the george w. bush administration. he also served in the ronald reagan administration as assistant secretary of state for international organizations, assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian organizations where i actually interned for him in the summer of 1984 and latin american affairs as well. and he has served, i'm proud to say he's an alumni of numerous organizations including our own, he was a senior fellow here at hudson institute in the 1990s before going on to become president of the ethics and foreign policy organization. elliot is currently senior fellow on middle east studies at the council for foreign relations here in washington. our other speaker is ambassador jeffrey feltman who is assistant secretary of state for the bureau of dip plomatic affairs. given the focus on it in this book, prior to his assignment in lebanon, he headed the coalition provisional authority's office in iraq serving simultaneously as deputy regional coordinator for the cpa's northern area. from 2001 until 200

the administration is already saying that it does not look like new york will be the location. you intending to still use those funds for security for those trials? guest: no. i am a grants administrator. i do not make the decisions about that. if the trials are not done, the money will go back into treasury. i am the grants administrator for many of the state and local grants. if the decision was made it to do anything that would require additional funding that congress is provided for security, i would do the grants under the direction of the secretary of homeland security. the role of dhs and that issue are the two pieces. if the decision is made and funding will be transferred, we are the grants administration to do the funds transfer. guest: they are looking at using those funds to increase firefighter grants. do you see any areas where that $200 million could be better used? guest: i will wait for the leadership as to where they want to put the money. if they want to revert back to the treasury, applied to other parts of the program. once they have told me where they want

of the security administration. this is a critical leadership position of the security of our nation. by nominating general harding for the job, this administration is calling on an individual with more than 35 years of experience. as an army commander, a senior military intelligence officer, a high level manager of intelligence operations and a successful businessman and ceo in the security field. the general will need all of these talents as he takes the helm of the vital agency. tsa's mandate is a broad one. they are not only responsibility for transportation, but rail, bus, and trucking systems as well. the general will be a tremendous asset in our screens measures at our domestic airports. by deploying additional airport law enforcement officials, air marshals, and k-9 teams and fixing the gaps in our international civil aviation system as well. on friday we announced that the first 11 airports that will receive advance the imaging technology that purchased with the reinvestment act dollars. they are enhancing o

what i see different in the with the obama administration has presented nuclear zero is the priority they have placed on it. republican and democratic administrations pursued a balanced approach. looking forward to nuclear reductions but also modernizing the deterrent when necessary. the clinton administration's policy was called lead and hedge. hedge against possible negative developments in the international arena. they lead towards developments in nuclear reductions but they also hedged. the more recent bush administration pursued this tool to track of keeping a balance between paris of nuclear reductions and nuclear modernization. contrary to revisionist history, the bush administration did a great deal in terms of arms reduction. the moscow treaty reduced weapons down by 2/3. that is a sizable reduction. the question i would pose and try to present a brief answer, why should we be worried of the obama administration's shift away famous duel track? what i say is they are placing priority on one track and that is on the nuclear zero side. the idea of the capability is now expressly

the same problem? i'm afraid we may be. this administration, you may recall, about a year ago, released highly classified cia documents against the advice of 7 current and previous cia directors and last summer the attorney general announced that he would reinvest gait cia officials who had already been investigated and cleared by career justice people, he was going to reinvestigate their techniques of interrogation and that has an impact on the morale of our intelligence services and also, raised questions in foreign intelligence services about the benefits of cooperating with the u.s., so there is reason to be concerned about this area, also. so, finally, where is the grand strategy? where is the mobilization of all of the political and economic and military and covert weapons we have? first of all, we need to kill our capture the hard core extremists, wherever they are and to the president's credit, he has made aggressive, even more aggressive use of predators, in the afghan-pakistan theater than bush did. and, i'm glad that the pakistani g

that is what the administration has chosen to hang our future in human space flight on. i think it is an important decision. we see a number of game-changing proposals over the years. and this graph shows all the different programs that have been game changers and the blue ones are the only ones that came to fruition. what this represents are billions of dollars being spent without anything to show for it. again, the constellation is on track. we had various areas and passed the p.d.r. this week. this program is the program of record. it deserves to go forward and it's in america's interest and we need to stay the course and put constellation and bring it up and put u.s. astronauts in space again and get rid of the space shuttle being retired, go into the space station and go to the moon and go beyond. it's up to congress to amend the lessons of the past and ensure that the sthration's proposal are reviewed. we should not agree to open-ended unproven, unconstrained technological demonstrations. it must be clearly defined. nasa must show us how and why it is included and i

priorities. >> congressman jesse jackson and i have put together a letter urging the administration to focus more of its energy on iran. >> reporter: the meeting between the president and prime minister netanyahu which is going on now, the second in a row in which there are no plans for even a photo opportunity. the white house insists u.s.-israeli relations aren't frayed but plans for a photo-op monday between netanyahu and secretary of state clinton were cancelled. >> bret: wendell, thank you. israeli aircraft attacked a weapons storage facility today in gaza city in retaliation for 10 rockets fired into israel since thursday. britain today expelled an israeli diplomat in protest over the alleged use of forged british passports by killers of a hamas operative in dubai in january. official in france says that country has opened an investigation into the suspected use of four fake french passports. police in due by, say the assassination was carried out by israel as musab spy agency. pakistanny intelligence say a missile hit a house killing at least four militants. that area is a major

