schumer: thank you, madam president. i have just come to address the two amendments that are before us. first i want to salute my colleague, senator rockefeller, and all of those -- senator hutchison -- and on all of those on both sides of the aisle who have brought this f.a.a. bill before us. it's something that's needed. it is something that's long overdue. it's sad that america -- in america we don't have a g.p.s. system, where just about every western country does, even mongolia does. tibet does not. and to move forward and modernize our airports, it's important for jobs, it's important for travelers' convenience, but i would say most of all it is important for america's productivity. when people sit and wait on a runway, where planes are delayed or flights are canceled, the amount of output that our country loses is enormous. and we're losing. more than a france or an england or germany. because they have these modern systems and it is about time we put them n and aid just make one other point about it. there are so

to be appraised at such length by senator schumer one cannot take it lightly.s on i want to make a few comments on the health care bill which ine're and of itself interest me because we are here doing theorrect faa, and if i remember correctly, i stood here atech abou excessive length and gave aimportan of speech about the importance of the faa bill tauscher and kay bailey hutchison did the same and then all of a sudden here we are on health. here we have sort of opened and me the results entirely transparent. anybody can offer amendments. open. so it's open and what happens is evybody po immediately everybody pops in with their favorite amendment, say and i don't resent that.e the sena i'm just sayingto it is an interesting phenomenon should itself on the very first day andhowing whether that is when to last or not, i don't know. k but in the event, i'd think they think are still working senator hat baucus, hatch, others are on working on some faa stuff and talk abo the 1099 matter. so i want to talk about a couple care. of things about health care. i feel it's really important m that

chuck schumer did another version it, got eight votes. we came up with a medical loss ratio which nobody understands because it is such ridiculous wording except that it works. i want to talk about a couple of things like that until somebody comes and then i will humbly and gladly yield the floor. the senator wish to speak? 0, i will not be too long, although for me that's not a safe statement. as it happens sr-rbgs people over a period of months and months, they saw this thing happening, they didn't like it. people lined up on one side or the other and mostly it was the other and they didn't like it. it turns out "new york times"/cbs -- and i don't have to necessarily trust them because they took a poll. it says 80% of americans oppose repeal. i just found that inside the cloakroom in there. i don't sort of live by polls. but that's based on january 20 of this year. well, let's supposing it's off by 10%. let's supposing it's off by 15%. one thing that becomes clear from the generalizeation of that number, it certainly can't go higher.

schumer: thank you, mr. president. i rise in strong, vehement opposition to the a amendment offered -- to the amendment offered by the minority leader to repeal the health care reform law. i would say to my good friend from nevada, yes, we would like to work together to further reduce costs. but this bill does reduce costs significantly. the c.b.o. has said in no uncertain terms that the appeal would balloon the deficit by more than a trillion in the second decade. the law smokes out a good deal of the waste, the inefficiency, the duplication that we all know is part of our system. and that is the place where we have to continue to work together. our country delivers the best health care in the world, but it's also the most inefficient. we spend 17% of our g.d.p. on health care. the next highest spending country is only 10%. under the reform law, we will begin the first large step in keeping quality care, but getting the costs under control. now, if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle said, you know, you're ri

schumer: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: thank you. i, too, want to join in the accolades for our senator from west virginia, senator manchin. he is just one fine guy. i got to know him when he was governor and then campaigning. and he is doing a wonderful job here already. to have passion about where you come from is a noble thing. i think the great poets from greek times on have written that. and nobody has more passion about where he comes from and his roots than senator manchin, than joe man chifnlt and you can see it and feel it in everything he does, as we could in this speech today. and so i, too, want to join in thanking him for coming here. america needs his perspective and his wisdom. and i know he will make a greater senator and we're already great friends, and soy thank him here. i would also like to compliment my cleelg, the senior senator from west virginia, as we will. senator rockefeller, for his kind remarks. he's a great leader. joe and i have talked about how you can't go wrong watching and imitating and emulating se

schumer: thank you, mr. president. i rise in strong, vehement opposition to the a amendment offered -- to the amendment offered by the minority leader to repeal the health care reform law. i would say to my good friend from nevada, yes, we would like to work together to further reduce costs. but this bill does reduce costs significantly. the c.b.o. has said in no uncertain terms that the appeal would balloon the deficit by more than a trillion in the second decade. the law smokes out a good deal of the waste, the inefficiency, the duplication that we all know is part of our system. and that is the place where we have to continue to work together. our country delivers the best health care in the world, but it's also the most inefficient. wepend 17% of our g.d.p. on health care. the next highest spending country is only 10%. under the reform law, we will begin the first large step in keeping quality care, but getting the costs under control. now, if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle said, you know, you're righ

