senator vitter also strongly supports this. so let's also try to find a way we can bet the -- get the revenues that are adequate so we can have the type of transportation reauthorization befitting the record of this committee and befitting our country. >> senator, you raise a good point. some of our members work on finance which will be important working would senator wyden and hatch who expressed working with all of us. i will turn to senator sessions. i want to remind everyone i believe we have four votes at 11:30. yeah. >> ma'am chair, thank you for the hearing. it is important. our infrastructure situation is facing a financial challenge in the future and we're all worried about it and i believe it represents a valid, legitimate expenditure of federal dollars. a lot of things we do around here are not valid and legitimate federal interests but infrastructure projects are. we had the director of office and management budget testify before the budget committee yesterday. just for example, today he testified that last year int

senator vitter. >> thank you madam chairman thank you all again. as i have suggested in my opening statement we have been hard at work for some time discussing it will to try to move out of this committee as soon as possible. the idea would be to deal with those issues under our jurisdiction in an aggressive way and a way that helps rebuild trust in the trust fund and then to really help and sent the finance committee to do the tougher work on the finance side and be our full partner in completing that bill. with that process in mind let me ask a few questions of doctors ruane. first of all thank you and fhwa for -- thank you all your organization as opposed to fhwa for producing very good data which you have given in your testimony about projects in each state impacted by the trust fund and federal aid. one problem is you all had to spend hours and hours and hours producing that data and it seems to me that data should be readily available through the program to make it transparent and clear what the trust fund does or doesn't do. would you agree

you and senator inhofe and vitter. i hope we can come up with something that strengthens our infrastructure program in a fiscally responsible way. >> senator, i hope so. i say this, this committee is going deal with the reauthorization. what we heard from every member when you were -- it's very important duties is that we need certainty here. businesses are -- they don't know what the future hold. what i'm hopeful we can get a five or six year bill out of here. it will deal with the funding. but it will waive us out. that is why it is so important. whatever our -- i have classified views. one of them is to go after 350 billion uncollected taxes every year. i'm sure others wouldn't agree with me. there is many ways can get this trust fund going. but mr. donahue makes an important point. it has to be real. it has to be real and certain. that's why the user fund, however you use the user -- whatever it is. whether it is the gas tax or it has a separate seat. it doesn't cause any problems for deficit. very important and i

bittern boxer, senator -- senator vitter. a tok you for inviting art participate again in this hearing. -- aloner a loan evidence value of the transportation program. quarters of three truck travel, it occurs on the roads that comprise the federal aid system. without the federal investment in these roads, we put trucking 11ility and productivity and trillion dollars in annual economic activity at risk. we believe one of the biggest problems is that government at all levels, all levels, does a poor job of telling the american public how their federal gas and gase old tax dollars are -- and diesel tax dollars are invested each year. we believe they would be in support of the program if they knew the full story. i asked our economic team to find out how the public's federal gas tax dollars were put 2012, a year that did not include any stimulus money. unfortunately it took a freedom of information request and sophisticated computer analysis of literally millions of data points to provide these summation in a written testimony. h

i know you tried to do that in senator vitter worked hard on and senator inhofe. we were able to maintain a minimal level of funding so i would just say that is an even bigger challenge this year and i look forward to working with you. >> senator, same here and i happened to be here when we did balance the budget and i think we can do it again if we are smart about it that the important thing about highways is we have that self-sustaining trust fund which is so critical. i have always supported that. that is operational, spend what you take in. we have to be smart about it. i agree with you. of course we have long-term problems we have to do is so it is my pleasure to talk -- call him the ranking member of the subcommittee that's going to work so hard on the senator barrasso. >> thank you dedham chairwoman and ranking member vitter for holding the hearing. i share your commitment to ensure the highway bill program continues. i want to thank our panel for being here today to testify. we can but -- get this business and labor communities at the same table that sends

. >> thank you madam chairman and ranking member vitter for holding this hearing. there's no doubt that our roads and bridges are essential to the economic health of our nation. in nebraska are agricultural industries especially reliant on efficient transportation system to move goods from farm to market. investment in infrastructure is the key to expanding and strengthening commerce and promoting opportunities or business growth. with the highway trust fund again on the brink of insolvency it is clear that it is time for congress to put infrastructure and investment back on a sustainable course. i believe limited government should focus its resources on meeting its core duties. infrastructure including highway maintenance and construction is one of those important responsibilities. as we work on the next highway reauthorization bill i am hopeful that this committee will continue to work toward policy reforms that will ensure that the federal dollars we are investing are devoted to tasks that truly add value to the projects and are not wasted on piling up paperwork

senator vitter, thank you. welcome, all. i want to make a statement about it. but most of my statement will not be about it. i want to put in to the record this article entitled "the chemical safety involvement act will not solve the problem illustrated bit west virginia chemical spill ." put that in the record, please. >> without objection. >> i want to note it's not designed to address the inspection of chemical storage tank finance deals with classifying 80,000 chemicals. it with -- i look forward to a strong bill. but the current bill, this is what is so important, my scientific experts say this particular chemical would be classified as low priority and under the bill that we have before us the vitter bill, the one we're working on and senator vitter we'll be giving you a response next week to the bill. there would be no ability for the state to act. once chemical is stated low priority. they would be precluded from acting and would be no lawsuits allowed for the constituents of senator manchin and my colleagues here under the bill. no citizens could ever

