to the full senate -- and that the senate as quickly as possible on their explanations. ranking member shelby and i have agreed to move the nominations for this closer, falling in mr. albini and block the advisable. we will then hold a roll call vote and mr. colin n. roll call vote. senator shelby, would you like to make a statement on the nominees? >> sure. i just want to make a statement, mr. chairman, regarding dr. diamond. as they said many times, i don't believe dr. diamond is there a person for this job. he is of course a very accomplished academic and economist in his field, but i don't believe he has the appropriate background or experience that makes him the best person for the job at this point in our economic history. the feds responsibility cut across three broad areas and be monetary policy, supervising our financial system and responding to financial crises. he does not have experience in any of these areas and i believe he's an old-fashioned big government. he supported wheeling out the big gangster in the crisis. he supports additional stimulus. he suppor

senator hutchison is here right now, senator landrieu i believe is also a co-sponsor on the bills, senator begich is on his way edify stand will give his issue when he arrives. i introduced the other two bills. those are s - 16 and s. 917 and i will take just a minute to describe them. they are intended to separately address to aspects of the issue of responsible production based on a bipartisan consensus based work. s - 16, the wheel and gas facilitation act to enhance sufficient inappropriate production domestic production of oil and gas the last two years has been a time of success increasing domestic production and reducing the reliance on imported oil. we are currently the largest producer of natural gas and the third largest producer of coal in the world. the percentage of the alleles that we used it is in port of his declined from 60% in 2008 to 51% in 2009 to 49% in 2010. unfortunately this is not the cure for high gas prices, or we would have seen gas prices declined consistently over the years instead of increasing. but this progress is important for many other reasons and we wan

now, this morning, senator udall and i had the help of several colleagues, senator merkley, senator tom udall, we reached an agreement with the chair of the intelligence committee, senator feinstein. she is going to be holding hearings on this issue next month. senator udall and i as members of the committee will be in a position to go into those hearings and the subsequent deliberations, be in a position to try to amend the intelligence authorization, and if we don't get results inside the committee because of the agreement today with the distinguished chair of the intelligence committee, senator feinstein, the majority leader, senator reid, we will be in a position to come back to this floor and offer our original amendment this fall. now, we're going to keep fighting for openness and honesty. as of today, the government's official interpretation of the law is still secret, still secret, mr. president, and i believe that there is a growing gap as of this afternoon between what the public believes that law says and the secret interpretation of the justice department. so i plan to vote

and today republicans in the senate used a procedural move to keep the senate in session through the memorial day recess is to make sure the president can't make a recess appointment of her clearly elizabeth warren is qualified for the job so why republicans sore for eight of her is because she stands up for the middle class and isn't afraid of saying take on the bankers who own the republican party they got interesting the democrats are bellyaching about this now because they of course pioneered these types of tactics during the bush administration to block president bush from making recess appointments so turnabout is fair or not is fair play well he did not seem upset that point i want to just make one more quick point republicans are also saying look we're also not going to allow the president to make more recess appointments like craig becker who by the way was rejected by an overwhelmingly democratic senate and president decided to thumb his nose at congress's authority to advise again sent them and he's going to not have that opportunity now that they're here first of all this

roberts on the floor today is senator roberts,r senator cardin, senator brown senato from idaho but deserves equal b credit and as the chairman saidc his legal mind and hisal insightful nature helped us come helped us to the conclusions we came to t. today. i want to repeat myo thanks to carroll bros for her effort in the work that she did as well ae brian, mike missile and john long who all work with her legal team. t the stafeaf of the ethics committee, this after the actoro to see to it that a treaty was crossed and that the committee did its job and that bill corker and handan thinks to them for all of their participation. no one in public officeresponsia volunteers for the type of responsibility that we have had in the case of senator in someoy but all of us to thatus e sponsibility when it came upon us recognizing the integrity off the senate and of our decision was important on the future of this body. as the deliberations were andprf the ultimate result was it was n proved tathat this senate and is ethics ethics committee can stand and r to the effort necessary to see to it

senate -- senator rakowski and and i senator murkowski have put together a paper and how you could construct a so- called clean energy standard which would be along the lines of what the president talked about in his state of the union speech. it would basically say that we want 80% of the electricity that is produced in the country produced from so-called clean energy sources by 2035. we are now seeing -- we have gotten nearly 300 responses back. we asked people for comments on it. we're now trying to figure out if we can put together a draft peace of legislation that could get enough votes to be seriously considered in our committee. we do not have the enter to that yet, but we're trying in a conscientious way to get to something that would achieve the kind of objective the president laid out. >> to you think the administration is getting aggressive on that or is working with congress now on its? the last time, that -- the last time there was a sweeping energy climate bill, the administration pulled back and did not work with congress as much as it would have. >> in trying to come up with

