amash: thank you, madam speaker. free societies are founded on a corset of rights, rights that are beyond the reach of government and that no other person or group can take away. the founders created our government to secure these unalienable rights and chief among them is the right to life. presidents recognize this right when they wake carefully whether to put our soldiers in harm's way. our judiciary respects this right when they review each and every capital punishment case. th government authorizes and in some cases pays for the routine taking of the most innocent lives, the lives of the unborn. it is unconscionable that in a country founded explicly to protect individuals' fundamental rights we allow the regular violation of the right to life. worse yet, the government forces each of us to pay for the killing of innocent life. i urge you to vote for h.r. 3 to strengthen our protection of the right to life. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman fro

foxx: thank you, madam speaker. i thank my colleague from florida for yielding me time to speak on the importance of protecting defenseless unborn children and ensuring taxpayer money is not used to pay for elective abortions. i do want to explain to my glib friend from vermont, who is so good on the floor, that the hyde amendment itself covers plans as well as direct funding. so i think the people need to know there's a slight correction to the comments that he made. according to a cnn poll last month, madam speaker, more than 60% of americans oppose taxpayer funding for abortion. today, this house has the historic opportunity to end the patchwork of policies that are intended to prohibit taxpayer funding for abortion and by passing a government-wide prohibition on funding elective abortions. h.r. 3, the no taxpayer funding for abortion act, codify miss long-standing pro-life protections that have been passed under republican and democrat controlled congress. in fact, minority leader nancy pelosi has voted 14 times

foxx: thank you, madam speaker. i thank my colleague from pennsylvania for his leadership on this issue and for yielding time. madam speaker, not using the hard-earned money of taxpayers to destroy innocent unborn children is not extreme. it is not radical. it is the right thing to do. the majority of americans agree with us, madam speaker, that it is the wrong thing to use their money for this issue. and i want to support my colleagues in this legislation and say we need to pass this bill and we need to send a message to the american people that we're wise stewards of their money. thank you, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from colorado. ms. degette: madam speaker, i yield myself the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: two minutes. ms. degette: madam speaker, sitting and listening to this debate it would be extremely easy to become confused. the proponents of this bill keep repeating the same mantra. they want to stop federal funding of abortion. they forget to mention that there is

thank you, madam president. mr. whitehouse: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island is recognized. mr. whitehouse: madam president, i rise this afternoon to discuss an important piece of bipartisan legislation that i am introducing today with my friend and fellow new englander, senator olympia snowe, to establish a national endowment for the study, conservation, and restoration of our nation's oceans, coasts, and great lakes. let me begin with a particular thank you to our original cosponsors, the chairman of the commerce committee, senator rockefeller of west virginia; the chairman of the appropriation committeeappropri, senator inouye of hawaii; my colleague from the great state of michigan, senator stabenow; and two colleagues from the gulf of mexico region, senator bill nelson of florida and senator mary landrieu of louisiana. as any rhode islander can tell you, the ocean is central to our state's way of life. i tell colleagues here that rhode island's coast is one of the most beautiful places on earth, but we

thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. warner: madam president, i have ten unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. warner: madam president, i rise today, as i try to on a regular basis, to honor another one of our great federal employees. in the great empire state of new york there are literally thousands of folks who oftentimes work anonomously to make sure that day in and day out our federal government functions. this is a service, a recognition that i took over from our colleague, senator ted kaufman after he served here in the senate, and i'm proud to continue this tradition where on a regular basis we come forward and honor one of those federal employees who contributes to making our nation safer, making our nati

>> thank you, madam speaker. i claim time in opposition to the amendment though i do not oppose the amendment. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. courtney: i support this amendment. it gaves the navy the flexibility it should have to make sure it gets the best deal for the taxpayer providing the mechanism to support the industrial base my friend from virginia and i co-chair the shipbuilding caucus, a bipartisan caucus, one of who's main goal is to strengthen and preserve america's shipbuilding industrial base and that's precisly what this amendment will do. again, it aligns the construction schedule with, again, statutory empowerment to the secretary of the navy to achieve those goals. with that, mr. speaker, i -- with that, madam speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from virginia. mr. wittman: madam chair, i urge my colleagues to adopt this amendment and yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the

madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: madam president, since i first came to the congress back in 1997 as a freshman member of the house of representatives, i have been talking about spending and debt, deficits, and that was a key central element of my campaign for my first election to the house of representatives way back in the day, and of course at that time the numbers were a lot less daunting than they are today. if you look at just even where we were 15 years ago in relative terms, the point at which we find ourselves today is almost overwhelming, and the debt now is over $14 trillion. we're being asked to raise the debt ceiling even further, and i would argue, madam president, that we can no longer afford to put these hard decisions off, because these are serious times and these call for serious solutions and serious leadership, and i hope that we are up to that task. for a long time, we thought that debts and spending and deficits and all those sorts

madam speaker, here we go again. instead on working on creating jobs and jump-starting the economy, we are debating another cynical and divisive attempt to strip away the rights of women. republicans continue to perpetrate their war on wen while millions of people around the country are desperate, mind you, for jobto help provide for their families. let me remind you, current law already bans federal funds being used for abortions. that is a fact, even though i personally think we should get rid of that ban. what's next? are we going to block transportation funding because it might be used to build a hospital -- road to hospitals that might be performing abortions? come on. that's a cynical ploy on the majority's side. and this bill specifically attacks low-income women in the district of columbia by permanently prohibiting the district from spending its purely local funds on abortions for low-income women. may i have an additional 30 seconds? 30 seconds, thank you very much. these women in the district have already

cornyn: madam president? madam president? mr. schumer: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: and, thank you, madam president. mr. cornyn: would the senator yield for a quick question? mr. schumer: i would. mr. cornyn: madam president, i know there are a number of us who would like to speak on the judgment coming cloture vote at noon on the mcconnell nomination. i know senato senator grassley . i assume the senator from new york and the senator from rhode island. i wonder if we can reach a unanimous consent agreement that would allow five minutes for each of us to speak. i would pose that as a unanimous consent request that that -- for the senators who are currently on the floor, the five of us, that we'd be given up to five minutes to speak preceding the cloture motion. mr. schumer: might i ask a question of the chair? what is the status, the time status? there's 35 minutes until noon. is that divided? the presiding officer: the democrats -- the time's equally divided. the democrats control 19 minutes, the republi

miller: madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. miller: i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays requested. all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? mr. miller: madam speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1657. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 46, h.r. 1657, a bill to amend title 38, united states code, to revise the enforcement penalties for misrepresentation of a business concern as a small business concern owned and controlled by veterans or as a small business concern owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, t

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. chambliss: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia is recognized. mr. chambliss: madam president, i rise to speak in opposition to amendment number 365, senator paul's amendment concerning suspicious activity reports or what's referred to as sar's. this amendment would prevent the department of treasury from requiring any financial institution to submit a suspicious activity report unless law enforcement first requests the report. if this amendment should become law, it will effectively take away one of the government's main weapons in the battle against money laundering and other financial crimes. it will also negatively impact our efforts to detect and follow the flow of funds to and from international terrorists. it's important to remember that s.a.r.'s are essentially tips from third-party financial institutions concerning suspicious transactions. because law enforcement is not watching the denial transaction of -- the financial transaction of every american on a daily basis 24/7, th

i thank you, madam chairman. mr. inhofe: madam chairman? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: mad a.m. chairman -- madam chairman, i understand that i have 10 minutes as if in morning business. i would make that request. the presiding officer: without objection. first of all -- mr. inhofe: first awful we are going to vote on a bill to dramatically increase taxes on america's oi oil and gas compan. i would only suggest that it's not going to pass. i can recall when the senator from vermont, just a few months ago, had a bill that would have done essentially the same thing, passed the tax increases on these oi oil and gas companies. i remember coming to the floor at that time and -- and -- and give the argument against it and -- and the -- and it ended up we had a vote on it. the vote was -- i had 61 votes against it to 30, however it worked out that were for it. afterwards, i have to say this about senator sanders, he came up and said i think that was probably one of the healthiest debates and more honest debates that

madam chairwoman, the c.b.o. has concluded that the republic proposal will double health care costs for seniors. so, if you're 54 years old today, you'd need to ave an addional $182,000 to make up for the medicare benefits you'll lose under the republican plan. and they're not content to destroy medicare. medicaid comes in for brutal treatment as well. by converting to it a block grant, they would be throwing as many as 44 million americans off the insurance rolls, eliminating coverage for the poorest people, most nursing home residents and people with disabilities. my friends on the other side of the aisle who say we have to do this to blaps the budget, they know they're wrong. i say they're dead wrong. we do not need to put seniors and low income americans onn austerity program in order to rein in the deficit. we do not need to shred the social safety net or squeeze the middle class in order to get our fiscal house in order. in fact, we can save taxpayers $68 billion over seven years and expand the menu of heal

