congressman nadler, welcome back.rlier today. >> this time i can hear you. >> earlier today, john boehner said the american people -- he said to the american people, i would have to say we've tried our level best. i know you're a democrat, but have you many republican friends. have the republicans in the house tried their level best? >> tried their level best to do what? they've repeatedly given us bills so far to the right and so injurious to the middle class and low-income people we couldn't consider them. and the fact is, they created out of whole cloth an artificial crisis around the debt ceiling. we raised the debt ceiling 50 times in the last 40-some years. a normal proceeding. no one ever doubted the necessity of raising it. the point is, to raise the debt ceiling is not to say we're going to spend a lot of money in the future. it's to recognize you have to pay the bills you incurred in the past as a result of decisions made two, three, five, seven years ago. in this case, mostly during the bush administration.

congressman nadler, welcome back.oday. >> this time i can hear you. >> earlier today, john boehner said the american people -- he said to the american people, i would have to say we've tried our level best. i know you're a democrat, but have you many republican friends. have the republicans in the house tried their level best? >> tried their level best to do what? they've repeatedly given us bills so far to the right and so injurious to the middle class and low-income people we couldn't consider them. and the fact is, they created out of whole cloth an artificial crisis around the debt ceiling. we raised the debt ceiling 50 times in the last 40-some years. a normal proceeding. no one ever doubted the necessity of raising it. the point is, to raise the debt ceiling is not to say we're going to spend a lot of money in the future. it's to recognize you have to pay the bills you incurred in the past as a result of decisions made two, three, five, seven years ago. in this case, mostly during the bush administration. nothin

nadler. the chair: the gentleman -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one and a half minutes. mr. nadler: i rise in support of this resolution. and in opposition to any unilateral declaration of palestinian statehood by the united nations. how can a dispute between two peoples be resolved by unilateral decision of one? the path to peace has been clear for many years an provided for by security council resolutions and the oslo accord signed by the israelis and palestinians. these provide for settlements negotiated between the party a settlement that's the result of two states, the state of israel and that of palestine. secure borders an the status of the refugees of 1948 and their descendants. is an attempt by palestine to delegitimize israel and give their state a reason to keep fighting israel and refuse the alleged right of return to undermine the jewish state. the palestinian authority shoulding plain to its people that a pal stipian state can only be achieved by rec

and what did you make of old jerry nadler?hink there is a shift in the discussion $14.5 trillion later. now it's not a deficit problem. it's only an employment problem. >> that actually should have been a good piece of the democratic message. the whole time during the debt crisis thing. he has a point. i mean, one of the reasons you have all of these people out of work. they are not -- you don't pay taxes when you are out of work. you actually need unemployment benefits. we should be addressing that and neither party has been talking about it. >> laura: i think the republicans have been talking about 9.2% unemployment quite a bit. >> talking about in the debt crisis they have been talking about cutting, spending, cutting taxes. >> laura: but, joe. >> none of that is going to create jobs. >> laura: when the president came out, i forget how many times he has come out. every other night is he doing men mental press conference or speech. he disawnt talk about unemployment. is he not talking bun employment. >> the answer is on mess

nadler p.c. thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, i offer an amendment tonight that will save both blood and an immense am of money. the amendment i'm introducing along with congressman blumenauer designates already authorized funds in the amount of $15 million to be used to insulate shelters at forward operating paces in afghanistan. properly insulating military shelters can significantly reduce energy consumption, which in turn can decrease the number of fuel convoys needed to support our troops. these fuel convoys cost us dearly. they're absolutely vital supply link to our troops in the field but they are exposed to constant and devastating attack. despite the pentagon spending $24 billion a year to protect fuel convoys in afghanistan, more than 3,000 troops and civilian contractors have been killed or wounded while riding in convoy. what's more, fully 2/3 of the fuel used in afghanistan goes to provide electricity for air-conditioning and heating in military installations. if we can reduce the energy required in these a

nadler. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york. mr. nadler: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle would not be here today if president jefferson had not borrowed to finance the louisiana purchase purchase. -- purchase. mr. speaker, this bill promises all the fun of a constitutional amendment without actually amending the constitution. it simply says that the united states should default on our debts and destroy our economy if we don't amend the constitution. if we default on our debts we will do more dama to our economy than large deficits, tax increases and da conian cuts combine -- draconian cuts combid. right now we enjoy low interest rase rates because we're the most stable, reliable country in the world. even though we are certainly wealthy enough to pay our debts, nothing else will matter. interest rates will climb, homeowners and businesses will be pushed out of the credit markets, the stock market will crsh. never before in the history of this country has anyone been irresponsible enough to play chicken with ou