>> the administration is confident. that it can get through. other hand, the republicans are not in a koop active mood these days you -- a cooperative mood these days you may have noticed. there's an issue of time. the last couple of big treaties on this subject have taken one -- one took more than a year. the other one took nine months. it's going to be a crowded schedule for the senate. some of the republicans are already saying that they're going to scrutinize this treaty closely to see if it really protects our interests on verification and on missile defense. and the text. treaty is not yet out. so there's a certain amount of uncertainty about what we're really going to find in there. >> what are the ramifications for other interests that the united states and russia might be thinking about or working on? are there some other natural outgrowths of goodwill and success? gwen: say iran, for instance. nuclear ambitions. >> well, the whole iran portfolio, if you have been watching this closely, is a very uncertain one. what we saw today seemed

it's not like when the administration, the bush administration found itself in possession of terrorists captured on the battlefield in afghanistan and other locations around the world. it's not like we rushed to the conclusion we were going to move them to guantanamo. the very real and very hard question what do we do with them, and guantanamo actually turned out to be ideal because it's not american territory and at least at the time our lawyers felt that the constitution and interference by civilian courts wouldn't apply. but it also wasn't in afghanistan or another country where we would not have clear control and jurisdiction over the people. but that's not to say that anybody was enthusiastic about guantanamo bay or were they enthusiastic about the idea that some of these terrorists would have to be held indefinitely which as close as you can come to analogizing to the geneva convention is legitimate since under the geneva convention real prisoners of war can be held for the duration of the conflict. it was because there were alternatives. there were not good alternatives and many

the administration is putting $14 billion on the table of t.a.r.p. no new taxpayer dollars right now. >> that's right. they want to take people who are out of work and try to get them assistance for three months on their mortgages if unemployed. a broader effort to assist people whose mortgages are underwater. not just people who are in financial distress but broadly speaking trying to lift up the housing market a little bit. unemployment rates is not the only thing that is an indicator of the economic distress we're feeling. housing is a big key. >> it is. i want to pick up on that larger point. and play you something that happened at a hearing yesterday. somebody representing housing, national community reinvestment group had a quite visual display. let us show it to you. it really puts the problem in perspective. >> these keys represent a home. what will happen while we have this hearing. these are the amount of homes they're going to help out of this lot. there is what the program is going to help. your fans as the fannie and freddie. here's what

. >> the administration has put forward a $5 billion supplemental for the relief fund on the hill, and it is pending right now, but the house just approved it yesterday. what is that funding needed for? why is the $5 billion necessary? >> in our disasters we have had going all the way back to -- some even earlier than katrina, you have various projects online. we do reimbursements. we do not necessarily always fun money up front. two big issues that came through is arbitration for filing for charity. another is an agreement we reached on the school district, which we consider a model way of approaching a large complex issues, that is going to be over $1 billion in itself, but taking all the school districts is doing one project for all the schools affected. as well, new disasters that are current, so we have an outstanding requirement for existing disasters, but what we expect to be paid out between now and the fiscal year will be additional work paid -- work being done for iowa floods as well as new impact for this year. >> this additional supplemental is something that we occurs ever

t place the blame on this administration. it's an amazing political feat that they're trying to pull off. i don't think it's going to work at the end of the day. but i do want to get to the substance, what we have to to go forward because you've done a great job. we see a lot of kaerts of a great job, manufacturing up, consumer spending up, purchasing orders up, export s up, we've seen us go from in the first two months of last year luce losing almost 1.5 million jobs. losing less than 100,000 over the last two months. we see progress but there's more work to be done. i'm interested in one of the more deep seated problems hidden in the budget which is the national debt itself and the interest we pay on t now i propose that we have a dedicated revenue source and that we exempting the financial markets focus on everyday transaction, take a penny off of a dollar and pay off the debt. have a dedicated program to pay off the debt. most economists who have looked at this said we need to look at the long-term growth of entitles, rais

but so far each of these steps hasn't gotten the administration the results that they wanted.certainly doesn't look like we're going to get tough sanctions any time soon. >> in other words, o for 2 for the obama administration. i want to follow up on charles. if they really sought these sanctions on iranian cargo and to deny them insurance and to get them -- deny them air rights and go into territorial waters and so on, they could really come close to shutting down the iranian economy and those are sanctions that really would bite and cripple. >> do that unilaterally. >> well, you could try to enlist as many people as you could. how strongly the administration really fought for those sanctions, i don't know. i tend to doubt that they fought very strongly because obviously china and russia don't want to do them. if you could get those, then those are sanctions that might actually have some impact. >> bret: meanwhile, charles, iran continues to enrich uranium all throughout this time. and there is a clock somewhere ticking, correct? >> it is. and it's particularring -- tickg in