thank you. >> thank you very much, senator kerry, and senator lugar, and senator webb. it is a pleasure in front of this committee. i'm very humbled to come before you as president obama nominee to be the next united states ambassador of the people republican of china. it's the sign of the importance of the bilateral relationship between the two great nation that is they have nominated a current member of his cabinet to serve in the new capacity. i want to thank president obama and look forward to his confidence in my. i'm proud to be joined by my family, wife mona, and three children. no matter public service have taken us from the other washington to this washington and the if the senate confirms me on to beijing. they, especially mona, has been the con stance providing much love and much support. if my father jimmy, he passed away in january, he would be proud if i am confirmed to see his son become the first chinese-american ambassador. my father came to the united states as a young boy. he joined the u.s. army before the outbreak of world war ii. he was part of the

>> thank you very much, senator. i think we remain very firmly committed to enforcing all of the many laws that we have available to us now as well as international understanding such as u.n. security council resolution, 1929. to maximize the pressure on the iranian regime to engage seriously in diplomacy on the nuclear issue, something we have not seen to date. earlier today we announced a series of significant new measures with regard to sanctions against iran including seven new entities, companies designated under sisada as well as 16 new entities or individuals designated under the so-called in cna s. i think those are significant steps forward and we're continuing to look at other steps that we can take to demonstrate our seriousness and beyond our seriousness, the seriousness of the international community on these issues. it's instructive that the european union yesterday also announced about 100 new companies or firms that they're sanctioning in continuation of the international effort against iran. we have

quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: i request that proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: last night the senate defeat add misguided attempt to raise taxes on the five largest energy companies that are operating in our country. that bill, as we discussed, would have done nothing to reduce our gas prices, nothing to create jobs in america, and nothing to increase domestic energy production. and, furthermore it would have hardly made a dent in our spiraling debt. put another way, last night's effort would have done nothing to address the problems that most americans care about, that most americans are talking about as they discuss things around the dinner table. this morning we're here to debate a very different bill. this is called the offshore production and safety act. this was recently introduced by the minority leader, myself, 16 other senators, and there's a very clear contrast, without a doubt, between this and what was brought up yes

his home state senator, senator mache, vouched for -- senator hatch, vouched for him. the similarity, except for the philosophy, is exactly the same between mcconnell and liu. we voted for mcconnell. they want to stop liu. i would hope every senator would treat professor liu with the same fairness that the others have, that we treated them. so give the same weight to professor liu's assurances that we did to professor mcconnell's identical assurances, identical assurances. then vote up or down. mr. president, how much time does -- the presiding officer: 13 minutes and 30 second. circumstance i'm understanding that you have the time that you need. felled need the rest, you're going to have your -- if he would need the rest, you're going to have your time. mr. leahy: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. leahy: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: i yield the floor. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding of

senator jim webb voted on that. now these same veterans are being ripped off because we're not doing our job in congress. i ask the senator, when it comes to some of these recruiting practices that are being used by kaplan university, which is owns "the washington post," what you have disclosed here on the floor is embarrassing that we allow this to occur to our veterans. mr. harkin: i say to my friend it is. it's embarrassing and shameful. i said earlier this is from kaplan's recruiting, they call it their military learning module. and they call it fear, uncertainty, and doubt. as i said earlier, they say -- now this is an internal document. this is for the recruiters. this is not something they hand out to the public. we got this through our investigation. they say this technique of fear, uncertainty and doubt was originally created within the computer hardware industry and uses these emotions to influence perceptions or beliefs, and on and on. as i said earlier, it's one thing for high-pressure tactics to sell yo

we had a republican senator in the senate, had a plan, senator paul had a plan. the only people who didn't vote for any plan at all -- by the way, we had a vote on the president's budget, didn't get a single, solitary vote. not a single democratic senator voted for the president's -- >> but do you support ryan's reports? >> the guy you'll have on after me thinks that all we're doing right now is positioning for the 2012 election. what about the country? what about the next generation, not the next election? >> i'm just trying to understand where you are particularly on how to change medicare -- >> let me tell you. >> you're not -- you don't believe that the ryan plan is the basis of where you're going to get agreement? >> i voted for the ryan budget this year. >> but do you believe it's the big -- it failed. it's not going anywhere. >> with all due respect, the president in the united states, the only person in america who can sign a bill into law, is at the table along with the vice president and we are discussing a package that will begin to deal with deficit a