. >> gerald nadler of new york who high tailed it up here last night. thank you so much. >> you are quite welcome. >> senate majority leader just said they are "very close ". to a deal. we have a republican and we will hear from her around 11:30 eastern time. the debt crisis is causing a crisis as the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff discovered for himself this weekend. >>> here in southern afghanistan, soldiers and marines are dodging bullets. when they had a chance to throw questions at the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, their number one concern was the ongoing debate back home over the debt ceiling. >> the checkbook is not unlimited. >> they told soldiers if the talks fail they have to fight, but they may not get paid. >> there plenty of you living paycheck to paycheck. if paychecks were to stop it can have a devastating impact and a devastating impact pretty quickly. >> mullen told marines given the state of the u.s. economy, all the services they said cut back in the size of the force and maybe even military benefits. >> we will have t

nadler of new york. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a rored vote will rise and be counted. 5 sufficient number having risen, a recorded vote is order. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a two-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the chair: on this question, the yeas are 175, the nays are -- are 240, the amendment is not adopted. the unfinished business is the request for a railroaded -- recorded vote on amendment number one, ordered by the gentleman from texas, mr. poe. on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment 1 offered by mr. poe of texas. the chair: the arored vote has been requested. those

nadler. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york. mr. nadler: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle would not be here today if president jefferson had not borrowed to finance the louisiana purchase purchase. -- purchase. mr. speaker, this bill promises all the fun of a constitutional amendment without actually amending the constitution. it simply says that the united states should default on our debts and destroy our economy if we don't amend the constitution. if we default on our debts we will do more damage to our economy than large deficits, tax increases and da conian cuts combine -- draconian cuts combined. right now we enjoy low interest rase rates because we're the most stable, reliable country in the world. even though we are certainly wealthy enough to pay our debts, nothing else will matter. interest rates will climb, homeowners and businesses will be pushed out of the credit markets, the stock market will crash. never before in the history of this country has anyone been irresponsible enough to play chicken wi

when she says $4 trillion grand plan, i asked jerry nadler on tv the other day, i didn't get a copy of? ? it's in the newspaper. that's the problem with the president. the president says to the public he wants to cut 4 trillion, and he gets behind closed doors with john boehner, and says we're not actually cutting 4 trillion. almost 2 trillion is increased taxes. that's not an honest debate, and that's why the president won't put it in writing. >> pat buchanan said here's the deal. the republicans will not increase taxes, period, exclamation point. do you think he's got a right assessment of that, and if that is the case -- >> yes. >> then what is the likelihood of any sort of a deal happening? >> well, i think that the senate will have to come to terms with the fact that the policies that have come out of washington have failed ms.abiserably. if you look at the spending spree that's gone on, and at the end of the day if we raise the debt ceiling and do nothing to deal with the deficits, we're going to be downgraded anyway. that's the part democrats don't want to talk about, that the s

nadler. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york. mr. nadler: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle would not be here today if president jefferson had not borrowed to finance the louisiana purchase purchase. -- purchase. mr. speaker, this bill promises all the fun of a constitutional amendment without actually amending the constitution. it simply says that the united states should default on our debts and destroy our economy if we don't amend the constitution. if we default on our debts we will do more damage to our economy than large deficits, tax increases and da conian cuts combine -- draconian cuts combined. right now we enjoy low interest rase rates because we're the most stable, reliable country in the world. even though we are certainly wealthy enough to pay our debts, nothing else will matter. interest rates will climb, homeowners and businesses will be pushed out of the credit markets, the stock market will crash. never before in the history of this country has anyone been irresponsible enough to play chicken wi

