during the war the north denies these are puppet groups or that they're being united under communism. later they said, yeah, we did t. we fooled you. again, both the military and political moves that they're making in the south, they try to make it look like a lot is coming from the south and they try to make it look like the military resistance in south vietnam, the insurgency, is something that comes just from the south though it's not. it's something that the wholly owned subsidiary of north vietnam. they're very successful. they're so successful in that a lot of the conventional wisdom of the vietnam war, this insurge against si in south vietnam, this is all in resistance to the oppressive dm government. while they're doing this in the early 60s, they're expanding their shadow government in the south trying to bring as much under their control as they can. by 1962 the vc in the south, they had 300 million members and probably a million supporters. certainly the movement is growing. now, again, terror continued as a primary weapon while they're doing this. you can see from the quot

the international community was united under the u.n. resolution the cornerstone of which was to protect innocent civilians. and it acted accordingly. these enormous efforts were initiated by our arab brothers and sisters in the arab league and later with our friends and partners around the world and i take the opportunity to tell them all thank you. such efforts gave us the motivation we needed to continue our fight and push forward unyieldingly. our citizen army of teachers, mechanics, lawyers, students, engineers, doctors, professors, and businessmen suffered great losses. along with the rest of the civilian population. but stood strong. stood strong in their pursuit of democracy, shared governments and the rule of law. with great courage and sadly, sadly, also with great loss, we manage to push back gadhafi forces from the east of libya. we endured and broke the inhumane siege maintaining the unity of our country we took control of the western mountains and then we liberated tripoli. after a few months and thousands of deaths, and wo

community banking are generally defined as banks with assets under a billion dollars. those institutions, although there are nearly 7,000 of them, of the 7500 or so insured institutions in the united states, nearly 7,000 are community banks with assets under a billion. those institutions account for a little over 10% of all the banking assets, so they make up a minority of the assets of the system. but they account also for nearly 40% of all the small business lending that all insured institutions do in the united states. as you well understand, credit for small business is absolutely essential to job growth and the performance of the economy as a whole and the nature of small business lending. at least a lot of it is quite lab labor-intensive and highly customized. it's the kind of lending that the large institutions generally are not interested in doing anymore. they're interested in doing standardized lending products to generate volume. the customized lending that small businesses require in many instances are parla suited for the community bank and the way community banks do their business. and so if we did not have a significant and capable community banking sector in the u.

you know, community banks are generally defined as assets under a billion dollars and those institutions are over nearly 7000 of the bill. the 7500 or so insured institutions in the unitedstates, nearly 70,000 or community banks with assets under billion. those institutions account for a little over 10% of all the banking assets. so they make up a minority of the assets of the system. at the account also for nearly 40% of all of the small business lending at all insured institutions. if you understand, credit for small business institution is the performance as the economy as a whole and the nature of small business lending, at least a lot of it is quite labor intensive and highly customized. you know, it is the kind of one being that the large institutions generally are not interested in doing. they're interested in getting started standardize products. the customized lending to small businesses really require are particularly suited for the community bank in the late community banks to their business. so if we did not have a significant and capable community banking site are in the financial system caught it would be a real consequence for the financial system and eco

united states intelligence community would be recognized and we must appreciate that and have it is our privilege and honor to the. we are most appreciative of your knowledge of the work, sometimes under various conditions around the world. with all its attempt to cover the full scope of worldwide threats in these brief or remarks, said like to highlight some of the issues we identified for the coming year, some of which you party done for us a sense that. earlier this month, there was the 51st anniversary of my enlistment in the marine corps. entering my entire career, i don't recall a more complex and interdependent arete challenges that we face today. the capabilities, technology, know-how, communications and environment of forces are combined by borders and transnational disruptions astonishing feat. never before has the intelligence community been a call to so many issues in such a resource constrained in my area. continue to integrate the intelligence community and implementing new efficiencies and is always simply working hard. but candidly maintained the world's premier intelligence enterprise in the face of a shrinking budget will be a challenge. we will be as accepting and m

