host: usa today headline this morning -- selena is joining us from california. caller: i do not understand what the republican trouble is with judge sonia sotomayor. they voted for her in the lower circuits. they voted with president bush and then with bill clinton. all of the sudden, barack obama printer in, and did bring up -- barack obama brings her in , i think it is a pretty good statistic. i do not care what color you are. host: do you think the stakes are different when you're talking about a lower position versus the? supreme? caller: no, the qualification still has to be there. we are calling her stupid and she was second at prisoprinceto. host: dahlia lithwick? caller: i agree. this is a judge was 17 years of judicial experience. she is the most qualified person to be tapped for the supreme court in 100 years if you look at judicial experience. if you look at her record, as i have been doing, there is not a lot to be alarmed by. progressives will say there is not that much to be cheered by. she is an incredible, moderate, careful, scrupulous, slightly

our next call is from alan, joining us from bakersfield, california. good morning. we will go to don. go ahead, don, in lancaster pennsylvania. caller: how are you? host: fine, thank you. good morning. caller: i am not satisfied with my health care at all. like dick durbin said at the meeting with the senate and house, they are owned by the banks. in this case they are owned by the pharma and ama, and the insurers. so we need single-payer. it is simple as that. we ought to join the rest of the civilized world, and what the last fellow said about we have the best health care system in the world, it is just fox news propaganda, republican propaganda. it is not even close to accurate. "the wall street journal," with their talking about sending people to the united states for procedures, well, those people are covered. you know, when we go somewhere else, it is all out of pocket host: let me be clear, it was an editorial by david gratzer. he pointed out that in the united kingdom where socialized medicine with established after world war twii, patients are allowed to ch

california. so we appreciate state senator george runner joining us from the capital in sacramento. stockton, california our next caller. caller: good morning. i have a couple of points. back to the getting a handle on the government agencies and their spending. now, i used to work for a company that had government contracts with like chp, department of forestry, and the like. this time of year was particularly prosperous for the company i worked for because those agencies would be spending money hand over fist to make sure that they drained their budget before the new fiscal year started. now, that might be one way where we could rain in spending so that we don't have agencies trying to just deplete their books so they make sure they get the same amount of money on the next budget year. guest: i think there's a lot of things we need to be looking at. there's no doubt that during times when revenues are coming in and we had some very good revenue times over the last ten years, spending increased dramatically. now we've got to go back and take a hard look at how that spending went. an

. >> host: former tsa administrator kip hawley joining us from mountain view, california. thank you for being with us. >> guest: a pleasure. >> host: you're calls and thoughts, the support a tax on your health care benefits. the morning to florida. >> caller: i am surprised i am the first. i think that we need to relieve the pressure on the employer's to hire more people. we have the serious unemployment problem in this country and just adding more burden to the employer and nightmare for him in cost. this is going to have him and to his role. >> host: do get health care through your employer? >> caller: my wife and i did until about two months ago, we have coverage and they offered a renewal at 103% interest. we're paying $800 a month and they were asking for $1,600 a month. the company, i am a builder and my wife is a military, -- my wife is a realtor and they laid anybody off. it they probably had 100 people two years ago and they are down to a handle. >> host: here is a republican you from day to, ohio. melissa, hello. >> caller: i-safe enough with the taxes already, we

from california. mr. waxman: we'll reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: reserves his time. the gentleman from virginia. mr. forbes: you can tell us how much time we have remaining? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia has nine minutes remaining. mr. forbes: then, -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california has 11 minutes remaining. nine and 11. mr. forbes: i'd like to yield one minute to the distinguished gentleman from virginia, mr. goodlatte. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia is recognized for one minute. mr. goodlatte: i thank the gentleman for yielding and commend him for offering this amendment which is great opportunity for our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to stop putting the cart before the horse and suppressing our traditional sources of energy, oil, natural gas, coal, doesn't even do anything for nuclear power and yet you want to push us into a direction where the technology doesn't yet exist. this legislation, this amendment, this substitute is exactly what you can need. you can vote for this, put us on a manhattan project to develop the new green tech nothin

host: kip hawley head of the transportation administration from 2005 until 2009 joins us this morning from mountain view, california. guest: glad it to be here. host: this paper reported that there will require a gender and birth date of fires as part of it this secure flight initiative. there will ask passengers to provide the names as it appears on the government i.d. later this month airlines will ask for a birth date and gender as well. what sort of issue does this present to fliers and to the airlines implementing it? guest: for those people flying i think it will be great. right now the airlines do the matching. because they are careful to make sure no one who is a watch-list to get on without being checked they beingiey sweep in lots of e every day to be screened. by having the government keep a watch-list insight into the match in itself, that will eliminate all that extra scrutiny for those for whom there is no reason to get it. it will sharply reduce the numbers of those. guesthost: who is responsible fr looking at the watch-list? when i buy a ticket how does it get looked at to match it? guest: the way t

