national automobile dealers association, the american international automobile dealers, the national association of manufacturers, the a.f.l.c.i.o. and the united states chamber of -- afl-cio and the united states chamber of congress. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the letters be included in the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. sutton: mr. speaker, we must pass the bipartisan cars act today for our workers, for our environment, for consumers, for our economy, for our country. i thank you and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves the balance of her time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: thank you, mr. speaker. i would yield myself two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. upton: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i congratulate my colleague from ohio and my colleague from michigan, mrs. miller. this is not the perfect bill but this is it. there is nplan b. this is not the original bill that ms. sutton and mrs. miller intr

executive director of the national governors association. we are releasing our fiscal report which we do twice per year and we have been doing this report for well over 30 years. unfortunately i have two report these are some of the worst numbers we have ever seen. for example, for the first time ever actual spending for the states will decline this fiscal year 2009, 2010, two years a narrow. the last time this occurred, the only other time states had the outright decline in expenditures was 1983. that was just a little below about o.7% and the give you some numbers. state spending estimated to decline 2. 2% this fiscal year 2009 which everybody knows and furrow states at the end of this month on june 30. 2010 we are projecting state expenditures will have the actual outright declined of 2. 5% that is very significant. growth because this is two years a narrow but also because the numbers are much more significant in terms of decline and the only other decline which was 1983. 30 states estimate the fy '09 budget will be negative. only six ne

he is the first vice president of the national association of regulatory utility commissioners. mr. cohen has also served as a member of the vermont public service board since 1995 and has continued. he has served in a variety of regional and national leadership positions including the chair of the consumer affairs committee of the new england conference of public utility commissioners. we welcome you, sir. whenever you're ready, please begin. >> good morning, mr. upton, and ranking subcommittee. i also served as the first vice president of the regulatory commissioners also known as neru. i offer a state view on transmission. i'd like to thank representative wells for his kind introduction and his service to our state. he is certainly my favorite congressman from vermont. at the state level, we deal with transmission planning and siding requests regularly and the issues and concerns are not policy or procedural, and do not lend themselves to a one size fits all solution. state commissioners are obligated to act deliberately to ensure that any new projects would benefit the public. t

of the national governors' association dr. raymond scheppach. >> i just want to do two things, number one, talk a little bit about the relationship to the recovery package to these particular numbers and then second just stress a few of what i would call takeaways our bottom-line numbers. in terms of recovery package it was a total 787 billion, and that about 246 billion actually came to states or through states in terms of entitlements to individuals. of that total 135 billion whizz relatively flexible for states and that came out of into categories, the first 87 billion in medicaid. not that the federal money was flexible but allowed states to take the previous month to do and use that to plug holes in other places. the second piece was the so-called states civilization which was 48 million which went to education and because education totals about 30 percent of the average state budget was a lot of flexibility in there as wow. the remaining 111 billion was very specific in terms of categories to essentially a move that mone

let me read a letter from the national association of realtors. the national association of realtors supports h.r. 2998, the american clean energy and security act which addresses a broad and global array of issues. in closing, the national association of realtors asked for the favorable passage of this. as do duke energy, american electric power, b.p. amicle, g.e., the american institute of architects. this bill is designed to help with national security, the climate and jobs. my friend, mr. poe from texas, says just vote no. well, that's the party of the status quo. just vote no. we like the status quo. it is time for a change, ladies and gentlemen. we can't afford the status quo, and this bill brings us in that change and a new direction. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from california. mr. waxman: madam speaker, i have one more person who wanted to be recognized and then we'll be prepared to close. would the gentleman from texas have someone he wishes to yield to

strength and partnerships with the verse routes, such as the national association of colored people, the legal services corp., and the buddhist foundation. we have been working with the national association of translators, the virtual translation center, the national disability rights networks, and save the children. we also work with the u.s. humane society. i see that my time is short and i will move on. but the red cross is also involved in continuing to improve disaster response in a cost-effective way. the needs of the most will marble are magnified by disasters, at the same time that charitable organizations are decreasing. like many nonprofit organizations, we are faced with financial challenges. the major disasters of 2008 like the wild fires and the hurricanes created expenses with foreign based donations. >> could you please try to finish?