. >> homeland security secretary, janet napolitano, announced the administration nominee to head the transportation security administration. robert harding, formerly served as the director of operations at the defense intelligence agency. the president original nominee withdrew his name following objections by senate republicans. secretary napolitano spoke for about five minutes. >> this is a critical leadership position for the security of our nation. by nominating general harding for this very important job, the administration is calling on an individual with more than 35 years of experience as an army commander, a senior military intelligence officer, a high-level manager of intelligence operation and a successful business manager ceo in the security field. the general believed all of these talents as he takes the home of this vital agency. tsa's mandate is a broad one. they're responsible not only for u.s. aviation security, but also for safeguarding our rail, bus, mass transit and tracking systems as well. the general will be a tremendous asset in our current efforts bolster secu

differs from the previous administration. in the end, is on to be american leadership that will protect the american people. you can use diplomacy and influence. but to do that effectively for our security, you have to sit -- up to start with a clear concept of what the threat is. that is where we still have a lot of work to do. thank you very much. [applause] >> there is a discussion now on the future of iraq. this is about 25 minutes. host: tom riction is at the tables now, a long-time "washington post" reporter, "wall street journal" prior to that. center for new american security. senior fellow. these iraqi elections today, what's at stake for folks there? >> quite a lot. i think this is the most important election since the u.s. invasion. this will begin to show the outlines of post-occupation iraq for better or worse. will iraq have a sectarian government? will the soonies feel that they've been included in the process? will iraq essentially hold together as a nation once the americans aren't around to hammer it together

one is to say this is the previous administration. let it all come out, let it all come out. i, i inclination and by profession, would strongly support that. i think the photographs of the additional photographs of the obama administration decided not to reveal, i think you should release. i think documents in general should be released. i think is that where they should make a clean of it that i also understand they are in a position-- suddenly you have a president, 47 years old who has never been an executive board who now was running among other things the cia. the national security or are perceived and this is a controversy not only from the republican party and the government but within the government itself. and i think they have made a decision to be very conservative of these issues in part as they are worried about the backing of the cia and other national security or oversee. >> as a clarification for our audience, you mentioned the 2004 international red cross report. could you describe what the icrc does and the purpose of that report and then the consequences of i

one, there were areas in which the bush administration reversed itself made stream. errors, grievous errors very early through the hard work of people like john, got those policies and either stalled or stopped, and started to move the pendulum and the opposite correction. and i have no problem in a continuity of policy with things that are already recognize when things were a mistake. there's a second area, which is areas in which progress has not been possible, because it's not the executive branch acting alone. you know, this is a group of people who live in shouldn't. every single one of you has focused on one or more issues in the political environment which we are living. which make it very difficult to get things done through legislative process, treaty. regular legislative process nevertheless a treaty process. john said the icj requires a legislative solution. i agree. that explains why it has not been possible to get that problem solved. now you can take another approach, which say it doesn't involve a legislative solution. the risk you run there is you coul

it is a dramatic increase from the bush administration. we believe that the obama administration intentionally set out to show that he was tougher than bush and they have been able to accomplish a significant increase in the number of people deported. he said he would stop some of the workplace raids but the fact is those are continuing and in addition to that, they have been using other tactics to put terror in the communities. people who were pretty much administrative folks who are nothing but hard-working immigrants trying to contribute to this economy and country and are being caught up in this enforced deportation. they have argued that they have tried create space for comprehensive immigration reform by doing this but the fact is -- we've had the bad stuff come through but the promise of comprehensive immigration reform that was supposed to accompany this never happened and they are way behind the times. the window is closing quickly. there is not a lot of indication to this point for the administration that the promise that they mad

that did not happen with the support of the administration. home prices were basically level during last year. so i think we have had the impact of stabilizing the market, but it is fragile and we need to continue to focus and do more to ensure we're on the right path with home prices. >> one of the programs the federal program is going to end is the purchase of mortgage-backed securities has helped quite a bit and the home buyer tax credit is going to expire here shortly. are you concerned that if we don't extend those important initiatives we're going to add to that @@@@rg$#r')k# our risk management, increasing underwriting requirements, down payments, raising premiums, that we must take a balanced approach and not go too far to exclude buyers that can be successful in the market. and so that balanced approach i think is critical, as well as watching the numbers over the next few months in the spring buying season very, very closely. >> okay. senator bond? mr. secretary, we have reached a gentlemen's agreement. i'm going to finish the questio

