let me, first of all, just thank senator whitehouse for heading up this campaign finance task force. i think this has been a real solid effort by a number of senators, and senator whitehouse, whether it's at netroots or here on the senate floor, has been participating this evening, and we really appreciate all of his help. the presiding officer, senator merkley, has also been a key member of the task force. senator bennet, who is going to be speaking after me, another member of the task force. and we so appreciate all of us getting together. and one of the things we need to be reminded of this evening is where we are. we just took a vote to try to get on to the disclose act bill. 51 democrats said let's get on to the bill, and 44 republicans, not a single republican voted to allow us to get on the bill. basically what we're in in the senate, as senator bennet and senator whitehouse and senator merkley know, we're in the mode of a full filibuster now. we're on a motion to proceed. we're not allowed to get on to the bill. and so people should just recognize that's the posture we're in

whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i know we have senator hagan and senator bennet to say one more thing, and senator franken here all waiting, but i'd like to do some quick parliamentary business. the first is to ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to the following members of senator franken's staff: whitney brown and joel solomon for the rest of today's session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: the second ^s to ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration en bloc of the following resolutions which were submitted earlier today: senate resolutions 520, 521, 522, and 523. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the resolutions en bloc. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preamble be agreed toes, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc, with no intervening acti

whitehouse: mr. president, i come to the floor most every week to discuss the issue that i think is the one that members of congress in this era are most likely to be judged on in the future, and that is the relentless carbon pollution of our atmosphere that we are engaged in and our the changes in our climate and in our oceans that are very sis visibly happening -- that are very visibly happening as a result. i know that there are many interests in washington that would prefer us to ignore this issue, but just because they ignore it and just because they want us to ignore it doesn't mean it is going anywhere. the country, as we've heard in the last weeks, has baked in record heat. i think it was bloomburg news that described the midwest farmers as having to be farming in hell. it's been scorched by drought, driven by unprecedented wildfires, and that has resulted in an increasing amount of chatter in the news and even some conversation here on the senate floor about climate change. some have tried t

whitehouse: mr. president, senator coons will be joining us very shortly. he was on the floor just a moment ago and will be back very shortly. i wanted to take a moment before he returns -- ah, here he is. i will not take a moment before he returns. i will yield the floor, and the senator from delaware, i await hearing him. mr. coons: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: mr. president, i rise today to join the chorus of voices from our caucus who have tonight spoken to the value, to the importance of transparency in elections. transparency, as we all know, is critical for free and fair

whitehouse: they'rmr. whitee children, they don't have aspirations, they don't have goals, they don't have all of the things that make us different and make us human. but evidently they have the same rights. and because they don't really exist, it is a legal fact that they are a legal fiction, what that really is doing is empowering the people behind the corporation, the people who control the corporation. ms. landrieu: and it's actually giving more power to the people that control the corporation, not doonl they control their vote, which they -- not only do they control their own vote, which they certainly are entitled to and their own personal opinion, but it gives them extra.because they have access to wealth -- extra power because they have access to wealth and the influence in the structure. but t also occurs to me if the tiny state of delaware just takes this one step further, they might be able to expand their congressional delegation here in washington, because i think they have quite a few corpora

whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the pending quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. before i go into the closing business, let me just say that i had the pleasure of presiding in this body during the remarks that were just made by the distinguished chairman of the homeland security committee, senator lieberman of connecticut, the distinguished ranking member of that committee, senator collins of maine, and the distinguished chairman of the commerce committee and until recently chairman of the intelligence committee, senator rockefeller of west virginia, and i simply want briefly to add my voice to theirs and echo the three points that they emphasized. one, we absolutely must take action on cybersecurity. two, it is a genuine and undeniable matter of our american national security. and three, we cannot claim to have done the job, we cannot cla

i thank senator whitehouse and senator shaheen for their work on this. i yield the floor, mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: first, let me commend senator whitehouse, senator shaheen and all those that have worked so hard with them to bring this cause to the public fore. the genius of our founding fathers, mr. president, was to establish a system of government in which the governed determined who represents them. easy for us more than two centuries removed from their achievement to lose sight of just how remarkable that achievement was. they overturned untold centuries of human history during which those with wealth and power made the decisions and everyone else had little or no chance to influence how they were governed. the remarkable system the founders created has endured through war, crisis, depression and doubt, but we should not mistake that endurance for automatic pardon mance. -- permanence. democracy requires that we maintain the vital connection between the people and their elected representatives. it must be the voters and n