the and then joins us from his mobile, california. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. mr. rich, i would like to get back to the conversation on the impact of mexico and their increasing violence and all that we hear and read about concerning the mexican mafia and all the drug cartels. i do not think that either party is addressing the real issue fully because we cannot talk about the socio-economic impact of immigration in mexico and central america for that matter. in our dialogue because everybody is afraid of being branded a racist of some sort. so we avoid the severity of the power of the mexican drug cartels that are totally infiltrated in our country. obviously there is no way to keep them out, along with all the other illegal immigration. some of your terms you are using -- we have to check our reality. we need to accept reality. these are lofty phrases like "lawful entry," "hard work." there is no system, apparently, because it is completely out of control. we are on the border with a country that has had 2000 deaths, and they just

. >> host: alfredo is joining us from hils berg, california, good morning on the the independent line with senator john mccain. >> caller: this is an honor to talk to you. you're the main reason why i'm an independent. family are all democrats, so it's kind of hard to go to a family function, we get into arguments. >> guest: thank you. >> caller: i respect you so much. being a free mason, now, i can't tell you how hard it is to go to lodge meetings and hear the stuff i hear. not as top secret as you guys talk about, but just stuff, you know, we talk about it in the room. if you would have stuck to your guns with the taxes and immigration, you would have won. from the heart you would have won. you would have won. i respect obama, i don't respect a lot of what he's doing, but living here with a bunch of liberals it's hard, but if you would have stuck to your guns, you're the main reason why i became an independent. we saw you, my fiance is a time member, and we saw you fighting for her family in florida down there. you confronted these people bilking money from these native americans $8

hawley, head of the transportation security administration from 2005 to 2009 joining us from mountain view, californiaks for being with us. >> guest: thanks to be here. >> host: looking at the baltimore sun reporting about this tsa to require a gender, birth date of wires as part of secure allied airlines last passengers buying tickets to provide their names exactly as it appears on a government issued identification a plan to use when travelling later this summer there also began asking passengers to ride their birth dates and gender. what sort of issues does this present number one to fires and number two to the airlines to have to implement the policy? >> guest: fourth wires i think it is going to be a great thing because right now the airlines do the matching between the watch list of passengers and because they're careful to make sure nobody who is watch listed gets on it without being checked, they sweep in a lot like thousands and thousands of people every day to be screened potentially as if on the watch list and by having the government keep the watch list inside into the matching itself, tha

from california claim the time in opposition? mr. berman: i do. the chair: the gentlelady has used all her time allotted. the gentleman from california has five minutes. the gentlelady has used all time allotted. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. berman: mr. chairman, i yield myself such time as i may consume. quoip the gentleman is recognized. mr. berman: i rise in opposition to the amendment. i share a lot of the ranking member's concerns fundamentally about the countries named in her amendment, and about the issue of proliferation. but there's sort of three different levels on which i think her amendment raises serious doubts and causes me to want to oppose it. the first is the assumption that withholding assessed contributions produces the actions we want. we have had test cases of this. wouldn't it have been great if the money we withheld from the u.n. population planning account had stopped coercive abortions in china? wouldn't it be great if the due assessed to pay to the united nations had resulted in the kinds of reforms that eliminated the questionable conduct that the minority righ

us. >> representative pete stark, democrat from california, member of the ways and means committee, thanks for joining us. >> go in good health, thank you very much. >> we continue the conversation on "newsmakers" with jeff reyoung, health care reporter or "the hill" newspaper. how is this going to be paid for? what did you learn? >> the first thing, i would bet the over on $1 trillion over 10 years, despite what the congressman said. they've got a large program of subsidies for people to buy insurance, they have a big extension of medicaid and improvements to medicare, it's an expensive bill, it'll be over $1 trillion, and they're still struggling with ways to pay for it. >> if i could continue that, that guess is substantiated by what's happened on the senate side. the pieces of legislation aren't the same but two different senate committees have been communicating with the congressional budget office to figure out how to cover everything. most of the must be is expanding coverage to at least some portion of the 40-something million people who don't have insurance. those scores are comin