the problem that the pressure administration failed to implement them. the previous white house made mini hour -- heirs and many were deadly one specific piece of criticism is that americans should have provided more security and earlier than they did. my general criticism is three should've taken the arabs fears more seriously. we americans believe we were bringing democracy to the region while discounting the farfetched conspiracy theory the long-held conviction of many arabs the sunday the americans would come into play divide and conquer and the arabs would be at each other's throats and as it turned out, that is exactly what happened. of course, it was not american his hand the blue of the mosques and calls are cali was not on washington's payroll and was now working in behalf of centcom when the brothers killed his brothers in west beirut it was not the bush should frustration that conducted a campaign of terror assassinating lebanese politicians and journalists and civil society activists in the u.s. department of state said no opposition figures t

. >> the current administration -- >> there's no softer heart in this argument. fective and non effective at those arguments have to be made in the short and long-term perspective. people have said to me i think we could use advanced interrogation techniques but if your message work better and faster, than i am ok with giving up on those. that is fine as a band-aid but the question goes back to why do we torture? what would somebody tortured another human being? that goes back to prejudice and that is the long term fight in this argument. how do we eradicate the prejudice? we didn't torture people after the attack on pearl harbor even though other attacks were imminent and you could make the argument it would have saved lives. >> we will take questions we're almost out of time. you have a question? >> since the debate over torture surfaced in the united states after 9/11 it seems there is a growing class of interrogators like yourself who take positions on whether torture works and they lined up on both sides of this issue and i would like you to diagnose the dive

the first night's administrator put together a matrix. t was pre-crash, crash, and post-crash. >> there is only about one minute left. you disagree with what i was saying? >> not necessarily, i will submit for the record the information. you want to protect the driver and the occupants and the way you do that is to make sure the car is safe. nhtsa itself has done a lot of work on driver education. driver education does not too much in terms of the long term driving capability of most people. i like driver education. >> do you have any comments on that? >> in our testimony that we submitted for the record, we took a look at the question that the committee is asking. in the light of the recalls we have seen in recent weeks, we have made a recommendation accordingly. we are pleased that the agency and secretary load as put a focus on -- secretary lloahood has put a focus on driver distraction. >> in addition to driver behavior and performance, there is the driving environment. that includes the condition of roads, the lack of safety features,

what do you think about the idea -- and i sent a letter to the administration. nd it to you because on some of these titles and to the bureau because it's a political judgment to a certain extent. but what i did is i talked to john brennan, and i sent a letter to the president's foreign intelligence advisory board to the secateurs, the former senator and also hague to look at the possibility of relocating or locating, not relocating, the hague and counterterrorism center so that they are there at that very moment when something is coming in, and also when you're out there at the center the breaking down of the barrier because they are in the same cafeteria together, they kind of know each other and relationships develop. what are your thoughts about locating their? >> well i think you are aware of the past discussions. i am a firm supporter of the counterterrorism center. early on we were one of the first occupants. i move to our counterterrorism division from fbi headquarters out there so that we co located with the nctc and other allin elements of the intellige

it was back during the bush administration. that was back when hank paulson came and told everyone that he was going to save the nation and the republicans bought into it and many of my good conservative republican friends and voted for a $700 billion bailout. i did not. and a few others didn't. but the vast majority did. that's kind of interesting. that $700 billion is the same figure that we're using right now that it would cost people in -- by the year 2020 just the interest alone. but the $700 billion that we could spend on interest in 2020 happens each and every year. and we don't get anything for it. it's just the cost of living having this much debt in the first place. at this rate, it will become more and more difficult for government to fund priorities that we truly think are important like national infrastructure spending. for some reason nobody around here wants to spend money on infrastructure. i know i get criticized because i know i'm considered to be a conservative. i've been rated as the number one most conservat

and a dramatic increase from the bush administration we believe because the obama administration intentionallyt out to show that he was tougher than bush and obviously they have been able to accomplish a significant increase in the people deported. he did say he would stop some of the workplace raids but those are continuing and in addition they have been using other tactics to put terror into the communities by saying they're going after folks that said their criminal aliens but this could be those on the deportation those of with the administrative folks were nothing but hardworking immigrants to contribute to this country and are brought up in the increased enforcement. we are concerned about what the administration has done and they have argued or tried to create space by doing this but the fact is that the space has been created. we have the best of come through. but the promise of comprehensive immigration reform supposed to accompany this never happened. they are way behind the times the window is closing quickly. there is not a lot of indication at this point* that the promise that the

