thune: mr. president, if i might just say to my colleague from minnesota that i appreciate her good work and advocacy on this. this is something that we have been working on for some time along with some of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, for a lot of reasons, and one of which, of course, is the the -- as the senator from minnesota mentioned, these are difficult fiscal times. obviously, every area in our budget needs to be reviewed and scrutinized and looked at to see where we might be able to achieve some savings. but as my colleague noted, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. the way that has been proposed in an amendment that was filed on which the cloture vote will occur tomorrow is the wrong way. you cannot tell an industry in december that we're going to give you a set of policies that are going to be in effect for the year. you're going to be able to make investment decisions. you're going to be able to go to your lenders, you're going to be able to go and get finan

thune: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: could i ask what the -- how much time is left? the presiding officer: nine minutes and 37 seconds. mr. thune: mr. president, i want to join my colleague from iowa who has been a great leader over the years on the issue of biofuels and trying to transition our country away from this dangerous dependence that we have on foreign oil, and over the years has worked to put in place policies that have helped build an industry literally from the ground up. the ethanol industry in its inception many years ago sort of started with just a few farmers getting together, and now today they are producing about 13 billion gallons of ethanol. actually, it represents 10% of our entire fuel supply. there isn't any other fuel in the country, mr. president, that provides the alternative to traditional gasoline that ethanol does, and that's the result of a lot of investment, a lot of hard work by a lot of people over the years. it'

thune: mr. president, point of clarification here. the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: my understanding is the senator from california cannot yield time to another senator. the presiding officer: the senator can yield time but not the floor. the senator from california. mrs. boxer: thank you. so is there objection to my unanimous consent request that senator thune go right after senator brown for as long as he wishes. ms. snowe: mr. president, reserving the right to object. you've been addressing the senate. so wouldn't it be appropriate for the senator from south dakota now to speak? mrs. boxer: the unanimous consent sthaeuft right to -- is that i have the right to call on senator brown. i can yield to senator brown is my understanding. the presiding officer: you can yield time but not control the floor. mrs. boxer: i was going to yield time to senator brown. the presiding officer: not give senator brown the floor. mrs. boxer: then i will yield to him for some quest

then they can also say the following week i voted for senator thune. one of these should work.e've got it both ways. we should make a distinction between which way we want to go and what we want to do. i happen to choose for, i think, valid reasons that we ought to transition out of this because the enormous financial commitment that has been made on the part of ethanol producers in my state, because of the enormous benefit that, yes, has come to our agriculture sector that has grown a lot of corn and benefited from it and has paid a lot of taxes -- it's one of the few industries in america right now that is prospering, earning revenue and paying taxes on that revenue and helping our economy grow, as is the ethanol industry. but to just yank it away from them right away because we say this has to be done right now without transition i don't think is fair to those who have made that commitment. does ethanol need to be economically viable to compete with other forms of energy? yes. did it need -- i wasn't here again -- but this body of congress, including the administration said

sessions: thank you, senator thune. thank you so much for your comments and that of senator johanns. you're raising a fundamental question. we've never, ever been in a financial situation in our country that systemically, deeply dangerous as we are today. you go through a washings you borrow a lot of money. you go through a recession, maybe your debt goes up some. but we're systemically in a recession, but we're ness a long-term prlong-term projectiot year the democratic majority moved a budget out of committee. senator thune is a member of that budget committee. and he remembers that debate. senator reid declared that he wasn't going to bring it up. it was never brought up on the floor of the senate and even debated. this year apparently the majority leader decided once again we would not have a budget and directed that the budget committee not even mark up a budget. so we've not even commenced work on a budget this year. indeed, the majority leader said it was foolish for the country to have a budget this year, which