from california. mr. rohrabacher: i appreciate my friend from texas reminding us of a past scare that proved not to be based on science. and i remember i was about -- couldn't eat cranberries for two years. they took sylimates. and 9 same intensity on global warming indicated we needed massive controls on our economy based on controlling acid rain. and what happened to that? ronald reagan held firm. there was a project that went through for $500 million science research program that showed there is a little bit of a problem with acid rain, but not much. but it was not the threatening force that we were told at that time, which would have cost tens of billions of dollars if we tried to use their agenda, what was being put forth in order to, quote, stop acid rain. the manmade global warming theory is just that. it is based on another scientific factor and that is kth. let's talk about co-2. that's what is in the atmosphere. co-2, carbon monoxide is a miniscule part of our atmosphere. so co-2 is yes, part of the atmosphere, but it was always considered a very small part of the atmosphere. and let me just make

us. california. we hear from lou from -- who is a physician. caller: i have been a physician since 1962. i have lived through medicare. my major paoint is that medicare is not the same thing as profit. people should be paid reasonably. the insurance companies have corrupted the whole concept of medical care by a huge -- by the huge profits they are making. they are difficult to fight. if obama's does not fit through his government plan, we will have the same thing we have now. it does not work. guest: i think the insurance companies have done a terrible job in not recognizing that they and the doctors are on the same page. they make these astronomical profits, some of which -- and for-profit organizations. the do so often in hostility with the doctors and disallowing many legitimate treatments and making it impossible to render care. a lot of the administrative costs the president spoke about come from insurance companies. i think the insurance companies have lost and enormous amount of goodwill. there is concern at they are not making a lot of

host: joining us from sacramento is darrell steinberg, a member of the california senate.uest: great to be here this morning, steve. host: how did california get in the situation with its deficit? guest: being the largest in the union is probably feels the biggest impact from the national and international economic crisis. host: we have seen the single largest drop in revenue in the state's history, so we're living through what the people of the country are living through also. -- guest: just as people have less money, so is our state. but i am optimistic. we're not ready to throw in the towel. there has been a lot written nationally about the decline of california. we will be just fine. there are a lot of things we have to do. there's a lot of change that needs to be had, but california will see better days. host: let me ask about two specific proposals. one would eliminate 900,000 children from a subsidized state health care insurance program. how realistic is that? guest: the democratic majority party will not agree to cut 900,000 kids off the health care rolls, nor wil

like to thank that dialogue between the representative from california and representative from indiana. with many strategies that need to be used and employed to reduce smoking. certainly the banning of targeted marketing towards youth and tobacco products that clearly have names that affect youth, creating a regulatory structure for the first time around tobacco products, our constructive steps, and i'd agree from the gentleman from indiana, not necessarily mutually agreed steps, reach the common goal we share of reducing youth smoking. mr. speaker, i'd like to yield one minute to the gentleman from illinois, mr. quigley. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois is recognized for one minute. . mr. quigley: the tobacco industry has been selling us a line. they are now selling us a story. they would have us believe that this bill which would allow the f.d.a. to regulate the tobacco would ruin their industry, shut down small farms, and hurt already hurting farmers who just want to earn a living. the truth is the tobacco industry has lied for decades about the addictive nature of tobacco. they have targeted our childre

i thank the gentleman from california for working with us to provide an amendment. it sends a very strong message that it is unacceptable that we have to expend our limited resources to hold people that should have been returned. i urge adoption of the castle-dent amendment. the chair: the gentleman from california. mr. berman: no further speakers. i yield back. the chair: the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from delaware. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is goad to. pursuant to the order of the house of today, it is now in order to consider amendment number 17 printed in part c of house report 111-143. for what purpose does the gentleman from utah rise? mr. matheson: i have an amendment at the desk. the clerk: amendment number 17 printed in part c of house report 111-143 offered by mr. matheson of utah. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 522, the gentleman from utah, mr. matheson and a member opposed will each control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman fr

california state park on angel island in san francisco bay. it was an active entry station to the united states from 1910 until 1940 and after 1940 it was -- used by the u.s. military until california state parks assumed ownership in 1963. the earmark in question carves out $1 million for the rehabilitation of the immigration station's hospital. according to the angel island immigration station foundation, the hospital restoration is expected to cost $16 million total and they are currently conducting a fundraising campaign to raise that money. now angel island has already been the recipient of federal earmarks in 2008 and in the omnibus in 2009, receiving $1.1 -- $1.250,000 million. this would add another $1 million making the total to $3.375 million. now, madam chair, the nation ran up a record level debt last year, $455 billion. we're set to eclipse that deficit by nearly four times and nearly $2 trillion this year. and follow it up with another $1 trillion-plus deficits every single year from now through 2010. and although angel island is historic and i actually personally am a fan of historic preservation, although you may find that diffic

and i thank my friend from california for sharing with us his thoughts, clearly his institutional knowledge of this grand institution is second to none. but one point i think is important to clear up, and that is the fact that this bill has a preprinting requirement in no way, shape, fashion or form means that anyone is precluded or prevented from filing an amendment. what it does, however, mean is that any amendment that an individual representative files has to be filed by a certain period of time. and that was yesterday. that does one thing. i would submit that enables our constituents to have the very, very best legislation they can because it does one thing. it gives the -- it gives the legislature and the representatives an opportunity to read the amendment -- to see what that amendment means and to have an opportunity to interpret it and determine whether or not it is the best thing for the bill or in fact whether it should be posed. -- should be pulled. it is a good thing to have a preprinting rimet in this bill. mr. dreier: i thank my friend for yielding and i appreciate his kind r