the chairman of the full committee, senator leahy made comments that similar to senator frankens in that we need to update things. he said he's working on an update of the communications privacy act, legislation adopted 15 years ago before we had location based services, so i think there are a loot of similar comments made to senator franken's. >> host: wanted to ask about one thing in that opening statement, "transmitting data and information to third parties." who are the third parties? >> guest: the third parties can be -- people say there's a lot in the wireless ecosystem, but there's applications down loaded by people on to their phones, but a lot of companies could be involved in helping create the applications or application developers to make extra revenue or carriers or companies carrying these systems can transmit that data to others for marketing purposes. for instance, again, a lot of the location based services try to focus on making money off where people are, so, for instance, people say walking back from star bucks, you get a coupon saying come in and get a latte, that ki

a senate budget produced by a senate budget committee? or will we be amending a resolution on the senate floor that the senate has passed? well, the answer is no. today is the 756th day since the democratically-led senate has passed a budget. in a time that congress has spent, during this two years, $7 trillion, and we've accumulated another $3.2 trillion in debt. we borrowed $3.2 trillion while we were spending $7 trillion. 40-plus cents of every dollar we spend is borrowed. every expert around the world and at home tells us this cannot continue. and what do we have to show for it all? unemployment stuck around 9%. very anemic economic growth and the very real threat of another priceless economic crisis like the bank financial crisis. so that's where we are. i think the american people, our ultimate board of directors, the people we serve, are not haefplt they think we're on the -- are not happy. they think we're on the wrong track. they are correct to so think. it's time for this congress to get the message and to get the message and ch

except for five voted to privatized medicare and paul ryan budget plan was rejected in the senate on wednesday but not before republicans lined up to sign their name to it all in all only nine republicans out of two hundred eighty eight in both the senate and the house had the courage to say no to any medicare as we know it now it's up to the democrats to make those these republicans who want to throw grandma off the cliff where their votes are around their neck into next year's elections. the patriot act was set to expire for the first time in nearly ten years president obama and congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle and system that this extension of the patriot act must get done but they were ran into a snag earlier this week all week the man standing in the way of the patriot act renewal was rand paul who offered up eleven amendments to the bill leaving it stalled in the senate up until just a few hours ago and it should be noted that other courageous senate democrats rand paul of course republican defied harry reid in expressing their concerns in opposition to the p

post" had an article about the "do-nothing senate," senator rand paul talks about how the senate doesn't do anything. certainly there have been fewer points to this point than there were last year. some of what senator coburn said when he was arguing, put the darn budget on the floor, put the deficit reduction on the floor and let's work it out, have a big public airing of what's going on. he said this in that same op-ed -- if we continue to avoid tough choices we will lose control of our economic destiny and go down in history as the senate that lost america. our epitaph will read never before in the field of legislating was so much ignored by so many for so long." this week that we're ending up, the senate voted on something it knew would not pass and that is taking away loopholes for oil companies. next week the senate is going to vote on two things, we think, that will not pass. the ryan budget plan, as well as the president's budget plan. why bother? why don't you all just get out on the floor and do something that matters, that will come to something? >> well, we should, and we wil

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: today, the senate will confirm two more of president obama's judicial nominees. i continue to work with the chairman of the committee to ensure nominees are afforded a fair but thorough process and in a timely manner. today's vote marks the 19th nominee to be confirmed in just 42 days that the senate has been in session this congress. the judiciary committee is holding nominations and their hearings on wednesday, and on thursday, we will report additional judicial and executive nominees to the floor. thus far, we have taken positive action on 43 of 63 nominees submitted this congress or 68% of all nominees. now, let me repeat that because i'm going to say something that makes it very disgusting to me, some things that are coming out of the white house. thus far, we have taken positive action on 43 of 63 nominees submitted to this congress or 68% of the nominees. with this progress, i was then surprised at the recent remarks of the white house counsel before the american bar

