chairman and if i may and ms. levin thank you and may i suggest we open it up to questions and comment focus we have them opposed to a full blown presentation like earlier today. >> all right. any questions or comments from the board? i would note there is an item in this budget that provides for board and executive staff education. it is our intent that once this is reviewed and discussed by our committee that we will talk about what we will be doing specifically around that issue going forward. we will be conferring with the governance committee to try to detail what might be a board education process or items for consideration, and obviously those will have to go back to be reviewed by our city attorney to be sure that they fit within the guidance of which this budget is created, so we're looking forward to future discussions on that, so with that is there public comment on this item? >> i also wanted to say that dr. dodd mentioned earlier this is the first time we spelled out exactly what these items to be used for

levin: thank you. it's now my real pleasure to yield one minute to our distinguished leader, nancy pelosi. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california is recognized. ms. pelosi: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on helping to have a budget that produces growth, to reduce the deficit. today we're talking about issues in which we are very much in agreement in terms of the policy toward charitable giving. in fact, some of this legislation has been introduced by mr. levin and mr. thompson on the ways and means committee, in fact authoring an amendment in lieu of last night which was rejected by the rules committee, to go forward in a way that is fiscally sound and was paid for. so here is the problem that we have. we all want to have comprehensive tax reform. where we can close loopholes and we can lower the tax rate and we can have transparency in our tax code. in order to go to the table to do that, as i know there's bipartisan interest in doing so, we should go to the table with as much freedom as possible. and not constrained by taking rifle shots on the floor of the house for certain pieces of the tax

levin: thank you. it's now my real pleasure to yield one minute to our distinguished leader, nancy pelosi. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california is recognized. ms. pelosi: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership on helping to have a budget that produces growth, to reduce the deficit. today we're talking about issues in which we are very much in agreement in terms of the policy toward charitable giving. in fact, some of this legislation has been introduced by mr. levin and mr. thompson on the ways and means committee, in fact authoring an amendment in lieu of last night which was rejected by the rules committee, to go forward in a way that is fiscally sound and was paid for. so here is the problem that we have. we all want to have comprehensive tax reform. where we can close loopholes and we can lower the tax rate and we can have transparency in our tax code. in order to go to the table to do that, as i know there's bipartisan interest in doing so, we should go to the table with as much freedom as possible. and not constrained by taking rifle shots on the floor of the house for certain pieces of the tax