as we look at this castro -- castor bill we should save these chemicals are stored senator vitter i would support your point if they chemicals stored by a drinking water supply could get into the water i think we should prioritize it. that is absolutely critical because as the laws currently proposed that is not the case and i wanted to say mr. olson i won to read from your testimony if you don't mind in seau much i agree with this. the problems with task a illustrated by the chemical spill in west virginia would not be fixed by the current chemical safety improvement act as introduced in some respects the bill as written would provide the public with the illusion of an effective program to regulate chemicals while tying the epa in knots in taking away existing state authorities. the chemical spill in west virginia is an alice ration on why we need to strengthen the bill. it's not a justification for enacting a fraud hill. i just want to say in my view this says it all to me and the last thing i want to do is give people the illusion of protection and that is why i think as we go forward

. >> senator vitter? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, madame chair for being here and for your work. as you know, many of us, certainly including senator brand and i, are concerned about capital requirements at the biggest banks. can you confirm u.s. regulators are close to finalizing the supplement ratio that will impact that and if so when will that take place? >> this is high on the agenda for this coming year. we have out an initial proposal on this. and while i can't give you an exact time, we -- we will certainly be working with the other agencies to finalize this. >> kp you give us a general time frame when you would expect the fed to act? >> in the not too distant future, i would say. >> according to the wall street journal, vice chairman kokoenig said the regulators are unlikely to trade the draft proposal against all large bank assets and a similar 6% buffer at their ensured deposit taking subsidiaries. in contrast to that, there has been concern that you might follow europe's lead in watering down some other provisi

the senator vitter. >> thank you. i want to express from support for fixing this problem absolutely as well. i voted against the budget deal in december and this issue is est reason why. we need to get it fixed. i want to express strong support for fixing it in a way that does not increase the deficit in any way. two would be doing for steps with the huge majority of us out absolutely not to do, and so that would be a failure as well. get am very hopeful we will this done. i just have one question for both of you. this provision essentially treated folks in uniform fundamentally differently and federal civilian employees, all other federal civilian employees. it sort of penalize them, if you will, retroactively on this issue while the changes made for all other barrel employees was prospectively only. do you think there is any justification for that different treatment? i think it was surprising. i don't think that the vast actuallyof our force thought that through. they were not aware, i think. it was really just the

socialism that could unite liberal socialist bernie sanders with republican agricultural socialist david vitterocialism that could win a bipartisan vote from 2/3 of the senate. but bipartisanship in and of itself has never been a good thing. only bipartisanship used to do good things is a good thing. and very expensive bad socialism is not a good thing. what super poligrip does for me is it keeps the food out. before those little pieces would get in between my dentures and my gum and it was uncomfortable. [ male announcer ] just a few dabs is clinically proven to seal out more food particles. [ corrine ] super poligrip is part of my life now. to seal out more food particles. ♪ nothing says, "you're my #1 copilot," like a milk-bone biscuit. ♪ say it with milk-bone. when i go in there, i want to be awesome too. so i've gone totally pro with crest pro-health. [ male announcer ] go pro with crest pro-health. [ tisola ] the first time i tried crest pro-health, it felt different, i mean it felt clean. [ male announcer ] crest pro-health protects all these areas dentists check most. she's going to do

vitter. it's the only socialism that could win a bipartisan vote from 2/3 of the senate.sanship in and of itself has never been a good thing. only bipartisanship used to do good things is a good thing. and very expensive bad socialism is not a good thing. honestly? my kids were always on my laptop. i didn't think i could buy them their own, let alone for under $300. but this asus with windows is lightweight and has everything they need -- not like chromebooks that can't install office or have to be connected to the internet to get much done. with this they can do homework, chat, play games -- on their own laptop, and their own time. so no more fighting... at least not over my laptop. ♪ honestly, i wanna see you be brave ♪ >>> one of the biggest controversies surrounding the game is the russian government's intolerance of homosexuality. last month, the mayor of sochi even said there were no gay people in his town. now, i personally, i find it odd that there's so much homophobia there, especially when you learn the names that russians have for the olympic events. for exampl

the mcdonald case established that and otis mcdonald was a 72-year-old black man army vitter in who was living in a neighborhooneighborhood that whe was besieged by young black men and he said i want a gun for the same reason shelly parker wanted a gun and the court ultimately upheld his claim. >> in the final moments that we have, we have traced the tradition of how it has been challenged in the 20th century and now the current kind of discourse over gun rights and protection of black rights and many of whom fall at the hands of gun violence. how do you see that rich tradition being revised in this short time that we have left? >> ultimately what i see is people have to make up their own mind about this. i try to give lots of data. this is something that i teach and i have another text book thatextbook thatdeals with a los on the question of the risks and benefits. we have all kinds of data about the benefits of why your arms and defense if gun use ranging into the millions per year because the episodes when no shots were fired and the value of the firearm chronicled by the center for

