so i don't object to the pryor amendment, but i do object to the fact that the pryor amendment is really more proof that this bill is not being crafted here out in the open on the senate floor. the associated press has confirmed based on an e-mail circulate bid democratic staff that the ben -- circulated by delaware staff that the bennet amendment last week was -- quote -- "a message amendment." "the new york times" went on to call the bennet amendment quote, unquote meaningless. now we have the pryor amendment that requires a level of transparency that in fact is already required by the bill. because if you look at page 134, the bill already describes a rating system developed by the secretary that consumers can use to choose the right health insurance plan. so if the underlying bill is already doing this, i can only assume that this amendment by my friend from arkansas is specifically designed to buy time so that the white house and democratic leadership can cut deals and twist arms behind closed doors. that's right, the american people need to know this bill is not really being writte

pryor: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the majority leader be authorized to sign any duly enrolled bill and joint resolution today, december 15. the presiding officer: any objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. pryor: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. pryor: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. pryor: i want to ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 4154, just received from the house and at the desk, that the baucus substitute amendment be considered and agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read three times, passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, that any statements relating to the measure appear at the appropriate place in the record as if read, and without further intervening action or debate. but, mr

i serve with senator pryor on the consumer public protection subcommittee.is improves resources for individual whose buy insurance. a satisfaction survey will be a tool to help consumers navigate through the complicated process of purchasing health insurance. the survey results will allow individuals and small businesses to make well-informed health care decisions by comparing current enrollee satisfaction levels between the plans offered through the exchange. this survey also provides, as senator harkin has pointed out, an oversight tool for congress so we can monitor the progress of the exchange and present information to patients in an open, transparent manner. mr. president, as i have said many time, i come from minnesota, often known as a medical mecca. we're home to the mayo clinic, home to the universality of minnesota. and countless innovative businesses that contribute to groundbreaking medical research that is bettering the lives of patients. now the key to this minnesota model where we have some of the highest-quality care in the country at some o

thank you senator klobuchar and pryor. your testimony. i'll do it by way of making two analogies. one, this is not like smoke. smoke at least arguably, you can see in the home. you can taste it. you can smell it. there's at least ant opportunity for you to react to it and get out of the home. by the way i'm not making a case for not having smoke alarms, they are very, very important. carbon monoxide you cannot see or smell. that makes detection all the more important. and i'm reminded of a story along with the burt story of a family of four who died in maryland. they found the father dead in his bathroom on the floor with shaving cream on his face. that's how quickly it happened to him. two children died and the mother and senators, they found the dog dead on the mat. there was no opportunity to detect that this was happening because there was no carbon monoxide detector in the home. i'd be remiss if i didn't talk briefly about a couple of prevention opportunities here and how we think they should be prevented. we'll talk

pryor: no objection. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the senate stands alex lang is a staff writer with "congressional quarterly." we are hearing president obama is coming to capitol hill to mark. why? >> he is going to rally the troops it looks like. democrats have been fighting a little bit among themselves over the health bill yesterday and today and i think he wants to try to smooth things over. he had a number of his senior staff here today including the health and human services secretary. >> what time is that meeting set to happen? >> 2:00 p.m. to mark. >> we know the real work is going on behind the scenes. who has majority leader read in meeting with today and at the end of the day will he be able to report any progress? >> one of the lieutenants, charles schumer has been meeting with a group of moderate animal democrats vie for meat side, folks like john rockefeller from west virginia, mark pryor, tom carper from delaware, russ feingold from wisconsin. they are talking mainly about the public option a

thank you, senator pryor. >> thank you.going, what i'm going to do is briefly introduce all four witnesses on the panel, and then just let you give your testimony. i would love to do it, keep it to five minutes if at all possible. first, we have alan korn. is the executor of an general counsel for safety at u.s.a. then we have cheryl burt of rochester, minnesota. then we have, is that john and his? yes. he is the director of engineering kidde residential and commercial division. then we have kelvin cochran. the u.s. fire administrator -- u.s. fire administration department of homeland security. so i want to welcome all of you all to the subcommittee today. thank you for your time. i know it is late in the same and you probably have a lot of other things you could be doing today, but thank you very much for your preparation and for those of you who travel, those of you, we appreciate you very much. mr. korn, do you want to leadoff the? [inaudible] >> am i on? one in our view gets very little attention so we very much appreci

