baldwin: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. baldwin: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. baldwin: this resolution recognizeshe 40th anniversary of the national eye institute within the national institutes of health. and designates the years 2010 through 2020 as the decade of vision. eye disease is a significant public health problem. those disproportionately affected by eye disease are aging populations, the african-american and hispanic communities and those who suffer from chronic diseases, especially diabetes. the national eye institute estimates that eye disease and vision impairment currently costs the nation $68 billion in health care costs, lost productivity, reduced independence, diminished quality of life and accelerated mortality. the n.e.i. leads our nation's efforts to

and to this day i have a special affection for james baldwin because he awakened me in a way that i didn't, you know, when your awakened, you're not aware of what you're about to be awakened to, but james baldwin brought the civil rights movement into my privileged, you know, padded, all-white, all-male prep school, and i was very taken with james baldwin. i went off to michigan, got involved in the civil rights movement there supporting the student nonviolent coordinating committee, and then the war began. the war blew up. and i found myself drawn into the antiwar protest. i didn't know much, but instinctively, intuitively i felt there was something wrong with the united states going 10,000 miles away to pick up the failed french colonial mission, and the rest kind of followed from that. >> host: who was or is ruthie stein? >> guest: ruthie stein in fugitive days was a, was a woman who had, was an older radical who i really loved and learned from. she passed away many years ago. i don't remember in what context i bring her up there. >> host: she was the artist at the university of michiga

baldwin: i thank the gentleman. i also want to appreciate my friend and colleague, congressman murphy, for bringing us together on this really critical issue. health care for all is the issue that brought me to politics in the first place. it's certainly the issue that keeps me here. i join my colleagues tonight on the floor to affirm our fight that we must complete comprehensive health care, meaningful and affordable comprehensive health care reform this year. we can no longer afford to wait for health care reform. there's a recent report from the very respected robert wood johnson foundation that projects that if federal reform efforts are not completed, that within 10 years the cost of health care for businesses could double. and the number of uninsured americans could reach 65.7 million. and the middle income families would really be the hardest hit. they would bear the brunt of our inaction. i represent a district in south central wisconsin. last month i had the opportunity to gather and meet with a number stak

two this day and have a special affection for james baldwin because he awakened me in a way that i didn't, when you are awake and not aware of which are about to be awakened to, but james paul one brought the civil rights movement into my privileged, padded, all white, all male prep school and i was very taken with james baldwin. i went to michigan, got involved in the civil-rights movement there supported the students' coordinating committee and then the war began. the were block and i found myself drawn into the anti-war protests, and did not know much, but instinctively and intuitively i felt there was something wrong with the united states going 10,000 miles away to pick up the failed french colonial mission and the risk and a fall from that. >> who was or is ruth stein? >> in the "fugitive days" issue is a moment -- you was a woman who was an older radical who really love to learn from. she passed away many years ago. i do remember in what context i bring her up in action was the artist at the university of michigan with from my reading of a "fugitive days" statute involved in an

. >> the time has expired and the chair recognizes the gentle lady from wisconsin, miss baldwin, for an opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. transmission is critical to our nation's electrical system, and i certainly support grid expansion. i have significant concerns, however, about many of the recent federal proposals that jeopardize state and regional efforts to develop the transmission grid. specifically, these efforts ignore progress and may actually slow investments being made in states like wisconsin and others in the midwest. over the last seven years my home state of wisconsin -- the wisconsin rate payers have supported more than $2 billion in investments in our transmission system. these actions have and will continue to improve reliability and increase the flowf renewable energy in wisconsin and our neighboring states. congress must ensure that weir not undermining the existing processes if we are going venture into the transmission arena especially when sensitivities exist to state authority, cost allocation, safety and eminent domain issues. as we examine these

i am now going to turn to congresswoman baldwin to introduce our next witness. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> i am pleased to welcome a constituent to our hearing today. in 2007 governor jim doyle appointed laura naz ar to the service commission. she has played a leading role in confronting the challenges associated with transmission development. the wisconsin psc cited a significant transmission line. lauren serves as president of the organization of miso states where she's leading a regional planning and cost allocation effort for developing electrical transmission over the midwest iso region which includes 13 states and one canadian province. prior to her appointment to the wisconsin psc, commissioner naz ar worked as an attorney and practiced extensively in the areas of electric and water utilities representing rate payers and utilities. she helped to create the first stand alone transmission company, otherwise known as atc and helped to cite a 210 mile extra high voltage line in wisconsin and minnesota. in addition to all of these credentials, i can also tell you what she ea

remainder of the hearing to congresswoman baldwin who will bring to it a close. thank you so much. >> i don't get to sit in this chair very often but i won't make you stay long just because i'm enjoying it. first, a quick comment and i'm not -- i'm construing or interpreting from some of mr. welch's testimony that there's some frustration with the planning occurring at the state level process. one of the things i would point out and certainly we heard some testimony in the first panel about very successful state level planning, but if you look at order 890 in this process, it's really relatively new and i think i would argue it hasn't yet been given a chance to play out. if you look at the area i'm most familiar with, the first time my order 890 processes were approved by ferc and then subject to additional compliance requirements was on may 15, 2008 and, thereafter, they had to do a filing in august of 2008. it was just approved on may 20, 2009. so, you could make an argument, really just three weeks ago this is getting under way and it's a process that's to be

