leahy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, cathy bissoon of pennsylvania to be united states district judge for the western district of pennsylvania. mr. leahy: have the yeas and nays been ordered? the presiding officer: no, they have not. mr. leahy: i request the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. leahy: mr. president, i ask consent to put my full statement in the record because i see the senior senator from pennsylvania on the floor who wishes to speak, and i'm going to yield to him in just a moment. first, i would ask consent that i speak briefly about the transportation-h.u.d. appropriations bill that the senate is going to next be debating. the presiding officer: without ÷bjection. mr. leahy: i thank se

leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, i notice nobody on the floor seeking recognition. i ask consent that the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president, if i could just speak briefly -- and of course i'll yield the floor if somebody comes forward and actually wants to do something here. but i'd like to speak to an amendment 753 to h.r. 2112 by the distinguished senator from new hampshire, senator ayotte. the amendment i believe would tie the hands of our national security and law enforcement efforts to secure our national security. i'm a little bit concerned the amendment is being offered at this time. you know, just a week ago we learned of the foiled asenior senator nation attempt in the united states of the saudi ambassador to the u.s. we learned that because the justice department, the d.e.a., thephyte, others -- the f.b.i., others worked very closely to stop what would

leahy: i yield to the senator from iowa. the presiding officer: the distinguished senator from iowa is recognized. mr. grassley: thank you, mr. president. today we continue our cooperation with the majority as we vote on three more judicial nominees. with a confirmation earlier this week and six judicial confirmations last week, i would no note the progress we've made. after today's vote we will have confirmed 68% of president obama's judicial nominees submitted during his presidency. we remain ahead of the pace set forth in the 108th congress. we've already held hearings on over 84% of president obama's judicial nominees this congress. while at this point in the 108th congress only 7 77% of president bush's nominees had their hearing. just this morning the judiciary committee reported five more nominees to the senate floor totaling over 77% of president obama's judicial nominees receiving favorable votes out of our committee. that is compared to only 72% of president bush's judicial nominees receiving favorable outcomes at

the framers of the constitution thought not everything should get passed but it was senator patrick leahy and the senate judiciary committee had justice stephen breyer up there to talk about the role of the justices under the constitution. gwen: it's unusual for justices to testify. >> the scene of the crime is the senate judiciary committee when they're trying to get through the process and only a handful of times have justices returned to testify on something so we thought it would be a terrific moment. gwen: they were comparing who got the most votes from the senate, and i think it was scalia. gwen: we'll talk about more of this, we'll keep gabbing on the web. you can find our "washington week" webcast extra on line at 11:00 p.m. eastern tonight. also on our website, you go into our vault and view our program from 10 years ago this week when president bush launched the war in afghanistan. keep up with the developments on the pbs news hour and we'll do our best to make sense of it all next week on "washington week." good night. download our weekly podcast and take us with you. it's the

hopeful leahy can understand that. it fires me up. it fires me up a lot, so i am not going to apologize for that. if it offends you or anybody else, so be it. >> i talked to somebody on the field and harbaugh said, "how about that" after he wins and of course the coach who got beat will take offense. that shows the difference of a coach who played in the nfl emotionally and one who didn't. and the raiders honored al davis. john madden lighting they ter national flame. browns ensuing kickoff and ford from one yard in the end zone and right up the gut and turns on the jets. he tip toes down the sideline and unbelievable balance and takes it 101 yards. still in the second and raiders looking for more. campbell crushed under two linebackers. he leaves the game and he would not return. raiders say it is a broken collar bone and it could end his season. the raiders lining up for a field goal and it is a fake! the emergency quarterback to boss and 35 yards and raiders up 14. the browns rally back. 10 unanswered points. it is a chance to tie