thank you senator klobuchar and pryor. i have a portion in my testimony where i talk about how it happens and what the results are and senator klobuchar, i think you addressed that in your testimony. i'll do it by way of making two analogies. one, this is not like smoke. smoke at least arguably, you can see in the home. you can taste it. you can smell it. there's at least ant opportunity for you to react to it and get out of the home. by the way i'm not making a case for not having smoke alarms, they are very, very important. carbon monoxide you cannot see or smell. that makes detection all the more important. and i'm reminded of a story along with the burt story of a family of four who died in maryland. they found the father dead in his bathroom on the floor with shaving cream on his face. that's how quickly it happened to him. two children died and the mother and senators, they found the dog dead on the mat. there was no opportunity to detect that this was happening because there was no carbon monoxide detector in the ho

mark pryor. no, it isn't.think we're ready to move on. >> you cannot wear him out. i guarantee it. i want to ask you another question. >> i thank you and commend the committee for launching this inquiry. it is an important topic in america's parents are grateful that you're doing this. >> ok. i think that means he has to go. well, bless you and to again. we're so lucky to have you, i cannot tell you. >> thank you, sir. >> ok, where is my witness list? [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> welcome. are you all good friends on speaking terms in that kind of thing? we have a nation to save and a young generation to say, and an older generation to save. let me introduce the panel. it is mr. gary knell, president and ceo of sesame workshop. one lincoln plaza, which i take it to mean lincoln center. right across the street. dr. sandra calvert, and this is where my west virginia pride starts. >> absolutely. >> it is a hokey thing to do but

i applaud and congratulate the 10 senators led by senator schumer and senator pryor.o mention their names. as i have indicated, we cannot disclose the details of what we have done. we have something that is good and i think is very -- for us, it moves this bill would down the road. çó>> you gave us the details earlier today. can you tell us if any of those have dramatically changed. ? >> we will not talk about it for the reasons that senator reid said. things change all the time. >> we have seen all kinds of articles in the newspapers. i have said things. as elmendorf hasÑi said, all the things you have seen in the newspapers, the public option is gone. it is not true. we're not going into detail but you have heard this point and you will be surprised what we sent to the cbo. we have reached agreement. >> would you share abroad bullet points of what is in there? >> no, i did that. i said we will let more choices for the consumer, more competition for the insurance companies. >> will you end up with a positive? >> i talked lots of times today. she's at dinner now with

now, that letter was signed by senator kohl of wisconsin, senator mccaskill of missouri, senator pryor, senator begich, bayh of indiana and klobuchar of minnesota to the chairman of the finance committee, saying if we pass health care reform without addressing the issue of health care spending, we will have failed. we know from c.m.s., the actuary at the department of health and human services, that the reid bill fails the test of senators kohl, mccaskill, pryor, begich, bayh, and klobuchar. so we know what c.m.s. thinks. we also know what cnn thinks. we know where the american people are. we have watched the public opinion polls dramatically shift against the reid proposal. the well-respected quinnipiac poll a week or so ago had the proposal disapproved by 14%. the week before that gallup had it disapproved by 9%. now cnn just yesterday, the latest poll, people opposed the senate bill 61-36. so, mr. president, we have heard from both c.m.s. and cnn, and when will our colleagues on the other side of the aisle respond to either the cold, hard facts or the american people? they argued to