i think, actually, congressman nadler explained it quite well earlier.esident two conflicting and irreconcilable demands. they have said, spend "x" dollars, on one hand, and on the other hand, they have said, you are not allowed to borrow enough money to spend "x" dollars. so either way, no matter what decision the president makes, he'll be breaking one law or another. that being said, the president has essentially taken that option off the table. i suspect that we are going to come to a deal, because the whole dynamic of this entire negotiation has been republicans literally betting the farm that democrats will ultimately do the right thing and save the country from a default. and that's why we've seen over and over again democrats moving further and further and further to the right, submitting to all of the republican demands. i think we'll continue to see that with the triggers, and the bottom line is, default is terrible, but the deals that we're seeing are also going to be really bad for the economy. >> norm, how are you gauging reaction from people

nadler: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, this country is in the middle of a great crisis. entirely an artificial crisis created by an attempt by one political party to blackmail the entire country into adopting its program of destroying medicare and social security and food stamps and unemployment and all the things that many of our people depend on. why do i say it's an artificial crisis? because the debt ceiling increase is something we normally do. seven times during president bush's administration. some people think to raise the debt ceiling is to say we are going to borrow and spend more. no, we're not. you raise the debt ceiling in order to pay for bills you already incurred because of decisions made two and three years ago, mostly during the bush administration. not raising the debt ceiling is going into a restaurant, having an expensive meal and getting the bill and say, i have too much money on my credit card, i don't think i'll pay the bill. if that's the case, you shouldn't have got the meal. you shouldn't have cut those taxes 10 years ago and gotten into those

congressman nadler is the author of the act and lead sponsor of the bill in the house. the lead sponsor uniting american families act. congressman, thank you for coming across the divide and joining us here. please go ahead, sir. >> thank you, mr. chairman, for holding the hearing and leadership on this issue. i thank senator fine stein for her leadership along with the chairman and our outstanding junior senator from new york. i'm thrilled to be here as the author and lead sponsor for the agent that supports 119 co-sponsors in the house. just yesterday, president obama announced his support if the bill and applaud his leadership on the issue as well. when congress passed doma in 1996, it was not possible for gay couples to marry anywhere in the world. 15 years later, much changed. six states include gay and lesbian couples in the laws. there's an estimating 80,000 couples married legally in the country. as a result and the stereotypes have fallen away, public understanding of the issue shifted. while 75% opposeed gays marrying, when congress enacted doma, now the major

contact with the offices of carolyn maloney who has been a champion of this cause, also representative nadlerwe've been working as close as we can with the special master field burn bound, we've been amassing medical evidence and submitting the reports, for example, in emil's case alone, the doctors from the world trade center held a monitoring program, the same program denying him compensation, tell fuss a report written that his cancer was caused by his exposure and his years of commitment down at ground zero. now, these very same doctors that are running the program are telling us he's not covered for either treatment, medical care, benefits, chemotherapy or compensation for the cancer that their own doctors say are related. so we've been trying to get the word out. there's some town hall meetings coming up both tonight in queens, there's one also in new jersey city that we're participating in, as well. and there's one next week over in melville at the marriott. so we aurnurge all of the survi and family members to appear, participate, make yourself be heard and really it's critical that y

i'm pleased that my colleagues and friends, congressman nadler and woolsey, are joining me in offering an amendment that makes it the policy of the united states to withdraw all members of the united states armed forces and military contractors from iraq by the end of this year. more importantly this amendment also clarifies that the timeline cannot be changed unless it is in the form of a treaty requiring the advice and consent of the senate or else otherwise authorized by an act of congress. we must ensure that 45,000 united states troops who remain in iraq and our military contractors leave iraq at the end of this year as is stated in our nation's status of forces agreement with iraq. this is of concern because this week the president and some of his advisors are considering just how many troops they can leave behind. senators and others are publicizing their opinions. senator mccain of arizona has suggested 10,000 to 13,000 troops remain to serve for support in intelligence arenas, as air support and as a peace keeping force. others may eventually call for even more to remain. at t

