senators." well, 17 women, republicans and democrats, now serve in the united states senate, and i know all of us have stories to tell about how senator mikulski helped us along the way. reaching out to mentor us, encourage us, lead us, organizing regular meetings, filled with folders and pens and pencils, and organizing dinners. she and senator hutchison teamed up and we're so fortunate to have them working together, we get together now and then among just in the heat of debate we sit down and break bread together. you know, when i considered running for the senate in 199 , senator mikulski -- 1992, senator mikulski was the very first person i went to see. after my husband. i was conflicted. i had a good house seat, i was told i could hold it for as long as i wanted and up wasn't sure if i should give it up for the senate. i was considered a longshot. senator mikulski told me the following: if you run and i want you to run, she said, it will be the toughest thing you will ever do and the best t

in the senate. let's take a set back and look at the details of this transportation bill. two different versions, one in the senate and one in the house. joining us on the phone is nathan herself, he's following the story. so, what is the latest? what is the time line in terms of votes and what are some of the potential hang-ups with the transportation bill? >> one of the biggest hang-ups there was an agreement between the senators on two opposinging to amendment s one wanted to increase the ability to add tolling revenue options to existing interstates. why senator hutchison who is retiring said her amendment was looking at restricting tolling on interstates. they came to an agreement. it's going to be one of the most divisive votes of the day. that was actually one of the biggest -- biggest bone of contention taken off the table. the senate has agreed to table a couple of amendments for tomorrow or tonight. lot of senators are heading over to an engagement party for senator susan collins. they'll

senators." well, 17 women, republicans and democrats, now serve in the united states senate, and i know all of us have stories to tell about how senator mikulski helped us along the way. reaching out to mentor us, encourage us, lead us, organizing regular meetings, filled with folders and pens and pencils, and organizing dinners. she and senator hutchison teamed up and we're so fortunate to have them working together, we get together now and then among just in the heat of debate we sit down and break bread together. you know, when i considered running for the senate in 199 , senator mikulski -- 1992, senator mikulski was the very first person i went to see. after my husband. i was conflicted. i had a good house seat, i was told i could hold it for as long as i wanted and up wasn't sure if i should give it up for the senate. i was considered a longshot. senator mikulski told me the following: if you run and i want you to run, she said, it will be the toughest thing you will ever do and the best t

the senate votes very rarely. lots and lots of senate's business is done, without a quorum, but unanimous consent. and by the way, in terms of availability, the laborists and not to act as if i'm a great expert on the senate procedure, but i have went and talked to people. the reason they have two members, ladies and gentlemen, in pro forma sessions is because one member in a pro forma session can do anything, including confirming somebody to be a supreme court justice without any hearings. but to tell the legislative power can be exercise d you can do anything. let's face it, the senate doesn't work very hard. so if you're going to take the position that their unavailability or let's redefine, the unwillingness to give a president what he wants triggers recess appointments, we're going to have recess appointments all over the place and the president can control the entire flow of ledge shrilledive bis. that cannot be. a couple of points. first of all, the senate itself has conceded that this is a recess. the sena

senate's power to advice and consent? now, here's the way that we will proceed in today's session. the first statement will be made by mort rosenberg, followed b doug, david rifgen and walter dellinger. after the formal presentation, i'll give the panel a chance to question one another and i'm sure we will see a spirited debate from that point. then we go on to questions of the audience. so keep track of things you don't think have actually been covered and we'll try to address those. many thanks for being here. i hope you find this panel, as i think you will, informative. let me start then, with an introduction for mort. all i have to do is find tepaper and i'll sit down. >> what i want to say about mort, he is an expert and has been a good m appointments issue. he was a member of the congressional research service and he was there during one of the periods when the crs had its most important business dealing with appointments. that is during the watergate period for richard nixon. and his opinions, there were nine of th