thune: mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent to enter into a colloquy with my republican colleagues for up to 20 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. thune: mr. president, as we all know, the most important issues facing our country today are the economy, job creation, the national debt and excessive government spending. one of the things that is having a huge effect on job creation and the economy right now is regulation. the administration continues to overreach and overstep in the implementation of dozens of new regulations, be it the e.p.a.'s regulating greenhouse gases or the d.o.t.'s recent proposal that would require commercial driver's licenses for farmers who drive tractors. and these oversteps have real consequences in the form of jobs. take, for instance, mr. thomas clemens from youngsville, louisiana, who is testifying today in front of the senate health, education, labor and pensions committee. mr. clemens is a small business owner since 2008. he

thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i would also ask unanimous consent that i be allowed to enter flew a colloquy with -- into a colloquy with senator johanns. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, tomorrow the senate will vote on a cloture motion that deals with an amendment that would do away with a tax provision that was enacted many years back by congress, but was extended just this last december. in fact, there were a whole series of tax extenders that were passed by the congress in december of last year, but this particular one, the volumetric ethanol excise tax credit was also extended, until the year 2011. december 31 of this year is when it would expire. the amendment we'll be voting on tomorrow, or at least the cloture motion we'll be voting on is with regard to an amendment that would eliminate that and end it now. there are a number of problems associated wi

thune: mr. president, i would urge my colleagues to vot" on this motion. there is a better way to do this. and i think we can all work together in a constructive way and accomplish what the proponents of this amendment want to do but do did in a way that doesn't disrupt this industry. in december 81 senators -- 81 senators -- voted for tax policy and here we are six months later and we're saying we're going to pull the rug out. after giving them a commitment back in december that we would have this tax policy in place until it the end of the year. that's not the way to do this. this can be done in a right way, and i would urge my colleagues to defeat this motion and we will work together to try and get to where we have a solution in place that is good for jobs, good for the energy industry in this country, and good for the taxpayers of america. i yield the floor. mr. coburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: we have introduced into the record the industry that gets this tax credit, they represent 97 mr of all etha

thune: we need those trade agreements, mr. president, approved to create jobs and grow this economy. i would hope that the white house would follow through on their rhetoric and actually send those trade agreements up here so we can act on them. it has been 771 days since beesed a budget in this country, mr. president, and we talk about -- the administration talks about the need to do something about spend and debt and yet here we are having gone 771 days without even having passed a budget. if we're serious about spend and debt we need a budget that sets a blueprint for a more fiscally sustainable future for this country. and we need energy policies that allow us to develop energies to get american energy to get fuel costs urchedz control, which also impacts in a very direct way our economy rand our ability to create jobs. mr. president, the solutions are out there. they are a very straightforward, very simple. we need to have the will to move forward and to address these issues. i hope that we will because the american peopl

we're going broke because defense spending is absolutely completely out of whack right now and john thune didn't even ask them about defense spending considering that i'm told me time that they spent on the economy and give ron paul credit for this right he said i'm the president always go to say i defer to the generals you know you go on don't ask don't tell they said well so would you repeal it would you would you bring it back to previous what it was and they said no i go to the generals were the generals want to run on the president i told the generals what to do and that's you know sort of a big debate republican i like that now or do we have time for our religious clipper is that too long you guys. ok i don't think we can fit in or are really just clear but obviously we thought a lot of i believe in the right of everybody to practice whatever faith they want and then herman cain being asked about not wanting muslims in the white house and essentially everyone saying why i believe everyone should practice their religion but i think that we should be skeptical of muslims and. even whe

i do want to thank senators klobuchar and thune for good faith efforts on reaching a compromise. this compromise must save substantial revenue for the debt and deficit, for the treasury, and eliminate wasteful ethanol subsidies and tariffs so these negotiations have been ongoing sense tuesday. we have not yet reached an agreement, and so a vote at two o'clock will not end these talks. i'm willing to continue to talk, but i do think that it is important that we have a clean up or down vote on the coburn-fine stein amendment. the issue at hand is a simple issue. the subsidy given to the oil companies costs taxpayers billions of dollars every year, and the tariffs actually has the effect of making us more dependent, not less dependent, but more dependent on foreign oil. let me explain. in 2005, the ethanol subsidy cost taxpayers $1.5 billion. this year, that number is nearly $6 billion, so it's gone in six years from a cost of $1.5 billion to nearly $6 billion. there is reasons for it, and i'll get to that in a moment. since 2005, the total costs of this subsidy is $22.6 billion. he

