and with senator schumer on that, i believe the administration is supportive of that policy. i think those are good bipartisan things. cap and trade, this is a bad time even if you support the idea. this is a bad time. and that's where you know, i look at it and i -- that's when you get people keeping their investment on the sideline or you get people saying i'm not sure about whether or not to move this on forward. and it would be wiser, i would submit to you, let's invest in renewables. let's do more ethanol. let's do things that support wind energy. but not cap and trade that drives up your cost at a time when you have such a weak economy. i would really -- i'm not going to convince you to do that. >> you have convinced me that we should talk more. >> i'll be happy to talk with you. i'm going to run out of time. your -- you talk about using the best data available. >> uh-huh. >> you've created this term jobs saved. jobs created a saved. >> uh-huh. >> now, that's -- you've got well-respected economists that believe this is a non-measurable number. i'm sure you're familiar t

i did have one question that senator schumer was going to ask and then he had to leave early. and he is introducing a bill to extend the hire act for six months. it includes a tax credit for businesses that hire unemployed workers. 179 expensing that allow businesses to deduct expenses in the year they are purchased. that's something i heard a lot about out there with our small businesses and build america bonds. is that something you think will will be helpful? >> in the fall, it the council did a lot of research on a jobs credit like the schumer hatch after. and we were very enthusiastic and thought it could have very good employment effects. as senator schumer mentioned, there is some evidence coming in how many workers are eligible for it and suggesting it could be quite effective. i think it's an issue we need to study to figure out, but what i can tell su we are very enthugs yas tick as always to work with congress on measures that will help to put people back to work. >> one last clarification of a fact question before i turn it over to senator brownback or representati

. >> senator graham, i thank you for your statement and senator schumer, you're recognized. >> well, thank you, mr. chairman. again, i thank you and senator sessions. i agree with senator graham, you conducted yourselves well and the hearing was an excellent hearing and i am pleased, mr. chairman, to cast my vote today for the confirmation of solicitor general elena kagan to become an associate justice on the united states supreme court. now, elena kagan has every quality you'd want in a nominee except perhaps the luck of good timing. sadly it appears election year politics may deprive her of the vote total that her nomination deserves on the merits. having seen general kagan's true colors during the hearings, i don't think we can color her anything but intelligent, thoughtful, mainstream and moderate as many predicted, when general kagan's hearings began she did a superb job. she gave us very meaty answers and a lot of them. she answered some 700 questions on at least 51 different topics. she explained her views of current abortion rights, precedent election law, the second amendmen

when charles schumer was chairman of the campaign committee, he raked in millions from wall street. that is way down now because they are dismayed over their treatment. >> if you doubt this, you can by legislation. that is the way we built our campaign system. >> bp has finally stopped the leak temporarily. >> what a beautiful picture. we have been looking at that gushing oil for 87 days. bp is causing it may lack -- may not last. >> how to the politics of this payout -- play out? does this get the president off the hook? >> yes, does that -- because that picture has been devastating. it happened on his watch. he did not reform the interior department quick enough and lord knows, we know the mineral services management agency was corrupt. >> if he had got this stopped a few weeks earlier, he would got much more credit politically but some americans have moved from the issue to elsewhere. it is happening too late, almost. >> i think it is very important. the image of the spewing oil was a symbol of helplessness of government or helplessness of everybody. particularly a government tha

because chuck schumer would like to see a broader investigation of bp either across the pond or here in the united states. brian? >> chuck todd at the white house for us tonight. chuck, thanks. >>> to a story that's been changing by the hour all day long. it started yesterday really when the obama administration moved with lightning speed to dismiss a mid-level official with the u.s. department of agriculture. in a controversy over what appeared to be damaging racist remarks captured on videotape, and then posted on a conservative blog. tonight we have learned a lot more about the story, and about the woman in question. we begin our coverage of this fast-moving story with nbc's savannah guthrie. she's in the white house briefing room in the west wing. savannah, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. white house officials say the decision to fire this official, shirley sherrod was solely at the discretion of the agricultural secretary, tom vilsack. the president was briefed afterwards and fully supports the decision. it's the video that became an overnight cable and internet