and the big winner in the senate today was harry reid, now a bob kerry has decided to run for senate again. >>> the republican plan to take back the senate is in serious jeopardy this morning. >> senator olympia snowe threw republicans a curveball. >> senator olympia snowe shocked everybody -- >> when she announced that she is leaving the senate at the end of the year. >> she is not seeking re-election. >> that could be the biggest political story of the night. >> it sounded like the republican establishment was very much caught off guard. >> this really shocked senate republicans. >> the democrats now have a much better shot. >> democrats are seeing a light that they didn't quite have. >> democrats have a much better chance of keeping control. >> maine in a presidential year should favor the democratic candidate. >> democrats are almost gleeful. >> kent conrad's going, ben nelson is going. >> the senate and the house, it's a very lonely place to be a moderate. >> adding her to that list there is essentially writing the obituary for moderates. she cited her reasons as the increasing

i thank senator boxer and senator durbin, senator graham from south carolina and senator merkley for their help on this legislation. american -- today president obama signed into but a trade enforcement measure that last week passed this chamber by unanimous consent. a bipartisan legislation which i cosponsored with senators baucus and thune primarily, gives the commerce department authority to impose what are called counterveiling duties on imports from countries that are nonmarket economies. that means countries more sort of command and control economies like the people's republic of china. federal appeals court last year viewed shiewd a ruling that hamstrings our nation's ability to fight back against illegal trade practices. here's why congress passed this bill. we know china doesn't play by the rules from direct export subsidies to currency manipulation, china does things that our country doesn't and many other countries don't. it gives its exporters an unfair advantage. american industries fight back by physicianing the commerce department to investigate these subsidies. 16 ohi

chairman leahy, senator grassley, senator feinstein, senator cornyn, good morning. i appear this morning at your invitation to address whatever questions you might have concerning our report to judge sullivan on the subject of our investigation conducted pursuant to judge sullivan's order of april 7, 2009. we were ordered to investigate and to prosecute such criminal contempt proceedings as may be appropriate against william welch, brenda morris, nicholas marsh, edward sullivan, joseph bottini and james goeke, the department of justice attorneys responsible for the prosecution of united states versus senator theodore f. stevens. in the united states district court for the district of columbia. i come before you this morning not as an advocate for any position. but rather to respond to your questions. i have submitted to the committee a copy of our report which as senator leahy has indicated was filed on the public docket in the u.s. district court on march 15th. i should like to note that i was of assisted throughout our investigation by my colleague, william b. shi

senate along with the senator from kansas, senator kassebaum. as she said at the time, and that's why she was so willing to serve as a mentor for other women who arrived in the united states senate, because she was only one of two women who was serving in this institution. and as she said, the senate had a long tradition for every man for himself. well, she was determined, she saeurbgsd that it would not be -- she said, that it would not be every woman for herself while she was in the united states senate. as my colleagues who also well know, when it comes to having an ally in the legislative foxhole, there's none more feisty, none more formidable and certainly none better than senator barbara mikulski. i have witnessed her tenacity firsthand having worked with her side by side over the decades, whether on matters of equity for women in the workplace, ensuring gender-integrated training in our military, working on cybersecurity, on working on every other issue where we're bringing justice to those who have borne the brunt of injustice. and nowhe

senator stevens and his wife catherine stevens testified during senator stevens trial that it was their understanding that whatever work allen's company had provided on the house had been included in the christianson builders' invoices. which they paid in full. that testimony of both senator stevens and mrs. stevens was ridiculed by the prosecutors both in cross-examination of each of them and in their summations. rocky williams was interviewed by two of the prosecutors messers bow tinny and goeke in the company of fbi agent chad joy one month before the trial commenced here in washington. on the morning that he was interviewed, another of the prosecutors edward sullivan, sent an e-mail to the group of prosecutors which said we got some additional dproumts senator stevens' defense council. it's apparent from those documents that will senator stevens and mrs. stevens will testify that they thought that all of the veco charges were included in the christianson builders' bills. and if catherine ste d they wil squeeze that out of rocky on cross-examination. e-mail was circulated, messers bo