leahy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations which the clerk will report. the clerk: nominations, the judiciary, henry f. floyd of south carolina to be united states circuit judge. nannette brown of louisiana to be united states district judge. nancy torresen of maine to be united states district judge. william francis kuntz, ii of new york to be united states district judge. marina garcia marmolejo of texas to be united states district judge. jennifer guerin zipps of arizona to be united states district judge. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be one hour for debate with respect to the nominations with the time equally divided in the usual form. mr. leahy: and, mr. president, that would bring us to 20 minutes to 6:00, and i think there was proba

before the california state assembly, judiciary committee, and provided written testimony to senator leahy for the uniting of american families act. the irc, in making their recommendations to the mayor and board of a supervisors, to improve and enhance the quality of life into the participation of all the grim immigrants in the city and county of san francisco must include the plight of same-sex couples and by-national relationships. at the four of any immigration reform discussion, particularly for this city, the current immigration law fails so many immigrants and families. yes, same-sex relationships stand on prejudicial ground when compared to their heterosexual counterparts. without specific language such as that in the united families act which seeks to have permanent partners, same-sex by dutch national couples will remain victims to the law that compels discrimination against lgbt couples, including the right to sponsor a spouse, and with no right to a k1 same-sex visa. we are advised that took schumer will introduce same-sex reform in january 2010. we are also told that passage b

hopeful leahy will get another opportunity to -- hopefully he will get another chance to play. >> the coach played quarterback roulette. palmer had no business playing in the game with three days to prepare and he had not played in an nfl game in almost a year. he didn't know the offense and could have been injured, but he will be ready for the broncos in two weeks. >> i feel like i am back in high school and cramming for the s.a.t.'s or something ke

and leahy executives kill ktvu, there were no plans to fire allman. >> lehigh is paying its employees while the plant is closed and will cover costs of the funerals for the three people killed. a long time truck driver is talking publicly about the shooting rampage. mike ambrose yo tells the news, -- ambrosio, he was shot in the arm and pretended to be dead. a week ago, he told shareef allman. he would no longer represent him because of the safety violations. >>> underground failure was blamed for this accident. it came at piedmont avenue. and witnesses describe hearing a boom. the electrical fire knocked out power to 5,000 pgand e customers and -- pg and e customers. >> there are extra patrols and the university campus following reports of a sexual assault there. it happened last friday night inside a room at the towers residence hall. now the 18-year-old victim said she was visiting campus to attend a party with her friends. the attacker lowered her into an elevator and led her to a room where she thought the party was located. they don't know if the suspect lived there or was just

that's right, vermont senator patrick leahy is proposing new legislation to make it a federal crime to mislabel products as containing maple syrup. the democrat says the law is needed to protect vermont's maple crop from fraud. this comes after the fda found a man in rhode island was selling fake vermont maple syrup online. the product actually contained no syrup at all. >>> a popular gaming system has once again been attacked. sony says it has detected a large number of unauthorized attempts to access user accounts on the playstation network. the tech company says they've locked about 93,000 accounts whose ids and passwords were stolen. the credit card numbers linked to those accounts were not at risk. earlier this year. they broke into the playstation network and compromised more than 100 million accounts, stealing personal information and credit card numbers. >>> the state tries to raise money for transportation projec projects. a transportation panel is considering a 5% gas tax hike and a 6% jump in vehicle registration fees as likely options for raising $800 million a year in tran

hopeful leahy will get another opportunity to -- hopefully he will get another chance to play. >> the coach played quarterback roulette. palmer had no business playing in the game with three days to prepare and he had not played in an nfl game in almost a year. he didn't know the offense and could have been injured, but he will be ready for the broncos in two weeks. >> i feel like i am back in high school and cramming for the s.a.t.'s or something like that, but it is a lot more fun. it has been a lot of work and it has been some long days. >> game six of the world series has been postponed until thursday in st. louis due to rain. the rangers were hoping to ends the series with a victory. they will have to wait another day, but st. louis will have something to say about that. and that is your toyota sports report. >> carson palmer enjoyed a lot of it, but not all of it. he went to usc and big game between stanford and usc. >> thank you. >>> "nightline" is up next. >> you can keep track of the latest breaking news on the occupy protest in oakland and san francisco on twitter at abc7 ne

