mrs. napolitano: mr. speaker, how much time do i have left? the chair: the gentlelady has 1 1/2 minutes remaining. mrs. napolitano: i yield 1 1/2 minutes to ms. bordallo. the chair: the gentlelady from guam is recognized. ms. bordallo: i rise in support of the amendment offered by my colleague from california, grace napolitano. while i am sympathetic too and recognize the concerns of my friend from american samoa i have received significant support from my constituents to include guam as an eligible port of call for annual safety inspections only. to the u.s. distant water tuna fleet. permitting the fleet to call on guam in addition to american samoa will create additional economic opportunities for my constituents. the fleet can utilize guam's coast guard sector, our port, our ship repair facilities and service their helicopters. it is commonsense approach to enforce the safety inspection requirements for the u.s. flag vessels. i want to be very clear, mr. speaker, i want better assurance from the administration, stakeholders that this will n

mrs. napolitano: mr. speaker. i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and i make a point of order that a quorum is not present. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 further proceedings on this question will be postponed. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess until approximately >> house lawmakers return this week. what is ready for action? >> it will be a busy week. they are going to be -- the house republicans and the conference committee are going to be unveiling the minibus collection of appropriation bills, which will set it up for a vote later this week. they will also include a short- term continuing resolution to fund the rest of the government through december 16 to give them time to work on the preparation that have not yet passed -- on the appropriations that have yet to pass. it is going to be the department of agriculture, transportation, housing and urban development, commerce, and justice. >> you mentioned a short-term r

mrs. napolitano of california for today and for the balance of the week, and mr. bishop of georgia for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the requests are granted. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee, is recognized for 60 minutes as designee of the minority leader. ms. jackson lee: i thank the speaker for his courtesies and this opportunity allows the members of the progressive caucus to continue this discussion and as well to continue to educate the american public. it is worth noting that part of the discussion that occurred on the floor of the house is that we have come to this point. if i might say through a peculiar process. some might call it hostage taking but certainly it is a process that has skewed, if you will, the regular order of this congress. this little book, the constitution of the united states, that can fit into a document of this size, even though it is found in law books and many major large-sized books found in the library of congress, hopefully convinces the ame

mr. monti has had more than two hours of talks now with the head of state, president giorgio napolitano. giving us the rundown on the team he has chosen for his cabinet. there is going to be a lot of interest in whether that entire team will made it -- will be made up of technocrats, economists, judges, and so on, where men whether there will be one or two figures in senior positions. we can only wait. >> we are looking at pictures of the presidential palace, where we expect to see mario monti, while i am talking to you. as far as we know, mario monti has been assured the support, so can i take it we will not be getting any huge surprises? >> absolutely. after discussed days of intense talks with every party in the italian parliament, and with union representatives and business leaders and so on, he is confident that he has a cross-party support. almost all parties say they will behind the -- they will be behind the monti government. the question is, how long will they stay behind him, if he is using measures that cause a great deal of pain? >> thanks very much. alan johnston there in ro

napolitano. >> thank you, mr. chair. glad to see you, mr. secretary. it has been a while. hope we haven't forgotten us in california. >> i never forget california. i don't forget washington. >> well, i'll be calling you. one of the things that brought to my attention is the "washington post" today indicated that there was another, that, chevron has halted drilling off the coast of brazil because of an underwater oil leak. the operator is transcon. the same company operating the deepwater horizon rig. do you have any information on that, number one? what can you tell us about it and if transcon, transocean was the one that had another oil spill offshore resulting from well drilling operations, should we be looking at another, taking another look at their operations? >> congresswoman napolitano, i'm not familiar with this most recent story that you, that you allude to. i will say this. that at the end of the day we know that developing oil and gas in the oceans of the world is not a risk-free activity. and it, therefore requires us, both in the executive branch as well as in

mr. berlusconi resigned, and it is thought it could be as early as saturday evening, it is up to president napolitanoo appoint a successor. this is normally a fairly leisurely process which can take days, weeks, or even in some cases in the past, months. the markets are clearly not going to wait for italian politicians to come to some form of agreement. so there are urgent calls for new government quickly. that is the problem at the moment. there's an interesting development tonight, because the president has nominated a former european commissioner as a senator for life. this is a clear signal that he would favor a new emergency government held by this man. it does not matter that he has no parliamentary experience. he has never been an mp. but it is not necessary, according to the italian constitution, for italian prime minister to be a member of parliament. >> ok, thank you so much for that. we're going to go to steve. he is standing by with the latest on how this is going to impact italy. >> it is too big to fail, and unfortunately, looks like it might be too big to bailout as well. european stoc

mr. kettle. >> decembrist members of the subcommittee on behalf of secretary napolitano, thank you for the opportunity to discuss eyesore and transnational organized crime. but the 20,000 employees include 7000 homeland security investigations or hsi special agents assigned to more than 200 cities throughout the united states and 74 offices around the world. this global team focuses exclusively on investigating transnational threats. hsi investigators are uniquely equipped with cross-border authorities expertise and information enabling to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal networks operating among the entire list of travel and trade pathways and destination transmit in source countries. just yesterday we announced a plan express, a 17 month multiagency investigation responsible for dismantling a massive narcotics trafficking organization affiliated with the civil law cartel appeared conservative estimates estimator to fight here. the organization smuggled within 3.3 million pounds of marijuana, 20,000 pounds of and 10,000 pounds a pair when she united states generating almost $2 billion in

mr. secretary, should we not be looking at incentives then to shorten these lease times and to move the production forward quickly? >> congresswoman napolitano, the answer to that is, yes, and, in fact, those are some of the reforms that have been made by the bureau of ocean energy management as we move forward. it is our view we ought not to have idle acreage, and we ought to do everything we can to move forward with encouraging oil and gas production in the right places and in the right ways. >> thank you very much. i just came in late because i was at the transportation hearing on hydrofracking, well, hydrofracking. and some of the questions that are being put back and forth is that epa's being too heavy-handed in some cares and states -- areas and states should have the right to implement their own standards. and my concern, and i voiced this, was that some of the pools left behind by the water that is used contains the carcinogens and some other nonbeneficial by-products. and they inserted back into the earth, supposedly, they state that it does not hurt the aquifers because it's, these are at a lower level than the underwater streams a