the gentleman from as consummate, miss baldwin. >> thank you mr. chairman, i appreciate the fact you're holding today's hearing and wanted judge my colleagues in commending you and chairman steve packin and chairman emeritus dingell for putting this a very important discussion draft before us that addresses the very serious challenges that we face with respect to food safety. before i begin my remarks i like to submit for the record written testimony from the secretary of the department of agriculture trade and consumer protection in the state of wisconsin. >> without objection so ordered. >> thank you mr. chairman. food safety is an issue of great concern to me and my constituents. approximately one in four people in this country are affected or sickened by foodborne disease each year. as americans we rely on government to keep a safe and as government we have fallen down on the job. as we consider this draft legislation, i know that our goal is to empower the fda to prevent food contamination incidents before they occur. i hope that we do so with

a line was just energized i believe last week which was over 100 miles long and as congressman baldwin indicated before i became commissioner, on the other side i was getting permits to -- for a 210-mile line between minnesota and wisconsin. and that line has been energized. >> in massachusetts, our most -- >> can you turn on your microphone, please. >> sorry. in massachusetts our most populace area is the boston region and it's where the heaviest electrical loaded and in 10 years we have sited and had constructed a number of transmission enhancements to support the flow of power in boston between two major kv lines to eliminate constraints between the boston load pocket and the remainder of load pockets. >> with the anticipated increase in demand of electricity needs over the next 15 or 20 years, do you think the existing system is adequate in your state? >> with regards to the increase in demand, we continually update our system so we're going to continue to do updates. we've been doing updates all along. so i don't think that process ever stops. >> okay. >> in vermont we've actually

>> , baldwin, i will attempt that. i like to believe in rate base regulation and transmission is not first of all you have to understand transmission isn't a market item, it is an item that we have limited number of entities who are putting in transmission and it is under a rate based on cost scheme so they are authorized return on their investment and they have an opportunity to earn a return button to earn the return they have to manage their expenses and they have to manage their operations and efficient way to ensure their expenses matched with their projections are so the return comes out to the level they hope to achieve. the regulators wouldn't it be state regulator or federal regulator a level of return on equity that would be authorized but again that's only an opportunity during that level of return. >> do you have any averages with the rate of return might look like? >> i'm sorry, but it might look like? >> what is the average rate of return, and others variables, a ballpark -- burr i can submit in writing

i want to think representative at tammy baldwin. there she is, right there. for her tireless leadership on this and the broader struggle for equality. i want to thank senator joe lieberman. he is here, as well as susan collins, for championing this bill and representative barney frank for his leadership on this and so many other issues. this is his second trip to the white house today. [laughter] it is a day that marks an historic step toward the changes we seek, but i think we'll have to of knowledge this is only one step. among the steps we have not yet taken it is to repeal of defense of marriage act. i believe is discriminatory and interferes with states' rights, and we will work with congress to overturn it. we have work to do to ensure that government treats all citizens equally, to fight injustice and intolerance in all its forms, to bring about that. i am committed to these efforts and i pledge to work tirelessly on behalf of these

and he turned to congresswoman tammy baldwin and senator joe lieberman who was there along with my colleague, the gay rights hero, he gave the act which will remedy between federal employees with same sex partners and heterosexual employees. there are a number of things such as health insurance that i as an employee of the labor department cannot get for my partner. but of course my partner is a foshe national so we have the whole additional problem of being separated because we are treated as strangers. so we have a long way to go but we have an ally in the white house and we have to work with him. and it actually helps him to achieve his own agenda when we apply constructive pressure across the board in various ways. and that means more than just having this meet on the mall that some people are calling for where people gather on the west lawn of the capitol and talk to each other while people are out of town. >> talking about the relationship between the gay community and the obama administration. he is a political affairs activist with the gay and lesbian activist alliance. and if you wo

baldwin for joining us tonight. let's make no mistake about this. this is going to be a fight. this is going to be a fight because to do this right you are going to have to take on folks who have gotten real fat over this health care system. you are going to have to take on some ideologue that is just don't believe the -- ideologues that just don't believe the government ought to get involved. there is a polling going around essentially outlining in 28 pages how you stop health care reform from happening. that is the agenda of a lot of people in this town, a lot of folks on the other side of the aisle, that they do not want health care reform to happen. now, some of it is for good honest policy reasons. i believe it's an incredibly misshapen belief that the private sector can just fix this on their own. they haven't done it for the last 50 years. how are we going to expect they are going to do it over night. some is very cynical politics. some is people who look back to 1994 and the failure of the clinton health care plan and the two years prior and believe that if folks can st

baldwin: the waxman-markey energy and security act has responses of epic proportions. global climate change must be addressed in a reel, meaningful -- in a real, meaningful manner. global gas emissions have put our security and our social structure at risk. if we fail to act that failure will reverberate throughout the century with a loss of human lives, destruction of ecosystems, declines in health and increased social conflict. climate change is a unique challenge in that our greatest obligation in tackling this threat is to the generations of americans and people throughout the world who haven't even been born yet. the ones who will inhabit this planet long after we're all gone. the legislation we have before us addresses global climate change while spurring innovation, creating clean energy jobs, and containing costs. it brings what we need in terms of leadership and kit commithment as we look forward copenhagen and beyond. it recognizes that our nation's security, our planet's sustainability, and our children's future hang in the balance. i urge my colleagues to s

and as congressman baldwin indicated before i became commissioner, i was on the other side, i was getting permits to for a 210-mile line between minnesota and wisconsin. and that line has been energized. >> and mr. edwards? >> in massachusetts, our most populace -- >> please turn on your microphone. >> in massachusetts, our most populated region is the boston area, where our heaviest electrical load is. over the past ten years we've cited and had constructed a number of transmission enhancements to promote the flow of power into boston to eliminate constraints between the boston load pocket and the remainder of massachusetts. >> one other question to you three. with the anticipated increase in demand of electricity needs over the next 15 or 20 years, do you think the existing system is adequate in you