the action has started in the senate with senator schumer. as you may know, he took this on to his credit and to on the responsibility of trying to craft a bipartisan bill. senator lyndsey gramm of south carolina joined soon after and it looked fairly favorable for moving forward, at least on the bill at some point. -- at some point last year or this year. late last year, they came to the old to ask for some assistance on the various portions of this bill. the department of homeland security has been designated the lead in agency -- the lead agency in comprehensive reform. but other agencies, including the doj and otherthe labor depat and others have been moving forward and try to provide some feedback, some ideas on some of the ideas that are being bandied around. it has been an effective set of meetings that start of last summer. it did look like there was the possibility of something moving forward late last year or sometime this summer. the plan was really to have a bill drafted by early in the year and introduced and moving forward in th

good majority of the democratic senators in particular senator stabenow now senator reid senator schumer and also the speaker of the house nancy pelosi i've contacted their staffs and demand. that they write legislation to help the ninety nine er's so far they have not honored that request we don't go on to demand that they keep the house in congress and the senate in session until such legislation can be passed. where we're at right now is that the ninety nine er's are staging a protest as of today we've made it our number one priority to plug up the phone lines the e-mail the fax lines and every possible means of communication for the senators and the speak roach spoke of. so that they realize we're here you know we want to start their work through dates that they realize they have to address us. well thank you so much you know we will see whether your efforts you know get get some results thanks so much. thank you so much. we've got just one more segment on tonight's show which includes our fireside friday and the twitter that plus comedian seton smith stopped by to give us his two ce

the action has started in the senate with senator schumer.ft a bipartisan bill. senator lyndsey gramm of south carolina joined soon after and it looked fairly favorable for moving forward, at least on the bill at some point. -- at some point last year or this year. late last year, they came to the old to ask for some assistance on the various portions of this bill. the department of homeland security has been designated the lead in agency -- the lead agency in comprehensive reform. but other agencies, including the doj and otherthe labor depat and others have been moving forward and try to provide some feedback, some ideas on some of the ideas that are being bandied around. it has been an effective set of meetings that start of last summer. it did look like there was the possibility of something moving forward late last year or sometime this summer. the plan was really to have a bill drafted by early in the year and introduced and moving forward in the senate. as i say, if anything happened on the way to the formal. -- a funny thing happened

host: your trade letter marks the effort by charles schumer of new york. what is he up to as far as currency issue? guest: this has been a big issue for senator schumer and several others, senator gramm and senator sbenow. they have been pushing this r about five or six years. it fluctuates a penny on how -- depending on how the administration in power pushes them or not about trade. . . it would identify chinese currency as a misaligned fund. it would help getting a redress. it would change u.s. trade laws to allow these departments to treat the undervalued currency from china as a subsidy. under the anti-dumping laws, the schumer bill would allow congress to increase the duties that it pays on foreign imports on undervalued currencies. host: our guest is sam gilston. they give for waiting on the independent online. caller: it is too late because, once the hands are out of the henhouse, you cannot get them back again. ss a duty on a product that came into our count for the wage difference and social security benefits, so that when a company went over ther

closing, i would like to personally thank the members of the slave labor task force, chairman charles schumer for his help and senator chammbliss who was an original sponsor to honor these slave laborers. this incredible sacrifice and contribution to the construction of this building have gone unrecognized for for two long. i am so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this initiative and to thank everyone who joined us today for this very meaningful and long overdue event. as i think back of what might have been on the minds of those enslaved african americans, i can only think, just as the father mentioned in his prayer and benediction, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk, with our god would have certainly been on the minds of those enslaved african americans as they did their jobs as skilled laborers, craftsman with a great sense of pride that they produced. thank you all for joining us. [applause] >> ladies and gentleman, republican leader of the house of representatives, the hon. john bain of. ehner. >> we welcome all of you to the capitol today. we take time today from our

, who was a key player and continues to be a key player, backing away from his effos with senator schumer. that put the entire effort -- it took several steps back. one thing that the president leav, and we all believe, that it is one of the few ironclad must deducdo's is that it shoult be done with only demratic votes in the house. it is going to require some significant republican support. not just a token republican support, but significant republicanupport -- support. and that is good to be a challenge for the rest of the year and into 2011. the democrats have released th blueprint. it has been out there for a whil so far, unfortunately, we have not had any interest from any republican offices coin forward, at least not overtly. -- going forward, at least not overtly. absentomething changing over the next few weeks and getting some bipartisan effort on this, there will be little movement on this. at this point we are looking toward the elections in 2011 to see if something will be moved forward. we do not know how things are going to continue to play out, for example, in arizona. ariz