i am the executive director of the national association of state budget officers and with me is dr. ray schapock. today we are releasing our fiscal report which we do twice a year, and we have been doing this report for well over 30 years now. unfortunately, i have to report that these are some of the worst numbers in the have ever seen. for the first time ever, actual spending for the states is going to decline this fiscal year 2009 and fiscal year 2010, 2 years and a row. the last time this occurred, the only other time that state had an actual outright decline in expenditures was in 1983. that was just a little below the line, about.7%. let me give you some numbers. state spending is estimated to decline 2.2% this fiscal year, which everyone knows ends on june 30th. we are projecting state expenditures will have an actual outright decline of 2.5%. that is very significant, both because this is 2 years in a row for the first time, also because these numbers are much more significant in terms of decline than the only other decline which was 1983. thirty states estimate their fiscal

in addition we were close to the national association judicial interpreters, translators, the national rich will translation center, national council later, national disability rights work and save the children, and also worked with groups such as u.s. him in society. seeing that my time is short i will move on to say that this red cross is also in moral two in continuing to improve our disaster response and cost-effective way, the economic turndown in the post magnified by disasters at the same time that the donations to charitable organizations are decreasing. like many nonprofits that depend on the generosity of donors, we are faced with financial challenges. the major disasters of 2008 such as the wildfires in california, flooding in the midwest and hurricanes and gustav and i'd, we were receiving support -- >> you can wrap up please. >> -- without i will conclude my presentation and if you have questions i can answer them. >> thank you very much. ms. durden. >> thank you chairman landrieu, it's an honor and privilege to have this opportunity to be able to speak today on behalf of

he's vice president of the national association of regulatory utility commissioners. david is acutely sensitive to the particular needs of rural utilities where a small state, but this issue of transmission is incredibly important to us as it is all around. so i want to welcome him and thank you, mr. chairman, for inviting david to be here and add to the testimony. thank you. >> the chair recognizes the gentleman from louisiana, mr. scolese. >> thank you, mr. chairman. renewable energies will play an important role in the energy policy and the support the development of renewable sources of energy. as a matter of fact, republicans have drafted legislation, the american energy act which will be in energy. as we expand energy sources like wind, solar and hydro and as the congress and this administration discussed the grid and its capacity, we must not neglect that many of these sources of energy are intermittent and need to be backed up by other sources of energy and we would be remiss if we do not emphasize the importance of diversifying our energy portfolio and ensuri

in addition, we work closely with the national association of judicial interpreters, translators, the national virtual translation center, national counsel of la raza, national disability rights network and save the children. we've also worked with pet rights groups such as the u.s. humane society. seeing that my time is short, i'll just move on to say that the red cross is also involved in continuing to improve our disaster response in a cost-effective way. the economic turndown and needs of the most vulnerable are magnified by disasters at the same time that the nation's charitable organizations are decreasing. like many non-profit organizations that depend be on the general rossi of donors, we are faced with financial challenges. the major disaster of 2008 such as the wildfires in california, flooding in the midwest and hurricanes gustav and ike -- >> you could try to wrap up, if you could, i'm sorry. >> -- and expenses. with that i'll conclude my presentation, and if you have questions, i'd be happy to answer them. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, chairman landrieu. it's an h

the national insurance crime bureau. blue cross and blue shield association. and the american health insurance plans. the health committee engaged in in a -- engaged the staff in a bipartisan way. not only in this committee but the staff at finance and aging and judiciary to get input and participate in these discussions and drafting. just by way of a quick update, this is the latest that i have. we have a total of 21 amendments, 19 of those being republican amendments. we have acceptance on two, to my knowledge. nz-103, nz-104. we're working on possible agreement on three senator burr amendments 1, 2, 7. we have a whole series of coburn and gregg agreements we don't have agreement on right now. also one by senator hatch. the total democratic amendments of course are two or three. i think there's a discrepancy in the number here. but two or three. senator sanders has i guess three. if i get that right. 6, 7, 8. he'll be offering -- he will not be offering for a vote but will talk about them. we're making a little progress on amendments. just a word about juris

