senator susan collins of maine joins us from capitol hill. senator, thank you for being with us. and i first want to ask you to put on your hat as a member of the senate intelligence committee ask you about these new reports about n.s.a., national security agency's surveillance in asia, including using the u.s. and the embassies of the united states and allies and also this information about n.s.a. tapping into communication links of google and yahoo! is there something you can say to help us understand what's going on? what do you make of it? >> we had a briefing in the intelligence committee today and obviously it's a classified briefing, that's one of the frustrations of being on the intelligence committee is you can't freely share information. but as you know, general alexander, the head of the national security agency, has said that the reports about the n.s.a. tapping into google servers is not an accurate report. clearly, however, we need to have reforms of the system. we need to have more transparency. and we need to ensure that the privacy and civil liberties of american

republican senator susan collins, a co-sponsor of the bill said her constituents were often shocked when they learned no such federal nondiscrimination law existed. they will continue to be shocked. earlier this month the increasingly radical group heritage action called the legislation unnecessary and warned house republicans it would be scoring their vote saying that the bill would actually do harm to many american civil liberties and religious freedoms. it is a strange, twisted piece of logic but nonetheless echoed hours ago by indiana senator dan coats. >> i discourage discrimination of any kind, individuals or institutions for their faith and values. i feel it's vital for this body to stand up for our country's long stand ing right to the freedom of religion and speech. >> the house may prevent itting from being passed but actions won't go unnoticed by lgtb community, young voters and american public. clarifies who the villain is, like a game of clue but with a single culprit, crime scene and weapon, gop in the house with the speaker's gavel. joining me host of up with steve kornack

but she says she did not know of the monitoring of miss merkle neither did susan collins, a 17 year veteran of the u.s. senate. >> absolutely no justification for our country should be collecting intelligence information on the leaders of some of our closest allies. >> the reports of nsa spying, by the way, all flow from the studious work by former nsa contractor, edward snowden. >> the national security agency took the unusual step thursday of denying a report that'ves drop on the vatican phone calls and may have tapped in on pope francis before he was elected. what are you making up? is this a church, state issue? >> you got in on the consistent, the ones that depict the new pope, john? >> who knows. saved a lot of money. those guys have not done anything that was not known to the national security council and the white house and the idea of blaming these guys who are doing the job they were signed to do and oh my goodness, for miss feinstein, that there's a touch of hypocrisy here. >> there's a lot of outrage. i'm with clapper on this issue as well. i mean, i think because of the technol

. >> next, senators klobuchar and susan collins from the washington ideas forum. they talk about the healthcare law and a range of issues. this is 20 minutes. >> thank you very much for joining us. this is a great thrill. i covered the white house now, spent many years running around after both of you, and since i left the congressional approval rating has gone up to -- >> no, no. >> it's below. >> , but great have to susan collins and amy klobuchar here. amy, i want to talk about the great bipartisanship you have forged in place where it's desperately needed. but we have some news. the roman numbers numbers for -- enrollmentment numbers for obamacare, 27,000 people were all that were able to not even enroll but to choose a health plan. how worried are you about the way things are going. >> it's no surprise this has been an unacceptable situation. a web site that is not working at a time when people actually do want to sign up and get their health care this way. so, the numbers we saw were, i think, about 25,000 from the federal site, significantly better from the

ayotte: madam president, i rise today -- first of all, i want to thank senator susan collins. the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. ms. ayotte: may the quorum call please be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from new hampshire is recognized. the presiding officer: thank you, madam president. madam president, first of all, i want to rise today to thank my colleagues. and, first of all, i'd like to thank my colleague from maine, the senior senator from maine, senator susan collins, for the important work that she's been doing on the employment nondiscrimination act. i would also like to thank my colleagues for supporting an thapld that was brought forward -- an amendment that was brought forward recently and passed by this body, the portman-ayotte-heller-hatch-mc cain amendment. i firmly believe that people should be judged based upon the quality of their work. discrimination has no place in the workplace. in my home state of new hampshire, we have a long bipartisan tradition of working to advance commonsense policies, and new hamps

