wyden: it is. i was one, i'm sure the senator was involved in this as well, where after all these years hearing the senate hadn't passed a budget, we stayed up one night until the wee hours. we passed a budget. we had scores and scores of votes. and then a lot of simply wanted to have a conference with the other body. and after hearing that there hadn't been a budget, we thought lickety-split we'd be able to get that conference going, and we haven't been able to do that either. mr. begich: passed their budget too. we had two budgets ready to go to conference. is that fair? mr. wyden: it was there for the doing. i remember coming to the floor and asking unanimous consent to go to conference. i knew there had been some conferencing, but there was an immediate objection. and i pointed out that at that time republican and democratic economists were saying look to the long term. and i was especially proud, and i talked about it that day, saying that senator isakson of georgia, very able member of the fi

, we did go to ron wyden with other whistle-blowers, it accomplished nothing. and snowden knew he would be targeted rather than going after nsa with illegalities for which no one wants to pay the price. >>> i want everybody to take a minute and remember something. we're forgetting about something important in this debate, and that's the purpose of the programs. the number of terror attacks we've actually prevented, next. when we made our commitment to the gulf, bp had two big goals: help the gulf recover and learn from what happened so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring center, where experts watch over all drilling activity twenty-four-seven. and we're sharing what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. our commitment has never been stronger. the recent increase in cafeteria prices is not cool. when you vote for flo, we'll have discounts. ice-cream discounts. multi-cookie dis

right so i actually there was a senator congressman amash was there as well and he called senator wyden the congressional whistleblower because he was his questions to get the intelligence community to try to say things that he himself is not a lot of say due to non-disclosure forms that he had to fill out and certain intelligence community things that he's just not allowed to share but he did say that he was very liberated to actually be able to have this opportunity to now speak on the record about it and i think we have a clip of that. in america the truth always comes out any government official who thought that there wouldn't be disclosures about a constitutionally flawed you know program just didn't read history and i in fact outlined that history on the floor of the united states senate does several years ago when ai indicated that americans would be stunned and angry when they learned and b. that history shows that fortunately in our country the truth always comes out. so he also went on to say that he started asking those questions specifically about coming out with the feis of

no we don't do that so as you can see it all comes down to this wording but i was ten and senator wyden went on to say that they are pushing for obviously the amash meant for senator wyden still in the senate and also for westall bar protections going forward to really find out if the government had a cyborg arm was actually the important to have or not that we know of are to correspondent in lopez thank you. but he americans consider the u.s. the number one mission on earth that it's exceptional in fact if they were talking point for politicians and us presidents going back to the wall so what's with our national obsession with exceptionality for more about the residents laurie or for those. who. have you heard the word american we are exceptional the term american exceptionalism has been around for at least a century but it's been getting a lot of play lately after president obama used american exceptionalism as a supporting reason for why the u.s. should support a military strike in syria if diplomatic efforts fail let that sink in for a minute originally the term american exceptiona

went on to say that they are pushing for obviously the unwashed men and for senator wyden still in the senate and also for wessel there are protections going forward to really find out if the government had a cyborg arm was actually the important to have or not that we often are to correspondent in lopez thank you. i'm out there for now for more of the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america check out our website r t dot com slash usa and you can follow me on twitter at sam sachs we'll see you right back here at eight pm thanks for watching. activism politics and a cold place and a whole lot of media publicity what is greenpeace all about today because it is smug and self promoting both for a brave environmentalist group opinions vary and at the very center of the debate surrounding organizations such as greenpeace is the question whether they have the right to operate outside the law. was a new alert animation scripts scare me a little bit. there is breaking news tonight and we are continuing to follow the breaking news. alexander's family cry here.

