were concerned about it, but it received broad bipartisan vote. and when we voted, 56 people voted for it. four short of the 0 necessary to -- 60 necessary to be adopted. but i thought a positive step. and i know senator mccaskill felt that was. the -- i remain of the view that we can dispute how much we ought to spend, bu

i call on senator mccaskill because she didn't have a chance to ask a question. >> thank you very much, mrlawsuits? >> it's very difficult for us to track the lawsuits because there's no central filing mechanism. we have to rely on filings with the government. we certainly come across some individual lawsuits like the berto lawsuit in michigan where there was no floor mats in the vehicle and we call that to the agency's attention so that's part of the agency's files. >> part of the issue here, and i hope i have a chance to this afternoon question the toyota officials about it, is a culture about secrets. a culture aboutÑiyó making sur that no one knows anything bad, and frankly in%kyrxdçó this ins maybe that culture is more to blame for this problem than anyone heretofore has acknowledged. i want to first say that i think there are fine cars this company has built. and are obviously hardworking people in america that are selling them and buying them. i look at some of the cases out there, and what i'm really concerned about now is that we have some homicide, vehicular homicide cases where

mr. demint: thank you, madam president. my amendment is cosponsored by senators mccain, graham, coburn, grassley, lemieux, feingold. it's an identical bill that has 16 cosponsors, including senator burr, chambliss, cornyn, crapo, johanns, kyl, mccaskillssions, a number of others. this is an amendment for a one-year moratorium on earmarks. the fact that we're even having this debate shows how out of touch congress is with the american people. i've had a chance over the last week to speak to thousands of americans in several states, and you will you have to do to get them on their feet cheering is saying the time for excuses and explanations is over. it is tile to end the practice of earmarking and people will stand up, people of both parti parties. they understand that earmarks are the most offensive form of government spending. they're westfu wasteful pork-bal projects to curry favor to small constituents back home and special interest groups. we've heard the excuses for years. it is time to end this practice. i've introduced in bill before. at the time, president obama was running for the president of the united states. he flew back to washington to vote on it. he cosponsored the bill with me. and he essentially said the era of earm