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i ask unanimous consent to be recognized for the duration of my remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: the successful end of the ten-year manhunt to bring osama bin laden to justice has appropriately heightened the nation's appreciation for the diligence, patriotism and courage of our armed forces and our intelligence community. they are a great credit, an inspiration to the country that has asked so much of them, and like all americans, i'm in their debt. but their success has also reignited debate over whether the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques of enemy prisoners, including waterboarding, were instrumental in locating bin laden and whether they are necessary and justifiable means for securing valuable information that might help prevent future terrorist attacks against us and our allies and lead to the capture or killing of those who would perpetrate them, or are they and should they be prohibited by our conscience and laws astor tour or

blumenthal and senator brown, senator klobuchar and senator blumenthal for participating in this hearing and i guess to wrap up by saying how i think in pressed we all have been by the information we've heard about the academic nature of the prescription drug problem and the rapid rate at which is growing affecting the emergency rooms, affecting the families, affecting our schools, our communities, the areas that appear to need further attention and effort include public awareness, and i was glad that our director of the office of national drug control policy was here to talk about his efforts in that regard. we appear to need to better coordinate our law enforcement resources of the with does appear that the prescription drug monitoring programs stand out as a growing and effective state based vehicle for addressing this problem but one that could be strengthened with further integration with electronic prescribing, integration and electronic records, some integration beginning immigration with the va, department of defense and indian affairs health systems and improve interoperability

these senators and i, along with the junior senator from oregon, senator merkley, and the senator from new mexico, senator tom udall, -- excuse me, the senator from testimony, mark udall, and the senator from rhode island, senator whitehouse, met last night to discuss this. the legal interpretation of the foreign intelligence surveillance act provisions and how these provisions are implemented. i very much appreciate the strong views that senator wyden and senator udall have in this area and believe that they are raising a serious and important point as to how exactly these authorities are carried out. i believe we are also all in agreement that these are important counterterrorism authorities and have contributed to the security of our nation. mr. wyden: mr. president, i have enormous respect for my special friend from california, the distinguished chair of the intelligence committee. i have sat next to her literally for more than a decade. we agree on virtually all of these issues, but this is an area where we have had a difference of opinion. i have said that i wouldn't support a lo

senate. the focus later today, later this afternoon will turn to a bill looking to curtail tax breaks for the oil industry. a procedural vote to move the bill forward which requires a 60-vote majority is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. eastern. this is the first of two energy-related bills to come to the floor this week. tomorrow lawmakers in the senate will consider a bill passed by the house. the aim is to increase oil and gas production. that measure, too, will have a 60-vote threshold. you can follow the senate debate on our companion network, c-span 2. here on c-span coming up this afternoon, we're going to take you to a briefing at the pentagon at 1:45. admiral michael mullen will be holding a joint news conference with his counterpart from the chinese army. he is in the united states meeting with pentagon officials and others and they'll hold a news conference this afternoon at 1:45. we'll have it for you live. follow the house and senate when you want. c-span's comprehensive resource on congr

right now we have a bill that has been written up by senator mccain, senator kerry and senator levin, the raging republican on the armed services committee, the ranking -- the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee and the chairman of the armed services committee and what this bill would do would basically of a rise ex poste facto the america operations in libya. senator mccain -- i talked to him about it. he agrees with john. he says i don't even think the war powers act is constitutional. i don't think he needs to follow this deadline. if such legislation would be needed, we drafted it. here's what you can use. it is ready to go. should the president need it or should harry reid believe -- not all republicans agree with john mccain of this. we have senator john gordon - o --cornin of texas providing a description of u.s. policy objectives in libya--libya during and after gadhafi's rule and providing congress with his plan to achieve those objectives and it would require the president to seek congressional authorization for the use of military force in libya. there's anot

when he joined the senate in 2005, senator barack obama became a cosponsor of our safe act. here's what he said -- and i quote -- as a senator -- "we don't have to settle for a patriot act that sacrifices our liberties or our safety. we can have one that secures both." i agree with then-senator obama. in 2006, the first time congress reauthorized the patriot act, some reforms from the safe act were included in the bill and i supported it. however, many key protections from the safe act were not included, so there aretill significant problems. the f.b.i. is still permitted to obtain a john doe roving wiretap that does not identify the person or the phone that will be wiretapped. in other words, the f.b.i. can obtain a wiretap without telling a court who they want to wiretap or where they want to wiretap. in garden variety criminal cases, the f.b.i. is still permitted to conduct sneak-and-peek searches of a home without notifying the homeowner about the search until a later time. we now know that the vast majority of sneak-and-peek searches take place in cases that don't invol