the national association of manufacturers. the national automobile lawyers association, as well as more than a dozen governors. it is important that we defeat the objection to this program and put this money into our economy, give people a chance to buy a new car that is more fuel- efficient, put people back to work so we can start digging ourselves out of this recession. i yield the floor. >> first off, i appreciate the majority leader clarify the situation. this issue is about the issue of cash for clunkers. a piece of legislation that has nothing to do with finding our troops in the field, and was airdropped into a conference. it adds $1 billion of new debt. that is what this waiver is about. they say that this has the ability to hurt the funding of the troops. i believe that to be fundamentally inaccurate. this issue comes out of a piece of legislation that the majority leader and assistant majority leader offered. they wrote the bill. it is called "the honest leadership and open government act. that bill created this poin

i'm here today on behalf of the national association of mutual insurance companies to present our views on systemic risk. dynamic represents more than 1400 property, casualty insurance companies ranging from non-farm mutual companies to large, national writers. members serve the insurance needs of millions of consumers and businesses in every town and city across america. i service chairman of the services task force which was created specifically to develop the policy response to the financial services crisis. our nation faces uncertain economic times and we comment the committee for holding this hearing to explore the role of systemic risk regulation in the insurance industry. >> the property casualty insurance industry like millions of businesses did not contribute to the current financial crisis, however, we, too, have felt the negative impact of this crisis. just like most american citizens and businesses, the property casualty insurance industry has played by the rules. we are solvent and continue to serve our policyholders the same today as before the economic crisis. if you excl

that's why the national parent teachers association, the national school boards association, and the national education association as well as colleagues on both sides of the aisle have supported it. i thank the gentleman for yielding. mr. gohmert: reclaiming my time, i did want to yield to you, i wasn't sure with the way the conversation was going if you had adequate time respond and i want to give you that chance and had the time to do so. and i do appreciate the gentleman's position. and i would say that if it pertained to school trips, field trips that crossed state lines and particularly as here where it went to another country, certainly i would join in support for perhaps even further requirements than the minimum that has been offered here. but since that's not the case, i would be in opposition to a further dictation from washington of any requirements and would encourage every single person, mr. speaker, in america to start monitoring their local school board, hold them accountable, and if they're taking actions that are irresponsible, negligent, inappropriate, then fire th

raymond scheppach director of the national governors' association. today we are releasing a were fiscal report, which we do twice a year, and we've been doing this report well over 30 years now and on fortunately i have to report these are some of the worst numbers we have ever seen. for example, for the first time ever actual spending for the state is calling to decline this fiscal year, 09, and fiscal year ten, two years in a row. the last time this occurred and the only other time states actually had an actual outright decline in expenditure was 1983 and that was a little below the line about .7%. but me give you some numbers. state spending is estimated to decline 2.2% this fiscal year 09 which i think everyone knows for most states in this at the end of this month, june 30th. in ten we are projecting state expenditures will have an actual outright to equine of 2.5% and again that's significant both because this is two years in a row the first time but also these numbers are much more significant in terms of decline than the only other decline wh

association, the national education association and the national school boards association for this important bill. phylicia's law bears the name of a young woman from my district who was taken from us much too soon. phylicia moore was an 18-year-old high school student from new jersey who died in april, 2007, while on a school-sponsored trip to ghana. today, however, is not about the past. we're here to talk about the future. and what we can do to help ensure that no more parents endure what douglas and lola moore have gone through. it is the culmination of the moore's hard work and dedication to their daughter and her memory and their desire that no other parent suffer as they have that brings us to this moment on the floor of the united states house of representatives.