of the transportation security administration. ical position for the security of the nation. by nominating general robert harding for this very important job, the administration is calling on an individual with more than 35 years of experience as an army commander, a senior military intelligence officer, a high level manager of intelligence operations, and a successful businessman and ceo in the security field. the general will need all these towns as he takes the helm of this vital agency. tsa's mandate is brought. they're responsible not only for u.s. aviation security, but also to safeguard rail, and other transportation systems. the general be a tremendous asset to bolster security at domestic airports. he will deploy additional law- enforcement officials, behavior detection officers, air marshals, and explosive detectives and canine teams. he will fix the gaps in the system as well. on friday we announced that the first 11 airports to receive advanced imaging technology purchased with american recovery and reinvestment act dol

the administration really isn't leading here. so, i'm not sure that a quick resolution is likely. but it is certainly a critical topic. we really can't let the year go by without serious reform. >> what does do it to competitiveness? there are those on both sides of the argument that it will make us leaner and cleaner and you know, you can do that argument, and therefore, we will be better able to compete, and others who think it impedes our ability to compete? >> well, serious reform need not impede our ability to compete. i do worry of this bill, because of the use of taxes is going to make us less competitive as a financial center, and that is a shame. >> the consumer protection component of it, the administration seems to be standing firm on that, and do you think that is a necessary component of this bill? do you think it is a good component of this proposal? >> well, i do think that we need to have strong consumer protection. the financial crisis we just went through is a clear illustration of that. whether we need a separate authority to do that, i guess is less clear to me.

that is what the obama administration will be wrestling with. >> you think the bush and administration approach did permanent damage? >> it is interesting you ask that question because there are a number of bush and ministrations lawyers who are concerned about that possibility and surprisingly seeing a reflected in the current administration as well. michael touchstone up idea of customary international law that a number of states to over a period of time under the believe they're obligated to do it if it becomes law. but the opposite is true if states start pulling out of patterns of practice and say it does not apply you begin to erode and watered down international law then you find yourself in circumstances where you want to rely on and use it to achieve your security objective that is one anglo i think one has to be concerned about from a viggo perspective and the other is the moral authority of the united states. i say that cautiously because i have been somewhat skeptical talking about the moral authority how that constrains the other states but what i have been surprised about

the obama administration developed a strategic plan to rare earth minerals. we have the ceo of molly corps. thank you for joining us, mark. >> thank you for having us here today. >> this is a critical issue. it is not something that developed overnight. the united states used to be a leader in the market. walk us through the market and how we were and china ended up and why are the minerals critical? >> molly corp has been in business for 57 years. we were founded in 1948 and produced in 1952. we were the largest and almost single producer in the world until china discovered rare minerals in their country in the late '70s and '80s. china has in a unique position and they began to pull those products or pull the ores out of the ground and process those products to the world. they flooded the market and lowered the prices. that caused us to slow down production in mountain pass, california. that brings up the issue of market share. china recognized this set of minerals as being strategic and forming the foundation of the industrial base within their country. the

if you were to listen to the former nasa administrator, dr. mike griffith, he wrote, and i quote, i believe that this budget request advocates a strategy that is frankly disastrous for the u.s. human space flight program. hairson smith, former u.s. senator and apollo 17 astronaut, said it's simply bad for the country system of with the loss of our manufacturing base, many jobs have been moved to other countries. the manufacturing space vehicle is among the very few areas where we still enjoy technical advantage and i think it's extremely unwise to give it up. . the chinese are pushing to put a person on the moon. the russians are continuing their space program and i'm pretty sure they are catching up with us in the technical field to put a person on the moon and beyond. and we, as one of the most advanced countries in the world, we are scaling back on our space program, one of the few areas where we still have a technical advantage beyond other countries. so simply in my own strict, was to build a component of the module and cargo rockets. we f

she also stated that the administration prefers a more targeted approach. i yield two minutes to the distinguished gentleman from georgia. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for two minutes. mr. kingston: i thank the gentleman from michigan. i'm confused, maybe because i'm not on the ways and means committee. i'm on the appropriations committee, and on march 16 at 10:00 we had a hearing and our special guest at the hearing was the secretary of treasury, geithner, the secretary of o.m.b., mr. orszag, and the president's economic advisor, and all of them said to the full committee the stimulus program is working. it is the greatest program. in fact, i thought they were going to start high-fiving and hugging each other right there in the committee they were so excited about it. but now, i'm like you. you democrats on the ways and means committee, i kind of agree with you. it ain't working. we know it's not working. that's why we are now debating the third stimulus jobs bill in the house. we had one a couple weeks ago. we had one i