. >> reporter: and to make matters worse, yesterday new york senator charles schumer sent an open letter to steve jobs calling for a free fix for consumers, and it is -- believe it is -- [ inaudible ] >> reporter: -- transparent manner. we are live at apple headquarters this morning in cupertino. the press conference is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. and we will have more for you in just about 20 minutes. reporting live, jade hernandez ktvu channel 2news. >> 5:08. as we told you earlier san francisco police are investigating what they are calling a suspicious death in the city's marina district. craig debro is out there right now. we has paul the details. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, daylight. it is presidio -- rather lump barred street and scott street. that is the intersection. behind me is the presidio. when police arrived they found a woman and she was pronounced dead on the scene. as far as how she got there police aren't saying much. it is unclear if there are any witnesses. all the rooms are filled up. don't know if we have witnesses or how she got there. they classified it

design issue like this would get the attention of consumer reports with a big thumbs down, senator schumerng it an open letter -- this is an apple- oriented thing. this wouldn't happen to blackberry. >> not to mention the editor at large of cnet getting up early to join us twice in one week! [ laughter ] >> thank you. >>> it's 6:27. coming up, they ransacked oakland businesses. now police want some help to find them. >> the pictures just released and the reward for those who can put a name to any of these faces. ,,,, [ banker ] when ashley's violin teacher told her parents she was gifted, they were thrilled. she's a natural vibrato. oh. we started saving for this music camp in vermont. so i told them about some of the wells fargo online savings tools like my savings plan, which helps them set up and monitor a savings goal. until we found out that maybe her teacher uses certain terms a little bit loosely. rebecca is clearly very gifted. [ banker ] we decided to roll that money into ashley's college account. turns out there's seven gifted kids in ashley's class of nine. [ male announcer ] we

guest: senator charles schumer has been the point man on this. form it might take.k it is repeating exactly the same mistakes last time. you have the security less time which conservatives insist on and you have the passage to citizenship which liberals insist on person. you also have the guest worker status which is an indentured servitude. all americans need to be part of any immigration bill. some employers and industries like agriculture are saying that they cannot be expected as american businesses to hire americans or legal immigrants and paid and decent wages and let them quit their jobs. we need the growers to demand a labor force that does not have the rights but american workers have. when these illegal immigrants quit their jobs, they must go back to their country of origin. i was disturbed to see this included in senator shimmer possible bill% -- senator charles schumer's bill. we need more unskilled labor. if we really did, let them be illegal immigrants with green cards. if the administration and congress to abide to this dead comprehensive immigration

i know that in the i know that senators cardin and schumer and kaufman stepped in to take the gavel. i want to thank them especially, but i want to thank all senators, republican and democratic alike, for the amount of time that you spend here. democratic senators alike, for the amount of time you spend here. i should note, at the sake of possibly embarrassing him, that i'd actually stepped out prior to the end there, with the outside witnesses because some of the things i was going to have to be doing in connection with the funeral. senator sessions sat through all of that. no member of this committee spent more hours on the hearing than jeff sessions did. i would also note that, for those of us who attended the funeral and had the ability to attend the funeral, we could not have done that, had it not been for the cooperation of senator sessions who quite properly was protecting the rights of every member on his side of the aisle, as he should, i'd expect him to. still, was -- helped us work a schedule, so that so many of us could be at the funeral. and, jeff, this has nothing to do

new york senator chuck schumer spoke yesterday. >> no matter how powerful the corporation or how important the foreign government , a blood deal is a blood-money deal. and we're going to hold people accountable. >> sreenivasan: come cameron met with congressional leaders late today and there's a senate hearing on the matter late next week. that bill to restore benefits to the long-term unemployed has cleared a major hurdle in the senate. democrats mustered 60 votes to end a filibuster today. the 60th vote came from carte goodwin, moments after he was sworn in as the new senator from west virginia. he replaced the late rert byrd. two republicans also voted to end the filibuster. other republicans said they wanted budget cuts elsewhere to pay for the $30 billion the bill will cost. wall street pieced together another day of gains despite some disappointing earnings reports. the dow jones industrial average gained 75 points to close just under 10,230. the nasdaq rose 24 points to close at 2222. the senate judiciary committee today recommended that elena kagan be confirmed to the u.s. supreme