we recognize the leadership of senator pryor in this area.sion, broadcasters look for to working with this committee as a reexamines the children's television act. our commitment to children is not limited to three hours a week. as highlighted in my written testimony, broadcasters work very closely every day to serve their local communities. thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about this important subject. i look for to answering any questions you may have. >> thank you, sir. and now miss cyma garzhami. >> thank you, and i will be buying a home in west virginia shortly. [laughter] i have been working at nickelodeon for 24 years. cable television was relatively new and you still had to get off the couch this change the channel. i was at nickelodeon when the children's television act was written. it was a very different place then. children basically watch network television on saturday morning. there were much smaller percentages of divorce and two- parent working families. many & and nickelodeon's content came from canada. "my

pryor,aye. mr. reed of rhode island,aye. mr. reid of nevada, [laughter] mr. reid of nevada,aye.[laughter] mr rich, no. mr. roberts,no. mr. rockefeller,aye. mr. sanders, mr. schumer,aye. mr. sessions, mrs. shaheen, aye. mr. shelby, ms. snowe,no. mr. spector,aye. mr stabinow, aye. mr. tester,aye. mr thune, no. mr udall of colorado,aye. mr. udall of new mexico,aye. mr.vitter, no. mr.voinivich, no. mr. warner,aye. mr. webb,aye. mr. white house,aye. mr. wicker,no. mr. whiden, aye. mr. bennett of utah, no. this is a hutchinson,no. mr. cochran,no. mr. bennett of colorado,aye. [no audio] mr. sessions,no. [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] [applause] mr. sanders -- [laughter] >>yes? >> mr. sanders, aye. mr. shelby -- no. [no audio] [no audio] >> and the other senators wishing to go toward change their vote? the amendment is passed. [no audio] >> i had a restless night worrying about bipartisanship and i think i found a way tested. nowhere in history have we found a way to make health care more affordable than today. this is a victory for the american people, those fortunate enough to have

i know senator pryor was trying to get here and he was with his father, the former senator pryor. i am sure he will have one. can you give us an estimate of how much it will cost to continue flying the shuttle until ares i or a commercial solution is available in that range of 2016/2017? >> that was -- >> let me complete the statement. it is one of your options. that would also support the international space station until 2020 and maintain the development of heavy lift capability by the early 2020s. >> if you continue the shuttle to support the iss through 2020 you would probably have to add -- >> just until a new commercial cumin rathuman rated vehicle wo developed. that doesn't seem to be one of the options. >> what staff is pointing out is the best of all worlds. you continue to fly the shuttle. the question is what is it going to cost? until you have human rated capability on commercial, you keep the station up there until 2020 so that we have the value of that and at the same time, you do your technology development of heavy lift capability by the early 2020s. >> my estimate

just to follow up on a few of senator pryor's questions about the standard and how it's improved overime, is it difficult for manufacturers to meet the standard? and why do you think it's important to have a mandatory one? instead of a voluntary one? >> well, to chance the question, it is difficult to meet the standard. i mean, the ul standard incorporates over 50 different performance tests. it takes time. it's not inexpensive. but at the end of the day, what we end up as an industry is a product that's to comply with the performance standard. if we think about not doing that for a moment what we open ourselves up to is the risk of putting products into the marketplace ultimately exposing ourselves and the entire carbon monoxide alarm category to consumers not having a belief in the way they would work or should work. we don't want to do that. and we have an opportunity now with s.1216 to prevent that from happening, reduce the risk, build the consumers confidence and maintain the reputation of carbon monoxide alarms in total. >> and then did the smoke alarms have a mandatory standar

i'd like to quote from abc news by jonathan carl and def inn -- devin pryor, this is the season of pork i quote -- "before returning to their -- excuse me. "just weeks before returning to their districts for christmas, congress is poised to give the gift of pork, roughly $4 billion of it. more than 5,000 earmarks were included in the $447 billion omnibus bill, funding pet projects of key members of congress from both parties in all regions of the country. senate will vote on the bill this weekend. independent analysis of the bill reveal a whopping 12% increase in government spending for 2010 while the inflation rate in the country remains near zer zero." a 12% increase in spending when people are out of jobs, out of their homes. they cannot afford to -- the -- basically what they need to sustain their lives and we have increased spending by 12% and 4,500 earmarks. $4 million -- said brian -- quote the spending spree is continuing even as the deficit escalates to $2 trillion. the earmarks are all explicitly listed in the bill, right next to the members of congress to inserted them. $800,