and senator menendez, along with senator brown, senator mccaskill, later today will introduce legislation that our side agrees with which will say take all that money and put it to deficit reduction. there are some who would have preferred to put the money into encouraging independence from particularly foreign oil, but because the deficit is such a huge problem, because we might have a dispute with our friends on the other side of the aisle as to where the money ought to go, everyone can agree it would be worthwhile to take a little bit of the burden off the taxpayers, have the oil companies pay their fair share, and stop these ridiculous tax breaks and subsidies to big oil, to the five big oil companies. and so i would ask speaker boehner to show some good faith. some on his side of the aisle have said these subsidies don't belong. they were created when oil was $17 when we worried about production here. oil went over $100 a barrel again yesterday. the oil -- you don't have to worry about their desire to explore. they're looking for every place they can. they don't need a tax subsidy to

senator graham, senator conrad, thank you for coming in. pleasure to talk to both of you. up next, the 2012 presidential race -- 2012 republican presidential race. is donald trump already out of the mix? the sunday panel talks politics when we come right back. and brewed the coffee. we heated the bathwater and gave kelly a cleaner ride to school. cooked the cube steaks and steamed the veggies. entertained dad, and mom, and a neighbor or two. kept watch on the house when they slept. and tomorrow we could do even more. we're cleaner, domestic, abundant and ready now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power today. learn more at anga.us. is it the new forty, i don't know. i probably feel about thirty. how is it that we don't act our age? [ marcie ] you keep us young. [ kurt ] we were having too much fun we weren't thinking about a will at that time. we have responsibilities to the kids and ourselves. we're the vargos and we created our wills on legalzoom. finally. [ laughter ] [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help you take care of the ones you love. go to legalzoom.c

next week, the senate energy committee is supposed to have a markup and senator bingaman, the chairman would like to try to move oil spill legislation. through his committee next offered. the republicans might not let that happen. the senate energy committee is trying to work on this issue and come up with a bipartisan bill to address some of these issues on energy supply and demand. were going to see that play out weeks ahead. >> covering those issues on capitol hill, sub one of the bna news coming thank you for the update. >> thank you. >> defense secretary robert gates said there is no evidence that the pakistani government knew of osama bin laden's whereabouts, but he believes the money. watch the briefing with admiral mike mullen at the pentagon today. >> if i were in pakistani shoes, i would say i've already paid a price. i've been humiliated. i've been shown that the americans can come in here and do this with impunity. and i think we have to recognize that they see a cost in not in a price that has been paid. but if the leadership doesn't know -- look, i've done as much about a

senate. would you be willing to give up the house budget chairmanship to run for the u.s. senate? >> herb just announced this friday. it was a bit of a surprise to all of us. so my family and supporters just started digesting this. i plan on making an announcement very quickly. i don't want to dwindle on this but we're just beginning to process this information. >> this week maybe we'll hear? >> yes. >> thanks so much. congressman paul ryan, we appreciate your time. >> thank you, candy. >>> up next, the republicans' field of presidential candidates takes shape. do any of them have the right stuff to beat president obama in 2012? power and associates ranked us "highest in customer satisfaction in the united states." so, we thought we'd take a little time to celebrate. ♪ ♪ all right, then, back to work helping clients. individual attention from our highly-trained mortgage professionals. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. oneyou know, the onesloans who do such a super job, they're backed by the superguarantee®? only superpages®. wherever you are, wherever you're

>> senator portman, thank you for your question. i will direct my department to get that information to you on the number of rigs. on the question of where we are in terms of incomed production, in the last two years, just from the outer shelf were the increase has been from 446 to over 600 million. that's an increase about 1/3 just from the outer shelf on the on shore where we have had 41 million acres under lease. the increase has been 5% during that same time period. >> so it's mostly outer intercontinental shelf. i think she indicated that drilling is off by 50% since the moratorium. i think she even said there's not any deepwater permits producing. you indicated that you've approved some of those perms now. i know we'll hear more from her on that. but i guess what you are hearing today, both from senator hutchinson and begich and others who are concerned as i am about our energy independence and need to produce more oil and gas is in the context of the moratorium, we need to look back and see what the impacts were to avoid in m