. >> and senator schumer asked me to ask this question.e's introducing a bill that we passed in the house and in the senate called the higher act that gave tax credits to employers to hire unemployed people. do you believe this has had a positive impact on employing unemployed americans? and do you believe the administration might support such an endeavor? >> the same question was already asked. certainly the answer that i had given then is that we were very big fans of the schumer hatch, the hire act, and that we thought the -- a jobs tax credit was something with very good job bang for the bucks that are on the line. and so it's something that we're going to be monitoring. the treasury just did a study on the number of workers that are eligible. i think it's something that we certainly are anxious to talk to senator schumer about and see what he has in mind. and to pull together the evidence. >> many of my constituents ask me and others about whether or not we might be seeing a double-dip recession. and what is your forecast for the econ

closing, i would just like to personally thank the members of the slave labor task force, chairman schumer and ranking member bennett of the rules committee for their help as well, and center chambliss along with center schumer and others who were original co-sponsors of the legislation to honor these in slave laborers. this incredible sacrifice and contributions to the construction of this majestic building have gone unrecognized for far too long. i am so grateful for the opportunity to beat up part of this initiative and to thank everyone -- to be a part of this initiative. as i think back on what might have been on the minds of those enslaved african americans, i can only think, just as the father mentioned in his prayer in benediction, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our god, would have certainly been on the minds of those enslaved african americans as they did their job as skilled laborers, as craftsmen, with a great sense of pride in what they produced, for so many years of american history. thank you all for joining us. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, repub

chairman schumer and ranking member bennett of the rules committee for their help, and senator chambliss, along with senator schumer and others who were co-sponsors of the legislation to honor these and slave laborers. this incredible sacrifice of contribution to the construction of this majestic building had gone unrecognized for far too long. i in so grateful for the opportunity, the opportunity to be a part of this initiative and to think everyone who joined us today for this very meaningful and long overdue event. as i think back at what might have been on the minds of those the enslaved african americans, i can only think, just as the father mentioned in his prayer and benediction, to do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our god. it was certainly on the minds of those enslaved african americans as they did their job as skilled laborers, as craftsman, with a great sense of pride of what they produced, for so many years of americans to enjoy. thank you. >> the honorable john boehner. >> madam speaker, my colleagues, honored guests, we welcome all of you to the capitol today.

host: your trade letter marks the effort by charles schumer of new york. what is he up to as far as currency issue? guest: this has been a big issue for senator schumer and several others, senator gramm and senator stabenow. they have been pushing this for about five or six years. it fluctuates a penny on how -- depending on how the administration in power pushes them or not about trade. . . it would allow congress to increase the duties on foreign imports. >> our guest is sam gilston. jacksonville, florida. go ahead. caller: i guess it is probably too late. once the hand is out of the henhouse you cannot get him back in. but if we were to assess a duty on a product that came into our country for the wage difference and social security benefits, so that when a company went over there and paid $40,000 each year including social security and they were only paying in thailand, for example $8,000 per year, we will assess a duty of $38,000 per year because of the difference in wages. that would stop a lot of american companies from going abroad and it would lif

so you were celebrating -- >> senator schumer explained this to me earlier. >> yeah, he did. >> that's because no other restaurants are open. >> you were with your family on christmas day at a chinese restaurant? okay. >> yes, sir. >> that's great. that's what hanukkah and christmas is all about. now, what happened in detroit on christmas day? can you recall? what was so unnerving about that day? >> well, that there was a fail but only just failed terrorist incident. >> we were lucky as a nation that a bunch of people didn't get killed on christmas day or in the middle of hanukkah, whatever holiday it may be, aren't we? we're lucky that bomb didn't go off. >> it was a -- it seemed a close thing. i don't know more than i read in the newspapers about that incident. i was not, you know, involved in any of the discussions about what to do on that day. >> the times square incident, do you recall that? >> yes, sir. >> we were lucky that van didn't explode. >> every time one of these things happens, it is extremely unnerving. and, you know, makes us aware of the need to take efforts to make s