[applause] >> the gentleman from california. >> i am proud yield two minutes to my colleague, mr. gomer from texas. >> it was a proud moment for us to be able to come together in a bipartisan fashion and support the supplemental here in the house as put together in the house for the troops. but to add this mess that is coming down here that the senate stuck in over $100 billion -- they're loaning money that they get from us that we are going to have to borrow from china to give to countries who hate us and would love to see us go away. that makes no sense. if we are going at this additional burden on to the american taxpayer which is going to work counter to the troops that are out there putting their lives at risk, why not just bring them home and not pay our enemies all that extra money and: awash -- call it a wash. if we're going to have to borrow from the chinese, just call it a wash, bring our troops home instead of finding our enemies. we should not go there. let's stop this and get back to the good bill we had in the house before. with that, i yield back. >> the gentleman from wisconsin continues to reserve his time. 7.5 m

us from mobile, alabama. who speaks for your party? caller: dr. ron paul. host: randy is next from california. caller: it is yet to be determined. there's not a clear standout voice for the republicans. of course, for the conservatives, rush limbaugh is doing a pretty good job. dick cheney is making his will alone. as far as sarah palin, first of all, she motivated me to become a nra lifetime member of this year. i'd really like her. i think she has a good record. she is a popular governor. when the mainstream media people like amy walter say she needs to bring something to the table -- what did barack obama bring to the table when he was running? i did not see any plethora of experience or anything that he brought. the pendulum will swing. democrats were in the wilderness just a few years ago. we will get over it. thank you, c-span. host: this e-mail from john from tennessee. host: more from last night's dinner with the former speaker of the house, the keynote address by newt gingrich. >> i think our goals should be to reach out to the american people in every possible way, to make sure that john boehner becomes the speaker of

from california. ms. kaptur: i ask to use ms. woolsey time. last sunday, treasury secretary geithner and the president's economic adviser, larry summers, both wall street men, wrote an editorial, laying out their case for financial regulatory reform or at least that's what they called it. it fell far short of the mark. they stated the basis of their proposal is the theory, and i quote, the financial system failed to perform its function as a reducer and distributor of risk. let me repeat that. their fundamental principle is the financial system failed its function as a reducer and redistributor of risk. they advised the president to use that idea of the basis of what he proposes. i beg to disagree. the purpose of our financial system should be to assure sound credit. a financial system should be structured to promote responsible lending and responsible savings practices. we have seen the result of a financial system that lost its way. and travel down the road of high risk-taking with other peoples' money, a system with no boundaries, no accoun

from giving us data we need to be able to do our job. this amendment is being brought also by the gentleman from california, mr. forbes, and i would yield to him two minutes. the chair: the gentleman from virginia is recognized for two minutes. mr. forbes: thank you, mr. chairman. if we don't listen to anything else in this debate, we need to pause a moment and listen to what's happening right now. just a couple moments ago missile defense we heard, quote, unless you have oversight you should not spend money on missile defense or other platforms. and yet the majority and this administration fights us every juncture to deny the transparency we need for that very oversight. this administration came in, the first executive order that they had said, the democracy requires accountability and accountability requires trp and the first things they do when it comes to national defense, they issue gag orders to hundreds of people in the pentagon so they could not talk about the severity of some of these changes and some of the cuts taking place. they classified the inspections on our vessels so we can't know the difficul

from california. mr. mckeon: i reserve. mr. skelton: mr. chairman -- the chair: the gentleman from missouri. mr. skelton: the amendment before us is one that is technical in nature and seeks to clarify several technical misstatements and problems that arose in the drafting of the bill. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back. the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from missouri. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. . it is now in order to consider amendment number 3 printed in house report 111-182. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise? mr. mcgovern: mr. chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 3, printed in house report number 111-182, offered by mr. mcgovern of massachusetts. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 572, and the order of the house of today, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr.