a senator: to the senator from l.a. la l.a. -- to the senator from louisiana, let me say, when you describe the moratorium or whatever they call it in the gulf, it is even worse in our state. mr. begich: i mentioned when i had the map i showed the national petroleum reserve. that was set aside by the government to prepare our country for more energy independence decades ago. we can't even get a permit to go across in everyone else now calls it a big river. it really isn't. it's a very small area, but just a bridge to go over to go explore for what you just described. we can't even get on to the land that the government set aside that would then term if we have oil and gas prospects, we believe there is. but the other piece to this which you hammer away, and if we're skunks of the garden, so be it. it's a question of fairness as you described the 13% of the subsidies, or incentives, that they receive, they produce 60% of the energy, but your other statistic is even more dramatic. of the remaining 87% of those subsidies o

senator coburn? >> at the recommendation of the chairman would like you to come to my office and had a sit-down, i promise the chairman of would do that when your nomination was discussed. earlier today you said in your testimony there are areas of the constitution that are very precise. i have a question for article iii section ii judicial power shall extend in all areas recognizing the constitution and trees made of which will be made under their authority. is that the precise view? because the idea of precisely this is an important definition. >> article iii section ii contains an absolute requirement that judges decide only cases or controversies which did not render advisory's. that is fairly explicit in the text of the constitution. >> the reason i ask that question is the chairman quoted you in terms of your statement absolute fidelity of the law. your statement that caused difficulty is the following, resistance to this practice in terms of reference in foreign law is difficult for me to gras

passed senate 1082, that the senate agreed to senate concurrent resolution 13, appointments, advisory commitment on the records of congress. with best wishes, i am, signed, sincerely, karen l. haas. the chair: the -- the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on maye 26, 2011, at 6:25 p.m., that the senate concur in house amendment with an amendment. senate 990. with best wishes, i am, signed sincerely, karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from alabama seek recognition? >> i present a privilege red port for printing under the rule. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk rill epe -- will report the title. the clerk: a bill making appropriationers in department of homeland security for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2012, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempor

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: i would nirs like to thank senator coburn for allowing me to take a few minutes to speak about something very important in my state, and that is that tomorrow would be hubert humphrey's 100th birthday. hubert humphrey was you are a happy warrior in minnesota, mr. president, the son of a small-town south dakota drugstore owner who lifted himself up through hard work and determination to become the mayor of minneapolis, a united states senator, representing minnesota, and the 38th vice president of the united states of america. i actually have hubert humphrey's desk, mr. president, something i requested when i got to the senate. it somehow got in a different category and i got the former senator of new hampshire, gordon humphrey's desk, for the first two years. but then lo and behold, with the last congress coming in, i did get hubert hum fries defnlgt i was a senior in high school when hubert humphrey passed away and i still remember standing in line for his funeral in st. p

we're going to prevail in this effort. >> ifill: senator saxby chambliss and senator mark udall, thank you both very much. >> lehrer: now how other americans are reacting to the news of bin laden's death nearly a decade after the 9/11 attacks. judy woodruff has that part of our story. >> woodruff: it led some to cheer in the streets; for others, it marked a moment of quiet closure. we explore what osama bin laden's death means to people in this country with the reverend janet vincent, rector of saint columba's episcopal church in washington, d.c. nine years ago, she ministered to rescuers, workers, and families of those killed at the site of the world trade center. robert pinsky, who was poet laureate of the united states from 1997 to 2000. he has written about the events of september 11. and lauren french, a junior at the george washington university and editor-in-chief of the school's newpaper, "the hatchet." her home town is jupiter, florida. we ask you three because you do come from different experiences. robert pinsky i'm going to begin with you. what has osama bin laden meant to

the senator has been under investigation by the senate ethics committee over whether he violated senate rules with an affair with a former campaign aide. her husband was the deputy chief of staff during most of the extra marital relationship. the resignation was effective may 3. his remarks are about 12 minutes. >> mr. president, i rise today to deliver a very difficult speech, which will be my farewell speech to the united states senate. serving as the 24 united states senator has to be been the greatest professional privilege of my life. growing up with a single mom and very humble surroundings, i simply never imagined that one day, i would end up as a member of such an agusta body as this. unfortunately, the experiences that stem from a more than 10 years of my senate service cannot be summed up in one single speech. i owe a humble thank you to many people who helped to get me here and who have served me effectively. from campaign volunteers, staff, and donors, to some of the best people whom i've ever worked with, my senate staff. i cannot think you enough for honor of the past many