schumer. >> know, by proxy. >> ms. lincoln. >> know by proxy. -- no, by proxy. wait, a little bit. senator lincoln, aye by proxy. >> mr. harkin. no, by proxy. >> mr. shelby. >> aye. >> mr. kriegel. crapo.mr. krieg >> aye. >> to the measure is a tie and it is defeated. >> we are going to recess for five minutes. >> come to order. let me say, we previously had a tie vote and the proposal failed on the tie vote. as an expressive to senator chambliss, i believe -- as i expressed to senator chambliss, i think it is important to note that, while i do not necessarily disagree with what he is suggesting, and the fundamental reason for the vote on this side has less to do with the substance of the thing. the fact of the matter is we have a limitation on the parameters of this conference to be focused on the title that deals for the pay-for provisions the deal. i'm prepared to work with my colleague from georgia on this to see if a call away solves the problem or something else may be done. >> in the procedural footing, i hope to not vote to reconsider. this is a very large bill. i think we

i know that in the final hearing with the outside witness, senators cardin and schumer and koffman stepped in to take the gavel. i see senator cardin here. i want to thank all senators, republican and democratic senators alike, for the amount of time you spend here. i should note, at the sake of possibly embarrassing him, that i'd actually stepped out prior to the end there, with the outside witnesses because some of the things i was going to have to be doing in connection with the funeral. senator sessions sat through all of that. no member of this committee spent more hours on the hearing than jeff sessions did. i would also note that, for those of us who attended the funeral and had the ability to attend the funeral, we could not have done that, had it not been for the cooperation of senator sessions who quite properly was protecting the rights of every member on his side of the aisle, as he should, i'd expect him to. still, was -- helped us work a schedule, so that so many of us could be at the funeral. and, jeff, this has nothing to do with the merits of the situation, but i just want

theaction has started in the senate with senator schumer.as you may know, he took this on to his credit and to on the responsibility of trng to craft a bipartisan bill. senator lyndsey gramm of south carolina joined soon after and it looked fairly favorable for moving forward, at least on the bill at some point. -- at some point last year or this year. late last year, they came to the old to ask for some assistance on the various portions of this bill. the department of homeland security has been designated the lead in agency -- the lead agency in comprehensive reform. but other agencies, including the doj and otherthe labor depat and others have been moving forward and try to provide some feedback, some ideas on some of thedeas that are being bandied around. it has been an effective set of meetings that start of last summer. it did look like there was the possibility of something moving forward late last year or sometime this summer. the plan was really to have a bill drafted by early in the year and introduced and moving forward in the sen

in the case of immigration, we have seen a detailed proposals put on the table from senators reid, schumer menendez, leahy, durbin, of which talk about immigration reform and how to fix it. in march of this year you have senator gramm, a leading republican from south carolina, put a proposal on this -- on the table and now he is back tracking. yesterday, the president was serious. at some point, the grownups have to come to the table. host: and we have a line for qarizadah setup 202-628-0184. let's see some comments from obama about immigration. >> obviously, the problem is greatest along our southern border, but it is not restricted to that part of the country. in fact, because we do not do a very good job of tracking who comes in and out, large numbers of avoiding immigration simply by overstaying their visas. the result is immense -- an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the united states. host: this idea of porous borders, what you think should be done to deal with the border situation? guest: we need to have a strong border. we need to have a secure border. in our studies

but the real key, the starting point on the employment side is what senator schumer and senator gramm have proposed, and that will be the starting point. the enforcement mechanisms will flow from that, but that will be the key to drawing thi i agree with you, as i said earlier, all the border and enforcement you put in place is only going to be partially effective if you do not control the workplace, the employment of people who should not be employed. the border security is an excellent question. there is no answer to that, really. people have different answers. some believe the online for were the border is secure is here. other people believe right here. there is no way of managing that. there is no system of actually assessing that. the border patrol uses the term "operational control of the border." and they feel that they have control of certain parts of the border right now. which means basically they are very confident that particular section of the border, they know who is trying to come forward across the border and they can get to it very quickly. i think the short answer t