under control. what happened was, they got the call at 3:20 this morning, the fire started in an end unit town home, 1001 cutler harbor in the town home community. when firefighters got here, they found two town homes that were fully engulfed in flames. it took about an hour to bring the fire under control. it is under control. the fire is out. firefighters are going through working to get the hot spots out. those two town homes were extensively damaged. we are waiting on red cross to help the families that were displaced. four adults, two kids, one pet, all displaced by the fire. red cross is on their way to help those two families. the good news is that no one was injured in this fire. right now, firefighters remain on the scene trying to get out any hot spots. >> really quickly this is a residential area, are there people walking around, wondering how this happened and how it started? have you had a chance to talk to anybody or see anyone waking up this early in the morning? >> reporter: we haven't seen a lot of people out yet. because it happened so early. people are still probably sleeping. we haven't seen anyone walking dogs yet or lights

community real estate finance unit. next, we have the ceo of ne community federal credit union. since 1988, she has been the ceo of northwest community federal credit union. under her watch, the credit union group to over 1600 members. it has become the national model for institutions seeking to provide financial education and banking services to the low- income communities. last but not least, we have our conditional lender represented here by wells fargo. mark cyrus is the senior fda banker for the region -- the senior sba banker. he held businesses choose the best loans for the growing business and focus on a comprehensive understanding of their goals for their business. mark is responsible for helping entrepreneurs with sba loans every step of the way. i would like each of you to speak a little bit about what your organization does and, more importantly, address the audience here and let them know what your looking for when you are hoping to fund their loan. we will start with you, mark. >> absolutely. thank you. i want to thank speaker pelosi for putting this together. i want to thank all of the of for coming out on a smell it -- snowy san francisco date.

is not really allowed to operate in the united states so we should have that sort of insider community and or cyber spends under a more accountable civilian agency and i think that's a very reasonable at cern but it's also reasonable to say that cyber threats to publish your research or have overall look at stocks not look at what the israelis blow somebody not release we don't know a little what was done to iran's nuclear facilities with a computer virus i think that we. have a heightened that i think we might have given theory there yes ok great thing that happened in a bit back to finish your answer there you're talking about technique and what it's done yes well just look at why starts now sorensen a better program signing them for years in order to be destroyed maybe faster and research this is this is not just a virus this is an additional weapon and other weapons like this will emerge or if they haven't already so we need to be able to space these emerging threats then he changes and in our cyber security policy but it's very reasonable to say that merging program merican the n.s.a. like congress has pro

the international community was united under the u.n. resolution under which was to protect innocent civilians. these enormous efforts were initiated by our arab brothers and sisters and later with our friends and partners and i take the opportunity to tell them think you. such efforts day was the motivation we needed to continue our fight to push forward our citizen army of teachers, mechanics, lawyers , students, engineers, docto rs, professors, and businessmen suffered great to why losses along with the rest of the civilian population. strong in their pursuit of democracy shared governance and rule of law. with great courage and sadly also with great loss, we manage to push back the forces to the east of libya. we endured to maintain the unity of our country. we took control of the western mountains and then we liberated tripoli. after a few months and thousands of deaths, the wounded and men and women we fried our country from the grip of tyranny on october 23, 2011. and the hunger for equality and democracy within the libyan people

but the united states made clear we are on the side of the syrian people. they must know that the international community has not under estimated either their suffering or impatience. we all wish there was a clear and unambiguous way forward to directly influence the events in syria. that, unfortunately, is not the case. that is not an excuse. that is reality. only our clear path, our only clear path is to keep moving in a resolute manner to find a way to return syria to the syrian people. thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. secretary. general dempsey? >> thank you, mr. chairman, senator mccain, distinguished members of the committee. i appreciate the opportunity to meet with you today and discuss the evolving situation in syria. it's tragic for the people of syria and the region. real democratic reform should have been the assad regime's response to last year's peaceful protest. instead, the regime responded with brutality. syria's internal convulsions are having consequences for a region already in turmoil. refugees are fleeing, spill over is an increasing concern. we need to be alert to the movement of extremist