.> no >> do you think consumers can be desensitized to risk if they receive thune notifications? >> yes. >> yes. >> yes. >>. >> even airing on the side of caution? >> yes. >> yes. >> no. >> do businesses ever air on the side of the fighting -- do businesses ever err on the side of caution? >> yes. >> yes. >> i do not know. >> repeat the question to request should company is keep sensitive information, such as credit-card numbers or dates of birth in perpetuity? >> it depends. no. >> no. >> no. >> note. >> should each data breach trigger a notice to consumers? " no. >> no. >> no. >> yes. >> should it otherwise be considered personal information? >> yes. >> no. >> yes. >> should the ftc have the ability to modify pii. >> no. >> no. >> yes. >> no. ies also beompany i subject to ftc enforcement under this draft? >> no. >> no. >> no. >> yes. >> shell entity is -- shall entities the subject to rule #2 of this legislation? >> no. >> we have not taken a position on that. >> no. >> no. >> do believe that the collection and use of data is a data security issue? >> yes. >> yes. >> no. >> ye

the strongest candidate i think was john thune, he's not running.tion they ran on cutting the deficit. it's going after entitlement. the ryan plan on medicare, republicans are running away from. obama has a superb economic record. he inher rited the great economic recession. he's returned it around, the unemployment figure is getting better gradually. the republican it's not clear what they're running on at all. they don't have a candidate, they don't have an agenda and obama has a superb record to run on. >> to talk about deficit, the president proposed a deficit commission and did not endorse and i don't think any of the democrats endorsed either. so they failed to lead when it comes to issues like the deficit. >> excuse me alex -- >> with regard to presidential candidates you've got a couple of really strong candidates i saw today, mitt romney is leading in most recent polling against obama, 46 or 49-46 so don't say we don't have a strong candidate. tim pawlenty, jon huntsman, strong candidates with great track records are being tough on deficits

thune: i would ask the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: these past few weeks, i have been coming to the senate floor to talk about the size and scope of this nation's fiscal problem. it has been said this is the biggest crisis our nation has ever faced. i believe that's true. i talk about how the tremendous growth of government has limited the ability of small business to create jobs. i've noted that the severe and dramatic cuts that medicare and medicaid and social security will face if we do not act now to reform those programs now. i have also pointed out how these draconian cuts would need to be paired with painful, job-crushing tax hikes. simultaneously, the interest that we pay on that debt will take up an ever-increasing share of our revenue. in fact, it's already been noted that in a few short years, the interest on the debt alone would exceed the amount that we spend on national security. in other words, we would spend more paying for the amount of money we borrow in the form of interest than we spend defending the country.

she doesn't know, senator klobuchar doesn't know, senator thune doesn't know, senator chabbliss doesn't know, i don't know, and we have one member of staff that does know. we have not had time to digest it. i don't think chairman gensler what the 31 working groups and 51 regulations are going on to the detail that we would like to know, and so they have simply belated until december #31, and we're in another state of swap purgatory although there's some exceptions that we've been advised not to worry, you know, we're going to take care of it. i'm being a little harsh, but the way this has been handled, having a hearing before they show up and having a hearing at eight o'clock in the morning, i don't like that at all. i don't think that's the way to be treated. i don't think the chairwoman should be treated like that, or me or any other senator. i -- mr. cooper, what will you tell your membership? john, what will you tell your membership in terms of what you found out at this hearing? >> well, senator -- >> how about another hearing a little bit later on? >> we would welcome that very mu

