ms. norton. >> we have a personnel committee coming up on the seventh. maybe add this to the agenda as a sort of look back, what is our hist -- what has our history been with the program. maybe the memo the commissioner asked for could be sort of gone over at that meeting. maybe that's the thing to do. >> teach for america was not that recent. it came in when our former superintendent brought them in and i only remember that because i was not on the school board voting for it but i was on the foundation side. and there were many people on the board that wanted it funded so it was funded. it's not new to the last few years. ok, roll call please. >> if you're going to remove that first paragraph, i think you need a motion to amend. >> i move to amend the resolution to take off the first paragraph and the two words beginning the sec paragraph, more specifically, so the summary will start with this resolution is for -- >> roll call please. [voting] >> is there a motion to move this? >> as amended. that's 125- 2 k 10 as amnded. >> is there a motion? >> there

ms. norton. the administration and the attorney general have made an offer to continue discussions, and i believe these discussions should move forward in the spirit of getting some type of conclusion and the information that you need and solutions moving forward, and i want to quote from the letter that was sent to mr. issa from james cole. in it he says i stress that the department remains willing to work toward a mutually satisfactory resolution of this matter, so why can't we work together? i would like to publicly thank mr. micca for working across the aisle on the transportation bill and hopefully this can move forward in a bipartisan way, and i think we should work across the aisle on getting this resolved in a way that satisfies the chairman and the members on both sides of the aisle and the fact that he has made an offer to continue discussions we should follow up, and i think that this offer reinforces the points that my good friend the congressman norton was making that the justice dep

ms. norton. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from the district of columbia is recognized for two minutes. ms. norton: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i have come back from walking out of this proceeding to address this serious baseless charge of coverup. no one in the majority has been able to charge that the attorney general or his top lieutenants knew about the gunwalking initiated in the bush administration because there is no evidence of that, after 16 months of investigation. this contempt resolution stems from a letter from the department correcting the record , the record from a letter written in the legislative affairs part of the justice department that there was no gunwalking. that letter relied on statements of a.t.f. officials and justice department officials who this justice department then fired and did its own investigation. what you have is contempt for correcting the record. this is the opposite of a coverup. but it is alleged. if the department has nothing to hide it

ms. norton votes aye. mr. clay? mr. lynch votes aye. mr. conley votes aye. mr. davis votes aye. mr. welch votes aye. mr. murphy? ms. speer votes aye. >> mr. kucinich. >> am i recorded? >> i vote aye. >> you raare not, sir. mr. burton votes no. mr. mchenry votes no. >> does anyone else seek recognition? aye.. murhpphy votes >> the clerk will report. vote, 14thtate ayes and 23 nos. >> that vote is not agree -- that amendment is not agreed to. we know claall a vote on the lynch amendment. >> [calling roll vote] >> the clerk will report. >> on the vote, 15 ayes, 23 nos. >> the moment is not agreed to. the question occurs on the amendment offered by the lady from new york, in which the nos prevailed by a voice and a recorded vote was ordered. the clerk will calle the roll. >> [calling roll vote] >> that vote, 16 ay commites, 23 no's. >> the amendment is not agreed to. it will now proceed to the amendment previously passed by voice vote on which it recorded vote was asked for and delay. the clerk will call the roll on the gaudy amendment. >> [calling roll vote] >> ms. norton? >> it is real

ms. norton: i thank chairman mica and ranking member rahall for working together on this bill. this transportation bill could be named the jobs act of 2012 because it is the only bill of the 112th congress that will create significant number of jobs. a word on a couple of significant provisions. seldom has a pioneering landmark bill found its way to a transportation re-authorization bill, but here we find the first bill to set national standards for subway safety, bringing subways in line with all other modes of transportation which have long had national standards. this is probably the most significant provision of this bill. finally, the d.b.e. language is tailored to assure the government is equipped with the tools to meet the compelling need for the government to meet its responsibility to continue to address discrimination in small business contracting. with all its shortcomings, and there are many, the american people finally will have a jobs bill from this congress. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the gentleman from florida. mr. mica: madam sp