with that, madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. johanns: madam president, i rise today to talk about an issue that i have found the debate to be very fascinating about. that is the proposed medicare reform. i find the debate so fascinating because it's proceeding as if there had been no changes to medicare recently. anyone telling you that there have been no changes just isn't being straightforward. sweeping changes to our medicare system, they were debated, they were passed in the most partisan way possible. only democrats voted for them. and they were signed into law by president obama. the president's new law already puts this fundamental health care program in significant jeopardy. now, some may come down to the floor or some may rise up and say, mike, you're all wrong about this. they'll want you to believe that the $500 billion in cuts to medicare in the new health care law will actually extend the medicare program. but in reality, the health care law isn't giving new life

madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: madam president, i rise today to continue to express my views in support of the nomination of professor goodwin liu, a nominee, as you know, to the ninth circuit court of appeals. many different things have been said on the floor here in recent hours, and i rise to offer my comments on some of the concerns that are being debated. for once, it is great to actually hear debate on the floor of this chamber. i have been here, as you know, madam president, just six months, and as someone who is new to the judiciary committee, new to the debates and dialogue of this chamber, i am struck at the things that i'm hearing about professor goodwin liu and the significant divergence between what i have found in questioning him and looking at his record, in speaking to my colleagues, and in what i have heard here on the floor just today. so i will do my best, if i might, madam president, in a few moments to try and lay out what i see as th

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. rockefeller: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. rockefeller: madam president, to me, this argument is in fact all about fairness. it has nothing to do with class warfare. it has nothing to do with got' cha but has to do with abgrow tkpwaeugs of social responsibility -- abrogation of social responsibility on the basis of levels. every once in a while we have a debate here in the senate or senate committee that is revealing and stunning all at once. recently i had one of those moments when i had the opportunity to ask some questions to guess what? five executives from the largest oil and gas companies in the country. not linking price of gas, but in the people's minds it is, with the gas prices head up $4 a gallon, many people spending close to $100 a week to gas up their car, i was cautiously optimistic that we would have in this senate finance committee hearing a real dialogue on the idea that everybody had a shared responsibility and that you share your responsibility, in

conyers: madam speaker. the chair: for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition? mr. conyers: i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 61 printed in house report 112-88 offered by mr. conyers of michigan. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 276, the gentleman from michigan, mr. conyers, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan. mr. conyers: thank you, madam speaker. i rise in support of my amendment which would prevent funds altogether riced in the national defense -- authorized in the national defense authorization act for being used to fund any type of ground combat operations in libyan territory. my amendment would simply codify the policy endorsed by our president and the national- international community and thereby ensure that our involvement in libya remains limited in scope. i'm proud to report that this amendment enjoys the support of 16 bipart

thank you, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from illinois rise? the gentlelady is recognized. ms. schakowsky: i rise in strong opposition to h.r. 3. republicans said that they are for smaller government. but that ends when it comes to women. in order to curtail women's reproductive rights, it isn't enough to prevent the public dollars from helping poor women end a dangerous or unplanned pregnancy, that's already the law. no public money for abortions. but now they are going to raise taxes on small businesses telling them that if they offer a health plan for men or women, that has the gall to cover abortions -- by the way that's about 90% of plans that cover all legal procedures, then they can no longer get a tax break for offering such a plan. raising taxes on businesses that offer comprehensive health plans. that's the bill that's up today. now even private money of individuals and businesses, men and women, will now face a new tax. so so much for small government a

young: madam speaker, i -- madam chairman, i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend. the chair: without objection. mr. young: madam chairman, the americans suffering from $4 a gas today, $5 a gas next month must feel like they areary experiencing a sense of deja vu. it was just three short years ago in 2008 when gasoline prices reached the record high of $4.11 a gallon. those high prices cut deep not pockets of americans that summer and forced congress to act. that fall a democrat-controlled congress and republican president took bipartisan action to lift the offshore drilling ban that had been in place for decades. this monumental step opened up all of the atlantic and pacific coast to new offshore energy production. three years later most americans will likely to be shocked to learn no energy development has happened in these new areas and they're actually once again been placed off-limits. the progress that was made in 2008 by lifting the drilling moratorium has been completely reversed by the obama administration. the president says he wants to win the future but