collins have signed on as cosponsors as well. the m.l.p. parity act allows us to really have an all-of-the-above energy that strategy. as i've heard as i presided in my first two years, as i served on the energy committee, there are many senators here, republican and democrat, who think we shouldn't be picking winners and losers in technology and we should be promoting an all-of-the-above energy strategy, and this bill makes that possible in clean energy financing and in preserving a widely used tool for existing traditional energy financing. oil and gas will play a significant role in our nation's energy picture for the foreseeable future, but right now we don't have a level playing field between renewables and between oil and gas and pipelines. for nearly 30 years, traditional nonrenewable sources of energy have had access to master limited partnerships. m.l.p.'s give natural gas, oil and coal companies access to private capital at a lower cost. that's something that capital intensive projects, like pipelines, badly need. but a

the legislation has two republican cosponsors, susan collins of maine and mark kirk of illinois who have been very vocal advocates for the legislation. there were two other republicans who had voted for it in committee and were expected to help push the bill along but at end of the day there was a lot of question marks on some of the republicans. in particular we're looking at rob portman in ohio throughout the day yesterday as well as kelly ayote of new hampshire and pat toomey of pennsylvania. during the vote there was fascinating behind the scenes lobbying effort on the senate floor as reporters were up in the gallery watching the votes and those three key republicans were huddling in the cloakroom with susan collins and jeff merkley, a democrat from oregon, who was the chief sponsor of the legislation and at one point chuck schumer, the number three democrat goes over there and working behind the scenes to try to secure the votes so they could at least move forward on the bill last night. >> in working to secure the votes, did senator toomey or any other republican senators get commi

leading the charge were susan collins. nearly two years ago. >> thank you. i ask unanimous consent to deliver my remarks while seated. >> without objection. >> i would say that i have been silent for the tlast two years due to a stroke. i have risen to speed because i believe so passionately. i think it's particularly appropriate for illinois republican to speak on behalf of this measure in the true traditi tradition. men who gave us the 1964 civil rights act and the 13th amendment to the constitution. >> president obama wrote this. does it make a difference if the firefighter who rescues you is gay or the accountant who does your taxes or the mechanic who fixes your car? these companies know that it's both the right thing to do and makes good economic sense. they want to attract and retain the best workers and discrimination makes it harder to do that. the first openly gay senator said this. >> rights are sometimes intangible but boy, if you have ever been discriminated against seeking employment or seeking an advancement, it's bitter. and it's been a long,

the senate is ready to pass a law with support from senators like susan collins. >> people should be judged on their qualifications and their hard work and not on their sexual orientation. >> reporter: but the vibes coming from house speaker john boehner are he might not even bring the bill to the floor. his spokesperson, michael steele, offered the following explanation. "the speaker believes this legislation will i crease frivolous litigation and cost american jobs, especially small business jobs." but will it do those things? the government accountability office, an independent nonpartisan agency that works for congress compiled complaint data for all 21 states in the district of columbia that currently ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity basing back to 2007. in states like california, where there are 20,000 discrimination cases in 2012, 1,100 were related to sexual orientation or 5.5%. a fraction. the same held true for smaller states with bans like new hampshire at 2.3%. and medium-sized ones like oregon at 1.8%. the reality is that the highest perc

susan collins, senator from maine said the tax could result in the loss of 43,000 jobs in the united states. and, richard durbin, who's a democrat who said we can work out something, i believe on the medical device tax. have these lawmakers come to you, to ask for your suggestions? >> well, you know, through the industry body we've engaged with these lawmakers and through that the industry position is well-known. i would like to point out from our perspective as a company, that is something that we really can not control. and, it is certainly something -- david: you can certainly influence, mr. iraq. when lawmakers say we'll work with the industry to work something out, that indicates they're offering you a hand to pull you into negotiations. >> well, sure. you know we can do that, but you know there's lots of areas which we can influence. that is not the only one. where we spend our time is important. certainly this is an important topic but the key is, we face challenges like this every day. we've got to overcome these challenges and we have to focus on areas which we can control a

