whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that i be allowed to speak for up to 17 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. so ordered. mr. whitehouse: i rise today to speak about a serious issue that touches on our national security, our economic well-being, the safety of our families, and our privacy. and that is america's cybersecurity. i look forward to conducting an in-depth examination of the aspects of this issue that fall within the senate judiciary committee's jurisdiction during the subcommittee on crime and terrorism june hearing cybersecurity, evaluating the administration's proposals. because of the importance of improving our cybersecurity as demonstrated by the recent g mail spear phishing attacks at sony, lockheed martin and the senate here itself, i rise to make initial remarks today. american technological innovation ushered in the internet age, bringing with it facebook, youtube and the rest of the worldwide web. it set off an explosion of new commerce, freedom of

of my time to senator whitehouse. senator whitehouse is coming back with his charts, and i reiterate i would yield the first ten minutes of my time to senator whitehouse. mr. whitehouse: thank you, senator boxer. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island is recognized. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. my time in this chamber often gives me cause to reflect on our history and on the brave patriots who went before us, many of whom risked or even gave their lives to create this great republic. today i'd like to talk about a group of men who 239 years ago tonight engaged in a daring act of defiance against the british crown. for many of us, the boston tea party is one of the first events we hear about in school on the road to our american revolution. growing up, we remember told the story of painted up bostonians dumping shipments of tea into boston harbor to defend the principle no taxation without representation. conspicuously missing from history books is the story of the brave rhode islanders who c

the white whitehouse says it is unnecessary. it bars action except to rescue members and it says provide congress with the scope of the mission and its cost within 14 days. >>> president obama is telling auto workers today that even though the economy is growing we are still facing tough times. >> just like if -- if you had a bad illness. if you got hit by a -- by a truck, you know, it is going to take a while for you to mend and that is what has happened to our economy. it is taking a while to mend. >> he made those comments during a vest to a visit to a chrysler plant in ohio. just recently gm, chrysler and ford, all reported significant increases in sales. >>> actor james arness has died. he was a world war ii veteran and the older brother of the late actor peter graves. james arnecessary died of natural causes at 88 years old. >>> paying to park in downtown san jose could cost more starting next month. the city council will consider a plan to raise rates as much as 33% at the 5 public garages breathed by the city. the propos

the question is where is the leadership both out of the whitehouse and the republicans and democrats that say forget the partisan stuff, forget who wins the next election. right now we have an immediate fire and what we're doing is we've got a squirt bottle we're spraying out of a windex bottle instead of bringing a fire hose in and puing the fire out. and that's what's happening right now. today this evening on the senate floor you got senator ron johnson saying we're not going to do anything until we start talking about that. what he's wanting to do is raise the issues that the leaders in this country areot aressing the problems in front of the nation today because they're cowards. they don't want to take theard votes. well, ultimately somebody else is going to vote for us and it's ing to be the international financial community. >> charlie it is not hard to understand that you speak to the reality of our economic circumstance. why isn't there more political courage to recognize that and deal with it? so that both sides say nothing, we've taken nothing off the table, wre going to s

you're just enablers, like the people who covered amy whitehouse the other night in belgrade. at closing, the policy does not give the authority to change r.f.p.'s. giving him the authority to not accept contracts or to go out to bid again but not to change r.f.p.'s. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> brad newsham fold by john hawn and herbert winer. >> i'd like to thank tariq mahmoud for sticking his neck out and declaring the strike we're in the middle of right now. it's a real testament to what one person working his rear end off can do. he has given real genuine voice to the real genuine frustration that cab drivers feel out there. and i appreciate that very much. i would also like to say that whenever -- the one thing tariq has done is he has opened up a discussion or room for a discussion about what an idiotic idea it is for the cab industry to be used as a revenue stream by the sfmta. this cannot last. it won't last. i would like to leave this for mr. ramos' welcome. i would like to say whatever happens in regards to the sfmta and the cab industry moving forward, i'

whitehouse: thank you, madam president. with the unemployment rate --,. the presiding officer: excuse me, senator. there is a quorum. mr. whitehouse: may i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, madam president. with the unemployment rate hovering above 9% nationwide and at almost 11% in my home state of rhode island, job creation must continue to be our number-one priority as lawmakers. it disappoints me that republicans chose politics over job creation yesterday when they filibustered legislation that would have reauthorized the economic development administration, an agency dedicated to restoring economically distressed regions to prosperity. in the past, this bill has been reauthorized and supported broadly, indeed by unanimous consent. it is the fourth jobs bill that the minority has chosen to obstruct, and i hope that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will reconsider their tactics. if not, we may have to reconsider ours and