. >> senator thune. >> thank you, madam chairwoman, and i want to thank you and the ranking member for holding this important hearing today, and i appreciate the panels that are testifying. we have a lot concerns about dodd-frank, and hope to correct some of those. i think it's important that this committee here work together to try and monitor the work is done by the cftc, the fed and the sec to make sure that these troubles with the bill, the concerns we have are not compounded. and i'm in particular concerned about the limited definition the cftc is looking to in state for the definition of swap used. there's been some discussion of this already with the first panel with chairman gensler but there's a lot of elevators and local cooperatives were provided information to produce addictive the. including them in the definition of swap is will only raise prices for producers and limit their chances to engage in modified hedging. so, i say that just sort of a preparatory remark, but i'm interested in knowing, i think the press answered by the previous panel, but if you could shed some li

in early thune 11, we -- in early 2011, we said the notices to provide guidance on critical works elementses and performance plans. we lost a skills-based performance class in 2011. the department has also adopted a certification requirement for initialing continues training in contract administration. as part of this process, we instituted a requirement that the contract exceeding $25 million per year certifies that adequate administration resources have been identified to manage the contract. funding for afghanistan has also been reduced because a civilian platform there is relatively stable. the current funding levels will be sufficient to cover operations two years in care of our military drawdown in iraq is critical in our transition to supporting an iraq that is solid, stable, and self-reliant. we're working to achieve sustained diplomacy in a strategic, long-term partnership between the united states and iraq. state and defense 7 core operating -- have been -- state and defense have been cooperating on an unprecedented loss. dod is providing contracts for parts for our lexapro platf

use credibility if you have rules that can't be complied with. >> thank you madam chair. >> senator thune. >> thank you madam chair and i want to to thank you in the ranking member for holding this important hearing today and i appreciate the panels that are testifying. we have a lot of concerns about dodd-frank and hope to correct some of those. i think it is important that this committee here work together to try and monitor the work that is done by the cftc, the fed and the sec to make sure these troubles with the bill, the concerns that we have are not compounded. i am a particular concerned about the limited definition the cftc is looking to end state for de minimis of final swap dealers. i understand there has been some discussion with the first panel and chairman gensler. there are a lot of elevators and local co-ops that provide for producers that are hardly the large systemically important entities that congress intended to be regulated by this law. including them in the definition of swap dealers will only raise prices for producers and limit their chances to engage and modified

. >> thank you, chairman rockefeller, senator thune, members of the committee. i bought them the opportunity to be here today and discuss with the -- i welcome the opportunity to be here today and discuss with you how we can best protect data privacy and the digital age. this is an issue that affects everyone. at this committee's hearing on march 16, the obama administration urged legislation to establish basic commercial data privacy protection for all u.s. consumers. what we recommended an had three elements. the first is baseline privacy protection in the form of a consumer privacy bill of rights, adapted from widely accepted fair information practices principles. the second is for government to convene a multi-stickle the processes to encourage the private sector -- will be- stakeholder processes to encourage the private sector to develop context-specific code of conduct that apple and the bill of rights -- implement a bill of rights. the third is to grant explicit authority to enforce the privacy bill of rights and to grant safe harbors for evolving codes o

i had the honor of having to have met before young people from massachusetts jackson savage, john thune deals and joshua fish who i see some of them out there in the audience and give a lot of good information i've been aware of our families have been working on long before i got to washington so i want to thank you for your leadership and i look forward to hearing of our witnesses and what you're to be bouncing back and forth but i look forward to staying as long as i can. >> thank you, senator. senator shaheen, i mentioned senator shaheen is the co-chair with me at the diabetes caucus and the head of the special connection to this particular congress, and we are delighted to have you here. >> thank you, madame chair and to senator lieberman and both of you for holding this hearing today. i have a statement i would like to support for the record but i know we want to get to our panelists, so i just want to take a minute to introduce my granddaughter, a,i was a delegate at the children's congress, thank you and her mother, stephanie and father, craig cochairing the children's congress t