wyden had to go in you know phrase things so particularly narrow in exactly. what he wants to know you can't just say hey the n.s.a. are you doing this because they will find a way to deny it if it's all legally possible so it all comes down to the wording and while the n.s.a. might not exactly be lying i think we have a lot that we're going to learn about chalet to use leaks continue r.t. well producer and their blake breaking it all down for us to fix and that does it for now why magnum opus they are right back here at five pm. there's a nine story building i noticed that standing on its roof was a man in civilian clothes holding a sniper rifle. to say something that offends so they can only do the news blank or wooden shells but the building was burning room how much time it took to restore it. and we've noted for you it's in the referendum deputies of the supreme soviet didn't appeal to us out all we have to support yeltsin otherwise it would have been civil war. but if you're going to watch these policies i think you know. the pleasure to have you with us

wyden asked the question. are you collecting records about millions or tens of millions of americans. clapper said no. not willingly. wyden said really? not whittingly but they were. they were collecting them and later admitted that. in another incident, at the last judiciary committee hearing, senator hey -- leahy took alexander to task and said you're saying there were 45 plots foiled through the program. that's not right is it? no, senator. it's not. it can't be that we can expect congress to do a good oversight job and the court to do a good oversight job when the truth is so hard to get. and again, the way to get the truth and is not throw out the court or throw out the court process all together. i'm not tughting it at all. what i'm suggesting is transparency a root toward the truth and we need more. >> let me ask you this. we talked about how no recipient of the 702 ever challenged it. it seems like part of the cfght at the public discourse level is not about the government. it's about private sector fo

i want to turn to the famous clip of clapper in march telling democratic senator ron wyden of nationalurity agency does not wittingly collect data of millions of americans. >> does the nsa collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans? >> no, sir. >> it does not. >> not wittingly. there are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly. >> that is james clapper. yes now admitted that statement was false and apologized to congress. in june, he sent a letter to the senate intelligence committee saying he misunderstood the question. saying -- i want to go back to coleen rowley, former fbi special agent , again, named004 person of the year by "time" magazine after the 9/11 attacks. you recently were and congress to hear more testimony for officials. this moment were clapper did not tell the truth and said he was trying to figure out what was going through his mind to lie to congress, are these officials sworn in when they testify? >> i don't know if you was sworn in that other time, but the october 2 hearing, which was to discuss

. >> reporter: oregon senator ron wyden verified tamosaitis' claims and he says his firing sends a clear message. >> it signals to all of the others who might be concerned about safety issues that they can be muzzled. their job's not going to be safe. that's unacceptable. >> it has an overwhelming chilling effect. >> reporter: george h.w donna ba manager, and smee and tamosaitis have sued for whistleblower protection. she told me she's feeling the heat. >> the fact that he was terminated, it sent a resounding message to me. >> reporter: and you feel you're next to go? >> absolutely i do. >> let me show you the document that urs wants me to sign. it says in a nutshell, give us total legal immunity, and you get your severance pay. >> reporter: you have to give up your whistleblower claim against them. >> correct, exactly, exactly. and i don't plan to sign it. >> reporter: his case goes back to federal government next month. urs would not discuss personnel matters, but in a statement said it encourages its employees to raise any encourage concerns ab. >> you think it was retaliation? >> cle

i have talked to senator wyden. if they are able to move their bill soon, we will take it up in our committee and move with regular order, open process. we have done some hydro electric bills. we have done some good health bills. we have fixed the sgr, the reimbursement for physicians under medicare. that was a three-year process. 51-0, we passed that out of our committee, every republican and every democrat. the press does not always like to cover them. frankly, if you look at the last congress, our committee, we had 88 bills pass. they came through our committee and passed on the house floor. 40 of them got signed into law. the pipeline safety bill -- that was sent to the house, voted out of two committees. the president signed it into law a year ago. it upgrades the safety standards for every new oil and gas pipeline built in the country. those are some pretty good things that we have been able to move. bill shuster moved a major water resources bill. i think there are three people that voted against it. that is

senator wyden has been the champion. the former chairman of the judiciary has been very supportive of this. we have got very good support on both sides of the aisle. the more parents and people become acutely aware that these gps type of devices can be very helpful in your day-to-day life, they can also be a tool and a conduit for somebody who has got some the ferry as thoughts and ideas to follow somebody -- nefarious thoughts and ideas to follow somebody. that should be against the law. law enforcement should have to demonstrate to the court that they have probable cause. >> do you hear from constituents on this issue? >> absolutely. certainly with the nsa revelations, people have been acutely aware and concerned about what the government is doing, are they following them? has nota administration clarified their position post- jones. ofre was a freedom information act request that the aclu put in. every single page was redacted. we don't know what the administration's position on this is. i question the fbi director. h