the national association of broadcasters has chosen to have an absolute burn the bridge attitude toward terrestrial broadcasters paying even a cent. i join with chairman conyers, mr. berman, myself and many others in urging that this pattern of lowering to what we believe is a more fair rate or helping lower to what we believe is a more fair rate in fact flies in the face of terrestrial broadcasters continuing to say that the only fair amount to pay in the way of royalties to music producers, actual performers, is zero. the public today, mr. speaker, when they hear this, they hear this, will be shocked to find out that when they listen to terrestrial radio, nothing is paid to the artist. if they listen to internet radio, more than half of the gross revenues of these internet broadcasters is paid to the performers. as mr. inslee said, i do believe that perhaps it is too much, that there is in fact a point at which when you tax something too much, even if it's taxed to pay the performance, you may get too little of it. to that extent we need to find an amount that balances fairly, compens

groups such as the national association of manufacturers, the chamber of commerce and in the lead the obama administration. today with this legislation we will ensure a strong american manufacturing base. as much as anything that we can do in terms of addressing the issue of the auto industry in our country, this is a national security issue. the auto industry's success is essential to ensuring that we have a strong manufacturing base. this legislation today will ensure that we have a strong manufacturing base and get more fuel-efficient vehicles on the road which is essential to our economy, to our national security and a clean, green future. i commend my colleagues, once again. i commend congresswoman sutton for her determination to accelerate the pace of when we would bring this legislation to the floor and urge a strong bipartisan support for the bill which it certainly deserves. i yield back the balance of my time to the distinguished manager of the bill. thank you, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from ohio continues to reserve. the gentleman from michigan

in addition, we worked closely with the national association of judicial interpreters and translators, the national virtual translation center, the national council of la raza, the disability rights network, and save the children. worked for groups such as u.s. humane society. seeing that my time is short, i will move on to say that the red cross is also involved in continuing to approve our response in a cost-effective way. the most vulnerable are magnified by disasters at the same time the charitable donations are decreasing. like many, we are faced with financial challenges. the major disasters of 2008, wild fires, flooding, and hurricanes, created expenses that far outpaced the nation's. with that, i will conclude my presentation. if you have questions, i would be happy to answer them. >> thank you. it is a privilege to be able to speak today on behalf of united way and its system across america. as you are aware, 211 is a referral line connecting people to existing resources on rent and mortgage assistance, as well as food and utility assistance. however, 211 plays a vital role i

the national government association says that medicaid itself will add a half trillion dollars to the state costs -- to the state costs over the next 10 years if reimbursement rates are increased, as they are proposed to be increased. this is on top of what the "washington post" said earlier this week is a set of proposals by the obama administration that would add nearly three times as much to the national debt over the next 10 years as we spent in all of world war ii. and this bill, mr. president, i'm sorry to say, is absolutely not a bipartisan bill. we're having a bipartisan discussion. we're all very friendly and civil to one another. chris dodd is doing a tremendous job of sitting in for senator kennedy. we all like him. but we know what a bipartisan bill is. it's when 15 or 20 of us from different sides of the aisle sit around a table and start from scratch and take our best ideas and put it together and get 60 or 70 or 75 votes or something. we've done it much times on energy, on intelligence, but we're not doing it on this. we're presented with a bill last thursday -- or some

the united auto workers, national association of manufacturers, u.s. chamber of commerce and national automobile dealers association as well as more than a dozen governors. it is important we defeat this procedural objection to this program. that we put this money into our economy, give people a chance to buy a new car that is more fuel efficient, put people back to work across america so we can start digging ourselves out of this recession hole. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. gregg: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mr. gregg: first off, i appreciate the assistant majority leader collar frying the situation, that this waiver issue is about and solely about the issue of cash for clunkers, a piece of legislation that has absolutely nothing to do -- nothing to do with funding our troops in the field and was airdropped into a conference without being paid for adding $1 billion of new debt to our children's back. that's what this waiver is about. the majority leader has said that this waiver will in some way harm

president of the national district attorney's association. they spoke with reporters afterwards at the white house. it is an mon honor and privilege for me today with the vice president to endorse president obama's election of sonia sotomayor as the next justice of the supreme court. as i said earlier, judge sotomayor grew up in the south bronx where i patrolled for many years the streets of the south bronx. additionally, she went to cardinal stellar high school. i went to cardinal hayes in the south bronx. it's much more difficult to get into cardinal spellman than cardinal hayes. nonetheless, she graduated valedictorian from spellman, on to princeton, an graduated to go on to yale law school. with her background and potential she could have chosen lucrative careers in the private sector at a big law firm but she didn't. she worked with bob morganthal as an assistant d.a. where she proved her capabilities over the next four years. i have spoken to my colleagues that worked with her over the years, and they used great adjectives like compassi