. >> senator whitehouse. >> thank you. first let me welcome ms. dohner. we just had over the weekend the 50th anniversary the university rhode island graduate school of oceanography. the master's degree from shia so, we are pleased person in the following panel so i'm glad to see the university are undergraduate school oceanography well represented in this hearing. the natural resource damage assessment is as light understand stands on a considerable number of studies plans approved that identify various problems and explore them. as i understand, they're have been well over 100 approved already, and i understand the relationship is the trustees and pp negotiate to try to define the plants correctly. what is your sense of how that process has been going? have there ever been deadlocks? what happens when there are deadlocks? ai understanding bp is paying for this as it goes, so they have slightly different interests at stake and an interested in how that works itself out through the process. >> i think the process is going fairly well. we have our disagree

whitehouse: thank you, madam president.orking to create jobs to help grow the economy out of the recession, republicans are still trying to end medicare as we know it, as it has been relied on for generations of americans, to pay for tax cuts for millionaires. this is the "wall street journal" describing the republicans' plan to essentially end medicare. the republican plan to end medicare would put insurance company officials between seniors and their doctors. you no longer have a claim to the individual benefit under their plan. you get a voucher that goes to the insurance company, and you're at the mercy of the insurance company. that would raise -- first of all, they raise drug costs for seniors from day one by repealing the repair that we did to the doughnut hole. and then of course ten years out you're left at the mercy of private insurance companies. and the effect of that is that on average seniors will pay nearly $6,400 more out of pocket every year as a result of this republican plan. now, rhode island has a lot o

. >> senator whitehouse. >> thank you. first let me welcome ms. dohner.we just had over the weekend the 50th anniversary the university rhode island graduate school of oceanography. the master's degree from shia so, we are pleased person in the following panel so i'm glad to see the university are undergraduate school oceanography well represented in this hearing. the natural resource damage assessment is as light understand stands on a considerable number of studies plans approved that identify various problems and explore them. as i understand, they're have been well over 100 approved already, and i understand the relationship is the trustees and pp negotiate to try to define the plants correctly. what is your sense of how that process has been going? have there ever been deadlocks? what happens when there are deadlocks? ai understanding bp is paying for this as it goes, so they have slightly different interests at stake and an interested in how that works itself out through the process. >> i think the process is going fairly well. we have our disagreem

senator whitehouse. >> thank you ranking member per, senator bozeman, i appreciate your service to the work of this committee and i am very pleased to join senator snowe and senator warner, having heard the legislation that have come forward to support today and detect the integrity and dignity of military funerals and integrity and dignity of the process through which the sites are allocated at arlington. i'm honored to be in their company today. i'm there to speak about legislation to improve protection for military families from losing their homes to wrongful foreclosure. while operations in iraq, afghanistan around the world have put tremendous demand on our brave men and women in uniform, lenders at home have repeatedly disregarded laws designed to protect servicemembers and families from losing homes when they deploy. just last month at that the department of justice announced a $22 million settlement with lenders who violated servicemembers of the really site and roughly foreclosed as many as 175 service members. military families have been overcharged some financial institution

. >> thank you very much, senator whitehouse. all of your provisions have strong merit. i hope to work with senator byrd to include them in the package that we will consider for markup on the 20 night of this month. thank you very much for your testimony. i do not have any questions. thank you very much. we really appreciate it. we will now move to our first panel. please come up been set at the witness table. i will introduce you to join us. from the department of veterans affairs, we have the principal deputy and sick -- undersecretary for benefits, and the principal deputy undersecretary for health. they are accompanied today by assistant general counsel with us from the department of labour. as they are being seated, i notice senator byrd stepped out for a minute. i do want to address the issue that he mentioned in his opening statement. i understand from my staff to your testimony was late due in large part for the omb. i want to emphasize for you and everyone that comes before this committee that we do require testimony to be received 48 hours before scheduled hear