let us bring back the broad bipartisan ship majority in take care of our troops the right way. this is not the answer. i yelled back. >> -- i yield back. the to come in from california has crutcher minutes remaining. >> i believe -- the gentleman from california yields back this time. the gentleman from wisconsin. >> the speakers i noted at the beginning of the debate -- this item represents last year's leftover business. it is the last item of last year's leftovers. we have admired this for over seven years. the president previous to this one has minimize the costs of that war by financing it on the installment plan. instead of providing a full estimate, he is asked to fund that war in 6 month increments. there is still 16 month increment of to go that will not be paid for. it is left over from his watch. this bill today in the process of supporting the president's process say -- a process of winding down the war. this new president is trying to change the way that war has been breaking in afghanistan and pakistan which is tied to the afghanistan situation. what he is trying to do is through a combination of military action, political action and diplomacy, trying t

our history and experience tells us we have not quite gotten there yet. host: we have mike from california on the independen ts'line. caller: i'm going to make it quick. i was born in 1969. is it true that the 1964 act was created by kennedy specifically for black people? if that is the case, why is it that white women, mexicanswomen, asians seem to benefit from it? does illegal immigration undermine the civil rights act? who named black people of black? i would rather be called colored, to tell you the truth. guest: because of the problem that existed in the 1960's that was in the south, it involved mostly black and white relationships. the civil rights act was focused on that. you can see that in the record. it was just as reconstruction focused on slaves and ending slavery. that was the issue at that time. i pointed that out as a matter of history. i said the civil rights act was passed for these reasons. i was attacked for saying that no one else could use them. that is just wrong. this is not what i meant at all. anyone can use any law after it is passed and added. they are general. t

from california. mr. mckeon: how much time is left? the chair: the gentleman from california has two minutes remaining. mr. mckeon: i'm not going to use all of the two minutes, but i'd just like to embarrass our friend a little bit. maybe we could ask him to stand where we could all see him. this sounds like a funeral service. this is not a funeral service. not a memorial service. we want to thank you, john, for your work. he's a young man and will be doing a lot more in the service of his country and his state. i'm sure in the future. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from california yields back the balance of his time. yet son the amendment offered by the gentleman from california, as modified. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. it is now in order to consider amendment number 9 printed in house report 111-182. for what purpose does the gentleman from arizona rise? mr. franks: i rise to speak on the amendment. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 9, printed in hous

us in that change and a new direction. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from california. mr. waxman: madam speaker, i have one more person who wanted to be recognized and then we'll be prepared to close. would the gentleman from texas have someone he wishes to yield to before -- and we do have the right to close. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california reserves his time. mr. barton: i have three leadership speakers to close and i have only one nonleadership speaker. i'll yield that one minute to mr. gohmert of texas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for one minute. mr. gohmert: thank you, madam speaker. you know, i've been trying to get through what i could of this and then finding out, well, actually it's another bill and then you have to incorporate all these other pages into it because i'd like to know what we're doing to the american people. we've had people say we're playing politics on this side. if we wanted to play politics because we know in our hearts this is bad for america, we'd let you pass it and let you lose yo

us not pass this bill. >> and his time has expired. the person from california? >> i reserve my time. >> the gentleman from california has 20.5 minutes. california has 28 1/2. mr. barton: thank you, madam speaker. i want to yield three minutes to the distinguished minority whip, mr. cantor of virginia. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia is recognized for three minutes. mr. cantor: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the gentleman. there's one thing everyone this chamber should be able to agree on, we need to focus on job creation and relieve the burden on middle class families, not on middle class families, not increasing it. >> according to an mit study, the legislation will force middle-class americans to pay as much as $3,100 in high prices every year. the epa estimates that a family of four will pay an additional average of $1,100 each year. the impact on jobs is equally dismal. a cra study finds the legislation will cost america 2.3 million jobs. at a time when many workers are losing their jobs every month, in a midst of a severe recession,

from california. mr. mckeon: mr. chairman, i now yield to the the gentleman from utah, the one that led us in that great debate on the f-22 that saved the day, for the purpose of unanimous consent. the chair: the gentleman from utah is recognized mr. bishop: thank the chairman and ranking member and the wonderful bipartisan bill. i ask unanimous consent to extend my remarks and submit a prepared statement for the record. the chair: without objection, so ordered. the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: i yield now to the the gentleman from ohio, mr. latta, one minute. the chair: the gentleman from ohio is recognized for one minute. mr. latta: i rise in support of the tricare continuity of coverage for national guard and reserve families act of 2009, which i'm a co-sponsor as amended into the national defense authorization act. members of our national guard and reserves are eligible for tricare health insurance during their service and after the age of 60, but not during the time in between. time in between they retire until the age of 60 is referred to as the gay area. they are reserve component retirees under the