they were senators robert byrd, of west virginia, lincoln chafee of rhode island, susan collins of maine, mike dewine of ohio, lindsey graham of south carolina, daniel inouye of hawaii, mary landrieu of louisiana, joseph lieberman of connecticut, john mccain of arizona, ben nelson of florida, ken salazar of colorado, olympia snowe of maybe and john warner of virginia. what they devised was a quite simple solution. they were grappling with the same question that confronts us now, what can justify a member of the united states senate voting to block consideration, in other words, to filibuster, a nominee to the judicial branch. and their idea, simple as it was, had tremendous power. they agreed they would oppose a judicial nominee only in, quote, extraordinary circumstances. that was the gist of the agreement, there were other features to it but their spirit and intent in this short phrase had profoundly meaningful impact. in fact, for the remainder of the bush presidency, there were no more filibusters on judicial nominees. and those senators with that short phrase accomplished a historic

susan, as you well know, and while back room talks led by congress members bill manchin, susan collins, are reportedly under way, there is little hope on the hill that lawmakers can come to an agreement in time. so i ask you, can we expect a grand bargain, or a mini deal? >> i think we're looking at a much smaller deal arthel. because, as you say, there are some folks talking just in case they can't strike a deal. but i think what's going to happen, the budget conferrees who are negotiating right now are going to get rid of this idea of a grand bargain, while reforming medicare and doing the tax code over completely. there's not enough time and there's not political will to do it. the gap is just too wide philosophically between the republicans and democrats. they have less than two weeks. so what they're going to aim for, what members are telling me, the smaller deal, maybe a top-line number for 2014, and 2015 at best, where they set the budget figure just for this little two-year period. they don't have to negotiate something much bigger. but what they will do is try to replace some

susan collins wanted to block a law from affecting religious institutions. >> i firmly believe that no one should be subject unjust discrimination. i support the basic premise. be judged by their experience, qualifications, and job performance. not by their sexual orientation. able to beld not be fired just because they are gay. i believe the legislation will help create that level playing field and ensure on employment opportunities are available to all. it should be improved. of onemoting tolerance kind should not enshrine intolerance of another kind. religious liberty is an important part of the employment nondiscrimination act already. it includes a significant exemption for religious employers. we have to make certain that in pursuit, those employers are not subject to another kind of discrimination. it would be government retaliation. it protects a church or religious charity or religious school from adverse action by the government on the basis of adhering to its religious tenets in a manner that would otherwise be unlawful. this means the government can't use activities protect

the needs of the american people with the exception of senators lisa murkowski and susan collins every single republican senator voted to filibuster the nomination arguing we should not fill an existing vacancy because suddenly they are concerned about the need for these existing judgeships. oh come on. that doesn't pass the giggle test. we know it's just a pretext for two reasons. first they had no such concerns about the unique case of the d.c. circuit when a republican was in the white house nominating judges to the ninth, tenth and 11th seed. as i said the seat that john roberts was unanimously confirmed to when there was a lower caseload and now when we have a superbly qualified woman suddenly she has to be filibustered. then they said, but we are doing this to save money. oh come on, give me a break. these are the same keep all who shut down our federal government , costs billions of dollars, sent back a recovering economy and the needless shutdown of our government would have paid these federal courts for years. so the don't. just say okay we don't want women on this court. be h

collins, and tom harkin for their lead, working across party lines and leading this legislation forward. i take great pride at being a part of this effort.at i think it shows great promisece of what can be achieved if we work together in a bipartisant t way i also want to take the time to recognize the 55 co-sponsors, of this bill. both democrats and republicans who made a commitment to ending discrimination against our fellow citizens simply because of who they are and do they love . i realize that for some this is not an easy vote.ome i understand it, for some, they may believe that it is not the politics, but i want to say that i have a deep respect to for those who choose to stand on thy side of progress for our countro this week pyridine so for thoses that stand up this week and answer the call for courage, ie can say with confidence, yourspd courage will be respected and remembered in the history of this struggle.akt engen i had the i opportunity to speak at the department of justice during its observationse it was fitting that we gathered in a building that bears the name of robe