senator -- senior senator of new hampshire. and certainly such a position would require both the president and the senate judiciary committee to give great deference to -- something she might say -- but the other state from the senate republican or democratic. now, the senate faced a precipice last week and turned away from it when 11 republican senators joined and voted to end the filibuster with the nomination of jack mcconnell for the district court for the district of rhode island. in doing so, a supermajority of the senate came together to reject a new standard which i believe is being unfairly applied to president obama's district court nominee, a standard i've never seen applied to any president, republican or democratic. now nearly 20 months -- and keep in mind, madam president, this is a judicial emergency. this is one of those judicial emergencies that the chief justice of the united states had been urging us to fill. it's taken nearly 20 months before -- since his confirmation hearing and then having had his nominati

senate gavels in shortly. senators have completed scheduled legislative work for the week spending today in general speeches. the house is working today on offshore oil and gas drilling. members are considering a bill to require a number of pending leases to be approved. you can see live house coverage on c-span. now here on c-span2, live senate coverage. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal and mericful god, thank you for both spiritual and temporal blessings, particularly the riches of your mercies poured down upon us. thank you for blessing our lawmakers, for guiding their thoughts and words, so that their labors glorify you. lord, give them the strength and courage to fulfill your commands, trusting your wisdom more than their own. save them from either desiring or seeking the honor that comes only from humanity, but may they desire your approval more than life itself. keep them from evil as t

senate. lawmakers are beginning the day with general speeches and later they'll consider a judicial nomination. this is live coverage on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to or. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. almighty god, ruler of history and the nations, we praise you, we adore you, we magnify your holy name. may your presence be felt in our midst today guiding our thoughts and ordering our steps. permit the members of this body to receive a fresh awareness of who you are and what you desire for them to do. lord, the challenges they face are so great that they need your wisdom to meet them. use our senators this day so that your will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven. let your peace come to them as they commit their responsibilities to you and then work with your guidance and grace. we pray in your sacred name. amen. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic fo

, senator mitch mcconnell of kentucky. he joins us from the capitol. senator welcome. >> i'm glad to be with you. and sorry that you're going to hang it up after all these many years. it's been a great exprid we enjoyed watching and you american people are going to miss you. >> lehrer: thank you, senator. i'm still going to be here on many of the friday nights. i'm anything to explain this at the end of the program tonight. but thank you for your kind words. how would you describe your meeting today with president obama? >> very good and very candid. you guys, meaning the press, were not in the room which, you know, does contribute to candor, and the president, i think correctly, viewed it as more of a listening opportunity for him. he doesn't have, obviously, as much interaction with republicans as he does daerjz which is understandable. and so, it was an opportunity for him to hear from our members how we see where we're headed. i can speak for myself. i began our discussion by point pointing out when standard & poorz sa

now, senator landrieu and i introduced bipartisan legislation earlier this year called senate bill 516, the lease extension and secure act of 2011, known as the lease act. it restores time lost as a result of the offshore moratoria by extending the impacted leases by one year. it is fair and it is simple. now, over the weekend, the president stated that he would be extending leases in the gulf of mexico that were affected by the moratorium, but he wasn't clear about which ones. he didn't say i will extend every lease that went through the processes to get the environmental and the safety restrictions in place. they got the lease. then they had a moratorium, so now they're paying people. they are continuing to have all of the expenses of the lease, but they don't get to do the exploration. what we're trying to do is say whether you were in the exploration phase or in the drilling phase, it doesn't matter. if you are impacted by a moratorium on a lease that you're still paying for and you're still paying people to try to keep people on the payroll, your lease will be extended for one yea

the chairman of the full committee, senator leahy, made comments similar to senator frank anden's. he is working on an update of the electronic communications privacy act. so, i think there are a lot of comments made to senator franken. >> one thing that he said in the opening statement -- transmitting data to the third party is. who are the third parties? >> that could be anyone in the system. u.s. applications. a lot of companies that might be involved in creating applications or actually application developers, to make extra revenue, could transmit that data to other people for marketing purposes. a lot of the location-based services focus on making money off where people are. if you are walking by starbucks, we have a coupon on your phone. come in and get a latte. the problem is the application developers, they do not fall under the laws characterized by the federal communications commission. the four carriers can take identifiable information of a person and use it for commercial purposes, they have to get permission of that person. but operating system makers and application