senator corn and as well as senator grass and myself. probably know that we have a number of hearings going on and around the capitol involving members of this committee. this is an area, we had a great deal of interest. the senators of both parties have talked to me about this. i have said many times and under a lot of different contexts that the criminal-justice system is the envy of the world for. our constitutional framework provides all individuals and guarantee of the right to fair treatment, fair trial, but in order for our criminal justice system toward the courts must assure adherence to the rule of law. have to be afforded vigorous and competent counsel. i feel, and i think senator corn in as a former prosecutor would agree, they very -- bear a varies powerful position where it comes to us determining when to withhold the charge. plea-bargain, trial, prosecutors have to uphold the law. they have to adhere to the highest ethical standards. they have to seek justice. the integrity of our criminal justice system relies heavily on

i wanted to say the comments of senator mikulski and senator hutchison. i think the -- died before he knew this was a faulty prosecution. that elevates this to a new height. so i think this investigation is really important, and i think that actions have to be taken, and i just wanted to express that. what -- i wanted to follow-up on senator brown's comment. it's my understanding that more -- there's more oil available in the united states than demand calls for. and as a matter of fact, surplus is being sold outside. this, i think, would bring to special attention the issue of speculation, and i hope the study that you're doing is going to take a good look at the financial marketplace with regard to its ability to impact price in this way. >> well, as i said, the oil and gas working group that we formed last year as part of the president's financial fraud enforcement task force has been meeting. it just happens that they are having a call today, meeting, either tomorrow or on, the full committee will be getting together to look at the full issues you've r

. >> from the floor of the senate earlier today senator barbara boxer democrat from california, senator orrin hatch, republican of utah and the headline from the hill newspaper, the senate today rejecting an amendment put forth by senator roy blunt, republican from missouri that would limit the birth control mandate. welcome to hour one of washington today here on c-span radio. i'm steve scully. thanks for wk us. the vote in the senate was 51-48. it killed a controversial amendment to weaken the obama administration's policy requiring employers to provide birth control to their employees. we'll have more on this story coming up in just a moment. meanwhile more news on gasoline prices. they've speck 30 cents a gallon just in the last month. this is after all the first of march and in the month of february gas prices have risen. some buyers are buying fuel-efficient vehicles. it's helped ford, gm and chrysler. the president today is dismissing republican charges that his policies are driving up gas prices, saying those claims would not pass what he calls the political bull detector. he to

moran and i have worked on, and i know senator coons and senator rubio and senator toomey and senator schumer, senator tester, senator merkley, senator brown -- the list actually in terms of sponsors or cosponsors of a number of these bills number not in the single digits but literally in the dozens, probably in excess of 20. and for the most part almost every one of these pieces of legislation are bipartisan. why do we need to do this? because if we look over the last 20 years at where the jobs have been created in america, we find that, for the most part -- unfortunately -- the job growth from companies that are in the fortune 1,000 really have been flat, if not slightly negative. so while we applaud and support america's largest businesses, because of increased productivity, because of globalization, those are not the companies really adding jobs. and while every member of the united states senate when they stand up -- stands up and applauds small business -- and i, and i know my colleagues on the floor, support small businesses -- traditional businesses, the barber shob -- the bar

a senator: the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the senate will be in order. the senator from montana. mr. baucus: i ask the yeas and nays on this amendment. mr. president, i call up amendment number 1825 and ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from montana, mr. baucus for himself and others presents amendment numbered 1825. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. mr. baucus: i ask consent to add senators crapo and risch to be cosponsors on this amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. baucus: mr. president, the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the senate will be in order. mr. baucus: mr. president, this is a simple amendment. it compensates counties for the lack of federal land base, counties that don't have the ability to collect property taxes because of federal land. this revenue goes to schools, it goes to jobs, roads. i might add that in the sta

senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, march 14, 2012. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable kirsten e. gillibrand, a senator from the state of new york, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business for an hour. the republicans will control the first half. the majority will control the final half. following that morning business, the senate will resume consideration of the highway bill. senators should expect three roll call votes at 11:00 a.m. there will be two on remaining amendments to this bill that we've been working on for such a long time, and final passage. upon disposition of that, the senate will be in morning business until 2:00 p.m. at 2:00 p.m., the senate will be in executive session. at 2:30 p.m.,