ms. norton: i only have brief rarkts. i associate my remarks to the gentleman from texas and the gentlewoman from missouri and thank them for bringing this bill forward. very special thanks to chairman darrell issa and ranking member cummings for their considerable assistance on this bill and for two other good friends, representative gowdy, the ranking member, and representative davis, ranking member of the full committee. the bill is essentially incorporates technical changes for land that has been owned for almost 50 years by the district of columbia but most such land passed on the so-called prehome rule period, contained language that would -- is obsolete today and prevents the highest and best use. last congress the smaller part of this bill, the washington channel bill, was passed unanimously in committee and in -- on this house floor, the docs part of the house bill had to be updated because it comes from the 1800's when the district of columbia was a port and this allows the district to use it for today's voting

ms. norton. the administration and the attorney general has made an offer to continue discussions and i believe these discussions should move forward in the spirit of getting some type of conclusion and the information that you need and solutions moving forward. i want to quote from the letter that was sent to mr. issa from james cole. in it, he says i stress that the department remains willing to work toward a mutually satisfactory resolution of this matter. so why can't we work together? and i would like to publicly tank o. mr. mica, chairman mike mica really for working across the aisle on the transportation bill and hopefully we can move forward in a bipartisan way, and i think we should work across the aisle on getting this resolved in a way that satisfies the chairman and the members on both sides of the aisle and the fact that he has made an offer to continue discussion we should follow up and i think this offer reinforces the point that my good friend the congressman norton was making tha

ms. norton. the administration and the attorney general have made an offer to continue discussions. i believe these discussions should move forward in the spirit of getting some type of conclusion and the information you need and solutions moving forward. i want to quote from the letter that was sent to mr. issa from james cole, in it he says i stress that the department remains willing to work toward a mutually satisfactory resolution of this matter. so why can't we work together? and i would like to publicly thank mr. mica, chairman mica, really for working across the aisle on the transportation bill. and hopefully this can move forward in a bipartisan way. i think we should work across the aisle on getting this resolved in a way that satisfies the chairman and the members on both sides of the aisle. and the fact that he has made an offer to continue discussions, we should follow up. and i think that this offer reinforces the points that my good friend, the congresswoman norton was making, that the justice department is open to working towards some type of conclusion. and i would

ms. norton: thank you, mr. speaker. members may be aware that i come to the floor occasionally in order to make certain that members have the full background as they find themselves in the perplexing situation of receiving legislation on a local government. we had a misunderstanding, i can only think it was a misunderstanding this week, when senator rand paul, who i know has been a student of history when it comes to the constitution, engaged in actions that had the effect of compelling a bipartisan group of senators to pull back further autonomy for the district of columbia. first recognize that the framers didn't go to war with american citizens, including citizens who live right in the very territory where we are now, the district of columbia, they did not go to war with our citizens only to leave them out of the very franchise and local control that made them commit what i'm sure the british believe were acts of treason. because they repelled -- rebelled against england for its refusal to recognize the taxes on matt

ms. stabenow: thank you, mr. president. first i would ask unanimous consent that the following detailees: marie james, marcus grant and kevin norton be granted floor privileges for the duration of the consideration of s. 3240, the agriculture and food jobs act. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. stabenow: thank you, mr. president. today the senate will move to move tpaorpbd agriculture reform food and jobs act, also known as the farm bill. i hope my colleagues will vote, will join us to begin the debate officially on this important jobs bill because it is so important to 16 million people who get their jobs from agriculture. our economy has seen some tough times, as we all know. certainly we know that in michigan. but agriculture has been one of the really bright spots, and it's an underpinning of our economic recovery, and we want to keep it that way. if we fail to pass a new farm bill before the current one expires in september, it would cause widespread uncertainty and result in job losses in a very important part of our economy that is critical to keeping our recovery going. agriculture is one of the only parts of t