the new figures from the national association of manufacturers this week show that my district is the number one manufacturing district. it's unusual. if you came to northeast indiana, and i represent basecally fort wayne up to south bend, going along the michigan line and ohio line, you drive through an area with lots of water, rivers, in between is beautiful green farmland we aren't dry and parched like much of america, we have a green area. that gives us water, essential to most manufacturing. you can't build major manufacturing facilities where there isn't adequate water. many, many of those farms where people still farm we don't have the big corporate farms, we have small farms because one person from each sfamly, sometimes multifamily on one farm are working at auto parts plants and other plants throughout the district. thousands and thousands and thousands, they are at direct threat we talk more about our energy. i've been to the alternative energy labs in colorado. sandia labs in new mexico. major places where we look at alternative energy. indiana cannot get wind power. with

now the larsen-kirk amendment is supported by the national association of manufacturers, the chamber of commerce. i really want to thank chairman berman, chairman waxman, ranking member ros-lehtinen and chairman rangel for supporting this very commonsense piece of legislation. and i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from washington. mr. larsen: thank you, mr. chairman. i'd again ask my colleagues to support this important amendment to h.r. 2410 and appreciate everyone's support and making it happen and bringing it to the floor today and yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from washington. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is adopted. mr. larsen: mr. chairman, i ask for the yeas and nays. the chair: pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from washington will be postponed. it's now in order to consider amendment number 8 printed in part c of

so osha bigger new data the national association of american manufacturers a great supporter of worker rights complained and said oh shut is that relating on 35 year profiles and italy reliance onto outdated studies and should continue to study the effects at lower levels. more study. more study. just as the comment period was closing i was asking my students about this because it was a great teaching opportunity i read the study in the "journal" of occupational medicine that the conclusion that the absence of the elevated lung cancer may be a favorable change an inquiry is the researchers have looked at the new factory cover the have not looked at people for very long or but it shows there is no real risk from low levels of exposure. the chromium chemical health committee from the industrial foundation. what is that? late one night i did some grupo and it just by luck because only on the web for a brief period of the industrial health foundation had gone bankrupt and there is a fight over chromium files and fortunately we were able to get the data from that and by cold calling the var

now we'll hear from michael mcraith, testifying on behalf of the national association of insurance commissioners. mr. mcraith. >> chairman, ranking members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify. i'm michael mcraith, director of insurance in the state of illinois. i speak today on behalf of the flagsal association of insurance commissioners. the insurance industry, even in these difficult times, has withstood the collapses that echo through other financial sectors. we likely agree insurance regulation must not only serve industry needs but prioritize u.s. consumers. consumer protection has been, is and will remain priority one for state regulators. it bears repeating that we supervise 36% of the world's insurance market. our states, individual states include four of the top ten and 28 of the top 50 world markets. alone we surpass two, three and four combined. to be sure as with any dynamic industry, insurance regulation must modernize and it does. we worked with your great staff, mr. chairman, to fashion the office of insurance information which if passed would provide a federal

chamber, the national association of manufacturers oppose this legislation. tax and government watchdog groups including the national taxpayer union, citizens against government waste oppose it. it's bad for business, bad for the environment and bad for the american people. just vote no. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from massachusetts continue tory serve? mr. markey: i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas. mr. barton: i yield one minute to the distinguished californian, mr. bilbray. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. bilbray: madam speaker, i think somebody who has spent a decade regulating air pollution, i look at this bill of what i can read. i have come to the conclusion that the greatest threat of the earn virmente -- environment is the smoke that is coming out of back room deals to put this package together. people can talk about clean coal. clean coal is as logical as safe cigarettes and that