whitehouse: mr.sident? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: i thank the distinguished senator from colorado for his impassioned and eloquent support of this. i think we both recognize that through the course of our country's history men and women have shed their blood, have laid down their lives in order to protect this experiment in liberty that is the ongoing gift of our country to the rest of the world. and when we take that experiment in liberty and turn it over to the special interests, it is a grave occasion. i see the majority leader is on the floor. if i could take one moment as he comes to the podium to ask unanimous consent that for the duration of today's session, alex link, rob femegliti and samantha freeman who are on my committee staff be granted floor privileges. i yield the floor. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the committee on indian affairs be discharged from further considers of h.r. 2

whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i'm delighted to join my senior senator jack reed on the mark udall national economic tower of the renewable energy production tax credit, and i'm delighted that that daily tour has touched on rhode island today. this renewable energy production tax credit is a vital part of our energy security strategy. it is pretty simple. it provides a per-kilowatt-hour corporate tax credit for energy that is produced by various clean energy systems like wind or biomass or hydro or geothermal. it makes a lot of sense, we need to do it. the problem is that it expires at the end of this year. given the way that wind, biomass, solar and other such projects have to be financed in advance and built over time, the market effect of the expiration of this production tax credit at the end of this year is already being felt in projects that are not going forward now or are under a cloud right now because of the un

whitehouse: thank you. tomorrow, madam president, we will have the opportunity to deliver a little bit of tax certainty to the american people by advancing the middle class tax cut act. this legislation would prevent tax rates from increasing for the vast majority of american families and would preserve an important tax credit that currently helps millions of students and families avoid th the -- afford the costs of a higher education. this middle-class tax cuts act is the right thing to do for the middle class and i intend to vote for it. the question is: will it be filibustered? a tax cut for millions of hardworking americans filibustered simply to protect the wealthiest americans from paying a fair share. we will find out. this is not a new story. in 2001, when president george w. bush decided to spend a large portion of the surpluses he inherited from president clinton to cut tax rates across the board, many democrats opposed it because the tax cuts were unfairly waited towards the highest-income americ

heard a few voices on the hill this week take on citizens united including a call from sheldon whitehouse to put things into perspective and realize that there are much bigger sacrifices being made every day and corporations have to deal with a little public harassment so what do all these stories tell us about our bought political system or earlier i caught up a change of the host host of the young turks and i first asked him if he thinks that there's any chance at this live or probe that with this library probe the u.s. justice department will actually be tough and get it right. so it's a good little or no to your you're a joke or you're just or i love how you kid around about this stuff our justice department let us just roam. the rest. well you know i have to say but i think that's too bad but and so in that sense we had solid tim geitner testifying this week right on the hill and people were grilling him about this because the new york fed actually knew about this a couple years ago and specifically they were asking about when it came to the bailout do you think then that people got

whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, senator murray will be here shortly, and when she does arrive, i will promptly yield to her. but i wanted to take the time prior to her arrival to follow up a bit on what i said i would do earlier, which is, because this has been in some respects half a debate -- other than my friend, senator mccain, who has courageously fought on this issue for so many years, we have not really heard very much from the other side of the aisle here. and so in some respects it's only half of a debate. in another respect, of course, it's no debate at all because we are in a filibuster situation with the republicans blocking us, actually going to the senate debate on this bill. so while it's debate in the lay sense of the word, it is a discussion; it is not senate debate on the floor because we stand here being filibustered with a majority of senators that demonstrably support going to this bill. but i said th

joining me is senator sheldon whitehouse. thank you for coming on the show.citizens united. tell us what it does, and then procedurally, when are we going to get this passed? >> the bill does something very very simple. it requires any personal organization that contributes over $10,000 towards a campaign expenditure, a purchase of tv, for instance, to report within 24 hours that they did it. so that instead of this onslaught of secret campaign money that is pouring in through 501 c 4s and through super pacs we actually have an idea of who is behind all this spending. as you know, that's important because people don't spend this kind of money without a motive. and if their motive is so bad that they want to keep it secret all the more reason why we should sign light into those corners. >> eliot: the famous statement is that sunshine is the best disinfectant. what we need to do is let the sunshine in so we know who is spending this money. citizens united said folks have a right to spend money. but they do not have a right to spend it in secret. your bill does

whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. whitehouse mr. president mr. president, -- mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senator from arkansas be recognized to deliver remarks regarding a casualty from his home state for which i'll take this opportunity to extend my condolences and the condolences of the people of rhode island. then at the conclusion of his remarks, that i be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coons: thank you, mr. president. i thank the senator very much for yielding me a few minutes. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas is recognized. mr. coons: mr. president, we are aware that our freedoms are not truly free and our soldiers give the greatest sacrifice in freedom's defense. the sacrifices of americans in uniform and their families embody the courage, honor and patriotism that we must always remember. today i am here to pay my respects to army sergeant michael strakota, an arkansas