the beginning of the process, not the end 812 knowledge congressman what sen from california and we are happy to have her with us as well. mr. chairman, i will forgo asking any questions is there a member on either side that would like to ask the chairmen any questions? that is a very good decision. thank you very much. i appreciate that. thank you for coming and we will get to the lay witnesses. thank you very much for being here. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> you are on. >> and chairman andrews and ranking member decline of like to thank you for this opportunity to support a single payer health care reform on behalf of the 86,000 members of the california nurses association. the country's largest organization report representing direct care registered nurses by amoco president and i especially want to think -- thank the end miller who was a great advocate of health care reform. in your consideration to changes you should know registered nurses are the precaution most trusted by the american public has shown consistently in the gallup poll on this question. nurses are on the front line of what economi

forward deployed troops, our allies and i hope our allies work with us to pass the bill towards passage. . the chair: the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: mr. chairman, i yield to the gentleman from maryland, mr. bartlett, the ranking member on the airland subcommittee such time as he may consume. the chair: the gentleman from maryland is recognized. mr. barton: thank you. i'd like to thank my -- mr. -- mr. bartlett: thank you. i'd like to thank all the hard work that has taken place behind the scenes to get this bill done. this is not an easy process. and the legislation before us reflects many difficult decisionings -- decisions. once again this bill places forced protection issues at the top of the priority list. it provides additional funds for the national guard equipment account and the service's unfunded priority list and the changes this bill makes in regards to body armor is long overdue and will provide better protection for our war fighters for years to come. as i said during our oversight hearings and subcommittee markup, there hst no doubt that this budget and the decisions that come along with it will fundamen

use that language anymore. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from california. mr. waxman: i'm pleased to yield to an important and distinguished member of the energy and commerce committee, the gentleman from north carolina, a minute and a half. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. butterfield: i want to thank the committee for giving me this time this afternoon. the house of representatives is ready to pass this legislation that will literally save the planet. you can call it a cap and tax all you want to. you can say the science does not support this legislation. you can say that the scientifics -- scientists are wrong but i say republicans are wrong on this issue. we cannot afford to wait any longer to pass this legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. chairman waxman and chairman markey should be commended for their extraordinary work in reaching a good compromise to allow this legislation to advance to the other body. it saddens me our republican friends weren't partners with us as we crafted this legislation

host: let us take our last call from elaine on the democratic line from oakland, california. caller: yes. host: you have a question? caller: i would like to know about the health care. i was born in 1962, the oldest and my family is 49 years old, i live in oakland, calif., we have bacteria in our walls from china -- just people died -- three people died last month. if it was your family -- bush took all my money -- tell me jesus said you have a right to have a better. i was born in 1952, waiting for years for this, and a good to court today and all of you guys -- 5 percent white supremacists -- host: we wanted it there. congressman earl blumenauer, thank you for joining us. guest: up my pleasure. host: we will be back with the president and ceo of oil and gas company anadarko out of dallas, texas, talking about energy reform, climate change, and the economy. we will be right back. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] national captioning institute] [captions copyright nation

california now. when the civil rights division went in, they didn't just liberate her using the f.b.i. and the immigration service from the torture she was going under, they worked with nongovernmental organizations and civil society and a lot of those good groups in southern california have helped her put her life back on track. to me, the encouraging thing is she's going to have a great, productive life in america, and the people that did this to her are in prison. host: we're talking about human trafficking and the trafficking of persons report released by the state department this week. we will put the numbers up again if you would like to get involved in the conversation. tell us, how much of this human trafficking revolves around cultural acceptance of buying and selling human beings as opposed to just straight up criminal activity? guest: it is interesting. there is a remnant of that. that is something we try to deal with in the report. one of the things we look at in the other countries is what is their capacity to address the problem, what is the cultural situation in that country? and how we can bring the cu

us. let's win and get the job done and then we can come home. thank you. the chair: the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: mr. chairman, i yield myself the balance of the time. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. mckeon: thank you, mr. chairman. i think mr. hunter stated it very clearly. the exit strategy should be to win and then bring our forces home. it was stated earlier that general petraeus made a statement that afghanistan has been known over the years as a graveyard of empires. we cannot take that history lightly. that was part of the speech that he made. i'd like to say some other things that he mention approximated in that same speech. we have a hugely important interest in ensuring that afghanistan does not once again become a sanctuary for transnational terrorists. and to compliment and capitalized on the increased military resources, more civilian assets, adequate financi resources, close civil military cooperation and comprehensive approach that encompasses regional states will be necessary. our objectives are of enormous importance. we all need to summon