so, but it was -- senator patrick leahy and the senate judiciary committee had justice scalia and justice stephen breyer up there to talk about the role of judges under the constitution and it turned out to be a lovefest, frankly. there weren't fireworks. gwen: but it's unusual for justices to testify. >> the scene of the crime is the senate judiciary committee when they're trying to get through the process and only a handful of times have justices returned to testify on something so we thought it would be a terrific moment. gwen: they're comparing who got the most votes out of the senate and i think it was scalia. we'll talk more of this. the conversation has to end here for now but we'll keep gabbing on the web. you can find our "washington week" webcast extra online at 11:00 p.m. eastern tonight and you can go into our vault and view our program from 10 years ago this week when president bush launched the war in afghanistan. find it all at pbs.org. keep up with daily developments on the "pbs newshauer" and we'll do our best to make sense of it all next week on "washington week." downlo

senator grassley has never been able to get a hearing which is inexplicable that senator leahy would not be just as interested as we are. >> schieffer: congressman, i want to thank you very much for coming. maryland democratic congressman elijah cummings who is the ranking democrat on the committee spoke with us this morning. here's what he said. >> congressman cummings, what do you make of all this? >> first of all, bob, when a few months ago i met with the brian terry family. brian terry, of course, was the young man border patrol who was killed. two guns from fast and furious were found at the scene. i promised them two things. one, we would get answers for them. and two that we would make sure that this never happened again. i think basically what we have here is is a situation where we're not getting a responsible and balanced investigation. the attorney general, when he found out about it, the first thing he did was immediately order an investigation. the second thing he did is he sent out a memo to all of his staff saying, look, this is not the way we operate. we do not let gu

senator grassley has never been able to get a hearing which is inexplicable that senator leahy would not be just as interested as we are. >> sch er: congressman, i want to thank you very much for coming. maryland democratic congressman elijah cummings who is the ranking democrat on the committee spoke with us this morning. here's what he said. >> congressman cummings, what do you make of all this? >> first of all, bob, when a few months ago i met with the brian terry family. brian terry, of course, was the young man border patrol who was killed. two guns from fast and furious were found at the scene. i promised them two things. one, we would get answers for them. and two that we would make sure that this never happened again. i think basically what we have here is is a situation where we're not getting a responsible and balanced investigation. the attorney general, when he found out about it, the first thing he did was immediately order an investigation. the second thing he did is he sent out a memo to all of his staff saying, look, this is not the way we operate. we do not let guns

so, but it was -- senator patrick leahy and the senate judiciary committee had justice scalia and justice stephen breyer up there to talk about the role of judges under the constitution and it turned out to be a lovefest, frankly. there weren't fireworks. gwen: but it's unusual for justices to testify. >> the scene of the crime is the senate judiciary committee when they're trying to get through the process and only a handful of times have justices returned to testify on something so we thought it would be a terrific moment. gwen: they're comparing who got the most votes out of the senate and i think it was scalia. we'll talk more of this. the conversation has to end here for now but we'll keep gabbing on the web. you can find our "washington week" webcast extra online at 11:00 p.m. eastern tonight and you can go into our vault and view our program from 10 years ago this week when president bush launched the war in afghanistan. find it all at pbs.org. keep up with daily developments on the "pbs newshauer" and we'll do our best to make sense of it all next week on "washington week." downlo

because society is under attack ok now we had the face going to in parliament as the name of the racket leahy's example i mean they don't actually think to have much support here in a country d.-day at which things can happen that it doesn't pay big stand how. we're facing a very unique situation we were supposed to be the cradle of democracy and greece is become the best bit of democracy we have a government which has been rejected openly by that of majority of the people and at the same time they're good they're just very cynical way just voting yet another blue and through parliament they have noted that the message i mean they're the most hated democratically elected government in modern greek history i mean this cannot go anywhere ok probably they will pass the vote they will finalize this through parliament so what people are going to become poorer and poorer they're seeing public sector services collapsing hospitals schools universities they're facing an extreme deterioration of the living state of their living conditions so we're just going to see social explosion after social exclusion