bomb which did kill even more people then explosive killed in the king david hotel but she did not pryor properly so this made such a traumatic impact on mi5 that it was just its finest hour and it dealt mainly with the assistance of british zionist who did not like begin. very successfully with the zionist plots extreme zionist plots, letter bombs that were sent to people as well as the attempt to blow up white hall, but mi5's response was one of the lowest points in the history of mi5. that is to say that for the next 20 years, it refused to ed ned jewish to mi5, from the belief that they had dual loyalties to the state of israel as well as the state of britain. if they looked more closely at their files with would have seen is how much british zionist informed in the last terrorist organization in the history of the world as well as-- so this is not a happy moment in the history of mi5 but i have talked about it and i have talked about it frankly. the loss of the collective memory in counter-terrorism is i think pretty bizarre. right, i will come back to that in a moment. this is the

eight democratic senators -- senator lincoln and bayh and landrieu, lieberman, mccaskill, nelson, pryor and webb -- wrote senator reid on october 6, saying, as you know, to senator reid, "americans across our country have been actively engaged in the debate on health care reform. without a doubt, reforming health care reform in america is one of the most monumental and far-reaching undertakings considered by this body in decades. we believe the public's participation in this process is critical to our overall success." i'm quoting from the eight democratic senators. and they go on to say they want to make sure that the bill is on the web site for at least 72 hours before we vote on it. mr. president, this bill was given to us yesterday, 400 pages of it we hadn't seen before. 72 hours would be tuesday. so the minimum requirement, according to the eight democratic senators and all 40 republican senators, we shouldn't even think about voting on it until at least tuesday. and then one would think we would be amending it and debating it and considering it and thinking about it and trying to

senator bayh and senator landrieu and senator lieberman and senator mccaskill, senator nelson, senator pryor, senator webb. what they're saying is before we vote on a health care bill that affects nearly every one of the 300 million americans, that when fully implemented will spend $2 tril yop, that the chief actuary of the government says, so far as we know it, will increase the costs of health care rather than reduce it, will take a trillion dollars out of medicare in the form that we've seen so far when the bill is fully implemented and not use it to strengthen medicare, which is becoming insolvent in the years 2015-2017, according to the trustees of medicare but instead would spend that money on some other program, would what david brooks in "the new york times" column yesterday call a huge -- create a huge tax, $1.42 trillion in the second decade of its operation to help pay for this, which the director of the congressional budget office has said would inevitably be passed along to consumers and cause premium costs to go up, not down, and which would expand medicaid, the other large gov

i asked senator schumer and senator pryor to work together with a group of moderates and progressives. everyone thought it's an impossible journey. but these two fine and senators have done an outstanding job of leading the these two groups of people. everyone knows who the tanbark. they worked very hard for days now. this is a consensus that will help ensure the american people win in a couple of different ways. one, insurance companies will certainly have more competition, and number two, the american people will certainly have more choices. i already know that all six dissenters in my caucus don't agree on every piece of the bill. i know that we've sent over there to the cbo, tamar, not everybody's going to gregory on every piece we sent but it doesn't mean everybody disagrees on what we said. i applaud and congratulate the ten senators led by senator schumer and senator bayh. i think it's important to mention their names. brown, carper, feingold, nelson, rockefeller, as i indicated we can't disclose the details of what we've done but believe me when we've got something this could