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. schumer: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: thank you, madam president. first i want to commend my colleague and friend from illinois for his outstanding remarks on both subjects, the deficit and on immigration. i'm here to talk about the deficit, but i will just touch on immigration. people are saying well, why is the president going to el paso when we haven't made enough progress on immigration? they bring up a point. the president's point is the right one. he is bringing the message to the country on why we need real immigration reform. i think there's one thing 100 members of this chamber would agree on -- our present immigration system is broken, badly broken. we turn away lots of people who should be here. we also don't have a rational system for who should come here. and america is the lesser for it. as the senator from illinois pointed out, immigration is part of our proud, proud heritage, and immigrants help america. one of the reasons we are doing a lot be

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. chambliss: madam predent? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia is recognized. mr. chambliss: madam president, i rise to speak in opposition to amendment number 365, senator paul's amendment concerning suspicious activity reports or what's referred to as sar's. this amendment would prevent the department of treasury from requiring any financial institution to submit a suspicious activity report unless law enforcement first requests the report. if this amendment should become law, it will effectively take away one of the government's main weapons in the battle against money laundering and other financial crimes. it will also negatively impact our efforts to detect and follow the flow of funds to and from ternational terrorists. it's important to remember that s.a.r.'s are essentially tips from third-party financial institutions concerning suspicious transactions. because law enforcement is not watching the denial transaction of -- the financial transaction of every american on a daily basis 24/7, they

madam clerk. could you read the in memoriams for today. >> i have in in memoriams for today. >> with that, madam clerk, do we have any more business in front of this board? that concludes our business for today. >> at this time, the board of supervisors meeting is adjourned for the evening. commissioner mirkarimi: good morning, i'm ross mirkarimi, joint joined me with me is super swriesor cohen, supervisor campos is absent away for business. we'll want to take a motion in a second to excuse his absence. i don't expect this to be a very long meeting as i am also concurrently sitting on the budget and finance committee which is meeting across the hall. i'm happy that we are able to deliberate on two important items. before we start, can i entertain a motion for the excuse of supervisor campos? motion. woid, so moved. madam clerk, good morning. please read item number one. >> good morning. item one, resolution authorizing the department of emergency management as primary grantee and fiscal agent for

thank you, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from california, mrs. chu, for five minutes. ms. chu: thank you, madam chair. i rise today in celebration of the 60th anrers -- anniversary of the 1951 donential -- convention related to the status of refugees. the convention was historic in spelling out a set of basic human rights that should be afforded a refugee. it was initially directed toward european refugees in the aftermath of world war ii, but was expanded in 1967 to include refugees from all around the world. the u.n. convention defines who a refugee is and outlines assistance that refugees should receive. it stil stipulates that refugees should not be returned to a country where they fear persecution. my district in california is home to a large and diverse refugee population who fled persecution from countries such as vietnam, cambosia and laos. in los angeles county they come from places as far as iran toal salvador. since arriving on our shores, many of the r

madam president, i -- i yield the floor. mr. harkin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: madam president, i just want to join with my good friend, the senator from ohio, senator brown, in commemorating the workers memorial day which actually was last week. but since we weren't in session, we wanted to take the time today to commemorate the workers memorial day. and i -- i'm always greatly appreciative of my friends wearing the k canery pin on his lapel. my father was a coal miner for over 20 years. a lot of people still don't know that we had coal mines in iowa. at one time iowa was the third largest coal producing state in the nation. my father worked over 20 years in the coal mines a long time before there were any safety laws or anything like that. most of the time he worked in those mines was even before i was born. but -- but i can remember later on him telling stories about the mines and how many people would get injured and killed and -- and it was just sort of an accepted thing that every day, every week, m

hastings: thank you very much, madam speaker. madam speaker, the house is not in order. the chair: the gentleman is correct. the committee will come to order. the house will be in order. members, please take your conversations off the floor. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: madam speaker, speeding up the permitting process and thereby making it easier to drill off our country's shores in the manner that this bill does will do little to help americans at the gas pump. according to the energy information agency, even tripling our current offshore drilling capabilities by the year 2030 would lower gasoline prices only five cents per gallon more than if we continue at the current levels. at maximum output, the united states holds only 2%, less than really 2% of the world's oil reserves. not nearly enough to significantly impact the price per barrel which is set on a global level primarily by the organization of trell exporting countries that -- petroleum exporting countries that we represent as opec. in reality the united states is already producing mo

madam clerk, is there anything further? >> i believe this item needs to go in the committee report commissioner mirkarimi: he believe it does. -- i believe it does. >> there are no further items before the committee, mr. chairman. commissioner mirkarimi: i want to thank sfgtv for their fine ongoing coverage. this now concludes the public safety committee. thank you all.