, senator franken, senator coons, senator kerry, senator whitehouse, senator tom udall from my home state of new mexico. all of those individuals strongly support what we're trying to do in this legislation. i particularly want to thank the staff of the senate energy committee for the hard work they've put in to developing this proposal, particularly kevin rinehart. kevin rinehart who worked very hard on this proposal and got a lot of very useful input from many sectors and many individuals. this is a simple plan to modernize the power sector and guide it toward a future in which more and more of our electricity is generated with cleaner and cleaner energy. the purpose of the legislation is to make sure that, as we continue to grow and power our economy, we leverage the clean resources that we have available today and also provide a continuing incentive to develop the cheaper, cleaner technologies that will be needed in the future. we want to make sure that we drive continued diversity in our energy sources and allow every region of the country to deploy clean energy using the appropriate

here, senator. mr. specter, you waited too late to tell what's happened in the gop with your book. what is the inner thinking of the gop special interest with norquist, grover norquist? are republicans scared? do you talk to your former colleagues about this? do you think republicans are scared? >> well, grover norquist has exerted a lot of influence because he has gotten pledges from many people not to raise taxes. and he is very weighty. and when you talk about raising taxes, that's very unpopular politically. so he's had a lot of influence with the congress. >> do you remember being scared of grover norquist when you were running for reelection? >> no, i don't remember being scared of grover norquist or anybody. >> steve, an independent in gaston, florida. go. you're up next. >> caller: yes, hello, greta. >> morning. >> caller: and senator spector. >> hello. >> caller: a pleasure talking with you. mitt romney accused rick santorum in one of his debates of supporting you which led to the obamacare

they all occurred while the senate was in session. so, right away, there is a question whether the president has the power to fill any of these vacancies. >>> second, the language refers to the recess suggesting that the contemplators only meant one recess. if the framers meant one recess, it seems very likely that they had in mind the time between the senate's adjournment and the time of the beginning of the next session. which, under the constitution, must begin on january 3 of the following year. if this is correct, we are not going to be talking about recess appointments that were made in the period between sessions of the senate. the recess appointments at issue here had begun the second session of the 112th congress, the one that was elected in 2 0 2010. the terms you will hear about during the discussion are important. it gives the president the power to make recess appointments that are inter-session. that is between sessions. that's playing from the wording of the constitution. what is at issue, in this case, is whether the p

lieberman and collins are the lead on this and senator rockefeller and senator feinstein as well is also pushing for it. >> is it getting opposition? >> yes. so john mccain and a variety of other republicans don't like it. they feel that it takes too much of a regulatory approach and they also don't like the fact that it's being fast tracked to the senate floor. they think the senate should take some more time on this. so john mccain and the other republicans have introduced their own alternative measure. >> what kind of industries are interested in cyber security legislation? >> well, it affects any sort of utilities. the idea with the lieberman/collins bill is that a critical infrastructure, anything, electrical grids or dams where if you had some sort of hack could have a devastating impact and so it would give the homeland security department regulatory authority. so any companies that are involved in something that might get labeled critical infrastructure, i.t. information technology companies that build these computer grids, any tech companies all have an interest here. >> and are

the senate democratic leaders today paradesing is the house speaker for his decision to take up the senate transportation bill or a similar measure. we'll talk more what this means, what's in the plan and some of the differences between the house and senate version. democrats and republicans notice house of representatives are showing that sometimes they can work together after all. they have overwhelmingly passed legislation today making it easier for small businesses and for startup companies to raise capital in order to grow and hire new work hes. the package of a half dozen measures does have the backing of the president and senate democrats say they also also offer a similar package. meanwhile, the senate today has blocked several republican-backed attempts to overturn the president's environmental and energy policies during a debate on a bill to keep federal aid flowing to transportation projects across the country. part of the transportation bill. senate though today on a procedural vote not able to get the 60 votes necessary for the controversial xl keystone pipeline. the president