differs from the previous administration. in the end, is on to be american leadership that will protect the american people. you can use diplomacy and influence. but to do that effectively for our security, you have to sit -- up to start with a clear concept of what the threat is. that is where we still have a lot of work to do. thank you very much. [applause] >> up next, the administrat or of the u.s. agency for international development. after that, a forum on insurgency in iraq. after that, the president of washington university. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] president obama heads to the philadelphia area tomorrow. he is expected to talk about health insurance reform. our live coverage starts at 11:00 a.m. eastern. >> over 1000 middle school and high-school students enter the c-span documentary competition with a short video on one of our country's greatest strengths or a challenge we are facing. >> in which four presidents lived past 90 year

a big announcement from the administration about what they're doing related to energy. timing is not coincidence and they're sending a message to ministers around the world that maybe we'll drill at home and we don't need you. is it possible they're sending that message. >> i think they're sending a message to those ministers, melissa, but also a message to republicans. this isn't an issue where we are prepared to play on your field to some degree, not just on drilling, but also on nuclear power. you know, john mccain was right and all of the above policy is needed if you're really going to transform the way america reduces energy and as a political matter they have to make decisions where they need republicans and where they don't. don't need it on financial reform except a couple, they think they can muscle those votes and energy is a different story, melissa. they need a lot more republicans. >> a lot has also changed -- >> sharon, let me just ask john one thing. i think this is so important. you are hinting or maybe not a hint, you are saying that this drill, drill,

program was not to be a slush fund for the administration. i think the funds are improperly used here. and i tire when i hear officials say people, through no fault of their own, the fact is it is a risk to take out a loan. it is a privilege to own a home, not a right. it shouldn't be one that the government comes in and says, we're going to pick winners and losers. ultimately i don't think this will stimulate investors. i think this will be $14 billion waste bid a government trying to do too much with taxpayer dollars. >> he raises important issues, does he not? >> moral hazard exists with wall street. moral hazard exists with lenders who originated the loans. everyone will have to have a part in the solution. until we address the issue, we won't have an economic recovery. there is a reason we're looking at regulatory reform and a consumer financial protection agency. safety and soundness, the government's role, the lenders' and wall street role has to be acknowledged. we have to find common ground to get out of the mess. >> mr. christie, is

on my left is the former administrator for the national highway and traffic safety administration. we want to welcome you. sitting next to her is the safety policy council for the consumer's union. we want to welcome you, also. and lastly, we want to recognize and also say hello to our former colleague, a member of this house, a very able member from oklahoma. very bright and intelligent. the honorable david mccurdy, from the alliance of automobile manufacturers. we welcome you, again, to this subcommittee hearing. we would like to recognize, for five minutes, for the purposes of the opening statement, -- >> thank you so much, mr. chairman. i am the last person to require an out of company to have a recall. this was 31 years ago. i would like to say that when you do find the defect, the automobile companies will do a recall, and you do not have to go to court. but sometimes you will have to go to court. in the toyota case, this elaborates on that. there has been a misconception on the defect. the last case that was litigated by the department of transportation on this issue, the fed

changed the obama administration maintained the same position that the bush administration had which is they didn't want to have to produce it and relied on something that we now call the daily show defense which would embarrass politicians so we didn't want that out there. that is not a great change. similarly we have had foia out nawaz to the department of health and human services about the decision to release vaccines to wall street banks before all other americans, high-risk americans to access and we haven't been able to get documents. we also have a case where we have been suing the veterans administration says that the bush administration over the department's decision to diagnose returning veterans with adjustment disorder rather than ptsd as a cost-saving measure and it turns out that when they finally handed over some documents the original e-mail we have received as a tip which is why we knew there was a problem had been destroyed over at the base of the having produced that so there were destroying documents. so these are still present the american problems. sometimes we

the f.a.a. administrator. to increase accountability and coordination of next gen planning and implementation, the bill requires the j.p.d.o. to develop a work plan that details on a year-to-year basis specific next gen related deliverables and milestones required by the f.a.a. and its partner agencies. like the 2007 bill, we increase the passenger facility charge cap from $4.50 to $7 to those airports who choose to implement the increase to help airports choose and those who participate in the program to meet their capital needs. according to the f.a.a., every airport currently collecting $4 to $4.50 under the p.f.c. raised -- they raise it to $7 it will generate $1.3 billion in additional revenue every year for airport development, which strengthens our economy and creates additional jobs at a time that both are critically needed. the legislation provides significant increases in a.i.p. funding for smaller airports that rely on a.i.p. for capital financing. the ability to raise the p.f.c. and increase in the

this is about five minutes. >> nominate major general bob harding to be the next administrator of the transportation security administration. this is a critical leadership position for the security of our nation. by nominating general harding for this very important job, but the administration is calling on individual with more than 35 years of experience as an army commander, senior military intelligence officer, high level manager of intelligence operations, and successful businessman and ceo in security field. the general believe all of these talents as he takes the house of this vital agency. tsa mandate is a broad one, they're responsible not only for u.s. aviation security but also for sale turning are real, bus, mass transit and tracking systems as well. general will be a tremendous asset in our current efforts to bolster security in screening measures at our domestic airports. by deploying additional airport law enforcement officials, behavior detection officers, air marshals and explosives of teams in. and fixing the gaps in our international civil aviation system as well. on