that is the fault line that we're seeing emerge and to see senators ron wyden and rand paul or senator patrick leahy standing with jim sensenbrenner, those are great indications of the values across the spectrum. we know the latest news. france and germany, the nsa is spying on foreign leaders abroad 3-d think that americans have to care about this as well, just as much is you have to care about their infringements of rights here in the knighted states? >> absolutely. the habit of telling -- turning our allies into enemies is as much a concern as the abuses of our own individual privacy rights. separate from that is the concern for democracy. what the abuses threaten are not just the rights of hundreds of millions of americans and our diplomatic relationships with other countries but the future of democracy in america itself. with this kind of pervasive surveillance, the right to dissent withers and the relationship between dissent and democracy is crucial to remember and that is what is driving a lot of the resistance to these authoritarian programs. >> what is next after the rally, w

senator wyden has been a champion a good strong democrat. over in the house chairman conyers former chairman of the judiciary and jim sensenbrenner have been supportive of this act. trey gowdy a former prosecutor so i think we have good support on both sides of the aisle and i think the more parents and people become acutely aware that this gps type of device can be very helpful in your day-to-day life but it can also be a tool and a conduit for somebody who has got some nefarious thoughts and ideas to follow somebody without their knowledge. that really should be against the law and law enforcement really should have to demonstrate to the court to have probable cause in order to follow someone without their knowledge. >> host: do you hear from constituents on this issue? >> guest: absolutely. certainly with the nsa revelations of people being acutely aware and concerned about what the government is doing. are they following them? the obama administration has not verified their position posts jones in how they are going to do with this. ther

wyden says, really? he says not wittingly. they were. he later admitted that. judiciary committee tookng, senator leahy alexander to task. he said, you are saying there were 54 plots foiled through this program. that is not right, is it? no senator, it is not. that we can expect congress to do a good oversight job. the way to get the truth is not to throw out the court or to throw out the process altogether. i am not adjusting that at all. what i am suggesting is that transparency is root towards the truth. we need more of it. nolet me ask you this. recipient of the order has ever challenged. it seems like part of the conversation at the public discourse level is not just about the government but about private sector firms. do you think part of this conversation should be looking at reform of our privacy laws and not just reform of what the government is doing but maybe reevaluating private sector information sharing? >> that has been the topic of a lot of conversation. i think our general approach is that -- i am not opposed to having a conversation about laws

is mass spying programs this is something that if you are lawmakers have talked about senator ron wyden did recently talk about him he urged his colleagues to say anyone who supports these n.s.a. spying programs needs to consider the bad reputation they're putting on u.s. companies as they try and enter markets abroad and we're looking at economic damages from trade deals to changes how tech companies have to do business to even lost business totaling tens of billions of dollars now sam boeing was in the running for a major brazilian war plane contract is that defense contract in trouble as a result of u.s. brazilian tensions over alleged u.s. spying on the brazil's president. it's all very well could be or there was the revelation that came out that the u.s. is listening on brazilian president dilma rousseff personal phone calls and this sparked outrage in brazil and even caused president rousseff to cancel planned meeting she had earlier this month at the white house and they were supposed to discuss at this meeting this defense contract you talked about about a forty five billion dol

both parties between leadership like senator feinstein and rank and file members like senator ron wyden or congressman justin amash and exactly what n.s.a. reform looks like if it ever happens depends on who wins this debate between leadership and the rest of congress. movie on federal workers aren't the only folks paying close attention to what's happening in congress this week so too are many iraqis that's because at midnight on tuesday not only did the government shut down but so too did a special visa program that allows iraqis who worked with the american military during the war to emigrate to the united states that program was created in two thousand and seven but has been bogged down due to security concerns it was designed to dole out twenty five thousand visas over five years but less than half of those have actually been issued and so far this year the state department has only granted four hundred fifty four pieces just before the expiration of the program on monday night the senate voted to extend it senators john mccain and jeanne shaheen released a statement saying quote t