senator boxer. [applause] >> senator mikulski when she saw me last week, she said one more out there -- [inaudible] >> hi, everybody. we might have changed the face of the united states senate, but they still for the long of the link here. hi, everybody. when incredible group and gathering. i'm really touched by the award, but i'm also here representing senator barbara boxer. today is the last day for the senate to be in session before the easter passover break and we are trying to does the highway bill. senator boxer has that been highway transportation initiatives in the united states senate. she forged a bipartisan legislation bringing together four different committees. they require an incredible negotiation, great diplomatic bill and now we are ready for the house to act in barbara could not leave her duty station. so she said when we had her vote before another matter, is that i'm going over to the senate majority. she said, you know, barbara, she said i can't leave and i said they would not w

the women of the senate knows it. there are already three republican women on this bill and many others i hope to come. >> among those republicans supporting the bill, lisa murkowski of alaska, you were listening to amy klobuchar as she spoke out on the reauthorization of the violence against women act. you're listening to "washington today" on c-span radio heard coast to coast on xm 119 and streamed on the web. >> walter williams, george mason university, our guest this sunday on q & a is also a syndicated columnist and author will talk about his libertarian views and tell the story of how he came to be a substitute for host rush limbaugh. he'll talking about growing up in the projects of philadelphia and the segregation he faced in the u.s. military in 1959. walter williams, economics professor, george mason university, syndicated columnist and author, our guest this sunday, 8:00 p.m. easthe

and senators, democratic senators -- that are open to drilling.we could go to those places and do a better job of developing onshore and offshore. but republicans are not good at all when it comes to conservation. and they resist helping the auto industry, for instance, to retool itself, which we know has had an absolute direct bottom line on less petroleum products being used for gasoline. many of the new automobiles coming out of domestic manufacturers is because of what democrats and president obama led this effort, which he never gets enough credit for on the other side, to retool detroit so that just this week in the newspaper, i believe it was "the washington post" -- i wanted to ask the senator from alaska if he saw this article, the most amazing thing has happened over the last, you know, ten years is that our imports of foreign oil have decreased for two reasons. one, we are producing more oil and gas at home, although there have been some setbacks with this administration, which we're not happy about. the two of us. but also because of t

i work with him very closely in the senate when i chaired the senate intelligence committee in 1995 and 1996. bob was the vice-chairman. i saw him recently. he has been away from nebraska for a while. but he is independent. he is smart, and an outstanding senator. >> let me go back to campaign 2012. do you think rick santorum can win the april 24th primary in pennsylvania? >> it's an open question. the last time he ran in pennsylvania, he got beaten very badly, 59-41. the people who knew him handed down that verdict. that's what the jury said. in the presidential issue, there is a lot of local pride. my hunch is that it won't be sufficient, that he will not win. the republican establishment is against him, not that that's necessarily significant. but the elected officials would be worried if he was on the ticket, he would hurt the race for state attorney general. and the people who are running for house of representatives. so my hunch is that he will not win. but the local pride could turn that around. >> all right, joan, an independent in california. good morning, joan. >> caller: good

chairman. >> senator. >> thank you, senator chambliss. senator session. >> thank you, senator, chambliss, for that comment, and general great to be with you yesterday and talk about some of the issues that you just mentioned, because the understanding that senator kyl had, senator chambliss, about the start and what kind of funding would be laid out for the next decade to modernize our nuclear weapons has not been funded. and the numbers, senator kyl, is deeply disappointed about that, and -- mr. chairman, i am troubled today about this little overheard conversation between the president and mr. medvedev where president obama said, of all of these things overheard conversations but particular missile defense, this can be solved but it's important for him to give me space and medvedev said, i understand. i understand your message about space, space for you. this is my last election. after my election i'll have more flexibility. understand i'll transmit this information to vladimir. this is not a little matter. i'll tell you why it's not a