speakers include security adviser susan rice and charlie cook and any klobuchar and susan collins. and this includes 80 u.s. argument on me powers as well. >> issues ranging from domestic policy to national security, label the washington ideas forum, this includes remarks from the national security adviser susan rice. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [applause] >> thank you very much for being here, ambassador. >> i heard david's question, which is this is going to be the country that is going to defeat the iranian nuclear program. and let me ask you the question. what happens next on the uranium deal? >> well, our approach remains, which is to ensure that ran will not acquire a nuclear weapon, but it has always been on aim if possible to resolve this problem through diplomacy. do we have been pursuing a policy and diplomacy and engagement on another. the sanctions were designed to try to change the ringing calculus and to see if on the basis of that change we could reach a negotiated settlement. going back many years, including to the year 2010 when i was at the united nations

collins and jeff markley, who is the chief sponsor of the legislation. at one point, chuck schumer goes over there and they are working behind the scenes to secure the votes so they could at least move forward. >> in working to secure those votes, did senator to me or the other senators get any sort of commitment for amendment votes? >> they did. kelly ayotte and rob portman secured a vote on their amendment that heals more with anti-retaliation issues. a way of at it as strengthening protection for religious organizations. senator to me is going to have another religious related amendment that's going to broaden the number of groups that qualify under that religious exemption. senator merkley, who is the bellwether for this, since he is the chief sponsor, said last night he supports the proposal, not so sure about to me. the state of that legislation, that measure is still unclear, but they will get votes on both of them. >> will the senate vote on this bill before thanksgiving? >> at is the plan. harry reid said we are going to get this done. says he d

susan collins, and he warned that by 15 points, yet collins does not have a race. democrats also have to defend more open seats, five to two for republicans. and all of those five open seats, three of them, montana, south dakota, west virginia are in states that romney won by at least 14 points. the two seats republicans have to defend, georgia and nebraska, our seats were romney did when. so the math is a little bit tilted towards them and open seats as well. and then, you know, there's not a lot of places for democrats to land. the republican plainfield, republican seats are sort of disproportionately in very, very red states. so let's see, where are we know? so we've got -- we've got three seats today that we are actually kill thing in republicans favor, and that is the open seats in montana, west virginia, and south dakota. democrats place marking, they recruit where ever they can in the hopes that they may find the next todd akin, richard murdoch. right now i think republicans are in a pretty strong position in all three of those states. we have one democratic

over the next 10 minutes, you republicanrom senators and susan collins of maine as well as democratic senators. were speaking at the washington ideas forum hosted by the atlantic and the aspen institute. the enrollment numbers for the first month of obama care have come out. they are not very good. 27,000 people were not and rolled but tried to choose a health plan. how worried are you about this? no surpriseit is this has been an on acceptable situation. you have a website that is not working at a time when people actually do one assign up and and get their healthcare this way. the numbers we saw were, i think, about 27,000 from the federal state and better from the state site and 975,000 people who have actually completed their applications and are ready to shop for their plan. the president has pledged to change this. he must. one of our minnesota yuppies is leading the way to try to fix it which i am glad about and i am very hopeful that these significant improvements will be made so people can sign up. to step back a minute, people remember originally that this idea of the exchan

here is some debate between senator rob portman and the main's susan collins. believe that no one should be subject to unjust discrimination. i support the basic premise of be judged byshould their experience, qualifications, performance and not by the sexual orientation. bottom line, people should not be able to be fired just because they are gay. they should insure that they are available to wall. it should be improved. promoteesigned to tolerance and one kind and it does not promote intolerance of another. religious liberty is an important part of the nondiscrimination act already. it includes a significant exemption for religious employers. we have to make certain that they are not subject to a different kind of discrimination. ensuredment seeks to that they cannot penalize a religious employer because they file as exempt. it protects a church, religious charity, religious school from adverse action from the government. they cannot use it to deny tax- exempt status or other. it prohibits the government from punishing a religious institution from upholding t