nadler to identify one budget proposal that would meet the strictures of this requirement. now a budget that passed the house last year, the republican budget, did not meet it. that would require is to lift the debt ceiling by $8 trillion between now and 2021. but what almost mend it but not quite was the republican study committee budget. this is mr. goodluck @'s answer. i would direct you to the house republican study committee at which balances it in nine years. that is the republican budget on steroids. their republican will require rigid that budget will require deep cuts to medicare, s medicare, social security, and education. and when you couple that with this provision that says you need a two-thirds vote now by constitutional fiat but close corporate loopholes for the purpose of deficit reduction, you will guarantee those kinds of terrible decisions. >> with the gentleman from massachusetts yield? affetz answereck and that would be have a deal. >> medicare, and others show be exempted. that is the strict language of the bill. >> that is very false comfort. that say

nadler to identify one budget proposal that would meet the strictures of this requirement.now the budget that passed the house last year, the republican budget, did not meet it. that would require us to lift the debt ceiling by $8 trillion between now and 2021. the one that our republican colleagues voted for still requires that. but what almost made it but not quite was the republican study committee budget. this is mr. goodlatte's answer. i would direct you to the house republican study committee which balances it in nine years. that is the republican budget on steroids. that budget will require deep cuts to medicare, medicare, social security, and education. and when you couple that with this provision that says you need a two-thirds vote now by constitutional fiat to close corporate loopholes for the purpose of deficit reduction, you will guarantee those kinds of terrible decisions. >> will the gentleman from massachusetts yield? >> let mr. chaffetz answer and then i would be happy to yield. >> medicare and others should be exempted. that is the strict language of the b

nadler, mr. nugent, mr. johnson, mr. honda. the support is growing. and members can call either mr. amash's office or my office right now if they want to co-sponsor. this is our moment, in congress. this is our moment to reclaim the constitution of the united states which the founders envisioned that under article 1, section 8, we have the power to determine whether or not this neigh gos to war. not some rebel group in benghazi because when you reduce it to its ultimate, a group of bengaw zero rebels made the decision to go to war against its own government and before you know it, nato joins in, we're pulled into it, the administration went to everyone except getting the approval of the united states congress. this is our moment to reclaim the constitution. will we rise to the occasion? this isn't only about this congress right now. history will judge us. whether or not we understood. the imperative of article 1 section 8. this is about the constitution. certainly it's about a billion dollars that would be spent by september unless we intervene at a time of rising debt, at a time of

nadler: it makes sense to spend money on that. we've always given money for emergencies. but the funding is offset in the chairman's amendment by a rescission of all the remaining unobligated high speed rail funding that was originally opposed to just $1.028 billion to be spent for the emergency. this provision jeopardizes several important projects that are already under way, already in the planning stages and support good jobs and that will make long overdue improvements to our rail system. in may, last may the department of transportation awarded some of these high speed rail funds for major improvements on the northeast corridor such as $449 million for improvements which would allow trains to reach 160 -mile-per-hour in certain area, certain segments, and $294 million for the queens which would reduce delays on amtrak and the long island railroad. i heard a lot of people complain about the trip times and the reliability of the northeast corridor and that it's not true high speed rail and they're right. but these are the kinds of projects that have to be done to prepa

nadler: i'll just sum up. it helps them, it helps the united states an it sends a message to the european allies into saying, maybe we should put some work into nato, which they haven't been doing recently. let's get them to start making a little effort and send them a message here. i support the jell's amendment. -- amendment. i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from fork yields back. the question son the option of the amendment offered by the gentleman of georgia. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the noes visit, the amendment is not agreed to. >> mr. chairman, i ask for a recorded vote. the chair: pursuant to clause 6 of rule , further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from georgia will be postponed. >> i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: clerk will read the -- the chair: clerk will read. the clerk: page 31, line 8, research development test and evaluation defense wide. $19,324,865,000 to remain available until september 30, 2013. the chai