from texas. mr. sessions: madam speaker, could you please advise us how much time has left? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas has six minutes remaining. the gentlewoman from california has 9 3/4 minutes remaining. mr. sessions: i yield 1 1/2 minutes to the gentleman from georgia, dr. gingrey. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. gingrey: i am opposed to the rule and the underlying legislation. americans are watching from iran to north korea the forces of darkness are attempting to force democracy and the ideas of freedom. on this day the democratic process and our nation's economic freedom are under threat, not by some rogue state but in this very chamber in which we stand. good people may disagree on the impact of the merits of this bill, but no one can disagree with the fact that the speaker and our rules committee have silenced the opposition of 224 amendments, madam speaker, one, and i repeat, one amendment was actually made in order. madam speaker, i offered an amendment which was, of course, not made in order that would have allowed a state to opt out of this legislation. how can we not give them the ability to say that their citizens and

us. i urge my colleagues to adopt the republican substitute and reject the underlying bill. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the the gentlelady has now expired. the gentleman from california is now recognized for 3 1/2 minutes. mr. berman: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to include within the record a letter from the premiere pakistani american organization, the pakistani american leadership center endorsing h.r. 1886. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. berman: mr. speaker, i rise strongly to oppose the republican substitute. i'm pleased to see that the substitute does support the president's request for $1.5 billion a year in nonmilitary assistance for pakistan. the same amount is in the underlying bill. but that's where the similarity ends. with all due respect to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, this substitute amounts to nothing more than a blank check. it requires no real oversight, no serious accountability, no congressional role beyond getting briefings on what we could ask for without any new law. since 9/11, i repeat again, we have point of order more than $12 -- we have poured more than $12 billion into pakistan without little to s

from california. >> i like to thank our panel for being here today to help us reso with one of the most serious problems in the financial-services kennedy dealing with compensation and bonuses etc.. there are some things that we have learned about actions that were taken that are very disturbing and i don't know that we have gotten any information to help us understand what went on in some of these actions. for example, i want to know what you have discovered a starting with mr. sperling about the authorization for $5 billion in bonuses to be given to merrill lynch employees at the time that the merger took place between bank of america and merrill lynch. i read accounts in the paper and i have heard information that bank of america new and sign this agreement, that these bonuses could take place later i am told that the ceo said that he was made to sign an agreement understanding that these bonuses are going to be given. normally these bonuses were given at the beginning of a year. they rushed them so there would be given toward the end of the. prior to the signing of the agreement. what do you know ab

from california, mr. filner. mr. filner: mr. speaker, mr. hare of illinois came to us as the successor of a legendary member of our committee, mr. lane evans, who worked so hard for veterans during his whole career. our thoughts are with him as he faces his disease. mr. hare was on our committee. he had to go off this year, but we miss him greatly. he's one of the strongest leaders for veterans in our nation. i yield to him as much time as he may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. hare -- excuse me, from illinois, is recognized. mr. hare: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in strong support of h.r. 1016, the veterans health care budget reform and transparency act of 2009. let me thank chairman bob filner for introducing this important legislation. in the 110th congress we gave the v.a. its largest funding increase in 77 years and we did it on time. but sadly punctual v.a. funding has not always been the case. the v.a. received its annual funding for health care programs late in the last 19 of 22 years. this recor

from california. mrs. boxer: madam president, i just want to be heard briefly. we just heard senator mccain attack this bill that's before us that primarily funds two wars and takes care of our wounded warriors, invests in new hospitals for them to be treated for their brain injuries, helps them with their child care, and singly starts us on the path of bringing our troops home from iraq -- something that president obama promised to do and changes our focus in afghanistan which has really been very scattered and focuses us on routing out the taliban who really make it possible for al qaeda to thrive. so this bill protects the american people. now, i've been very clear. i've said i want to see this afghanistan policy work. i said i'm going to give it this year for that to happen. and i hope it does happen. because we were attacked by al qaeda. we were attacked by osama bin laden. we were attacked because al qaeda had sanctuary in afghanistan, and instead of going into afghanistan the way we should have, we shortchanged that mission that i voted to go into and turned around and went into iraq and we had president obama with h

from california, mr. lungren, for five minutes. mr. lungren: madam speaker, among the most important issues facing us today are the twin issues of the economy and energy. and unfortunately in this body and across the other chamber we often discuss those two issues separately as if they had no connection with one another. and yet they have a very, very important link with one another. when the economy is down it has an impact on the energy, and when energy prices go up or down it has an immediate impact on the economy. the strange thing is that as we look at an energy policy that's going to be presented to us by way of a bill from the majority shortly, there appears to be a lack of appreciation for changes in energy policy and their impact on our economy. there seems to be some sort of question as to whether or not we ought to exercise our responsibilities to utilize those energy sources that are most abundant in these united states. coal appears to be one of those things that we're going to wrap up, close up, put off the -- put on the shelf and not allow ourselves to use it. rather than a real effort for clean coal energy, there appears to