you look the way the framework could be used what we are shooting for is to strengthen hall of jay vitter etch the cyberthreats that has the potential to a negative impact the businesses so there is some organizations that could use the framework but they use that to aid in communications. howdy you capture image measure that? so as a result we look at different indicators of success that it be back that we get is part of it. that ability to harmonize regulations over time if we can do that is an indicator. to restart to uc cpac long dash sector specific do real mind if it to the functions that are outlined? rehab identified different indicators bet to look for a feedback as we look through the voluntary program we're seeking the feedback. >> does anybody in the audience have a question? ripley's identify yourself. >> we have online questions if nobody is ready. we'll follow in the framework be but a torrey for government contractors? >> we have the report that was done to really by gsa in department of defense on government procurement. that report included a session of recommendations o

leland vitter, thank you. jenna: as prisoners walk free we're getting word of two deaths of u.s.lition soldiers. afghan weapons turned their weapons on these troops, their western allies. fears what this foreshadows about our withdrawal. some officials expressed fear of international role winds down the impetus of attacks among afghan security forces grow and nato forces withdraw and afghan security forces are left to fend for themselves in hostile areas of country, more soldiers and police officers may become susceptible to joining insurgency as a means of survival. a situation that has already started to happen in some areas. joining us general jack keane, retired four-star general, former chief of staff of the army and fox news military analyst. general keane, i know you've been afghanistan many times. what does that mean for our troops there now? >> certainly releasing detainees, literally hundreds of them, jenna this is the last group of them made no sense right from the beginning. just think about it. if we had released hardcore nazis prior to the end of world war ii, karza

it's encouraging when senators boxer and vitter have agreed they want to have a bill by april, and i'm also encouraged by our administration and the president for putting ideas on the table, too, including in his state of the union speech when he put forward a proposal to fund surface transportation with the savings from corporate tax reform. e truth is our problem isn't math. 's that for a generation the concept of government spending has been under attack and it's bleeding into our approach on an issue that's traditionally been bipartisan. but you and i both know that spending on transportation is really investing in our country. it's economy, it's people. this is a rube con-- rubicon that we've got to figure out a way to cross and we got to get there fast. how do we get there? first, we need to aim at the right target. for years our national dialogue is focused on how to get the highway trust fund leveled off. to translate that into business terms, we've been trying to reach the same level of sales revenue and expenditures as the last year instead of growing revenue expenditures to

i think senator vitter for his comments about the capital standards and urge you and appreciate your answer as quickly as possible with the fdic to move as quickly as possible. thank you for the response about the real economy and/or confirmation hearing last friday as the board released transcripts of the 2008 fomc meetings. it was interesting for those of us that find this stuff interesting. as you know the fed has a dual mission maximizing employment, but according to "the new york times" in september the most important of those in the september meeting on the eve of the lehman brothers bankruptcy, the fomc mentioned, according to the minute, inflation of 129 times and recession five times. you speak forcefully and have for sometime about the potential threats to the broad economy into this statistic indicates the implications to ththey overs happening and now you convince us that we won't see meetings like that where the emphasis is so much more on inflation than an appointment because the focus will be more on the ordinary americans that aired the brunt of this economy. >> i thi

thank you -- i thank senator vitter for his comments and questions about capital standards and appreciatessible with occ and fdic to move as quickly as possible. thank you for your response to me about the real economy in your confirmation hearing last friday as the board released tran transcripts of the 2008 fmoc meetings. the reading was interesting for us who mind this mission. fight inflation, maximizing employment, but according to "the new york times" at that september, the crucial probably most important of those september meeting on the eve of the lehman bankruptcy fmoc members mentioned, according to the minutes, inflation 129 times and recession 5 times. you speak forcefully and have for some time about the potential tletsz about the broader economy. this implies that the institution overlooked what was happening on main street during this critical time. now that you're chair, convince us that we won't see meetings like that where the emphasis is so much more on inflation than full employment because their focus will be more on ordinary americans that bear the brunt of this econ

i will turn to senator wicker. >> thank you madam chair and thank you ranking member of vitter for this important hearing. bipartisanship is breaking out all over in the congress. it continues today and as we debate federal transportation reauthorization i hope we can build on this success. funding transportation infrastructure is the combined federal responsibility. we need to do better because the nation deserves better as senator merkley said. we need to pass a reauthorization that last longer than two years. earlier this congress committee held a hearing on the implementation of the provisions of map-21. most of these provisions have yet to be enacted. the state department of transportation needs the certainty of a long-term reauthorization to plan and maintain -- that said we should still proceed with caution. need to continue to let the states be the laboratories for the best practices. more than 30 states are considering or have considered increasing revenues for transportation infrastructure. over a dozen of these states have committed and pass these increases into law. we shoul