. >> the president and his war counselorrers hudled at the whitehouse today ahead of tomorrow night's announcesment. earlier, second of defense gates and secretary of state clinton, had nothing to say about specifics of the impending troop draw down but gates was publicly favored only a modest reduction, did say that more than just military factors are weighing on the decision. >> there are a lot of reservations in the congress about the war in afghanistan and our level of commitment. there are concerns among the american people who are tired of a deck eight -- decade of war so the president obviously has to take those matters into consideration as well as the conditions on the ground and afghanistan. >> indeed the price of that decade of war has been steep. more than 1500 americans killed and nearly half a trillion dollars spent. and polls show an increasingly weary american public. 56% in the latest survey ready to withdraw u.s. traps as soon as possible. -- troops as soon as possible. since president obama took office, the number of american troops in afghanistan has tripled to abo

the announcement follows months of debate within the whitehouse comes incrsing concern over the war and our roll in the country. we face a number of challenges at home. unemployment remains high at 9.1%. the housing market continues to suffer and the u.s. debt has surpassed $14 trillion. this will pose a significant challenge for the president in the 2012 election. joining me is a group of columnists from the "new york times," from washington david brooks from new york, david leonhardt, roger cohen and tom friedman. they have wul won too many awards to talk b i'm pleased to have all of them on this program today to talk about america. what's the challenge for us? because wherever i go around the world, the thing they say is we want america to take care of their businesses at home first so that they can lead the world and play an important part as the rest of the world changes. >> charlie i think the world does understand america provides a certain global government and global goods, public goods that stabilize the world and fuel the global economy. to me we are the tent pole that kind o

whitehouse: madam president, our nation asks a lot of our troops. in return, we must give them the best possible equipment to fulfill their vital missions and come home safely. we have a powerful obligation to them to ensure the proper peformance of weapons systems, body armor, aircraft parts and countless other mission-critical products. today, however, america's military faces a significant and growing threat from counterfeit products entering the military supply chain. so i rise today to speak about a bill i've introduced with senator mccain, senator graham and senator coons, the bath military counter-- combating military count tp*euting acts. this bill will enhance the ability to keep counterfeit goods out of the supply klain. it will protect america's forces from the risk of defective equipment. these counterfeit products do not meet military standards. as a result, they put troops' lives at risk, compromise military readiness and cost the country enormous sums in replacement costs. in the case of microelectronics, counterfeit parts also provid

. >>> amy whitehouse was booed off the stage, after stumbling around and forgetting lyrics. she's battled drugs and alcohol. her spokesman says whether she can finish the tour. >> at one point she even threw her microphone away. >> too bad. >> very talented. >> yes. >>> 7:53. ever are been stuck at a red like and it seems like it's never going to change? why nom drivers get stuck more often than others and -- some drivers get stuck more often than others. >>> welcome back. a simple request by a homeless man in ohio. he wanted to see his dog one more time. the dog eted -- ended up at a shelter after a homeless man became ill with lung cancer. the people who adopted her sheer say she's a dog who has a lot of love and energy and brought it into the home. they cooperated with the paramedic, the shelter anded the hospice -- and the hospice house and granted the dying man's wish. >> the moment he opened his eyes and saw that dog, there was instant recognition. and the dog licked his arms, his face. >> and that was it. >> this was a couple of days later that mr. mcclain passed away

pressure on the senate but hopefully -- and i would say that i'm in close contact with senator sheldon whitehouse, who's also from rhode island and who is one of the leaders on the cybersecurity committee. so i'm hopeful that we'll see a lot of these issues addressed and we'll be able to get them through conference. >> well, thank you all very much. and we do look forward to continuing to work with you because both of you have been leaders in this area. and we hope that we could continue to call on you for your input and at this time, i'd recognize the gentleman from illinois. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'll be brief. mr. langevin, you have expressed some level of restraint requiring this and you think it can be stricken in certain areas. i'm serious to say this bill if we can to the senate. again, we can persevere as you have indicated. but how do you think we can strengthen this bill? >> well, a couple of things, congressman rush. i'd like to see the approach that we're taking here addressing the challenges to the power system broadened to include other areas of critical infrastructure. and 'c

in fact, i note akaka and blumenthal and levin and inouye, sanders, shaheen, senator whitehouse and senator wyden, and i imagine many more will join us. i encourage my colleagues to support fundamental fairness, single point of contact and the foreclosure dual track and have a third-party review so homeowners have a chance, like mr. colette, to stay in their homes. thank you, madam president. mr. levin: madam president? madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and call up amendments 411 and 412. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: i reserve the right to object. mr. merkley: i reserve the right to object. the presiding officer: the consent request is pending. mr. mccain: madam president, i would is it ask unanimous consent to call up both amendments. it's my understanding that amendments are allowed. if there's some amendments that are not allowed, i think we ought to understand that. i understand the strength of the ethanol lobby, but there was an agreement that amendments that