stock futures are edging higher with the national association of realtors expected to report a jump in sales of existing homes. later today the fed begins its two-day meeting on monetary policy and is expected to keep its key rate near 0. today in congress nancy pelosi is expected to be a climate change bill to the floor. the speaker file the legislation with the rules committee last night even though its authors henry waxman and ed markey are still working out a deal with collin peterson. lighthouse coverage at 10:30 a.m. on c-span. finally, -- live coverage of the house at 10:30 a.m. eastern. an investigator for the subway train accidents as a was part of an aging fleet that federal regulators have recommended three years ago to be phased out or retrofitted. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span rita. "washington journal" continues. host: we want to welcome our guests to c-span, bob schieffer. guest: thank you. host: how you view where we are at at this moment in time? guest: i can ever recall a time when the president has faced more serious issues. you look at north korea

you cannot go forward until you have the studies of the new factories, so the national association of manufacturers a great supporter of workers' rights, complaint untold oh shut, osher is relying on 3250-year-old exposure profiles. osha only relies-- osha can should continue to study the effects of lower levels. more study come amora steady come tomorrow steady. justice the common period was closing, i was fascinated by this because it is a great teaching opportunity. i read the study that frankly was a piece of garbage, and the conclusion is there was no, the absence of elevated lung cancer risk may be a favorable reflection of the changing environment. researchers looked at one of these new factories. of course they had not looked for people very long, so you could not draw conclusions but they tried to pretend that this shows that there is no real risk from low-level exposure. this is thought. it was funded by the chromium chemical health and environment subcommittee of the industrial health foundation. what is that? late one night i did some googling in just by luck because somet

i would like to also observe, though, we heard during debate today the national association of realtors was supporting this. obviously they didn't know about the 300 pages added at 3:08 a.m. this morning because whoever that realtor was that pushed that should lose their jobs because it's going to cost realtors' jobs. it's going to cost them commissions. it's going to cost them royally. with that, mr. speaker, we yield back time and pursuant to senate concurrent resolution 31 , the 111th congress, before we do any more damage to america, i move that this house do now adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the aye vs. it. the motion is agreed to. accordingly, the house stands adjourned until -- accordingly, pursuant to senate concurrent resolution 31, the house stands adjourned until 2:00 p.m. on tuesday, july 7, >> this is c-span public affairs television. next, the house floor debate on the energy and climate change bill. then, remarks by president obama and german president merkel. >> and now some

now, let me, if i might, quote from the national association of colored people legal defense and education fund noted that a case braut by the civil rights division of the department of justice reverberates throughout the community. the state and the region. it can have industrywide impact in terms of deterrence and reform. the broad-based injunktive release cannot be matched by the efforts of individuals or private lawsuits. my question is that we haven't seen a case

in fact the national association of manufacturers has estimated cap and trade energy tax would run three million to four million jobs out of america to countries like china and india who are just chomping at the bit to take our jobs. so you would wonder why at a time when we are here discussing legislation to encourage our children to lead healthy lifestyles as we should, there's also legislation moving through this congress pushed by this leadership in congress that's trying to tax energy and run millions of jobs overseas. to countries like china and india at a time when we are seeing record level unemployment, over 9%. we broke the mark of 9% just in the last report, 9% unemployment in this country at a time when so many people are cutting back because times are tough, and the answer that the leadership in congress has is to promote a tax on energy. an $840 billion tax on energy that would run millions of jobs overseas. the real irony is, they talk about the goal of reducing carbon emission, the real irony is the countries that will be getting our jobs, china, to produce the same steel

has been an active dialogue over the recent period with both the nada, the national association as well as their own dealer council and i believe that nada has put out a statement indicating that they find the modifications that have been made to the go forward agreement, participation agreement, to meet the majority of the dealer concerns so i think concerns were raised. i think you and others brought them to the attention of gm, and i think good dialogue was had, and i think a good result. so certainly when members of congress bring to our attention situations, we absolutely will do everything we can to facilitate dialogue between the affected stake holder and the company and that we are not going to intervene and become the arbitrator of a dispute, but we certainly are going to ask and insist that the companies listen carefully to the concerns of any stake holder and if it's the particular situation you mention regarding the chrysler dealer or the participation agreement which is a broader issue, we are going to insist that they be listened to. but again, i don't want to mislead you.