the senate, and i am one of the most liberal members of the senate.and we are both very proud of who we are. we're very comfortable with who we are. and we know when it comes to environmental issues, we do not see eye to eye. and i'm not going to get into that because we'll have many more opportunities for everyone to see how we disagree on clean air and clean water and safe drinking water and super fund and climate change and all of this. but we set it aside to do a highway bill, and we are hopeful that this will become a template for all of us in the senate and the house to find the sweet spot where we can work together. we're on the, just right here. a little bit more work, and we know we've done our job. and it could come today. i hope it will come today. it will come late today, because there's many, many amendments to get through. i want to just make my last comment about what's happening in the house. the house passed an i.p.o. bill, initial public offering, and i support that approach. i think it would be a great way to get more capital into t

senator murray, senator boxer, also intorg the bill are senator collins and snowe and senator mccaskill, stabenow and gillibrand. the bill is led by senator leahy and senator crapo so we're here to pledge our support for this bill and ask our colleagues to move forward for this bill. the violence against women was a landmark bill when it first became law in 1984. back then it started a sea change in it is a tiewdz and sent a strong message to the country saying that sexual assault and domestic violence are serious offenses that will not be tolerated. we heard that message loud and clear in my state, and i'm proud to say that our state has always had a strong tradition of standing up against these crimes. in fact, no conversation in our state about domestic abuse would be complete without mentioning former senator paul wellstone and his wife sheila, who we miss dearly. the wellstones put so much time and energy into bringing these issues out of the shadows into taking a subject that many people considered at the time a family matter and saying, you know, what? domestic violence isn't jus

the senate didn't meet nearly that often. or for extended period of times, they had extended periods of absence. virginia chu, who's done definitive study of this for the congressional research office determined that, in fact, they worked more in the old days. they didn't take -- they didn't take time off. to disappear and just leave somebody around to do no business and to see how fast they could get no business done. boy, what a standard that is. america, where no business is done and we do it faster and better than anyone else. that's not -- that's not the standard of the constitution that the office of legal counsel seeks to advance. it's not the one that i venture to say you and i want to advance, either. we may not like the dod frank bill. we may think that it incouple behrs the securities market, we may think that the authorities are better off exercised by the treasury department. we may have all of those objections, but those objections are to be heard in the debate on the legislation. once the legislation is passed,

. >> thank you, senator nelson. senator sessions? >> well, chairman levin and ranking member mccain have i think had a great deal of wisdom over the years in dealing with the issues we face. i think senator levin has indicated his strength, i believe his -- and support. general allen, he said our soldiers deserve our support and they have it in the plans that i believe you're working on. senator mccain has likewise said that. secretary miller, dr. miller, you said that afghanistan will meet the challenge, i believe, in your opening statements. that expressed a confidence that we can be successful. you quoted again president obama's statement, we will build an enduring relationship with afghanistan. senator mccain talked about the vision that we had for the success in afghanistan. we've had bipartisan support for that. and we're having some difficulties now, at least certainly in the press if not on the ground. we had the problem with the koran. we've had the problem with afghan soldiers killing our own soldiers. we've had the problem

we've worked very closely with senator merkley and senator bennet and senator brown of massachusetts to include a crowd funding provision which is much superior. if we do not achieve cloture, we will see, by default, a bad house bill on its way to become law. the presiding officer: the senator has used two minutes. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. ms. landrieu: thank you. madam president, following up on the leadership of the good senator from rhode island, let me say that there are many reasons -- many reasons -- to vote against cloture on the house bill, and i'll get to that in a minute. but i am urging my colleagues to vote "yes" on cloture for the reed-landrieu-levin substitute. we have tried to address the many, many concerns raised by the house bill in our substitu substitute. if we vote "yes" on cloture for our substitute, we can then go into some more meaningful debate on the senate floor, and this bill needs some additional debate. mary shapiro from the s.e.c. said clearly that the house bill goes too far. the chamber of commerce even says there are concern