senator schumer and i have been working on this issue for some time and i appreciate very much his input and his counsel in taking this approach and i appreciate the support of the additional -- those additional sponsors as well as the chair, who is one of those sponsors. by creating a deterrent and establishing criminal penalties for those who take and distribute body scan images inappropriately, we'll help protect the american people's privacy while making sure we're using every resource available to try and assure their safety at the same time. this is not an an tract -- abstract concern. there's always been a case -- already been a case where these images, some 30,000 of them, have been taken and posted, some of them on-line inappropriately. so it's my hope that this amendment and the other cosponsors will have prevent that from occurring again. madam president, by including this amendment this the f.a.a. reauthorization, we're simply telling our constituents that we will not ignore their privacy in the process of making sure we have safe airports and federal buildings. that's what t

schumer: thank you, mr. president. first i want to congratulate my good friend, the senator from -- good friend and hunting buddy, the senator from nebraska, for the great work he has done on this. it's been a pleasure to work with him on it. we've had parallel interests and this amendment hopefully will solve a problem that has arisen lately. because of the full-body scanners that are being installed at airports. as everyone knows, late last year the t.s.a. began installing full-body advanced-imaging scanners at airports across the country. these new scanners are better able to quickly and accurately detect explosives than the old scanners and would likely afforded the christmas -- have thwarted the christmas day bomber before he had even goaten otoen pleafnlt but from the get-go, legitimate questions popped up about the potential for privacy violations from the use of these scanners. what happens if a rogue t.s.a. employee disseminates your image or what happens if a fellow passenger takes pictures of body scanner im

that was known when it was first passed as the schumer-kyl provision. schumer-kmbing yl. those are two senators. members of the other body. i would say probably extending from the left to the right. why did they put that in? because we believed that we were -- we were actually burdening ourselves in a way that would not allow us to find out about terrorism before it was actually carried out. the lone wolf provision recognizes that the greatest threat we have today are, as was said by the two co-chairs of the 9/11 commission, less consequential attacks, meaning attacks on a smaller scale than that we saw on 9/11, still meant to do grievous harm to americans, to cause us to see the loss of life, do tremendous physical damage to this country. yet, with smaller cells or even from individuals, do we have to be reminded on that christmas day a couple of years ago? that was a lone wolf. even though these provisions wouldn't apply because he's an american citizen, major hasan was a lone wolf. just to prove the point that we have to be concerned about lone wolfs. the other two pro

i and senator schumer and a number of colleagues are interested in this. this is a chance, colleagues, for the federal aviation administration to finally give these unmanned aerial systems the attention and the priority that's warranted. there is enormous potential here in the civilian sector. we've talked about it in the military sector. i want to yield now to the chairman of the committee, who's been exceptionally helpful to me not just on this question of the unmanned aerial systems, but for his patience as we worked through the slots issues where we finally got the breakthrough this morning. mr. chairman, i would be glad to yield to you for any comments that you have. mr. rockefeller: i thank the senator very much. i actually wanted to thank you. i've got our colloquy right in front of me, but i just want to say to you that i agree with what you're saying. i want to be helpful. and we will continue to be helpful. and there's some in a position not to be helpful on this and who are not being helpful. i understand that and such is life. i will continue t

last year senator schumer and i were successful in getting some legislation passed that provided for border protection personnel. it's my understanding that the house in its action yesterday on the cr, or the day before, has cut a lot of that money that we identify as additional resources to the brought to the border. i've got to tell you. sometimes i getty when lash around here. i listen to sanctimonious speeches about border scuty, border security, more resources, that that's the only thing we must focus on as it relates to all immigration issues in our country, and then five minutes later the same people giving the sank ka mones speeches are yanking out the money in the budget we need to secure the border. i azoom what they did yesterday basically wiped out wa we were able to add to this effort last year? >> yes, it was an experience of whiplash. >> i just think we have to call folks on this. i'm sick of hearing meetings on the border and people not willing to put money behind it. we could probably afford the big checks we're writing to the oil companies to secure our bodders. i w

to this amendment, the reason i do, as a member of the ways and means committee, we had commissioner schumer before us talking about the law and the affordable care act. he said all the additional funding they will receive will be used for outreach efforts, to inform small businesses about the tax cuts they are eligible for. 16,000 companies in my district alone are getting money under the act. mr. kind: if you look at the 50 million uninsured in this country, the bulk are working americans, typically in small businesses or family farms who have a hard time providing health care coverage. the i.r.s. will be doing outreach to them to let them know the benefits they'll receive along with other individuals throughout the country to make sure they receive quality, affordable health care coverage. that in essence will be the i.r.s.'s role. i think for that reason we should vote against this amendment. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentlelady from missouri. mrs. emerson: i continue to reserve. the chair: the gentleman from new york. mr. serrano: how much time do i have? the chai