i believe that the standard set by this administration are the highest ever established by any administration and i fully support secretary's lahood's desire to put this across the department of transportation. if there's any evidence of violation, swift and appropriate action will be taken. the next question i asked of nhtsa is do we have the programmatic expertise we need to support our programs? we have diverse and experienced work forces, and the will take full advantage of their expertise. if, as we go forward, we find that we need to shore up our work force in certain areas, we will recruit aggressively. we are currently requesting the authority to hire 66 more people next year and we will target these positions to meet our program needs. at this point, it appears i am out of time so i will submit my remarks. but i am think the committee for their patience and a stand ready for questions. -- i thnank the committee for their patience and stand ready for questions. >> thank you. the chair recognizes himself for five minutes. as i said, the goal of the subcommittee in relation to nhtsa is

the federal highway administration, the motor carrier safety administration, the national highway traffic administration and the research and innovative technology administration were furloughed through no fault of their own. they became victims of an arcane practice in the upper chamber that i laos one member's objection irrespective of merit to grind to a halt the work of the american people. as my colleagues recall, an objection by one senator from kentucky led to the lapse of authorization for the highway trust fund, despite the objections of 21 of his republican colleagues, a majority of the republican caucus who supported the ultimate extension on a 78-19 vote. this bill does two simple things. it authorizes those workers who were furloughed to be compensated for their normal rate of pay in the two days which they were laid off and ratifies actions taken by d.o.t. during those two days to maintain minimum services. the congressional budget office says this legislation has no new costs associated to it, as the chairman indicated, as the funding will come from existing expenses. by ta

. >> susie: with 15 million homeowners underwater on their mortgages, the obama administration is pledging more help for homeowners. will it help the housing recovery? we get some answers. you're watching "nightly business report" for friday, march 26. this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> susie: good evening, everyone. another fix-it plan from the white house today to end the housing foreclosure crisis. tom, this one proposes to reduce the principal on mortgages held by underwater homeowners. >> tom: susie, it's for people who owe banks more than the current value of their homes and it's similar to the bank of america plan we reported on earlier in the week. today's plan from the government also gives temporary help to homeowners who lose their jobs. >> susie: 15 million americans fall into that underwater category. but as darren gersh reports, the new program will help just a fraction of them. >> reporter: fr

. >> ifill: and jeffrey brown looks at the administration's proposal to overhaul the controversial "no child left behind" education law. >> there are far too many perverse incentives in the current law. it allows and even encourages states to lower standards. it doesn't measure growth. it doesn't reward excellence. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "pbs newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> what the world needs now is energy. the energy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tackle challenges like climate change. what if that energy came from an energy company? everyday, chevron invests in people, in ideas-- seeking, teaching, building. fueling growth around the world to move us all ahead. this is the power of human energy. chevron. monsanto. producing more. conserving more. improving farmers' lives. that's sustainable agriculture. more at producemoreconservemore.com. bank of america-- committed to helping the nation's economic recovery. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic perfor

coastlines and the administration wanted to put the public's attention, instead obiofuels.the president stood in front of an f/a-18 jet fighter. >> if test guess as planned it will be the first plane to fly ever faster than the speed of sound on a fuel mix that is half biomass. >> sounds cool, right? well the framing was cool, at least for pilot beau duarte whose name was in the the shot the entire time. abu is the call signal. what did you arte look like. now here's the cost, nbc pentagon correspondent jim mikell chesski points out. half biomass if the air force buys did in bulk will cost about $18 a gallon. right now the half-and-half mix is about $35 a gallon. my point is that as cool as biomass sounds, it isn't cheap, at least not yet. and while money has been allocated for the pentagon and other parts of the u.s. government to research and test biomass fuels, believe me, the policy debate and the financial one are just beginning and that debate will be intense. >>> that's our show for this wednesday. i'm david shuster live in washington. up next on "dylan ratigan show"

chairman, if i can say quickly, we're kicking the bush administration. you can't just blame others for the scale of the debt of deficit. the deficits that you inherited were way too high. i voted against virtually all of those major issues. but this -- nancy pelosi and president obama managed to spend over $2.5 trillion in one year. that's just a big ticket items. you spent more money and less time than any administration in the history of united states and created more debt than any other administration in your budgets than any administration history of the country. so it just isn't credible. you don't -- you damage -- >> i will be happy to measure our record on fiscal responsibility with the record of the previous eight years. let me give you one example. i was a career service member in the treasury department. i left in 2001. at that point the cbo projected, future surpluses of $5 trillion. eight years later, those surpluses turned into $8 trillion in projected future deficits. i would be happy to compare the basic records of what we achieved in that