question of whether it's worthwhile to have the international community, the united states, the european union sit down with iranian representatives underense pressure of sanctions and the threat of possible military action to see whether constraints can be placed on their program to ensure that it remains peaceful and the israelis don't seem to think even those discussions are worth while. that is a big difference with the united states and the europeans. >> and i want to ask you in just a moment, jamie, what the united states obligations would be if israel did something unilaterally. michael, first to you. you worked for the bush administration which obviously had to sell striking iraq based on intelligence that turned out to be inaccurate and it became an unpopular war. now it's become an example. a lot of americans are very, very hesitant. is there a will in the united states to strike iran without 100% proof? >> well, i think you're right. there's clearly war weariness in the country, and we also have economic challenges. americans aren't eager for another military conflict, however, polls have consistently shown over the last coup

the international community was united under the u.n. resolution, the cornerstone of which was to protect innocent civilians. these enormous efforts were initiated by our arab brothers and sisters in the arab league and later with our friends and partners around the world. i take the opportunity to tell them all thank you. such efforts gave us the motivation we needed to continue our fight and push forward unyieldingly. our citizen army suffered great losses along with the civilian population. they stood strong in their pursuit of democracy, shared governance, and rule of law. with great courage and, sadly, with great loss, we managed to push back adopted forces to the east of libya. -- gaddafi forces to the east of libya. we endure and brought the inhumane siege down and maintain the ability of our country. we took control of the western mountains. then we liberated tripoli. and sirte. after a few months and thousands of deaths and wounded young men and women, we read our holy country from the grip of this tyranny and declared liberatio

united states is real. >> the gap is very real, yes. 50% of african-americans have broadband access right now. 65% of white americans have it. when you start talking about lower income communities, under, 50% number drops dramatically. almost by half. >> what are the things we can do to close that gap between those that have and those that don't? >> looking at where we are. there is a high level of engagement on smart phones for african-americans, and i think that's why wr we need to take a look at the resources available to really grow a business or compete effecttively from a career standpoint with your actual smartphone, and there are -- >> blik blackberries, iphone. >> android. really want one of those. those are the ways in which you can -- in terms of technology start to take a look at where the value is in those outside of tweeting and liking, you know, if you are looking at facebook. if you have a small business, you can essentially run your business from a smartphone. it's an ability we have. it's just accessing information to leverage it is where we're limited as well. >> one of the things i know black people are accessing. it's social media. we are over represented. if we d

that's best done under a system with strong flag state control as we have in the united states, as admiral salerno made clear this morning. we're also concerned with the issue of communication between crewmembers and passengers. while this isn't an issue on u.s. flag vessels where most of the crew are american and speak english, on ships documented under an foc, the crew is often of various nationalities and often do not speak the same language. even on board the costa concordia which was an italian flagship not under an foc, there were crewmembers from over 40 nationalities. as our crewmembers who were on board testified this morning, there were issues with communication and a language barrier on board the ship that contributed to system of the issues that were found there. we find it hard table that breakdowns in communications in a crisis, they're going to be inevitable. now while crew training and communication are important, we believe that best in order to protect the passengers, passengers themselves must feel confident that they me what to do in the event of an emergency. and that's why we strongly support the new emergency drill policy that clea has adopted that ha

community and the latino community in the united states in new york specifically obviously on stop and frisk i mean this is not the first time commissioner kelly has come under attack for a police tactic someone you know that the n.y.p.d. if it were an army is the largest must have at large our army in the world and we need to make sure that someone's watching over the n.y.p.d. as they are infiltrating and spying on the northeast some particular on a muslim american community yeah i think it's really interesting to say it isn't just a muslim american community is the study found that the n.y.p.d. is actually recently been doing this with the city's liberals a lot of times sending undercover police officers in to collect information at meetings of peaceful liberal activists and so what we're finding out is they're taking information from these meetings creating databases on leaders and you know where these next protests are planned across the country do you think this is new i mean protests have gone some of the major ones in the sixty's do you think that this is this program to surveil them is new or has it been going on and it just hasn't been reported on.