reid of nevada, boxer, conrad, kerry, whitehouse, klobuchar, cardin, binge minimum -- bingaman, merkley, menendez, shaheen, sanders, lautenberg, reed of rhode island, durbin, akaka. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it adjourn until 10:30 a.m. on tuesday, june 7. following the prayer and pledge the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for use later in the day. following leader remarks, senate proceed to a period of morning business for up to one hour with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half. following morning business the senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to s. 782, the economic development act

therefore, today i have introduced legislation along with senators blumenthal, merkley, franken, whitehouse and bill nelson to end excessive speculation once and for all -- once and for all. the american people cannot continue to be ripped off by wall street, who are artificially driving up the price of oil and gas. i am very pleased to also announce that congressman maurice hinchey will be introducing this piece of legislation in the house. this legislation mandates that the chairman of the cftc take immediate actions to eliminate excessive oil speculation within two weeks -- two weeks. one, our bill requires the chairman to establish speculative oil position limits equal to the position accountability levels that have been in place at the new york mercantile exchange since 2001 -- 2002. 2001. this bill requires the chairman -- so that wall street investment banks back their bets with real capital. three, under this bill, goldman sachs, morgan stanley and other investment banks engage in proprietary oil trading would be classified as "speculators" instead of bonafide hedgers. and, 401(k)'s

whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. yesterday afternoon i spoke in this chamber and i quoted former comptroller general david walker saying "we as a country face large known and growing structural deficits that could swamp our ship of state. to get our ship of state in trim, we need to make adjustments. we need to reduce the deficit and the debt." i also discussed that when republicans demand that all revenue raisers be taken off the table in our discussions about how we reduce that deficit and that debt, as the republican leader has done just this week, what they are repolydefending -- what they are really defending is tax subsidies for profitable big oil companies. what they're repolydefending is corporations that -- what they're really defending is corporations that dodge their u.s. taxes by setting up phony business locations in the cayman islands and elsewhere. what they're really defending is ultra-high income individuals, the highest 400 earners in the country paying a lower actual tax rate than ordinary working

i'm going to leave for the vote, but senator whitehouse, as he has so many other times when it's going to take over the chair and i will be back. thank you all. >> thank you, mr. chairman. [inaudible conversations] >> sort of like a flying change and hockey -- change what the park is still a earth. i'm delighted to have followed you here and reading the recent series of supreme court opinions, going back a few years now reminds me of my law school days when i was studying for ucc banned. as those of you had the misfortune of either going to law school was sitting in the universal code know it's not the most tedious and boring possibility of. and so i'm plowing my way through this book is somebody who is the ahead of me and be my knowledgeable that you don't need to worry too much about that. it's actually a lot simpler than it appears. indeed come the entire ucc can be summarized in two words. i want to know the two words. and that's a let down at me and said bank wins. [laughter] and it is starting to seem a little bag of the face similar to wordcraft see can be applied to the united

on the senate, but hopefully -- and i would say that i'm in close contact with senator sheldon whitehouse, who's also from rhode island and who's also one of the leaders in the senate on cyber security, he believes that we will see bipartisan progress on the issue of cyber security in the senate. i'm hopeful we'll see a lot of these issues addressed and we'll be able to get them through conference. >> thank you all very much. we do look forward to continue working with you because both of you have been leaders in this area. we hope to be able to continue to call on you for your input. at this time, we'll recognize the gentleman from illinois. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm ing to be brief. mr. langevin, you have expressed a level of restraint regarding this bill, in that if you think we strengthen in certain areas and i'm curious to say i know that we want to send the best bill that we can to the senate, and then again we can persevere as you have indicated. how do you think we can strengthen this bill? >> well, a couple of things, congressman rush. i'd like to see the approach that we'r

and with that let me turn it over to senator whitehouse. >> thank you, ben. i am delighted to join my colleagues in asking the republican leadership the question, why it is that ethanol subsidies are off the table in the budget discussion when we have had so many of them just vote for them? this is not a question of being for it before you were against it, this is a question of being for it and against it at the same time. and if we can resolve that discrepancy on ethanol, there's no reason that we shouldn't go forward on oil and gas subsidies, at a time when the oil and gas companies are making the biggest profits in history and there's no reason we can't start going through the tax code for special interest corporate tax deductions. these are nothing more than earmarks in the tax code. when there are earmarks, the republicans when there are earmarks in the tax code that help their corporate supporters, then suddenly it's a different story. and while the fiscal security of our nation hangs in the balance, this is the wrong time to be forcing those wrong prio