i had the honor of having to have met before young people from massachusetts jackson savage, john thune deals and joshua fish who i see some of them out there in the audience and give a lot of good information i've been aware of our families have been working on long before i got to washington so i want to thank you for your leadership and i look forward to hearing of our witnesses and what you're to be bouncing back and forth but i look forward to staying as long as i can. >> thank you, senator. senator shaheen, i mentioned senator shaheen is the co-chair with me at the diabetes caucus and the head of the special connection to this particular congress, and we are delighted to have you here. >> thank you, madame chair and to senator lieberman and both of you for holding this hearing today. i have a statement i would like to support for the record but i know we want to get to our panelists, so i just want to take a minute to introduce my granddaughter, a,i was a delegate at the children's congress, thank you and her mother, stephanie and father, craig cochairing the children's congress t

well, that's why i have sponsored legislation along with senators thune and senator klobuchar, that will reform the ethanol tax credit, it will provide deficit reduction and set us on the right path for alternative fuel development in our country for the long run. the legislation is called the ethanol tax reform and deficit reduction plan, and it's the right way, it's the right way to transition from the current veetc, volumetric ethanol excise tax credit, rather than the amendment today to simply do away with veetc. this is the right transition for us to make from the veetc to creating the right environment to stimulate development and energy growth in biofuels for the future. the ethanol tax reform and deficit reduction plan provides provides $1 billion in deficit reduction right away. it provides $1 billion in deficit reduction, but it also provides the right transition for ethanol by providing the right kind of energy policy. specifically, we provide incentives for things like blender pumps that offer consumers choice, and we provide the right kind of incentives for research, develop

i think that thune is rethinking a. he was the more establish. host: do you think he will -- guest: that is what you're told. i think a lot of this will depend on if there is a huge bvacuum. there will be a big vacuum in september. coburn is a very impressive guy. i ran into him a few months ago and said jokingly, why don't you run? he said no, no, i wouldn't do it. if on the conservative side, if bachmann looks like she does not work out if rick perry does not -- coburn is a real deficit hawk, but it talk -- budget hawk. they need someone with credibility and the anti- spending side. huntsman gives in this week. -- gets in this weeksenator cockburn seems not to want to run -- coburn seems not to want to run. these people are patriots. i think if they were needed for the country, they might take a shot at it. i do not think the viewers 6 textsuggestion is entirely out of the question. this will be a huge issue in 2012 with size and scope of the federal government how to reform the programs that are bankrupting us. i have to than that one of them

i had the honor of having to have met before young people from massachusetts jackson savage, john thune deals and joshua fish who i see some of them out there in the audience and give a lot of good information i've been aware of our families have been working on long before i got to washington so i want to thank you for your leadership and i look forward to hearing of our witnesses and what you're to be bouncing back and forth but i look forward to staying as long as i can. >> thank you, senator. senator shaheen, i mentioned senator shaheen is the co-chair with me at the diabetes caucus and the head of the special connection to this particular congress, and we are delighted to have you here. >> thank you, madame chair and to senator lieberman and both of you for holding this hearing today. i have a statement i would like to support for the record but i know we want to get to our panelists, so i just want to take a minute to introduce my granddaughter, a,i was a delegate at the children's congress, thank you and her mother, stephanie and father, craig cochairing the children's congress t

thune into tomorrow's edition of "the washington journal at 7:00 a.m. eastern. we will see you then. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> coming up today and cspan in about one hour, the house transportation committee examines tour bus safety in the wake of several recent fatal crashes. in tibet, our day long live coverage continues at the republican leadership conference taking place in new orleans. speakers expected include prospective presidential candidate buddy roemer, texas governor rick perry. tennessee rep marsha blackburn and rnc chairman reince preibus. next, a discussion on the future of media and telecommunications from the national cable and tele-communications association's annual cable show which took place last week in chicago. this is one hour. ♪ >> this is a big crowd. they are all excited back there. we brought the cable guys and the content guys in. before we get started, i want to say how lucky we all are that the cable industry has this new leader, michael powell