madam clerk, call item no. 6. it is an informational item. >> item 6 -- update on initial vision scenario of the bay area sustainable commission's strategy. >> good morning, chair campos. this item begins on page 69 of your packet. we are here before you begin to talk about the sustainable communities strategy. this refers to the initial vision scenario, which is the analysis of the metropolitan commission and various governments, looking at the ideal land use and transportation vision for the region and how that would perform against a number of measures that have been set up from the scs. we have been here before you describing the scs process. i have colleagues here to present the analysis of the initial vision scenario. i will come back up and give a little bit of the san francisco perspective. even just yesterday, meeting with the department has, we have talked about our perspective on the idea to give input into the regional process. without further ado, let me introduce the deputy for planning, and he will

thank you, madam chair. >> thank you. mr. smith. >> thank you very much, madam chair. and, again, thank you for calling this extraordinarily timely hearing because i think it will get results. sometimes nobody pays attention, this one will, so thank you. let me just ask you, mr. williams, you said there's good cooperation with local authorities when there's an allegation made. you mentioned that these countries are, quote, very interested, closed quote, in tracking down the perpetrator. could you define exactly what that means? for example, how many arrests are have occurred? how many convictions have occurred as a result of rapes of peace corps volunteers? what, if anything, was required of our peace corps volunteer as that court case went forward? and i mean be very, very specific because one of the things we've learned with

madam clerk, is there anything further? >> i believe this item needs to go in the committee report commissioner mirkarimi: he believe it does. -- i believe it does. >> there are no further items before the committee, mr. chairman. commissioner mirkarimi: i want to thank sfgtv for their fine ongoing coverage. this now concludes the public safety committee. thank you all. >> i have been a cable car grip for 21 years. i am a third generation. my grand farther and my dad worked over in green division for 27. i guess you could say it's blood. >> come on in. have a seat. hold on. i like it because i am standing up. i am outside without a roof over my head and i see all kinds of people. >> you catch up to people you know from the past. you know. went to school with. people that you work with at other jobs. military or something. kind of weird. it's a small word, you be. like i said, what do people do when they come to san francisco? they ride a cable car. >> california line starts in the financial district. people are coming down

madam chairwoman, the c.b.o. has concluded that the republican proposal will double health care costs for seniors. so, if you're 54 years old today, you'd need to ave an additional $182,000 to make up for the medicare benefits you'll lose under the republican plan. and they're not content to destroy medicare. medicaid comes in for brutal treatment as well. by converting to it a block grant, they would be throwing as many as 44 million americans off the insurance rolls, eliminating coverage for the poorest people, most nursing home residents and people with disabilities. my friends on the other side of the aisle who say we have to do this to blaps the budget, they know they're wrong. i say they're dead wrong. we do not need to put seniors and low income americans on an austerity program in order to rein in the deficit. we do not need to shred the social safety net or squeeze the middle class in order to get our fiscal house in order. in fact, we can save taxpayers $68 billion over seven years and expand the menu o

lee: thank you very much, madam chair. i rise in strong opposition to the underlying very reckless bill, h.r. 1216. the republicans -- and we heard this over and over again -- they want to destroy and to deny seniors long-term affordable health care by eliminating programs that are training the future health work force of our country. this legislation is really part of an ongoing republican attack on medicare under the guise of deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility. it really is about privatizing medicare and, of course, that means there will be some winners and there will be some losers. the republican' plan to end medicare threatens the healthy and secure retirement that we promised american seniors. in fact, an end to medicare as an end to the lifeline that millions of seniors rely on. medicare gives peace of mind to millions of americans who pay into it all of their lives. the republicans want to give aging americans a voucher, mind you, that will not come close to covering the cost of health care instead of main