in 2007, the national association of convenience stores reported the entire convenience store industry had profits of $3.4 billion. however, paid credit card interchange fees of $7.6 billion. over twice the amount of industry profit was paid to credit card providers. and, of course, it has an impact on smaller businesses. rich neman, a friend of mine who's coming by my office this afternoon in washington, runs neman foods, a chain of 65 grocery stores based in quincy, illinois. every year i meet with him and every year he asks me for help with interchange fees. last year, neman foods made $6 million in profits but paid $3 million in interchange fees. those fee payments are going up every year. he has no ability to negotiate any change in those fee amounts and it's a growing expense he can't control. rising interchange fees force many merchants to raise the prices of their goods to cover the interchange costs. i don't want to drive small grocery stores out of business or small convenience stores. we don't want prices to go up for consumers across the bored becausboredbecause of nonnegot

national association of manufacturers would run -- would run 3 million jobs to 4 million jobs out of our country into china. that is why we presented this alternative. when you look at the american energy act, this address is comprehensively all the things we can do to utilize our natural resources here in america, to create good jobs and to create more energy that we can reduce our dependence on middle eastern oil. host: independent line. robert from washington. caller: thank you. i would ask the congressman why is it that they are a bunch of cowards in washington. they are holding the american people hostage over the energy situation and the doing nothing about. this guy is not going to do anything. he is not out there telling people the truth. he is trying to come up with a different plan. they have a different plane in washington, and that is to rob us. host: ok. guest: not sure how to respond, but if you look at a lot of the policies, spending is out of control, we have to rein in and get fiscal discipline back. but we also need a sound energy policy, which we don't have appeare

now, let me, if i might, quote from the national association of colored people legal defense and education fund noticed a case brought by the civil rights division of the department of justice reverberates throughout the community, the state and the region. it can have industry-wide impact in terms of deterrence and reform. the broad base injunctive review cannot be matched through the efforts of individuals nor private lawsuits. my question is, we haven't seen a case brought since 2000 as it relates to predatory lending by the department of justice. i sent you a letter about a week ago concerning the circumstances of maryland where minority communities were targeted with subprime mortgages. my question to you or my request is that the department of justice investigate and look at the circumstances concerning predatory loan being in particularly minority communities to see whether there's a need for aggressive action by the department of justice in order to protect our communities and i would just request that you do this and get back to us. >> we will do that. senator, i will tell you now

the national education association, the national network of domestic violence, the national center for victims of crime, the national families prevention fund have endorsed this amendment and i urge my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment to create a safe learning environment for our children across this country. and i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from west virginia rise? mr. mollohan: i rise to claim the time in opposition, although i'm not in opposition. the chair: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. . i want to complement the gentleman from washington for his concern here. he's absolutely correct this program is authorized under the violence against women legislation. it was not funded in this bill. there are a number of programs in it. we have found it difficult to fund all of them. we want every year we add to them. but the gentleman's contribution here to the bill and to fighting violence against women is real and we appreciate it and we accep

i am very fortunate one of my constituents who is the chairman of the national auto dealers association from clinton, iowa is here because he works and sells cars in the heartland and i think a lot of what we're talking about today is an explanation of how the decisions that are being made are affecting dealers over the country. my wife's grandfather was at first ford dealer in dubuque, iowa and my uncle came home from world war ii and at the request of one of his navy bodies move to my home town of berglund, iowa and started working as a parts manager and a chevy dealership that he later purchase and worked in for 60 years. i want to talk a little bit about where we have been to get to where we are right now. because i remember those fall rollouts of a new models and the excitement that they brought to my home town. and i remember those ads that my old man and my hometown newspaper showing all of the employees of his dealership and how many years they had worked there to show the impact that his business was having on our community because of those same employees were the ones voluntee