whitehouse: thank you. as i said, i rise to speak about cybersecurity, madam president, but specifically about the cyber threat to our nation's critical infrastructure. and by "critical infrastructure," i mean the power grid that supplies electricity to our homes, keep us home in the winter, cool in the summer. i mean the financial services' processing systems that connect our a.t.m.'s to our accounts and move money around in our complex financial system. and i mean the communications networks by which we talk and e-mail and txt and message one another. madam president, the men and women whom we have charged with our nation's defense and who we have confirmed in these roles in the united states senate have repeatedly and consistently warned us about the danger of cyber attacks on this critical infrastructure that provides power and light and heat, that tracks and records financial transactions, that allows communication and data transfer, that keeps airplanes safe in the air, that controls our dams, that en

-- that is sheldon whitehouse group -- recommendations to make it nonmandatory. but i think still significant. so this -- this bill has been aired and worked on and it's for action. but more -- more to the point, the senate needs to act. that's why it's so important that we adopt the motion to proceed, because this threat is real, dangerous and growing every day. third, this bill, 3414, is the result of bipartisan compromise. it's both bipartisan and it's the result of compromise. we cosponsors, as i mentioned, gave up some things that we thought were important that we had in our original bill, but given the cyber threat, we actually thought it was more important to move forward with a bill that will significantly strengthen our cyber security even though it doesn't do everything we wanted to do and thought should be done. we didn't want to lose the chance to pass cyber legislation this year that could prevent a cyber-9/11 attack against the united states before it happens. instead of rushing in the midst of mayhem back to the senate and house to adopt cyber secu

whitehouse: thank you. tomorrow madam president we will have the opportunity to deliver a little bit of tax certainty to the american people by advancing the middle class tax cut act. this legislation would prevent tax rates from increasing for the vast majority of american families and would preserve an important tax credit that currently helps millions of students and families avoid the the -- afford the costs of a higher education. this middle-class tax cuts act is the right thing to do for the middle class and i intend to vote for it. the question is: will it be filibustered? a tax cut for millions of hardworking americans filibustered simply to protect the wealthiest americans from paying a fair share. we will find out. this is not a new story. in 2001 when president george w. bush decided to spend a large portion of the surpluses he inherited from president clinton to cut tax rates across the board many democrats opposed it because the tax cuts were unfairly waited towards the highest-income americans

in fact, the law the disclose act proposed by whitehouse says look we just want to know who you are if you're giving more than $10,000. we're not saying you can't give it. we want to know who's influencing the politicians. in fact, the american people overwhelmingly agree. in a cbs news poll when asked who does congress serve? 80% said special-interest groups and only 13% believe it is the people that those congressmen and senators represent. think about how damming that is by the way. in essence the great majority of the american people believe we have lost our democracy. they don't represent us. it is not a representative democracy. they represent their donors. they're right. in fact, most of the republican voters feel the same way. overwhelming majority, 68% say there's too much influence of big money in politics. they're right. in fact, back in the day in 2000, the republicans agreed. you know what the vote was back then when they said we should find out who is behind these tax-exempt groups and the doan donations given to them? 892-6 -- 92-6, everybody agreed. there was a young ca

. -- and leaders of the peacemakers in between, led by senators kyl and whitehouse, have been meeting for the last week and making progress. and i would say that what was once a wide chasm separating us is now a narrow ridge which we can bridge. and i firmly believe we will with good faith on all sides and a willingness to compromise. you could really get 100% of what you want in a democratic -- small "d" -- legislature like ours. if each side can get 75% or 80% and we can begin to fix a problem and close the vulnerabilities that exist in our cyber infrastructure this week, we will have done exactly what the american people want us to do. that's my appeal to my colleagues. with that, mr. president, i thank the chair and i yield the floor. mr. roberts: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. roberts: mr. president, i want to thank my distinguished friend and colleague, senator lieberman, for his leadership and in urging members of congress to bring amendments down that are germane to the very serious national security issue. i thank him for his comments and h

whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i return to the floor today to give voice once again to the issue that i feel will most significantly define this generation of leadership in the united states and around the globe. i rise to discuss the notable, evident changes taking place in our earth's climate, the relationship between our own activities and the change and the rate of change being observed, and our so-far forsaken responsibility to address climate change head-on and with purpose. last month representatives from world governments, the private sector, n.g. o.'s and other major stakeholders gathered in brazil for a conference on sustainable development. marking the 20th anniversary of the earth summit in rio, this conference was nicknamed "rio plus 20." so-called sustainable development principles consistent of a set of principles and strategies that when acted upon by the global community will balance strong economic grow