episodes where members of congress for example where john brennan was nominated had cia senator ron wyden other senators senator ron paul use that opportunity for some scrutiny of the drone strikes and at the same time you have president obama in his state of the union stagehand in a speech saying that he will provide that type of transparency that you and also the human rights advocate groups are hoping for however let me play devil's advocate here a recent economists article shed light on a surprising discovery sophia khan she's a school administrator from islamabad found that many chinese men from tribal regions actually support drone strikes also one star of a in two thousand and nine found that fifty two percent of if people actually say that drone strikes are accurate and sixty percent say that these drone strikes actually weaken militant groups so what is your reaction to that i mean obviously not everyone is against drone strikes is there a way to you drone strikes in a way that is politically or otherwise correct. well so it's really crucial these things are necessarily contradic

reforms there but there's these two camps you have people like ron wyden and justin amash who want to have very aggressive reforms to rein in the n.s.a. then you have this other camp of. defenders like dianne feinstein and mike rogers who are looking for more watered down reforms what do you hope to see the next few months as far as changes coming from congress. to the n.s.a. radical change i mean let's let's rein the horse in let's not let's not make it any worse so i am i am looking at something dramatic and and that's the agenda that i think this country was founded on civil liberties are important let's move on to drones you just briefly talked about them a second ago there are two reports out this week from one from his amnesty international about drone use in pakistan another one from human rights watch about drones and we have a picture of the reports here about the drones in yemen and the both the reports allege that the united states is committing unlawful killings that perhaps even amount to war crimes do you think the u.s. is committing more crimes with its drone program i

that this -- what this says is, on 19 separate occasions, senator reid or senator murray or senator wyden or one of the democrats came to the floor -- here are the dat dates -- april, may 6, may 7, may 8, may 9, may 14, may 15, may 16, may 21, may 22, et cetera, et cetera -- june 19, 26, july, august, and then the latest was september of -- i'm sorry, october 2. those are the facts. and on every single occasion there were five senators that stood up on behalf of the others here and blocked it and said, no, we cannot, we will not go to budget conference. those senators were senator mcconnell on may 8, senator mcconnell on may 9, et cetera, et cetera. senator paul on may 2. senator toomey on june 19. senator cruz, who's been the leader of this irresponsible and reckless strategy, which is getting, i don't think, his party or his future anywhere, but we'll have to see about that. mike lee on july 17. and then senator rubio on

both parties between leadership like senator feinstein and rank and file members like senator ron wyden or congressman justin amash and exactly what n.s.a. reforms look like if they ever happen depends on who wins this debate between leadership and the rest of congress now moving on a two thousand and eight law intended to prevent a military assistance to nations that employ child soldiers is being scaled back by the white house the end of last week the white house issued a memo noting that it is in the national interest of the united states to waive the application of the prohibits prohibition of the child soldiers prevention act with respect to chad south sudan and yemen the white house also partially waived prohibitions on military assistance of the democratic republic of the congo and somalia under this directive chad a south sudan and yemen will be allowed to receive military assistance from the united states while somalia in the democratic republic of the congo will still face some restrictions when it comes to assistance all of these nations are on the list of ten countries deter

to try to act in the bulk metadata collection it addresses the back door search loophole that ron wyden has been warning about it allows companies like lobbying other companies to reveal when they get these orders for information we have just about a minute left what do you make of these reforms are they go far enough is it a good start to have any chance of passing it's a great start i just think. it's it's a very peculiar time for all this stuff to happen it's great that there's been calls for reform we know that representative just in the mob came very close to funding the n.s.a. a few months ago a few months down the road are the government congressmen have a better chance of passing n.s.a. reform bills i certainly believe so but i think as more and more n.s.a. leaks come out two or three times a week lately the more information that we learn we're going to be more concerned about different programs once we learn that the government is doing things that right now we don't know exist moving out of my view maybe want to reform those so i think it's so you know we're going to just wait

as senator rod wyden from oregon noted, the n.s.a. could have gotten a court order to get the phone records in question. so, in essence, congress has authorized a program that invades the privacy of millions of americans with little to show for it. the results simply do not justify this massive invasion of our privacy. that is why i want to end bulk collection practices authorized under section 215 of the patriot act and i join senator leahy to introduce a bipartisan, bicameral u.s.a. freedom afnlg . this legislation, among other things, will rein in the dragnet collection of data by the national security agency. it will stop the bulk collection of americans' communications records by ending the authorization provided by section 215 of the patriot act. some in this chamber will argue that this removes a massive tool for the n.s.a. to assist the f.b.i. i disagree with that. all this legislation does is shut down the collection of millions of americans' metadata by the n.s.a. if the f.b.i. needs a telephone number, they can go to a fisa