another anthrax letter addressed to senator patrick leahy of vermont found unopened. >> no one thought, whoa, any letter in congress has to come through the brentwood mail handling facility just a few blocks away in northeast washington. so none of the postal worker were given the benefit of immediate nasal swabs or preemptive doses of an antibiotic. >> two poes sal workers, joseph curseen and thomas morris jr. will die. >> letters but we couldn't prove, you know, where it was -- where it originated from. >> the fbi's ed montooth now retired would become lead agent. >> was it coming from al qaeda, was it coming from a foreign government. was it home grown issue? >> whoever mailed the anthrax had covered his tracks. >> hoping for a partial fingerprint at a minimum or some sort of dna. we had none of that. we had absolutely none. >> the anthrax powder offered hints after being examined by one of the pentagon's experts on biological weapons. a scientist named bruce ivans. >> there was no one who is more experienced at growing, purifying, and handling, preparing anthrax spores at ft. dietr

hopeful leahy will get the crap beat out of him. >> happy evaluate your life day, greg. >> how can that be happy? >> it gives uh chance to reflect on what you have done and where you are going. for certain people that's not a bad idea. >> are you insinuating something, andy? >> what do you mean? >> you put emphasis on my name there. >> did i? >> i think you did. >> i don't think so, greg. i think there is something else going on here. >> what if there is, andy? >> it is carlos, isn't it? >> it would have been you are anniversary. >> let it go. >> he was the best full body massage therapist on the planet. he used to walk on my back. >> that's all in the past. >> he was so limber. >> it is over, greg. >> i never should have introduced him to john gibson. >> he would have found him. >> i hope carlos is happy jie. if he is with john, we just hope he is still breathing. >> he could really breathe. >> happy evaluate your life day. >> i believe i just did. go away. let's welcome our guests. they call her saganaki because she is hot and greek. she is the new york daily news columnist and co-hos

senator patrick leahy will introduce a bill making it a felony for people to sell fake stuff for real maple syrup. it's needed to protect vermont's farmers and crop from fraud. >>> fashion conscious women covet the big name designers, but who could afford the big price tag that goes with them? poppy harlow figured out a way to let youear the threads without pulling on your purse strings. >> reporter: robert rodriguez, moschino. all inside thisina new jersey warehouse. well, the designers aren't here, but thousands of their latest frocks are. ready to be rented out at a fraction of retail. >> right now on our racks, we have close to 35,000 dresses. we have close to 20,000 accessories. >> reporter: a product of the great recession, rent the runway, has brought high fashion to, well, main street. this dress is a nina richie dress that jennifer aniston just wore. >> reporter: it's yours for 175 bucks, for a few days, at least. >> the fact that you can wear it and not have to worry about dry cleaning and put it in an envelope and send it back and then it can be shared with someone else, it

and cascaded across europe and here in the americas, and barbara, i read a story yesterday, patrick leahy said he did not mind having the blackberry out, because his staff could not get to him. phones and blackberries, it would be like a vacation, right? you have one you keep with you all the time? >> i am a crackberry attddict, have to say. >>> today, half of child booster seats pose risks, we're learning. and this morning, thes s iinst of highway safety had a result that showed the booster seats work when the shoulder bets and lap seats are properly positioned. >> the shoulder belt is sitting snugly across the center of the shoulder, and you don't want it riding off the shoulder or riding up on the neck. >> six were so bad the insurance institute for highway safety recommends parents avoid them. can you check out specific results at ihs.org. >>> here at nbc 4, we're proud of our wednesday's child program. through the years we have helped hundreds of kids finds permanent and loving forever homes. our long time commitment to children was recently recognized during an award ceremony on cap