the plan excludes the development oft coast of virginia, even though both senators, both democrat senators and the governor of virginia, republicans, supported such development. in january the department withdrew approximately a million acres in northern arizona from uranium production. the department withdrew this la land, even though both senators and the governor opposed the withdrawal. the department is limiting coal production, even though members of congress from coal producing states oppose the regulations. we get to the pain at the pump. on friday the headline was "most ever could get hit by $5 gasoline." the president said he's focused on production but department policy seems to speak otherwises, as does the 2013 budget, which includes millions of new taxes on energy. the president can't have it both wa ways. a couple of questions. following up specifically with the release the president did last year from the stra totegic petroleum reserve. has the administration doning in to tap the reserve? >> all options are on the table. >> d prices last year following the president's decisi

senators grassley, hatch and lugar were co-sponsors, as was senate majority leader, then senate majority leader, bob dole. and countless other republicans have endorsed the mandate in recent years. in 2009 senator grassley did. in 2007 senator deminute did. senators graham, alexander and corker have all endorsed an individual mandate. hey were co-sporesors of the included an individual mandate, so what we're seeing now is baffling. republicans have gonemain champ individual mandate to being a main antagonist, and you have to ask why. the republicans were fathers of the individual mandate. now suddenly they want to give it up for adoption on the steps u.s. supreme court. the flip-flop on the individual mandate is the prime example of anng proposes simply because he proposed it because it was their idea, and, of course, there is theomney wh care in massachusetts which is based on exactly the same model health care law we passed due years ago. there's no question that the health care law mitt romney passed as governor of massachusetts is the same one that president obama passed at the feder

and under the senator's leadership and that have senator harkin -- that of senator harkin and dodd and all the wonderful members of that "help" committee and the finance committee and, yes, ted kennedy in the background because he was quite, quite ill, but he sent his messages and his staff helped. they came up with a list of essential health care services that nobody could ever kwourl with. -- quarrel with. and they came up with a list of preventive health care services that were so critical to all of us, and particularly to women. and the great news, proving to us that when you invest in prevention, you save so much down the line. we all know this is a fact. and access to contraception, by the way, was put on the list not by politicians, but by the institute of medicine, because it is known that if the individual chooses that route to plan their families, that means we'll have fewer abortions, it means we'll have healthier families, healthier babies, and many people take the birth control pill as medicine. to prevent debilitating monthly pain. it's prescribed for skin diseases. it's

senators like senator thune, to come up with a pay-for. well, here we have an extension with no revenues in it, madam president. so naturally your state is very worried, and out of our states. and i'm going to quickly go through the -- what we know so far. we know that illinois is having big trouble because their contract letting cannot go forward in 12 particular jobs, and that's going to result in a scale-back of 4,500 jobs. right now. they're scaling back right now. as senator durbin said, at a time when we need jobs. north carolina, 41,000 jobs that cannot be filled. nevada, 4,000 jobs. maryland, 4,000. michigan, 3,500. and i see the great senator from rhode island here. we got word from your director, mike lewis from the rhode island department of transportation, that there are job delays. it looks like 1,000 jobs won't be filled. west virginia, 1,200 jobs. we are -- we're in trouble. and you know what? it's like taking a hammer and hitting your head. why do you do it? you don't have to. they don't have to do this. they are wreaking h

>> thanks, senator. the very tough decision was part of the process across every combatant commander, across every service to find the savings required by the budget act. i believe that we did adequately address the strategic requirements of the homeland but in the analysis as a team effort, there was a decision taken to reduce by two. i took the command took responsibility for identifying those two bases so we did two independent studies, one in my headquarters, one in first air force which is my air force component command under lieutenant general sid clark. both commands came up with the same answer, duluth and langley. now, no bases are closed and this doesn't reflect on numbers of fighter squadrons, and i specifically felt that in the case of those two bases, that i had the authorities and the capabilities already resident under my authority as a norad commander to mitigate on short notice of the loss of those two bases. in fact, i can change on my own authority the alert conditions that could in ca