the international community was united under the u.n.esolution, the cornerstone of which was to protect innocent civilians. these enormous efforts were initiated by our arab brothers and sisters in the arab league and later with our friends and partners around the world. i take the opportunity to tell them all thank you. such efforts gave us the motivation we needed to continue our fight and push forward i nyieldingly. our citizen army of teachers -- unyieldingly. i was citizen army suffered great losses along with the rest of the civilian population. they stood strong in their pursuit of democracy, shared governance, and rule of law. and, sadly,courage amd with great loss, we managed to push back adopted forces to the east of libya. we endure and brought the inhumane siege down and maintain the ability of our country. we took control of the western mountains. then we liberated tripoli. after a few months and thousands of deaths and wounded young men and women, we read our holy country from the grip of this tyranny and declared liberatio

you know, community banks are generally defined as balanced assets under a billion dollars, and those institutions are over 70,000 come of the 7500 or so insured institutions in the united states come 7,000 or the community banks with assets under a billion, those institutions account for a little over 10% of all the banking assets and they make up a minority of the assets to the system, but they account also for nearly 40% of all the small business lending that all insured institutions do and as you will understand, credit for small business is absolutely essentials to job growth and the performance of the economy as a whole, and the nature of small-business lending, at least a lot of it is quite labor intensive and highly customized. you know, it's the kind of lending that the large institutions generally are not interested in doing any more. they are interested in doing sort of standardized products. the customize lending of small business is really required in these instances are particularly for the community bank and the way community banks to their business. and so if we did not have a significant and capable community banking sector in the financial system, ther

international community as never before to expose iran's intransigents and to apply pressure more than anything the united states could do on our own. because of our efforts, iran is under greater pressure than ever before. some of you will recall -- people predicted that russia and china wouldn't join us to move towards pressure. in 2010 overwhelmingly comprehensive sanctions. they had slowing the iranian nuclear program and virtually grinding the iranian economy to a halt in 2011. many questioned whether we could hold our coalition together as we moved against iran's central bank and oil exports. friends, europe and asia, and elsewhere are joining us, and in 2012 the iranian government faces the prospect of even more crippling opposition. that is where we are today. because of our work. the leader hipp is dship is div under pressure, and the arab spring -- of course, so long as iran fails to meet its obligation, this problem remains. we must accomplish our objective. in that effort i firmly believe that an opportunity still remains for diplomacy backed by pressure to succeed. the united states and israel both assess that iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon. we are

community as never before. to apply pressure that goes far beyond anything the united states could do on our own. because of our efforts, it iran is underreater pressure than ever before. some of you will recall, people predicted that china and russia would not move with us. in 2010, the u.n. security to counsel supported a comprehensive sanctions effort. few thought sanctions could have an immediate to bite on the iranian regime. many questioned whether we could hold our coalition together as we moved against the central bank of iran and oil experts. our friends in europe and asia and elsewhere are joining us. in 2012, the government faces the prospects of even more crippling sanctions. that is where we are today. iran is isolated, at the leadership is divided and under pressure. the arab spring is only increased these trends as the hypocrisy of the regime is exposed. its allies are crumbling. so long as iran fails to meet its obligations, this problem remains unresolved. the effective implementation of our policy is not enough. we must accomplish our objectives. in that efforts, i firmly believe that an opportunity remains for diploma

but the united states made clear we are on the side of the syrian people. they must know that the international community has not under estimated either their suffering or impatience. we all wish there was a clear and unambiguous way forward to directly influence the events in syria. that, unfortunately, is not the case. that is not an excuse. that is reality. only our clear path, our only clear path is to keep moving in a resolute manner to find a way to return syria to the syrian people. thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. secretary. general dempsey? >> thank you, mr. chairman, senator mccain, distinguished members of the committee. i appreciate the opportunity to meet with you today and discuss the evolving situation in syria. it's tragic for the people of syria and the region. real democratic reform should have been the assad regime's response to last year's peaceful protest. instead, the regime responded with brutality. syria's internal convulsions are having consequences for a region already in turmoil. refugees are fleeing, spill over is an increasing concern. we need to be alert to the movement of extremist