safe against everybody who might want to use drop share now i want to play a quick clip from senator wyden when he spoke at cato n.s.a. conference let's let's take a listen to that. there is a real difference between secret operations and secret law operations have to be kept secret because that's what affects the well being of the dedicated people who work in the intelligence field and i don't take a backseat to anybody in terms of keeping secret operations secret that's not the same thing as keeping the laws secret the laws ought to be public all the time because the american people have to know what the law says in order to make judgments about how they feel about policies and elected officials so do they add words snowden leaks help us get a better understanding of what these secret larc laws are and when are we actually going to see them more welly well i mean we're seeing stories are ready and and the court is actually very correct that this two kinds of secrecy there's the programs of the methodology and those should be made public because we as society need to decide whether they'r

establishment that's ultimately the fault line that we're seeing emerge and to see for instance senators ron wyden a democrat from oregon and rand paul the republican from kentucky or senator patrick leahy a democrat from vermont standing with james sensenbrenner the republican from wisconsin who i mentioned those are great indications of the residents of these values across the partisan spectrum well it's nice to find an issue that's finally nonpartisan. well of course we know the latest news france and germany. the n.s.a. is spying on foreign leaders abroad do you think that americans. have to care about this as well just as much as they have to care about you know that infringements of rights here not in states absolutely i mean the habit of our country on turning our allies into enemies is as much a concern to americans i think is the abuses of our own individual privacy rights separate from either of those two things i think is a concern for democracy because what the n.s.a. is abuse is ultimately threaten our not just the rights of hundreds of millions of americans and our diplomatic relatio

senator wyden from oregon. >> thank you very much, chairman ryan. colleagues, i think senator murray, congressman van hollen are leading democrats superbly. i want to make it clear, the constructive tone from colleagues on the other side is very helpful as well. this budget conference is an opportunity to transition from crisis to consensus. we have to keep our eye on the stark reality. the government shut down has hurt our economy and slowed economic growth. it was mentioned a couple headlines, the one that is particularly painful to me is consumer confidence collapsedded this month, thanks, congress. our first, second, and third priority is to find policies that grow wages, create good job, and help our people. we want to make sure the middle class can stay on the risks of the middle class economic ladder, and we. to help policies that help those that are not there get there and key to this is to provide with our efforts new measures of stability and predictability for our economy. i want to kick off three quick points. the first is taxes. the tax

that's something i'm doing with senator wyden in a very bipartisan way. issues out there. website, without encryption where people are typing in on healthcare.gov social security numbers and it's not encrypted. this all kind of fits together in a big huge area of concern. >> at the same time the former deputy director of the cia mike morrell was on "60 minutes" and he talked about the breakdown of trust and politics he believes is undermining national security. >> what really keeps me up at night is the inability of our government to make decisions that push our economy and our society forward. there's been a change from a willingness of the two parties to work together to get things done to today the two parties at each other's throat and simply trying to score political points. i don't know why that's occurred. >> doesn't the government shutdown play into this feeling that the country isn't working, secretary kerry spoke about it in a speech last week, undermining the way we are perceived around the world? >> i think there's a lot of validity to that. i appreciate the "6

. >> senator wyden. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. lew, it seems to me in the event of a default or near default, the dominoes are going to fall fast and hard. and those hit early on will be older people who depend on their own retirement savings to get by. these are the older people who saw much of their life savings evaporate during the recessioning, and they're struggling just to get those private savings, in effect, back to the water line, back to where they are. be as specific as you can with respect to what default or near default would mean for those seniors who depend on their private savings. >> senator wyden, i can only begin to imagine what it would mean to a retired american who relies on social security as their major or sole source of income if we had to tell them their check was going to be late. i remember my late mother lived on her social security check. many of us have relatives who lived on their social security check. if the check didn't come, if they didn't have the ability to call someone who could help them out