senator thune? >> thank you, mr. chairman, and senator hutchinson for holding today's hearing. to consider the two nominations, it's been nearly a year since treasury secretary to him geithner published in the new york times welcome to the recovery that in retrospect seems to have been flawed production. the economy should be going back by now but instead is still struggling in the employment rate is 9.1% as of june 3rd. virtually every other economic indicator has weakened over the past few months and as is noted by some of my colleagues, excessive corporate taxes and needless regulations are preventing the creation of jobs and so limiting the economic growth in the country. with all of these problems and is important critically important we have a secretary of commerce who has a strong record of accomplishment creating jobs in the private sector, someone who knows the challenges and how to overcome the barriers the private sector faces and creating jobs, and i am -- there are aspects of mr. bryson's record that i think are very impressive in some circles and some concerns i h

support, including my colleague and my friend, jo ann emerson, and then congressman now senators john thune and jerry moran. mcgovern-dole has one basic goal. provide at least one nutritious meal to some of the world's most vulnerable children in a school setting. it has reduced the incidents of hunger among school-aged children. it has increased school enrollment and attendance. it has increased the support of families and communities for education, especially for girls. mcgovern-dole is a proven success. instead of cutting its funding, let alone eliminating it, we should be scaling it up. the cuts to mcgovern-dole already in the bill would end school meals for more than 400,000 children. eliminating the funding would literally take the food out of the mouths of over five million of the world's most vulnerable children. mr. chairman, it's bad enough to ignore hungry children. it's even worse to give a hungry child a meal to give their parents hope for a better future and take it away. these are not just numbers in a bill. these are real living, breathing human beings. real children who are

that can take one of or text messages and instantaneously translated through a voice synthesizer to a thune brail reaer so the sky and the imagination of the limits to how we can alert the public to eminent danger so to close again, thank you, commissioner and mr. chairman and commissioners for your support and in particular thanks to jamie and his team lisa, greg, eric, tom, david, bonnie, tom, jeffrey for helping us make this a reality and taking a great step forward. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> he's saving his voice for hurricane season is available at request. [laughter] >> thank you come all of you. let me ask my colleagues if you have any questions. >> i think it is great news we are going to do a test of the úa system. ú it's a ú national challenge buta also in national opportunity toú develop a system that we are going to increasingly rely on t@ deal with national crises and weather emergencies and man-made emergencies and anbar alerts and objected children, and i want to highlight two things. i want to commend the public-private partnership that is behind this. he mentioned th

well, that's why i have sponsored legislation along with senators thune and senator klobuchar, that will reform the ethanol tax credit, it will provide deficit reduction and set us on the right path for alternative fuel development in our country for the long run. the legislation is called the ethanol tax reform and deficit reduction plan, and it's the right way, it's the right way to transition from the current veetc, volumetric ethanol excise tax credit, rather than the amendment today to simply do away with veetc. this is the right transition for us to make from the veetc to creating the right environment to stimulate development and energy growth in biofuels for the future. the ethanol tax reform and deficit reduction plan provides provides $1 billion in deficit reduction right away. it provides $1 billion in deficit reduction, but it also provides the right transition for ethanol by providing the right kind of energy policy. specifically, we provide incentives for things like blender pumps that offer consumers choice, and we provide the right kind of incentives for research, develop

president, i also very much appreciate the understanding of senator feinstein, senator klobuchar, senator thune, senator coburn. we have worked really hard to get to this point. it hasn't been easy. most everyone didn't get what they wanted, but that's what agreements are all about. and we have the opportunity to move forward on to other things. we'll have to decide what more we can do on this bill, but i appreciate very much their understanding and the many conversations i had with them during the day they were all very courteous and thoughtfu thl and very good advocates for their positions. i ask consent that the senate proceed to s. res. 208. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 208, expressing the sense of the senate regarding mongolian president visit to washington, d.c., and its support for the growing partnership between the united states and mongolia. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, any statements related to the measure be printed in