the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communicationto the senate. the clerk: washington d.c., march 21, 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: majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks the senate will be in a period of morning business for an hour. the majority will control the first half. the republicans the final half. following morning business senate will resume consideration of the capital tporpgs bill. at -- capital formation bill. at approximately 1:40 this morning there will be a cloture vote on the i.p.o. bill. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business for one hour with senators permitted to speak therein for up to te

international community as never before, to expose iran's intransigence and to apply pressure that goes beyond anything that the united states could do on our own. baize -- because of our effort, iran is underreater pressure than ever before. some of you will recall -- people predicted that russia and china wouldn't join us to move towards pressure. they did. in 2010, the u.n. security council overwhelmingly supported a comprehensive sanctions effort. you thought that sanctions could have an immediate bite on the iranian regime. they have. slowing the iranian nuclear program and virtually grinding the iranian economy to a halt in 2011. many questioned whether we could hold our coalition together as we moved against iran's central bank, and oil exports. but our friends in europe and asia and elsewhere are joining us. in 2012, the iranian government faces the prospect of even more crippling sanctions. that is where we are today. because of our work. iran is isolated, its leadership divided and under pressure. and by the way, the arab spring has only increased these trends as the hypocrisy is exposed and its ally, the assad regime is crumbling. and so long as they fail to meet their obligation

the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c., march 29, 2012. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable tom udall, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: following leader remarks, we will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to s. 2230, the paying a fair share act. the time until 11:30 equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. the majority will control the first 30 minutes, republicans the final 30 minutes. filing deadline for second-degree amendments to s. 2204 is 10:30 a.m. this morning. at 11:30, there will be a cloture vote on the repeal big oil tax subsidies act. the transportation bill expires at the end of this month, so that will have to be addressed before we leave this week.

community as never before. to expose iran's intransigence and to apply pressure that goes far beyond anything that the united states could do on our own. because of our efforts, iran is under. some of you will recall, people predicted that russia and china wouldn't join us to move towards pressure. they did. in the 2010, the u.n. security council overwhelmingly supported a comprehensive sanctions effort. few thought that snanctions coud have an immediate bite on the iranian regime. they have. slowing the iranian nuclear program and virtually grinding the iranian economy to a halt in 2011. many questioned whether we could hold our coalition together as we moved against iran's central bank and oil exports. but our friends in europe and asia and elsewhere are joining us. in 2012, the iranian government faces the prospect of even more crippling sanctions. that is where we are today. because of our work. iran is isolated. its leadership divided and under pressure. and by the way, the arab spring is only increased the trends as the hypocrisy of the iranian regime is exposed and its ally, the assad regime is crumbling. of course, so long as iran fails to meet its obligations, thi

the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, march 27, 2012. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable jeff bingaman, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president, i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, following any leader remarks, the senate will be in a period of morning business for an hour. the republicans will control the first half, the majority the final half. following that morning business, the senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to the repeal big oil tax subsidies legislation. this will be post cloture. at 12:30 today, we'll recess to accommodate the we

the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c., march 6, 2012. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable richard blumenthal, a senator from the state of connecticut, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. 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 majority will hold the first half. the republicans the second half. following morning business the senate will resume consideration consideration of s. 1318 which is the surface transportation bill. the filing deadline for second-degree amendments is today at 11:30. at noon there will be a cloture vote on the substitute amendment. the senate will recess from 12:30 until 2:15 p.m. to allow for weeksly caucus meetings. at 2:15 there will be two votes on confirmation of phillips and rice to b

but the united states made clear we are on the side of the syrian people. they must know that the international community has not understimated either their suffering or impatience. we all wish there was a clear and unambiguous way forward to directly influence the events in syria. that, unfortunately, is not the case. that is not an excuse. that is reality. only our clear path, our only clear th is to keep moving in a resolute manner to find a way to return syria to the syrian people. thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. secretary. general dempsey? >> thank you, mr. chairman, senator mccain, distinguished members of the committee. i appreciate the opportunity to meet with you today and discuss the evolving situation in syria. it's tragic for the people of syria and the region. real democratic reform should have been the assad regime's response to last year's peaceful protest. instead, the regime responded with brutality. syria's internal convulsions are having consequences for a region already in turmoil. refugees are fleeing, spill over is an increasing concern. we need to be alert to the movement of extremists an