and i applaud these senators for demanding that, senators lincoln and landrieu, mccaskill, pryor, bayh, lieberman, senator ben nelson, and senator webb. but again, mr. president, this process we're in the midst of certainly does not honor that minimal demand. we're set to vote on this in just a few hours, and when we do, we will have only had the final legislative language for about 40 hours. we will have only had the full congressional budget office cost estimate for about 37 hours. that's 56% or less of this minimum time frame that so many of us, including eight democra democrats, have demanded. so again, mr. president, this rush to judgment, this rush to beat an arbitrary christmas deadline is clearly ignoring the common sense of the american people, the common sense that i heard in my dozens of town halls all across louisiana, know arbitrarnoarbitrary deadlines, t you're voting on, get it right, don't rush to judgment. so, mr. president, i have strong, strong concerns about this process. where are the 72 hours? where is the opportunity for members and the american people to really

eight democratic senators -- senator lincoln and bayh and landrieu, lieberman, mccaskill, nelson, pryor- wrote senator reid on october 6, saying, as you know, to senator reid, "americans across our country have been actively engaged in the debate on health care reform. without a doubt, reforming health care reform in america is one of the most monumental and far-reaching undertakings considered by this body in decades. we believe the public's participation in this process is critical to our overall success." i'm quoting from the eight democratic senators. and they go on to say they want to make sure that the bill is on the web site for at least 72 hours before we vote on it. mr. president, this bill was given to us yesterday, 400 pages of it we hadn't seen before. 72 hours would be tuesday. so the minimum requirement, according to the eight democratic senators and all 40 republican senators, we shouldn't even think about voting on it until at least tuesday. and then one would think we would be amending it and debating it and considering it and thinking about it and trying to find out wh

pryor, a senator from the state of arkansas, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: robert c.byrd, president pro tempore. reid mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will resume consideration of 3590, which is the health care reform legislation. the time until 1:00 p.m. today will be equally divided and controlled. it will be for debate only. the time until 11:00 a.m. will be controlled between the two leaders or their designees and then the remaining time will be controlled in 30-minute alternating blocks of tiesm the majority will control the first block, the republicans will control the next. senators will be permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. i expect the house of representatives to send to the senate this afternoon a conference report. when it arrives, we'll consider it. and if cloture needs to be invoked, then the senate will have to be in session this weekend for a saturday vote and a sunday vote in order to complete action on these bills. this bill is -- includes the bills that we have tried

into that room included senator nelson who i mentioned, senator mary landrieu from louisiana, senator pryorfrom arkansas, senator schumer from new york, one of the democratic leadership, senator russ feingold -- let's see who else -- in number of democratic members from both sides of the political spectrum, more liberal members and more moderate or even as a conservative, it's called moderate members are all in this room together right now hashing out some of these difficult issues. the most difficult, of course, our abortion and the public auction. >> what else can we expect as a the senate continues this weekend? >> i think he will see not very much public progress. they're going to vote on amendments tomorrow, we don't know whether they will vote on anything sunday. the real progress if there is any made it's happening behind closed doors and what's going on on the floor isn't really the important stuff. what's going on in senator reid's office is an important stuff and unfortunately there are any c-span cameras in their. >> do we have a sense of when this might be wrapped up? >> we don'

i'd like to quote from abc news by jonathan carl and def inn -- devin pryor, this is the season of pork i quote -- "before returning to their -- excuse me. "just weeks before returning to their districts for christmas, congress is poised to give the gift of pork, roughly $4 billion of it. more than 5,000 earmarks were included in the $447 billion omnibus bill, funding pet projects of key members of congress from both parties in all regions of the country. senate will vote on the bill this weekend. independent analysis of the bill reveal a whopping 12% increase in government spending for 2010 while the inflation rate in the country remains near zer zero 12% spending when they are out of their homes and cannot afford to sustain their lives. we have increased spending by 12% @ 405,000 earmarks. that is up $4 million. this congress has not shown they are serious about the budget deficit. "the spending sprees continue as the deficit relays to $2 trillion, quell their marks are listed in the bill. eight and a thousand dollars for new york's lincoln center. senator harkin [unintelligible] they