vermont senator patrick leahy is proposing new legislation to make it a federal crime for people to mislabel products as containing maple syrup. the democrat says the law is needed to protect the vermont maple syrup from fraud. this comes after the fda found a man in rhode island selling fake vermont maple syrup online. the product actually contained no real maple syrup. >>> a popular gaming system has suffered yet another hacker attack. sony says it's detected another number of unauthorized attempts to access user accounts on its playstation network. they've locked about 93,000 accounts whose ids and pass words were stolen. the credit cards linked to those accounts are not at risk. however, earlier this year hackers broke into the playstation network and compromised more than 100 million accounts, stealing personal information and credit card numbers. >>> if you're a student or parents, you know that going to college these days is anything but cheap. >> if you want to go to sarah lawrence college, you're going to need a lot of money. forbes magazine ranked the women's college in new york th

and to join so many others in a very bipartisan way, including the chair of the committee, senator leahy, the ranking member, senator grassley, in strongly endorsing and supporting this nomination of steve higginson to join the fifth circuit court of appeals. thank you, mr. president. i yield back my time. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i would like to have my remarks put in the record as if in morning business. the presiding officer: in the senator could please move the vitiation of the quorum call. mr. grassley: i ask that request. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: mr. president, on friday a week ago, secretary of h.h.s. made a very important announcement regarding one specific provision of the patient protection and affordable care act. secretary sebelius announced that the administration would no longer be implementing the community living assistance services and support act, the acronym class applies to that part of that health care bill.

the letter to senator leahy never made it to capitol hill. the envelope addressed to senator daschle, however, was opened on october 15 in the hart senate office building in the mail room of the office i use today. emergency responders rushed to join capitol police to evacuate -- evaluate the situation and determine the extent of contamination. ten years ago this week, on october 17, 2001, the capitol was evacuated. at that time, i was a member of the house of representatives. i remember the fear and trepidation all americans felt in the days and weeks following september 11 i -- september 11. i take this time to honor the courage of our nation's federal employees. two made the ultimate sacrifice, dying from the exposure of the deadly anthrax toxins at the postal facility that handled all the mail that came to the senate and the house offices. the united states postal workers thomas l. morris jr. and joseph p.corzine jr. gave the ultimate sacrifice after being exposed to the infected senate mail while they worked in the brentwood post office

patrick leahy from vermont. he locks up and says i want 20 minutes of your time. i said about 20 minutes of my time? he's voted against this bill, spoken against this bill. he says i want 20 minutes every time. be sure you want 20 minutes of her time? [laughter] in typical leahy faction come he said give me 20 minutes or in turning around and i'm going to vote against you. i said take 25. [laughter] and he went not been after four years of arguing this bill, of waiting out my heart and soul on the floor of the senate, he stood there in an opinion fashion and finally it noted that the arguments i was making, that we are making on the floor about this bill and about this horrific procedure were just too overwhelming to resist and he voted with us. [applause] people are saying, where his leadership in washington? why can't we get together? you bring truth. to bring honesty. you bring authenticity to this office and people will see it. they may not always agree, but you'll bring people because you're not trying to castigate people and split and debate the country. kar

leahy: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, steven a.hitginson of louisiana to be united states circuit judge. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be one hour of debate equally divided and controlled in the usual form. mr. leahy: mr. president, the distinguished presiding officer will recall stephen higginson of louisiana who is here to fill a vacancy on the fifth circuit. now, i mention that vacancy because it's a judicial emergency. it's been that for more than a year. and i say the distinguished presiding officer will remember, because like all members of the judiciary committee, we voted for him more than 3 1/2 months ago, on july 14. every republican, every democratic senator supported him. under