wyden, i can only begin to imagine what it would mean to a retired american who asies on social security their major source of income if we had to tell them the check was going to be late. my late mother lived on her social security check, many of us have relatives. if the check did not come, if they did not have the ability to call someone to help them out, they would be in trouble. anyone who thinks that anything short of default has never experienced what it means to live on social security. i share your view about those others. i think the public has heard, you have given some comments with respect to mortgages. i am concerned with retirees and their private savings. --retirees saw their private let's talk not just about retirees, workers have their savings at stake. the effect is the same, it is just more immediate for retirees. financialing the crisis, people's retirement assets fell dramatically in value. it reduced what retirees had to live on, it caused anxiety amongst working people about how they would catch up. we are in a place where, because of the resilience of the america

earlier today, a report that bonneville power administration -- they have a comment from senator ron wyden, the chairman of the natural resources committee. confirmshat the report a bonneville repeatedly and systematically violated federal rules giving hiring references to veterans. he added that this is simply unacceptable. hyundai should veterans deserve much better. so again, the house passing the restoration of the $100,000 death benefit today in the house. they also passed a bill partially funding the faa. the houses in at 10:00 tomorrow. the legislative work starts at noon. it will take up one bill which deals with or security. the senate is back as well tomorrow. at 10:30 eastern. it will take a break at 1:00 so they can -- so the democratic senators can attend the meeting at the white house. let's first go to jonesboro, arkansas. caller: yes, called social security today and said no regular check if they don't get this thing straightened out. not only that, the electric not payingl go broke their bills. >> which company? >> the government go broke. there will be no money coming in.

ron wyden said it is 100 years old and it looks like it. it is obvious to me it is urgent. it is urgent and the corporate side, by the way, because we are losing people, capital, investment, and headquarters overseas. right now people are making the decisions because of our tax code which is not competitive. we will not do it in the next 18 legislative days but let's face it. this group will not do tax reform. but we could put together instructions for tax reform saying let's facilitate and next night the process. i know chairman baucus wants to do that. i am not sure white where the leadership is on this but i think is a group we couldn't say, we know, we can agree not to whether we should raise or cut taxes -- republicans probably will be for revenue neutral reform and democrat would want to raise revenue. that is not the debate we have to have now but we can put off the discussion until we do substantive tax reform. but let's say in the next three months we can do it. we have had dozens of the errands. we have a consensus, i believe, knowing about how to do this, grow th

this bill will be offered in the senate by senator wyden. this creates a program to help state and local governments develop and implement comprehensive victim-centered programs creating a domestic tragic victims fund at the treasury, financed through the fines on persons convicted of human trafficking and child exploitation which can be used to fund support programs for victims. criminals pay for the crime in the -- they will serve jtle, and traffickers and buyers are prosecuted. sheriffs across the country have 5,000 shelters for animals. i got one of my three dalmations from the animal shelter. i love those places, but in the whole country, there are only 226 for minor sex trafficked victims. we can do better. the justice for victims act that i introduced, and i have introduced the end sex trafficking act, this bill combats human trafficking targeting criminals who purchase sexual acts and ensuring they are prosecutorred like the trarvegger. this goes after the anonymous buyer of sex trafficking and targets the demand to stop the sale of

udall of mexico, warner, warren, white house, wyden. mr. merkley, aye. mr. manchin, aye.s voting in the negative, alexander, ayatt, fisher, flake, graham, grassley, ho hoeve hoeven, inhofe, johnson of wisconsin, lee, mcconnell, maran, murkowski, paul, roberts, rubio, scott, toomey, wicker. mr. hatch, mr. hatch, no. mr. keyesia, mr. keyesia, no. mr. barroso, mr. barroso, no. mr. shelby, mr. shelby, no. mr. sessions, mr. sessions, no. mrs. shaheen, mrs. shaheen, aye. mr. blunt, mr. blunt, no. >> all right, we're going to step away from the drama in the senate chamber. and continue our conversations with chuck conesburg, he was an assistant director of the white house office of management during the '95 shutdown. in listening to all what is going on this morning, does it feel the same in '95? does it feel worse? how do you characterize this? >> well, 1995 was pretty bad. it was the longest shutdown in u.s. history, lasted for three weeks. this one, this one feels that it could be as bad, because of the level of gridlock that is currently in place right now. >> roger simon fr