us also remember him for his courage. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. royce: mr. speaker, news came yesterday that will laura ling and euna lee, two american journalists held in north korea, and held there since march, have been found guilty of illegally entering north korea. they have been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. these court proceedings were a cruel joke. nothing more than a kangaroo court. i know of no justice system in north korea. the two should be immediately released. as if there were any doubts, the north korean regime has shown its true colors. a hostile regime bent on destroying the lives of its own citizens and others. let's be clear. these two wouldn't have been near north korea were it not for the barbaric cruelty of its regime. ling and lee were convicted of so-called grave crimes. it is the north korean regime that commits real grave crimes against millions of north koreans every day. president obama himself must make it c

from california. mr. waxman: madam speaker, the gentleman, the minority leader, was yielded 2 1/2 minutes. could you tell us how much time he consumed? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman used the customary amount of time yielded to the minority leader. mr. waxman: madam speaker, the 2 1/2 minutes was extended to over an hour. and this is from the same party that had a 15-minute roll call extended into three hours while they tried to twist arms of their own people. madam speaker, i would like order in the house. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman will state his parliamentary inquiry. >> i withdraw. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california. mr. waxman: to close the debate i wish to yield the remainder of our time and i presume it will not be an hour or two, to our distinguished speaker who -- because of whose leadership we have the attempt to do something that the republicans neglected and that's to help our country deal with our energy problems. mr. speaker, nancy pelosi. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from california is recognized for one minute. the speaker: i thank the gent

yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from california, the ranking member of the oversight and government reform committee. >> mr. speaker, it is clear today that someone have us be silent as to the aspiration of the people risking life and limb on the streets of teheran today. we cannot and should not be that way. it is an internal matter, but is an internal matter in a country that has been ruled by theocrats for so very long, who have denied real free elections and even when the will of the people was obvious, wanted to overturn the will of the people for president who could be a reformer and of opportunity, particularly to women in this country. i urge support for this resolution because it sends the message that we are with the people who want freedom. >> the gentleman's time is expired. the gentleman from california. >> should i be yielding one minute of my time to the gentleman from south carolina at this point? >> thank you. i would like to give 30 seconds of our time. >> the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you for yielding that time. i saw this morning that the supreme leader of iran said that st. challenge is not acceptable. this is

from california rise? >> request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. speier: mr. speaker, while we are often focused on the things that make us different from other cultures, the recent news in iran illustrates there are far more things that bind us than divide us. freedom of speech, democracy, and respect for basic fairness are not uniquely american or western values. they are hard wired into all of us. as elemental to the human experience as the need for food, water, or love. we will likely have political differences with the government of iran for years to come. despite this, let us all remember that the iranian people want many of the same things that americans do. they want their voices be to be heard just like us. they want their government to be just, open, and accessible just like us. they want their economy to be strong and their country to work towards greater peace and understanding around the world. just like us. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? >> permission to address the house for one minute. the s

from california. >> madam speaker, the gentleman was yielded 2.5 minutes, could you tell me how much time he consumed? >> point of order. >> the gentleman used the custom when amount of talk yielded to the minority leader. >> -- the gentleman use the customary amount of time to a minority leader. >> it was extended to over an hour. this was from a party that was extended for three hours. madam speaker, i would like order in the house. i withdraw my parliamentary inquiry. >> i you wish to yield the remainder of our time and i presume it will not be an hour or two, to our 6 -- a distinguished speaker that we have the attempt to do something to help our country do with our energy problems, speaker nancy pelosi. >> i think the gentleman for yielding. thank you madam speaker. i want to join those who have sounded your phrases. your service here and your leadership here will all be remembered and be an inspiration to us. catherine will be very mess, but now she is off to college. thank you for being such a great chairwoman and presided over the house of representatives. -- presiding chair person over the house of representatives. [applause] madam

us a vote on this plan. i urge my colleagues to vote no. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california. mr. waxman: i'm pleased to yield to the gentleman from illinois who made sure in this legislation, among other important cricks, that we looked out for the interests of low-income people. mr. rush, i want to yield a minute and a half. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. rush: i want to thank the gentleman and i want to thank you, madam speaker. today marks a historic chance to move our great country forward and transform our economy for the demands of the 21st century. i fully support this bill, it will not only make our country more efficient and energy efficient, but provide economic opportunities for our citizens while opening an entirely new sector of our economy. i must begin by thanking chairman waxman and chairman markey for their hardworking staffs and for all the work they've done to improve this bill as it made its way through the legislative process and onto the floor today. with the chairman's help, we were able to st