of the leadership like charles schumer of new york who's the number three senate democrat and mark pryornsas. >> so this idea that's percolating, if dropping the public option for this going the medicare route, would this affect support of that underlying bill? could it attract republican support as well? >> you know, it think this is more a case of democratic coalition management, getting the centrists who are very suspicious and the liberals getting them more or less on the same page. i doubt it would bring any more republican support. i guess the votes of the two moderates from maine are still in play. >> what about senator reid? he's apparently given this group a deadline of today to reach an agreement? >> yeah. he wants this today because he has to rush this over to the the congressional budget office for scoring because how are you going to sell anyone on a pretty dramatic change in the bill without getting some numbers? medicare expansion, this could be very costly. i mean, when you talk about insuring folks 55 and over who don't have coverage now, that's a pretty tough cohort. a

i applaud and congratulate the 10 senators led by senator chuck schumer and pryor -- here are the namesi have indicated we cannot disclose the details. believe me we have something that is good and that i think is very -- for us it moves this bill way down the road. host: looking again at this newspaper story on what happened last night in the senate, and also what happened in yesterday regarding the abortion amendment, democrats are tried to find the middle ground. so that they can attract the 60 votes necessary to move the bill forward. looking at what happened with the abortion vote last night, advocates of abortion rights held of the senate's rejection of stringent restrictions -- it was shot down in the senate. let's go to the calls coming in. from new jersey we have a democratic caller. caller: think you for letting me have the opportunity to share this information -- thank you. i am hoping that c-span will help us by showing all those senators who are on the take from the insurance industry. to tell those senators that this proposed bill is not going far enough you have people ca

> let me just say this: we see all current articles in the newspaper that senator schumer, senator pryor, i have said things other than parts of the ten. as doug elmendorf and i talked tonight, all the things you've read in the newspapers, all the things you've read in the newspapers, flexible one of our people, and i won't mention which of them, the news out that said the public option isn't going to work. it's not true, everyone understand that. we are not going into detail but what you have heard to this point you could be surprised what we have sent to cbo. >> you said you would reach broad agreement -- >> we've reached agreement. >> would you please share just the broader plot points what is in there and not the details? >> i did that. i did that. i said we are going to have more choice for consumers, competition for the insurance companies. >> the numbers you end up with are positive when you expect the magers -- [inaudible] >> have you talked with senator snowe? >> i have not talked with her? to me today, i've talked with her lots of times today. >> on the proposal. >> we just fin

i understand by senator pryor to have a short-term extension. the republican leaders objected to that. the same objection has been raised to the request by senator baucus today. so i do think this is an unfortunate circumstance. it's a great disappointment to me us doing business in this fashion. and i know that there are many who think there should be no estate tax. i don't agree with that perspective. the estate tax in my state -- i went back and got the i.r.s. figures. there were 80 individuals in the year 2008 who wound up having to pay some estate tax, whose estates had to pay some estate tax in the state of new mexico. it does not apply to most individuals. but i do believe that it's appropriate that there be an estate tax for large estates, and i do believe that we should have a consistent policy and it should not be something that is here today, gone tomorrow, back again in a much worse form at the beginning of january of 2011. and that's the course we're on today. i think it's very unfortunate and, again, i strongly support what the sen

eight democratic senators, senator lincoln and by and landrieu, lieberman, but casco, nelson, pryor andte senator reid on october 6 saint as you know, to senator reid, americans across our country have been actively engaged in the debate on health care reform. without a doubt reporting health care reform in americas is one of the most monumental and far-reaching undertaking considered by this body in decades. we believe the public% submission of this process is critical to our overall success. i'm going for an eight democratic senators. they'd want to say they want to make sure the bill is on the website for at least 72 hours in before we vote on it. mr. president, this bill was given to us yesterday, 400 pages of a. we haven't seen before. 72 hours would be tuesday. so the minimum requirement according to the eight democratic senators and all 40 republican senators, we shouldn't even think about voting on it until at least tuesday. then one would think we would be a mending it and debating it and considering it. thinking about it and trying to find out what it actually does. according