in the senate, the senate finance committee. that's the committees that write the bill that you can say what's happening or not happening to medicare. anyone here telling the public that if this budget blueprint is adopted, it will be a law doesn't understand how the legislative process works. but this vote isn't even about a budget blueprint. the debate that we're having today is about a simple motion to whether we ought to even debate a budget. if the democrats were willing to proceed to an honest and open debate, we could talk about where we want to go with the medicare program at that time. if the democrats are willing to proceed to an honest and open debate, we could debate steps to save the program. if the democrats were willing to proceed to an honest and open debate, we could have amendments to improve the resolutions as offered. of course, the democrats are not willing to proceed to an open and honest debate. i agree that changing the nature of medicare is a significant step. requiring people who are ten years away from

in the united states senate, serving on the senate finance committee and working with a good senate leader like senator baucus. i now have the privilege of serving on there but not as ranking member or chairman, but just as a member. but i compliment senator baucus for his leadership on this whole business of tax reform and holding hearings that he's hearing, having held, and today a very important one is being held on the question of is the distribution of tax burden and benefits equitable. the topic of today's hearing is very appropriate, whether the distribution of tax benefits and burdens is equitable is a very important topic. however, i would argue that there is a more important question that we should be debating and we should be answering this question: what is the purpose of the federal income tax? we can't talk about whether taxpayers are paying their fair share if we don't know why we want them paying taxes in the first place. we're in a situation now where people are talking about increasing taxes on higher-income people because, supposedly, they can afford it. and probably the

i thank senator casey and senator stabenow, senator baucus and senator wyden for their leadership on trade adjustment assistance language, in getting this legislation put forward. mr. president, just the fairness of this -- again, put yourself -- something we don't do enough of here -- put yourself in the shoes of a worker in champagne, illinois, or in boulder, colorado, or in mansfield, ohio, a worker who showed up for work 15 years, helped his company make money, paid a middle-class, decent wage, then all of a sudden their plant shuts down because it's the -- the jobs are outsourced to chiefnlt they didn't do anything wrong. are we going to do nothing to help them? are we going to do nothing to help their communities? it is pretty clear to me, the overwhelming consensus of the american people say give them the opportunity to get training for another job if we can't save their jobs. give them the health insurance, some assistance and health insurance so they can reach into their pocket with some assistance through a significant tax credit to continue the insurance for their families

i want to get your sense of what the senate is like today. watching it, it looks like not a lot is happening. this week, there were votes on judges and there's another week where there was a single vote on a judge and it seems there are five weeks spent on a small business bill that ended up in a drawer somewhere because democrats did not want to vote on an amendment. is there an inability to get things done in this set? what is your sense of why things are so slow and why there doesn't seem to be much other than the deficit and debt talks going on, is there nothing else that can get to the floor? >> obviously there are a lot of factors. the senate is not functioning the way i would like to see it function, but i think the polarization that has settled them here in washington is a large part of that. that's a partial explanation. a lot of folks are being elected to office these days with a real commitment not to compromise, not to give in to the other side and of course, we've got large constituencies out there that they insist they not compr

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. a senator: mr. president, i greatly respect my friend from alabama, senator sessions, and i simply have come to a different conclusion with regard to jim cole. i worked with jim cole. i was part of a legislative committee in the house of representatives that had to do some very difficult work on an ethics issue involving a former speaker of the house of representatives. mr. cardin: it was a tough decision to bring together six members of the house, three democrats, three republicans, and to do it in a way that would maintain the nonpartisan requirements of an ethics investigation. the atmosphere was very partisanly charged around the work that we were doing. i know this sounds familiar because people in maryland and connecticut and around the nation understand that we're working in a very partisan environment here and they expect the people that are charged with the department of justice to work in a nonpartisan manner. this is not a partisan position, the deputy attorney general. this is a person w

the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll of the senate. quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. tester: thank you, mr. president. are we in a quorum call? the presiding officerwe are.mr.m call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. and the senator from montana is recognized. mr. testerer: thank you. mr. president, i rise in support of legislation that i'm proud to cosponsor to finally end the taxpayer handouts to the world's largest oil companies as they rake in record profits. the measure's about accountability, it's about responsibility, it's about fairness. when i got out the tractor for planting spring late last weekend, i went to fill my tank and the cost was $3.69 a gallon in big sandy, montana. almost a dollar higher than it was just a few months ago. but while i am paying close to four bucks a gallon at the pump, like other working americans, the oil company execs are padding stock options, bonuses and diminishing their investment here in america through tax loopholes to offshore production.