senator patrick leahy introduced his personal data privacy and security act this year, a bill that he's introduced for several years running. it's two parts. data breach notice requirements and in past years, not this year, data broker requirements as well. in the past, is the section would have given individuals the ability to learn what data brokers have about them and to have it corrected if errors and also it would have required a notice if an adverse action had been taken based on information about individuals. these provisions are definitely a good start. i would add a requirement for an opt-out and a means to identify all players. the world privacy forum has recommended in ftc comments that they establish a registry of data brokers and we agree this this would be an excellent tool for consumers and policymakers alike. in short, we believe this industry needs to be profile like those in the fair credit act. in closing my organization recommends the federal trade commission convene a workshop about the data broker industry. i think -- we believe it's imperative that this issue be a

robert leahy, director of the american institute for cognitive therapy, is seeing the incredible impact of long-term unemployment and how it affects every aspect of the individual's life. >> people who are unemployed for a longer period of time do have a rougher time. they feel more hopeless and more helpless and realistically, they may have a harder time getting back into the work force where they were before. >> reporter: it has been three years since big siegel lost his job. he is one of the 2 million americans whose job search outlasted his unemployment benefits. he currently lives alone in a small apartment struggling to make end's meet. >> i just want to be in a position where i'm not defining myself as someone who is looking for work and trying to pay the bills. >> dr. jennifer hartstein is with us now. "the early show" contributor and psychologist. when we look at what we just heard from bill, most people would expect for the long-term unemployed it's going to be depressing, it's going to be difficult to deal with. what are some of the main risks associated with long-term unempl

>> we did hear from senator leahy. but his committee plans to hold an oversight hearing with holder before the end of the year, just general oversight. questions about fast and furious are certainly to be asked. >>> turning our attention now to the economy, chris, president obama's $447 billion jobs plan gets a test on capitol hill today. democrats plan to bring the bill to the senate floor for a vote, even though it is already in jeopardy. cbs news congressional correspondent nancy course joins us with the latest from capitol hill. democrats need 60 votes, right, to overcome a republican filibuster. can it happen? >> probably not, erica, because democrats would need all 53 of their members to vote yes along with seven republicans and already democrats have said they will vote no. senator joe mancion of west virginia is one of them. he questions the effectiveness of this package wondering whether we'll get the bang from the buck. senator lieberman, senator nelson, they both don't like the way democratic leaders have pr

. >> we can't compel him to come, only senator leahy ... bill: given that, what would be your expectations. >> we can't make him do it but i would think he would want to do it if he has an innocent explanation of the contradiction. bill: is this the kind of story that nags at an administration or is this the kind of story that works its way out or ultimately as eric holder on the hot seat for a very long time. >> as long as they continue to stonewall this thing and not come forward with a full explanation, the story is not going to go away. like so much of what happens on capitol hill it's not the original offense, it's the coverup that causes so much problems. so the attorney general can clear this up if it's an innocent explanation and he hope he takes advantage of the opportunity. bill: thank you, sir. john cornyn. martha: there is a scandal involving the failed solar panel company solyndra. someone at the center of this investigation has stepped down. bill: it was 10 years ago that war in afghanistan started. hear from the troops fighti

such a great job with it, and i want to pay tribute to the distinguished senator from vermont, senator leahy, as well. and to my colleagues in the house who saw the importance of that particular new law. it's the first time we've modified the patent laws in over 50 years. and that was an historic event. so it's pretty apparent that i take a great interest in intellectual property. and all aspects of it. i'm the chairman of the republican senatorial high-tech task force, and i have to say that it is really a privilege to work with these brilliant people who work in the intellectual property areas, many of whom are in silicon valley out there in california. we have our own silicon valley in utah that is becoming very, very well known, a lot of innovation, and we have most of the really great companies right there in utah as well. now, u.s. leadership and innovation has not gone unnoticed by our economic and strategic competitors who are adopting and evolving innumerable tactics to steal, expropry ate or otherwise undermine our intellectual property rights. few, however, have been as overt in t