eight democratic senators -- senator lincoln and bayh and landrieu, lieberman, mccaskill, nelson, pryor wrote senator reid on october 6, saying, as you know, to senator reid, "americans across our country have been actively engaged in the debate on health care reform. without a doubt, reforming posting the legislation and the congressional budget office scores 72 hours before it's t to a vot >> scores. 72-hours before it's brought to a vote in the senate. by publishing our constituents will have the opportunity to evaluate the policies. it's our duty to listen and to provide them with a chance to respond to proposals that will impact their lives, yet we're presented with it amid of a snowstorm on saturday. that it be passed even though most of the provisions, as the senator from maine has said, don't even begin to take effect for four more years. what's the rush, mr. president? i think the rush is that our friends on the other side don't want to explain to 40 million seniors how you can cut a trillion dollars out of medicare. now, it's exactly $470 billion over the next ten years, but w

i know senator pryor was tried to get here. he was with his father, the former senator frier.sure he will have one. can you give me an estimate of how much it will cost to continue flying the shuttle until aries 1 or a commercial solution is available in that range of 2010 and 2017? let me complete the station, because it is one of your options. that would also support the iss until 2020 and maintain the development of a heavy lift capability by the early 2020's. >> if we were to continue the shuttle to support the iss 32020 -- >> that is right. >> you would probably have to had -- >> just until a commercial human-rated vehicle would be created. >> human-rated. of course. >> that does not appear to be one of the options. >> what staff is pointing out is what would be the best of both worlds. you would continue to fly the shuttle and what is going to cost. you had a human rated ability on commercial. he would keep the station up there until 2020 so that we have the value of that. at the same time, you do technology development of a heavy lift technology by the early 2020's. >>

folks like john rockefeller from west virginia, mark pryor of arkansas, russ feingold from wisconsin. they're trying to reach a compromise that will draw 60 votes. >> has there been any progress at all on a public option? >> they told us that their goal was to come up with an agreement by monday. they are not disclosing much of what they're talking about or the direction they are headed. a couple of moderates said that they seem to be talking about a public auction that is run by some kind of nonprofit, rather than being run by the government directly. liberals are saying that they're not comfortable with that structure. >> one of the challenging issues tends to be abortion language and abortion funding. do we know anything else about an abortion amendment? >> senator grassley said he is still working on the language of that amendment. we will see it early next week. it still closely resembles the language in the house health bill which was written by resident -- rep stupak. most democrats cannot stand that language, and they want it out of the bill. i think the amendment will fail if

senators as follows: inouye, reid of nevada, baucus, leahy, whitehouse, levin, murray, begich, cantwell, pryor reed of rhode island, kaufman, franken, harkin, webb, kirk, and bennet of colorado. mr. reid: madam president, i move to concur on the house amendment with an amendment which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, moves to concur in the house amendment to the senate amendment with amendment number 3248. at the end of the amendment, insert the following. mr. reid: i ask further reading of the amendment be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. is there a sufficient second? there is. mr. reid: i have an amendment at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an amendment numbered 3252 to amendment numbered 3248. mr. reid: madam president, i have a motion to refer with instructions which are at the desk. the presiding officer: the

would say to my colleague from utah, senator lincoln, senator landrieu, senator mccaskill, senator pryorsenator bayh, senator lieberman, senator nelson, senator webb were all signatories on that letter. and i -- i know at different points of the debate, we've had some discussion --ic senator --k senator dorgan from north dakota that sponsored the amendment that would deal with drug prices had expressed some concerns. i know certainly the senator from arizona, senator mccain, has expressed some concerns about drug price issues and what kind of deals had been basically cut on the side that members of the senate are not necessarily privy to. and i would just ask my colleague, is he aware that the obama administration has now been sued for the visitor list at the white house which they have claimed privilege to, has been sued because they have withheld the -- the names of the stlaidindividuals that have como the white house, some of whom may have been involved in negotiating these side deals that we are not privy to. was the senator aware of that? mr. bennett: i say to the senator from texas