madam clerk, can you please call item four? >> item four, hearing to consider appointing one member, a term ending october 19, 2011, to the eastern neighborhood citizens advisory committee. there is one seat and one applicant. supervisor kim: thank you. is mr. conde -- mr. grande here? yes. thank you so much for being here. again, if you could talk briefly about your background, your interest in serving our eastern neighborhoods cac. >> sure. good afternoon, supervisors. let me tell you a little bit about myself and by i am really interested in wanting to be part of the eastern neighborhood cac. my background or my roots in the city go way back from working class blue-collar -- my family of immigrants got their start in the ne mission, right across from the levi plant. my roots are in the mission. like many immigrant families, we later moved to the excelsior district where housing prices were a little bit more accessible, and we did plan our roots there. but ne mission, my brother grew up in jamestown. i'm telling you all this

madam president, i thank you very much and i yield the floor. mr. graham: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. mr. graham: thank you, madam president. i would rise in regretful opposition, quite frankly, to having to vote to deny cloture for a judicial nominee. i also was in the gang of 14 and the whole effort was to make sure that the senate follows constitutional historical norms and that is giving great deference to presidential selections when it comes to judiciary. to my conservative colleagues, the best way to make sure you have conservative judges is to win elections, because if we stop -- start blocking all the judges that we don't like that have a different view of the law than us, our friends on the other side will return the favor and you'll wind up having a chaotic situation. there's a reason that judge ginsburg -- justice ginsburg got 90-something votes and justice scalia got 90-something votes. it used to be the way you did business around here, when the president won the election, they were able to pick qualified nominees f

>> thank you, madam chair. i would like to first commend the strength of the women before us for your courage to come forward and advocate on such a delicate and important issue. i appreciate you coming to washington this week to speak with members of congress and staff from testifying during this hearing. i know you've all endured hardships from these experiences and should be commended for your bravery and perseverance in ensuring that future generations of peace corps volunteers don't have to go through what you did. you inspire all of us with your actions and commitment to the peace corps from a vision of service and world diplomacy. we are grateful to your service during this time in this program thereafter and i look forward to trying to understand what we can do to make sure the situation does not continue. thank you. >> thank you con man. but they pointed in my opening remarks, senator isakson of georgia as the senator who represents the puzey family and we would be honored to give you a minute, senator

with that, madam president, i would yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: madam president, i know i am in senator landrieu's time, and i appreciate my friend's willingness to allow me just a moment to associate myself with the eloquent and thoughtful remarks of my senior senator and to urge all of my colleagues, before we steer this body off the precipice that he referred to, to give his words their very careful and objective consideration. i thank the distinguished senator from louisiana, and i yield the floor. ms. landrieu: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. ms. landrieu: thank you, madam president. i'd like to speak for the next just few minutes as we're in morning business about the subject that has been before the senate now for over five weeks, in some ways unprecedented, that a bill of only 100 pages would actually take up five weeks of the senate's time. and, madam president, you know as a member of the small business committee how important, altho

. >> madam chair. i believe that the prop j appears on your calendar again today although it was discussed yesterday because we were waiting for public comment so i believe that the committee needs to dispose of that item. supervisor chu: ok. thank you. this, again, item number 7 is an item that is existing prop j's for the public utility -- for the enterprise departments. supervisor mirkairmi. supervisor mirkarimi: i want to make sure because there was a small part of that that i stepped out on. i want to make sure for the record these are not new prop j's? >> true. many of which have been in effect for decades. supervisor mirkarimi: ok. supervisor chu: thank you very much. so why don't we take a motion on item number 7. can we take a motion to send that item forward? ok. we'll do that without objection. and then for items number 4, 5, 6, if we can continue those items pending the last date of enterprise department hearings. thank you. supervisor chiu: will that be on wednesday the 25th or -- supervis

supervisor mirkarimi: thank you, madam chair. director martin, i just want to say, and i think president chu would agree with me, that if all the departments were run like the airport -- [laughing] i think without question we have one of the most attractive metropolitan airports anywhere in the country. very inviting. sexy in some ways, i think. all the time that i've spent in airport as cross the country -- airports across the country, i think it has just the right combination of wanting to welcome people and almost becoming unto itself, strangely, a destination site. i've seen the art exhibits, the memorabilia exhibits. just really strong stuff. i have to say it's very impressive the way that it has evolved. especially over the last five to seven years. so i think it's been very impressive. however, you have one thing that i would like, and that is police officers. i'm wondering if it's possible that in this season that there would be some review about the true assessment of how many officers you really need at s.f.o., and if t