collins and others trying and trying. the president ran out of patience with the process but trying to make it a bipartisan bill. because every big social, you know, change like this, social security, medicare had always been passed with large bipartisan majority and the reason is both parties are invested in its success. you have the republicans not only invested in the success but invested in failure. >> chuck, let's go beyond the website. let's assume some day people can logon and get health care they are looking for, some day. what's the next step for the conversation about obama care, the implementation of obama care. does it get messier or start to clear up for the white house if they can get past the technical aspect? >> the next test is how many healthy people under the age of 40 sign up. remember, this entire system doesn't work if the young and healthy, the young invincibles don't do this. the actuary tables don't work for the insurance companies. one of the tradeoffs of passing a allow that says health insuranc

joe donnelley of indiana and susan collins in the senate have the bill there and that's a responsible fix, or change to this law. there are many problem with this law. there's another change that i support that, you know, at the time, you may remember there was many people -- there wasn't enough funding in the health care law to pay for those people with pre-existing conditions and no money for the high-risk pools. a number of us suggested taking $5 billion out of the implementation funds of obamacare, some of us call it a slush fund, and move it over to the high-risk pools to help those people very sick and very ill. many of us have put forward reasonable suggestions on how to deal with it. this week we'll vote on the bill to allow people to keep the health care coverage that they were told they could keep. the president said if you like your health care coverage, you can keep it. well, not if the law tells the insurance company they have to cancel the policy or the employer decides to cancel the policy. we're basically going to pass a bill this week to allow people to remain on the

king collins with sherry and susan herman. sunday's coverage starts at 10:30, and includes mark halperin, bill ayres, chris matthews. the miami book fair international, live this weekend on book tv on c-span 2. don't forget to weigh in on on nor -- on our november book club question -- what books are you reading on jfk? poster thoughts anytime on our book up -- bookclub chat room, booktv.org/bookclub. >> next, a discussion on the future of digital currency. this is 45 minutes. host: on wednesdays we take a look at our spotlight magazine articles, today taking a look at "wired magazine." inside there is this piece, "how to save bitcoin." the author is joining us this morning. let's start with -- what is bit coin? guest: a form of money born in the digital age for the digital era. it is a way for people to send money back and forth that is as close to friction free as we have ever seen. it is simultaneously indicative of the explosive growth in interest in alternative currencies, alternative to the u.s. dollar, euro, what have y

with the exception of senators lisa murkowski and susan collins, every single republican senator voted to filibuster patricia millett's nomination, arguing that she should not fill existing vacancies because suddenly they're concerned about the need for these existing judgeships. oh, come on. that doesn't pass the giggle test. we know it's just a pretext for two reasons. first, they had no such concerns about the unique case of the d.c. circuit when a republican was in the white house and nominating judges to the ninth and the tenth and the 11th seat. in fact, they filibustered as i said, the seat that john roberts was unanimously confirmed to when it was a lower caseload and now when we have a superbly qualified woman, suddenly she has to be filibustered. and then they said but we're doing this to save money. oh, come on. give me a break. these are the same people who shut down our federal government, caused -- cost billions of dollars, sent back our recovering economy, the needless shutdown of our government would have paid for all these federal courts for years. so don't -- don't, j

i want to thank and recognize my colleagues, senators mark kirk, jeff merkley, susan collins, and tom harkin, for their leadership, working across party lines and moving this legislation forward. i take great pride at being a part of this effort, and i think it shows great promise of what can be achieved if we work together in a bipartisan way to get things done for the american people. i also want to take the time to recognize the 55 cosponsors of this bill, both democrats and republicans, who made a commitment to ending discrimination against our fellow citizens simply because of who they are and who they love. i realize that for some, this is not an easy vote. i understand for some they may believe that it's not good politics. but i want to say that i have a deep respect for those who choose to stand on the side of progress for our country this week. so for those that stand up this week and answer the call for courage, i can say with confidence your courage will be respected and remembered when the history of this struggle is written. in june, i had the opportunity to speak at the