and it's interesting to note, we also had the senator from alaska, the senior senator, senator murkowski, also speak out in favor of the house picking up and passing the senate bipartisan bill. i also served in the county as a county supervisor a long time ago, but i think we all understand that what we do here makes a difference. you know, this is one nation, under god, indivisible. you can't have a circumstance where one state puts their funding -- their own funding from their state into highways, but the next-door state does nothing, and you can't really have commerce, and that's why i thought dwight eisenhower, when he was president, republican president, in the 1950's, said it well. he was a logistics expert, and he is the one who started the national highway system because he knew from his experience in war that you've got to move goods and people, and he also knew as his role as president that in order to be a strong economy, we have to do the same thing here at home. so for me to see this house dither as they are doing, they are dithering on a bill. all they have to do is take up

they think the senate should take more time on this. sir john mccain and the other republicans have introduced their own alternative measure. >> what kind of industries are interested in cybersecurity legislation? >> welcome it affects any sort of utilities. so because the idea with the lieberman-collins bill was critical infrastructure -- saddam anything say electrical grids where if you have some sort of pact could have a devastating impact, and so it would give the homeland security department regulatory authority. so many companies that are involved in something that might get labeled critical infrastructure come on t information technology companies that build these computer grids, any tech companies have an interest here. >> are they more supportive of the lieberman-collins approach or the john mccain approach? >> i think a lot of them are sort of trying to stay a little bit on the sideline. although i think some companies have been for some groups are a little more supportive of the john mccain and the other republicans approach

senator murray, senator boxer, also intorg the bill are senator collins and snowe and senator mccaskill, stabenow and gillibrand. the bill is led by senator leahy and senator crapo so we're here to pledge our support for this bill and ask our colleagues to move forward for this bill. the violence against women was a landmark bill when it first became law in 1984. back then it started a sea change in it is a tiewdz and sent a strong message to the country saying that sexual assault and domestic violence are serious offenses that will not be tolerated. we heard that message loud and clear in my state, and i'm proud to say that our state has always had a strong tradition of standing up against these crimes. in fact, no conversation in our state about domestic abuse would be complete without mentioning former senator paul wellstone and his wife sheila, who we miss dearly. the wellstones put so much time and energy into bringing these issues out of the shadows into taking a subject that many people considered at the time a family matter and saying, you know, what? domestic violence isn't jus

>> senator landrieu i disagree with your conclusions. we -- the fact is when you've lived through a national crisis, i think it's very responsible that we have moved forward now the approval and just last year over 100 shallow oil water permits, 60 deep water prmermit and rigs are back and work something very much public knowledge. we feel comfortable in terms of the production that is coming off of our public lands both onshore and offshore and i have the deputy secretary make a quick comment on that as well. >> thank you, mr. secretary, quickly on the onshore, we have 38 million acres available for leasing right now, only 16 million are in fact being leased. last year we had 32 onshore lease sales offering 4.4 -- >> i realize but to interrupt it's not about percentage of reduction under lease. if you said how much land you have in the united states on public lands and then took your percentage of what is leasable, and then took your percentage of what is drilled, you'd give the people of this country a better picture. again, and i'm no

i said so in the senate. i opposed his 30,000 additional troops in the senate i think it was a colossal mistake to extend the tax breaks to the 1%. you have this big battle 99% versus 1%. they were going to expire the end of 2010. they should not have been extended. i think there are a lot of issues now on economic growth. but i do understand that i have to make a selection between the alternatives. i ran for the republican nomination. it was a well-kept secret, the nomination back in 1996. i had no admissions -- >> you were quoted that santorum is not up to being president, not mitt romney either. >> no, i didn't say mitt romney wasn't. i said not sure. >> you're right. >> that's a big difference in what i said about romney and santorum. >> then why the difference? explain the difference? >> well, the difference is i know rick santorum very well. i worked for him 12 years in the senate. i helped him win the election back in 1994 in august his campaign was in the dumps and i gave him my organization. i gave h