engel: thank you, madam speaker. i rise today to honor the members of the intelligence community for their role in the mission that killed osama bin laden on may 1, 2011. i, too, am from new york and unfortunately many of my constituents perished in the world trade center. i just voted for an amendment by my colleague from new york to honor the members of the intelligence community, but quite frankly i find it lacking in one aspect. i want to honor the president of the united states who had the courage to make the call on getting osama bin laden. this was not something that was a slam dunk. this is something that could have gone very poorly. i really want to say that i'm very sorry that my republican friends on the other side of the aisle never seem to commend the president. you know that if the president had done something wrong, they would have been the first ones to jump in. i think all americans, regardless of party, republicans and democrats, ought to say to president barack obama, thank you, mr. president, for

the official information we could find about madame mia dates back to the nine hundred sixty s. when he moved to get a stand in these documents it is sad that he was born in eighty ninety and there's also a database about him and his family however the rest of the archive to prove his muffin life was destroyed in a fire in the 1930's in change now where he was born recently the title of the all just living person was awarded by the guinness book of records to a brazilian woman might be a girl mr lane tim who is one hundred fourteen years old but my government's family remains under turds and wants to see him crowned with the title this is what we have thought a certain application to the guinness book of records we all already thought muddy really truly deserves a record of ninety nine percent of claims about people being one hundred fifteen or over are said to be fools on documentable the guinness book of records ask applicants must have original proof of birth issued within twenty years of that birth and prove that the person alive today is the same person in their original ce

madam clerk, is there anything further? >> i believe this item needs to go in the committee report commissioner mirkarimi: he believe it does. -- i believe it does. >> there are no further items before the committee, mr. chairman. commissioner mirkarimi: i want to thank sfgtv for their fine ongoing coverage. this now concludes the public safety committee. safety committee. thank you all. [horns honking] announcer: big dreams and good grades aren't enough to get into college. there are actual steps you need to take. finding someone who can help is the first and most important. for the next steps, go to knowhow2go.org. >> control room, we have no captioning or live feed here.

madam clerk, can you please call item 7? >> i did seven, hearing to consider appointing two members, terms ending december 31, 2011, to the western soma citizens planning task force. there are two seats and two applicants. supervisor kim: thank you. i believe neither applicant was able to make it to this meeting. one is a new appointment and what is a reappointment. at this time, i will open up for public comment if there are any. >> thank you again, supervisors. as chair of the western soma citizens task force, i should point out that neither of these is a reappointment. i know jim tatarazuk very well for the last year or so. he is very interested and engaged in wanting to be on the task force. there are a stream of e-mails back and forth indicating that he barely read the plan and has his own opinions, and that is a good thing. mr. ferara i am not familiar with. he would be representing the area considered soma west on the other side of south van ness. we do not want any members that give us quorum problems, but on the oth

thank you for the presentation. >> good afternoon, madam chair, supervisors. as most of you are probably aware, the mandate of the board is to permit and in force when to ordinances' and protecting tenants from displacement due to excessive rent increases while making sure that landlords maintain fair and adequate rent. i always come before this committee to say that my goal is always to be the least of problems. i hope we will achieve that goal again this year. the budget is very similar to last year's. there is a $500,000 increase due to salary, mostly increases for the attorneys, mandatory fringe, and 24 staff or increased interpreter fees. we are getting many more multi- lingual hearings. we also have some increased i.t. expenditures. spending $50,000 of additional computers, we will be digitized and the documents. in the office luddite, but my understanding is that by converting our documents they will be more accessible to the public and will be preserved for a long period of time. other than that we have funds in there for carpeting and painting, but i

madam clerk. could you read the in memoriams for today. >> i have in in memoriams for today. >> with that, madam clerk, do we have any more business in front of this board? that concludes our business for today. >> at this time, the board of supervisors meeting is adjourned for the evening. >> there has been an acknowledgement of the special places around san francisco bay. well, there is something sort of innate in human beings, i think, that tend to recognize a good spot when you see it, a spot that takes your breath away. this is one of them. >> an icon of the new deal. >> we stood here a week ago and we heard all of these dignitaries talk about the symbol that coit tower is for san francisco. it's interesting for those of us in the pioneer park project is trying to make the point that not only the tower, not only this man-built edifice here is a symbol of the city but also the green space on which it sits and the hill to which is rests. to understand them, you have to understand the topography