united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives. sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on march 12, 2012, at 10 :11 a.m. that the senate agreed to senate resolution 390. with best wishes i am signed sincerely, karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the house stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m. on friday, march 16, 2012. >> on your screen is senator jeff bingaman of new mexico. solyndra filed for bankruptcy last year, two years after receiving government backing for a loan. they will also hear from herbert allison, the former treasury department official, who was chosen to lead the white house review of the program. this program has just started. >> it is easy enough to just eliminate government support for american efforts to compete in developing and deploying these new technologies. unfortunately, our

the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c., march 7, 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 democrats will control the final half. following morning business the senate will resume consideration of the surface transportation act. i ask consent that recess, there be a recess at 5:00 p.m. and that be extended until 6:30 p.m. to accommodate a senators-only briefing. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: madam president, we're having a briefing this evening at the request of senator mikulski, who is a longtime member of the

the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communicationto the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, march 13, 2012. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable christopher a. coons, a senator from the state of delaware, to perform the duties of the chai. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks this morning the senate will be in a period of morning business for one hour. the majority will control the first half. the republicans the second half. following morning business, we'll resume consideration of the highway bill. there will be two roll caller votes in relation to demint and bingaman amendments at noon. the senate will then recess until 2:15 to allow for our weekly conference meetings. at 2:15 there could be as many as 20 roll call votes this aftermoon to complete action on this transportation bill. i'm told, mr. president, there are two bills

the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c., march 1, 2012. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable tom udall, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following leader remarks the senate will resume consideration of the surface transportation bill. as i indicated last night, i now ask consent, unanimous consent that there be 90 minutes of debate, equally divided and controlled by prior to the vote in relation to the blunt amendment and all other provisions remain in effect. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: and the time that senator mcconnell and i use prior to the vote not count against the 90 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: so the vote will be somewhat after 11:00 but it shouldn't be long after 11:00. we hope that

the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c., march 28, 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, if any, the senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to 2230. that's the paying a fair share act. republicans will control the first 30 minutes. the majority will control the next 30 minutes. i now ask unanimous consent that following the first hour, the time until 5:00 p.m. today be equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. that the time from 2:00 to 3:00 be under the control of the majority. the time from 3:00 to 4:00 under the control of the republicans. the presiding officer: no objection. mr. reid:

the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c., march 22, 2012. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable tom udall, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: following leader remarks the senate will be in a period of morning business for an hour. the majority will control the first half. the republicans the final half. following morning business the senate will resume consideration of the capital formation bill. filing deadline for second-degree amendments on the motion to concur with respect to the stock act is 10:30 a.m. at 12:30 there will be up to seven roll call votes including completion of the i.p.o. bill, the stock act and confirmation of three judicial tpholgss. mr. president -- threing -- three judicial nominations. mr. p

the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c., march 8, 2012. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable tom udall, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: tphr-rbg the senate will be -- following leader remarks the senate will be in morning business for an hour. following leader remarks the senate will resume consideration consideration of the surface transportation bill. as most know, last night, late last night we reached an agreement to move forward on the highway bill. under the order that's been issued, i can schedule those votes any time after consultation with the republican leader. we have some 30 votes to complete today. we'll see how this works out. i think we'll have the first vote at about 2:15 today, start working th

the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, march 15, 2012. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable tom udall, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties f the chair. signed: daniel k. inouye, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: we appreciate senator burr allowing and arranging for this good man to offer the prayer this morning. we appreciate that very much. following leader remarks, mr. president, the senate will be in morning business until 11:00 this morning. the majority will control the first 30 minutes, the republicans will control the second 30 minutes. following that morning business, we will begin consideration of the i.p.o. bill, h.r. 3606. at 2:00 there will be a roll call vote on groh and then followed by one on fitzgerald, the trial judges in our federal court system. additional votes are