minority in the senate so now democrats in the senate are trying to begin on tuesday senator sheldon whitehouse and eight other senate democrats proposed a new very watered down disclose act hoping that the latest more corporate friendly legislation may attract some republican supporters but is this really a strategy progress it should be using to get corporate money out of politics or do we need to be bolder and push for a constitutional amendment that once and for all says corporations are not people and money is property not speech joining me now is progressive activists two thousand and four green party candidate for president of states and spokes person for my favorite montra or david david welcome thank you tom it's always a pleasure to be here with you thanks for thanks for joining us how goes move to amend it's getting larger stronger and better organized every day i'm on the road over half of my life we get larger and larger crowds coming out and the great unreported story is that we're winning we've got over three hundred resolutions passed at the local level seven jurisdictions we pu

whitehouse: mr. president, we were here two winters ago in february when washington was hit by a snowstorm that achieved the nickname snowmageddon. the city, in fact, much of the mid-atlantic was buried under feet of snow, the biggest snowstorm in 90 years for this area, people in washington were struggling to get to work and to school, people went without power for days, and this being washington, some of our colleagues here in the senate seized on that opportunity to mock climate change and to suggest that these winter snowstorms were inconsistent with the projections of what would happen from global warming and climate change. as an initial matter, that's just a false comparison from the very get-go, all by itself. climate science models have predicted consistently that as polar ice caps and glaciers melt and more water enters the system, we can expect heavier precipitation events. one of the ways it has been described, if you have a pot on the stove and you've got the heat underneath it and it's

we wanted to check in with a good friend down at the whitehouse, david jackson covers the white house. >> good morning, bill. >> yeah, so first of all, you want i wanted to ask about the president's response to the shootings in colorado. do you think he did the right thing by first of all, postponing campaign events and making a special trip to meet with the families there? >> yes. he really had no choice. he had this west coast campaign swing slotted in. he was basically going to fly over colorado anyway. i think he wanted to go there. so it's just something presidents do in these times of national trauma. there is a feeling that the presidents want to be there to show solidarity and that's what he did. he really rearranged his schedule to accommodate that trip. it was kind of weird because he influence back to speak to the vfw and back to the bay area to do the fundraiser in oakland. it created kind of a strange schedule but it was something he had to do and something he wanted to do. >> i think on the scheduling it might have been late notice too late to arrange the whole president

its president died yesterday and the spouse whitehouse issued a statement from president obama saying, quote, it is with great regret that i learn of the passing of the president. already this morning, the vice president has been sworn in marking a smooth democratic transition, something that is unusual for african countries. >>> counterfeiters apparently are changing $5 bills in $100 bill up in new jersey and the fake money is so real that even counterfeit pens don't identify them. cops are looking for a man caught on surveillance who paid for and $8 day quill with a phony $100 bill. the owner didn't realize it was a fake until the bank told him. the watermark cannot be erased through bleaching. >> they are bleaching out $5 bills. they are taking all the ink out of a good $5 bill and they reprint it as a $100 bill. >> we really endorse looking at the quality of the portrait. looking at the treasury seal and if it doesn't look right to you, it probably isn't right. >> police say the detection marker shows it was real because the paper is real. the denomination that is not. >> the thin

sheldon whitehouse is sponsor of the act that the senate's voting on today which could require donors at least $10,000 to be identified. senator mccaskill is the cosponsor. we talk a lot about this very controversial proposal that people want to vote and they all should vote. have to have a photo government issued i.d. card where people don't even have cars. at the same time, we won't want identification of the wealthy people influences this campaign by the tens of millions of dollars. you're smiling. do republicans see the contrast in the way they look at regular working people and the way they look at rich people when it comes to identifying them? >> i think they have a lot of trouble with this one. both for the reasons that you mentioned, chris, and because so many of them for so many years, ten sitting republican senators, have been out in favor of transparency and disclosure in collecti election finance before. mitch mcconnell is actually being critiqued in his home state newspaper with editorials quoting from previous editorials he had written in favor of disclosure, so they've

