fortenberry. you may proceed. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank you chairman bernanke for your appearance here today. i read your testimony and it appears to me to be reasonable explanation of their role in the bank of america, merrill lynch merger and advocacy of the sir additional bailout funds. however, well that is the narrow purpose of this hearing to unpacked whether not there were any conflicts there and certainly you can understand the cynicism in that we have conflicting impressions from you and mr. lewis about the nature of this deal i think fundamentally what is the heart of the matter is the feds future role as a systemic regulator. in that regard let me go back to a couple of points that we just touched on. do you believe it was in the best interest of this country for merrill lynch a bank of america to be merged and to receive the bailout funds that they received, first of 25 billion between the two companies and later the 20 billion as bank of america spread concern or to put it another way waffling about the pote

fortenberry was asking about. mr. lewis was here with a number of different stories on a single transaction. he told the shareholders that this meryl deal was a great deal for them and persisted in that story even in december after he found out about a $9 billion additional deterioration. frankly my amazement and shock he never bothered to tell the shareholders the news that led him to the next assertion he made, that that was so dire that he might invoking the nuclear option of the m.a.c. clause. then he told us basically that using his words he didn't use the words threat but he said that there was heavy pressure from the fed and treasury to go through with this deal with the assurance that the american taxpayer through the fed and treasury would back up any of the toxic assets from merrill lynch. i'll just ask one specific question about that. one of his assertions to the board was that the treasury and fed have confirmed they will provide assistance to the corporation to restore capital and project the corporation

fortenberry. this was incorporated into the william which will berforce trafficking victims protection reauthorization act and became public law in december, 2008. we further opined on this matter in the child soldiers accountability act of 2008 which became law in october of last year. however, a sense of congress reaffirming that the use of child soldiers is unacceptable must be supported. i applaud my good friend from texas for bringing this important issue to our attention. again, it is right and just to do so. i encourage our colleagues to support this amendment. i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentlelady from texas. ms. johnson: i have no requests for time. i yield back the balance of my time. mr. berman: will the gentleman yield? ms. johnson: yes. mr. berman: i just want to express my strong support for this. this issue is an important one and i appreciate you raising it along with other contributions of other members on this issue and i strongly support the resolution.

ros-lehtinen: i yield three minutes to the gentleman from nebraska, mr. fortenberry. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. . today. mr. speaker, a muslim cleric once whispered to me, do not forget the goodness of america. america is justice. while much has changed in the world in recent years, the core ideals that made the united states a generous, principled, and prosperous nation, the commitment to justice for all remain unchanged. we are now entwined in a more interdependent world which entails a potential for great good or great harm. we can innovate to build sustainable capacities to help all persons achieve their full potential or we can find ourselves in a race against time in seeking to prevent advanced technological capacities such as nuclear weapons development from serving tyrannical purposes that aim to destroy and subjugate free people. while not always popular i believe it is essential to engage other nations as a force for good in the world by maintaining a robust and effective diplomatic and assistance framework. this is why i do support some of the