it was not anybody in the obama administration. e is an adjustment of the relationship between the united states and israel going on here, that the political situation in this country finally does allow administration had little bit of wiggle room to it because we are in two wars in the middle east, i don't think it was just a settlement. i think the administration thought that netanyahu's administration or coalition or whatever you want to call it was not serious about negotiations, and that some of the generals have indicated, our generals, that that really does harm us from a natiol security perspective at this point. >> mark? >> let's establish this -- joe biden, an unequivocal supporter and enthusiastic admirer of the state of israel, our ri -- arrives to announce that they have abbas and the palestinians on peace talks with george mitchell on the serial basis. netanyahu either did not know about this or did not override his decision to announce these 1600 units being built at this time, incredibly provocative. it is not just o

the obama administration would get a d. the numbers continue to escalate. 300,000 foreclosures in january. that is how many we used to get in one year several years ago. what we are looking at now, depending on whose statistics you want to believe, there are at least another 5 million to 7 million more foreclosures. if we're ever going to turn around its economy and get back on track to creating jobs and having a sustainable economy, we have got to stop the foreclosures. foreclosures are what have gotten us here. they tilled the building industry. who will be building houses when we have a huge inventory of empty houses? -- they killed the building industry. we have got to stop the foreclosures. they're looking at too many on the horizon because of the kind of loans that were put out there that were allowed to be made in the early part of this decade. host: first phone call for mr. taylor. pat on the democratic line. good morning. caller: my partner and i sold off all our income properties and have no mortgage left. we would

i know pple are focusing on the administration of cpr. and that's obviously going to become an issue at some point. t, let's remember, one of the reasons he's being proseted for involuntary manslaughter is the treatment, the administration of the drugs that night and then and then how much of those does were given to him. so, is onof those things where i know these -- it's kind of comg out piecemeal but the larger picture still remains about what the prosecution and lice, how they are pursuing their case. >> drew, let's lo at. this we've talked about what this witness had to say about delaying cpr and the 911 call. the timeline, it seems to me is where the prosecution has better amnition, right? beginning at 1:30 in the morning he's administered valium then sedative, finally propofol at 10:30 in the morning. isn't that negligent and could ve caused his dea and where you are going as a prosecor. >> that's the issue, the issue is that of criminal -- whether the administration of that rose to the level of being criminally negligent. was it so

i remember feeling terrible. >> bret: our top story at the bottom of the hour, the administration is fix a gap in the health care reform law that has left children who have medical problems without a guarantee of insurance coverage, at least for now. how the american people feel about the law will be determined, of course, in november. national correspondent steve centanni looks at the war of words coming soon to a television near you. >> it's march, and that means it's madness. but not basketball madness. it's madness in washington. >> just one of the opening shots in a media war being waged by both parties, using health care reform as ammunition. in this case a democratic who voted for health care is targeted by the g.o.p. another republican ad calls on voters to oust the speaker of the house. >> it's time to fire nancy pelosi. now that's a cause worth celebrating. >> the g.o.p. originally ran this interpreted a -- internet ad for 40 hours. they kept it running because it was raising big money. a million dollars so far. democrats say the image of flames behind the speaker is another

on my left is the former administrator for the national highway traffic safety administration. we want to welcome you here seated next to her as the safety policy council for the consumer union. we want to welcome you, also. we lastly want to recognize and also say hello to our former colleague who is a member of this house representing the state of oklahoma for many years, a bright and intelligent human being, the hon. david mccurdy who is the president of the alliance for automobile manufacturing's. . . i think there has been a misconception on what a defect is. the last page that was litigated on this issue, the central court of appeals made several important comments. this is not in my testimony. i think this is an important issue. it has come up several times. what the court was was do find a defect -- the vehicle must be shown to be defective. it manifest itself in performance of the automobile. it could be performance defect. they do not have to show there are five or 500 or 5000 consumer complaints that have arisen. often, those claims are not allowed in court. it is not

we're going to work with the administration. i think it's important to try to just look at it and evaluate it. and we're going to continue our review and we'll work with you and with the secretary to try to measure this. >> mr. chairman, if i may, i appreciate that. but what i am concerned about is turning a page that we have never permitted in our history, which is having an oppressive regime anywhere in the world tell us how we are going to ultimately engage in our democracy programs. and that's the core. we all want to see the most effective democracy programs but for anyone to expect that we will get a stamp of approval -- >> nobody expects that, senator. and i think that you're in a sense postulating a sort of subjective criteria that doesn't exist here. we're not -- there's no stamp of approval necessary. we'll do what we think is in our best interest. and i'm confident the administration will do that and want us to do that. it's simply a question of measuring the effectiveness of what we're doing against all outcomes and i