i want to thank senator whitehouse of connecticut who has been an important part of two different teams working on this bill. excuse me, senators kyl and whitehouse led a team that worked hard on critical infrastructure but i want to thank senator blumenthal also of connecticut who participated in the privacy side work and the critical infrastructure work. now we're speaking to title 7, the information sharing of the bill and the dramatic and real progress that has been made in addressing the balance between security and privacy. there has also been great progress made in my view in dleas dreasing the issues of critical infrastructure and lied tokyo to invite senator blumenthal who has contracted so well to both efforts to address the chamber at this time. madam president, i yield the floor. mr. blumenthal: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. i want to thank my very distinguished and effective colleague from delaware for his great work as part of a team that has sought to enhance the protections of privacy in

this is the bill's sponsor, sheldon whitehouse of rhode island. >> this disclose act will shun its lightn the sources of the secret money polluting our elections so we as citizens can make decisions and judgments about their motives. >> republican leader mitch mcconnell meanwhile of kentucky lambasting the disclose act on the conservative radio show "the race to" with mark levin. >> this is the most important issue nobody is talking about. that is the effort by the left to intimidate those who are contributing to outside groups who are opposed to the obama administration and -- into not contributing or shutting up or going away. what the democrats have done is conjure of a proposal to require the disclosure of contributions ,o what are called 501-c4's social organizations, many of which both the left and right are involved in politics. they have done it to get their names so they can intimidate them with the power of the government. the irs is investigating tea party groups all across the country. the sec has gone after corporations they think may be exercising their first amendment righ

and i agree that we did see a convergence in this statement from the whitehouse today that both the russians and the u.s. do not want regime collapse, they want a negotiated transition. >> woodruff: frederic wehrey, do you see anything at this point, and from any direction, that would permit the assad regime to strengthen and to hold on and to gain ground back against the opposition? >> i don't see it. i mean i think we've reached such a psychological tipping point here with the loyalists and those that were sitting on the fence with the fighting taken to damascus, that it's really a matter of time. the opposition is certainly divided, it's weak, it lacks logistics, it lacks a command structure. but it's going to muddle on and i really think the question of the defections taking their impact. >> woodruff: at the same time, is it possible for anyone to say when this regime. >> it's difficult to say. i remember with tripoli in libya there was fighting in tripoli when the regimes regroup. these regimes have a way of lasting especially backed into a corner. >> if i could, it's also of to recogni

pretty much equivalent of the whitehouse situation room where his crises female was meeting, someone managed to blow up a bomb and kill these three integral figures. >> rose: it was a suicide bombers. >> it was a suicide bomber. i don't know the identity of the bomber or crucially that person's sectarian identity whether it was a sunni or what kind of opponent. >> rose: who ought to be noted for being killed. >> his brother-in-law who is an enforcer within the government, his defense minister, and another top figure. defense minister was the highest ranking christian in the assad government, and another top lieutenant who is a very senior sunni general. >> rose: and the interior minister? >> i don't yet know the status of the interior minister. >> rose: he was there, though it is said. we don't know that either yet. and so has there been any response from the>> the state ta has reported these deaths, and i think by thend of the day we'll see what kind of a show they can make to prove that their regime is still in tact. >> rose: rob malley what can you add to what we know at this time

senator whitehouse. all of these senators were involved. indeed, when we filed the bill a year ago, we had all ten senators on the five gulf states signed up, another display of bipartisan cooperation. well, think back. this all emanates from the fact that two years ago this disaster began. it was about 10:00 at night. it was april 20 of 2010. it was 52 miles off the coast of louisiana, the macondo 252 oil well, it suddenly kicked, leading to an explosive blowout that claimed the lives of 11 americans. and for the next 87 days, almost five million barrels of crude oil gushed into the gulf. fishermen pulled the gear off their boots and replaced it with -- they pulled the gear off their boats and replaced it with boom and skimmers. the tourists canceled their vacations. the waiters came to work to find that there were no customers. and the oil continued to coat the marshes that are the nursery habitat for juvenile shrimp and so many of the other critters that spawn in and around the marshes. the beaches that draw all the tourists every summer

i yield to senator whitehouse. thank you all for being here. we will c hhat more. >> thank you. i wonder if i can ask any of the witnesses to speak for a moment about the procedure known as "voter caging" in the history of that kind of activity and the extent to which this would be addressed by the measure you are describing. >> you can go. >> voter caging is another type of deceptive intimidation tactic that also has been occurring. >> describe it for us. >> it is essentially a term that is used in marketing. essentially, it is when people or organizations attempt to send materials or documentation to verify people's residency. in fact, information is sent back. and they areir figverified challenged at the voting booth as not being eligible to vote. this is something that has been on the rise that we have encountered their election protection, particularly in the last federal elections, especially in 2008. we encountered a lot of voter caging that was occurring in michigan and ohio, it challenges that were happening because of the foreclosure crisis. it is sad because we know w