whitehouse: i now yield back all time. the presiding officer: without objection, all time is yielded back. the question is on the cecchi nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: has every member voted? does any member wish to change his or her vote in the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the the question is on the salas nomination. if there is no further debate, all knows in favor say aye. all those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have t the ayes do have it. the nomination is confidence. the majority leader. mr. reid: notwithstanding the previous order, i ask unanimous consent -- has the bill been reported, mr. president? the presiding officer: and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's actions and the senate -- the majority leader? mr. reid: mr. president, notwithstanding the previous order, i ask unanimous consent that there be five minutes of debate equally divided and controlled between

on the senate, but hopefully -- and i would say that i'm in close contact with senator sheldon whitehouse, who's also from rhode island and who's aso one of the leaders in the senate on cyber security, he believes that we will see bipartisan progress on the iue of cyber security in t senate. i'm hopeful we'll see a lot of these issues addressed and we'll be able to get them through conference. >> thank you all very much. we do look forward to continue working with you because both of you have been leaders in this area. we hope to be able to continue to call on you for your input. at this time, we'll recognize the gentleman from illinois. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm ing to be brief. mr. langevin, you have expressed a level of restraint regarding this bill, in that if you think we strengthen in certain areas and i'm curious to say i know that we want to send the best bi that we can to the senate, and then again we can persevere as you have indicated. how do you think we can strengthen this bill? >> well, a couple of things, congressman rush. i'd like to see the approach that we're takin

, signed by 17 senators as follows -- reid of nevada, boxer, lautenberg, carper, brown of ohio, whitehouse, casey, coons, tester, cardin, udall of new mexico, shaheen, stabenow, murray, conrad, durbin and manchin. mr. reid: i now move to proceed to calendar number 75, s. 679, the efficiency and streamlining act. the presiding officer: the motion to proceed is now pending. mr. reid: madam president, i want to say a word before i leave the floor to -- to and about my friend, the senator from california. as i've indicated, chair of this most important committee, the environment and public works which i had the good fortune of chairing on two separate occasions. she has been tireless in bringing legislation to this floor and attempting to. she has been talking about this bill for months about how good it is, and when she sat down and reminded me of the merits of this legislation, i thought this should be a good one. a job-creating measure. we need that right now. and i have been very disappointed that we haven't been able to move forward, but it is not because of any lack of effort on her beha

whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to join again in the debate occurring here in washington on bringing our federal budget into balance and facing up to our looming debt limit. our nation right now is like an overburdened ship, wallowing in the seas. we are in danger as a nation of fandering if we don't -- of foundering if we don't sort this out. as the former com comptroller dd walker testified to us in the budget committee history of a year ago, we face -- and i quote -- "large, known, and growing structural deficits that could swamp our ship of state." to get the ship in trim, we need to make adjustments. we need to reduce the deficits and ultimately reduce the debt. we agree on a lot. we need to cut spending. democrats and republicans agree on that. we need to protect ordinary families who enjoy ordinary levels of income from tax increases. democrats and republicans agree on that. the disagreement here in washington is whether we also need to raise some revenues for our nation in other areas to help ba

whitehouse: mr. president, thank you.i rise today to join my distinguished senior senator, senator reed, in commemorating the 350th anniversary of block island, and i thank him for his leadership in organizing this moment of recognition. every rhode islander can recall their first trip out to block island. for most it starts with a drive down to gallo lane where countless visitors boarded the block island ferries, the carol jean, block island and the anna sea. the ride from galilee lasts about an hour wind out at the point judith harbor of refuge and into the ocean. as the mainland slips away, off the stern, a small speck on the horizon grows larger with each minute. soon the great bluffs of the island come into view, followed by the friendly hustle and bustle of block island's old harbor. as the ferry pulls into the dock, the full scene unfolds. the national hotel, ballards inn and all the shops and restaurants along water street. as you step ashore you can't help but feel enchanted by the scene. a mere 12 miles separate

senator whitehouse? >> >> i just want to recognize dean lie 9/11. this is, as i said earlier, a banner day for the uri graduate school of oceanography with both a graduate in the first panel and a former dean on this panel. the dean was kind enough to return to the graduate school of oceanography for the 50th anniversary celebration, and if my timing is right, i think she was actually dean of the graduate school at the time that my wife got her ph.d. in marine science from the graduate school. so in any event, she was a good friend during her years as dean in rhode island, and i'm delighted to have her here. unfortunately, we've lost her to florida in the meantime, but there's always hope. [laughter] >> and dr. voss could have been introduced also by senator vitter since he's a native of louisiana, but now he's a marylander, so i will take the honor of introducing dr. born. he's been a -- bosch. he's been a strong advocate for us in the maryland, part of the university of maryland center of science, he's been a personal adviser to me on in of the en