and -- [applause] [cheering] and i have instructed to schumer chairman of the rules committee to hold hearings on this and he's done it and there are some three good hearings. we do not have the plant fully developed yet but we are looking at ways to change what has been abused. [applause] >> in the meantime 22 judicial nominees that have passed out of the committee and are waiting to come to the floor. do you have any way we can do that? >> that is one of the things we are looking at as the rules communities change. the f-22 there but we have about 50 appointments in addition to those charges. and of course it is obvious what they want to do. they want to stop us from getting these judges approved. because every one of these judges is viewed. i can't file culture. i told you how long that takes. so we are going to have to work our way through these and focused much attention as we can. senator leahy, the judiciary committee is going to work with the judiciary members. he's going to come in the next two weeks to the floor pass consent and we are going to spend time talking about this

>> thank you, senator schumer and senator sessions and senator hatch. our law firm represents one of the nation's leading second amendment groups, gun owners of america. we have filed amicus briefs and supreme court cases such as heller and mcdonald. despite the court's decisions in heller and mcdonald, americans understand that the right to keep and bear arms continues to be in jeopardy. both victories were achieved by narrow 5-4 votes. and miss kagan is not a person who could be expected to defend the second amendment. early in her career, miss kagan evidenced this hostility to the people's right to bear arms as a law clerk to justice thurgood marshall. i'm familiar with that case because with dan peterson i filed the only amicus brief supporting the case. i searched for my file. and here's what i found. he was an african-american man who worked at a laundromat. he had been robbed previously. when arrested, he was carrying a pistol to protect himself. miss kagan urged justice marshall to deny the petition for one reason. i'm not sympathetic. supreme c

cameron brushed off calls for an investigation but according to new york senator chuck schumer an investigation is still a possibility. michael isikoff is nbc's national investigative correspondent. good morning to you. let's review what we know. bp has acknowledged that in 2007 it urged the british government to approve a prisoner transfer agreement with libya, even said it knew that agreement, if everybody said it was okay, would help them in terms of an oil drilling deal with libya. it said it had nothing to do with the release of the lockerbie bomber al megrahi. you've looked closely at this story. do you have any evidence that would indicate otherwise? >> a semantics game here because although bp says it never raised al megrahi's name, there was no question about the only libyan prisoner in a united kingdom jail who was at issue here who could be eligible for transfer and it was megrahi. >> the lockerbie bomber. >> right. what's really interesting and you'll see the senate, which is going to be holding hearings next week on this,cusing in on interesting aspects of it. the bp official who m

when chuck schumer said they were going to recruit people, they backed them up. the republican congressional committee has not done the same thing. partly it's a matter of resources, but it's also a matter of skittishness. they are nervous about the bass group's on the right, more so than bass group's a ball -- bass group's on the left. that is part of the asymmetrical material bill was talking about. if they have the will, will it work in the primary? it's tough. in general, people have to be able to persuade the groups that have a collective interest in being in a majority and it is not clear that all the groups on those fringes really sure that interest. they're not there to govern. >> if our parties were more engaged in the primary process, the general election to be a lot cheaper because they would have candidates that could win a lot easier than some of the fringe candidates we allowed to win in primaries right now. we would save ourselves a lot of grief and a lot of money. >> let me turn to questions. >> the question is on the topic of money -- i know is l

one thing i would add, senator schumer, i would just caution the public in inferring too much from positions as an advocate as though those positions necessarily will translate into positions as a judge. we learned from the first day in law school advocacy does not entail, necessarily, an apeians of the position but rather it's a particular skill lawyers are quite well trained in. it may imply something, but it's just not necessarily so. sometimes i think we prove too much in our statements with respect to people in different sort of roles. >> thank you. miss greenberger, do you want to say something? >> just indulge me for a moment, yes. i know, of course, there are deeply held views whether roe-v-wade should be overturned. that isn't something i want to address right now. i do know, obviously that, is a very important goal for dr. yoest and mr. perkins, as well. what i did wanted to address was sounded to me like a very serious charge regarding the actual record of women's health. i think what would be very important and i would command this committee to look at is the actual record in the