john mceleney, chairman of the national automobile dealers association. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, senator hutchison, i am chairman of nada and the national automobile dealers association. i am also an automobile dealer. my dealership is mcelenen center in clinton, ohio. we have actually been in business 95 years. we provide jobs for 140 people. my family also held a chrysler franchise between 1984 and 2007. mr. chairman, we commend you and we thank you and senator hutchison for convening this hearing. in three face-to-face meetings with the president's auto task force, and at numerous meetings with the manufacturers, no one has explained why dealer reductions will make chrysler and gm more viable. over 90% of chrysler and gm's revenue comes from the dealer, because the dealer buys the cars, the parts, and even the dealership signs from the manufacturer. the retail network, the land, the building, the employees, the dealers pay for all of it. dealer cuts won't save any money, because dealers don't cost the manufacturers any money. when a dealership closes, the manufac

crime bureau, the coalition against insurance fraud and the national health care anti-fraud association, also a letter addressed to chairman kennedy ranking member enzi. i ask those be made part of the record. >> they will be included in the record. i apologize to my colleague. those are the letters from the insurance commissioners? >> those two letters are not. this letter from the national insurance crime bureau, coalition against insurance fraud and anti-fraud association, the second -- >> okay. that's fine. i had those letters, as well. i thank my colleague for including them. i understand there was an effort made on the bingham amendment. i don't know whether it can hold over till next week, as well. i don't want to keep members unnecessarily long. >> senator coburn and senator bingham are working on that. >> we are able to close out title v. >> there is a letter from the insurance commission. i didn't cite that here. >> that will be included, as well. >> as well. thank you. >> let me thank my colleagues. we did somewhere around 2 50shgs 260 amendments over the last eight or nine d

the national governors association says that if we assumed that all individuals under 150% of poverty were covered and there's no change in reimbursement rates, the cost to the states would be $360 billion more over the next ten years. if you also increase reimbursement rate for physicians from say 72% to 83%, the governors association says the new cost is $500 billion more over ten years. then there is the fraud in the medicaid program. the government accountability office says 10% of it is fraud. $32 billion a year, about three-fourths of the amount of money we spend on prescription drugs for all seniors. then there's the problem of access of care. with 40% of doctors already not being willing to provide full service to patients who are on medicaid. so why would we expand in government-run program when it is filled with inefficiency, delay and waste? when it would bankrupt states? when it would add hundreds of billions the dollars to the federal deficit and when it would provide substandard services when instead we could pass the coburn-burr bill or the gregg bill and give to the 58

the national mining association is working hard against this bill. you are seeing the american farm bureau come out yesterday against the bill could the american petroleum institute is against the bill could some trade groups are fighting the bill. it a lot of conservative groups have a lot of skeptics on the global warming issue. they are trying to stop the bill from moving forward. >> [unintelligible] >> he is on board. he signed up a few days ago that really jolted this debate. we started this week not knowing if the bill was going to reach the floor this week. last weekend, the staff was working hours and hours into the weekend. they came back on monday and tuesday and wrapped up an agreement on a number of key issues. probably the biggest two or three was dealing with the free allowances that will be given out to electrical utility industry. they ended up getting 0.5% that was distributed. another thing that was wanted -- the department of agriculture will be in charge of the offset. that is important for collin peterson because he thinks the fd

some the national mining association, for example, is working hard against this bill. you're seeing the american farm bureau came out yesterday against the bill. the american petroleum institute is against the bill. so some of the bigger trade groups are fighting this bill. a lot of the conservative groups you definitely have a large group of skeptics on the sides of global warming who don't believe that climate change is an issue and they're trying to stop this bill from moving forward. >> is agriculture committee chairman collin peterson onboard? >> he is onboard. he signed up about three days ago in a huge agreement that really jolted this debate forward. we started this week not knowing if this bill was going to reach the floor this week. and over last weekend, staff had kind of been just working hours and hours and hours into the weekend when they came back on monday and tuesday and actually wrapped up an agreement on a number of key issues that the farm state chairman from minnesota, collin peterson had been fighting for, probably the biggest two or three were de

the nation's more than 2,000 community owned electric utilities. thank you for being here and whenever you are ready please begin. >> thank you and members of the subcommittee i appreciate the opportunity to be here. we represent the interest of 2,000 publicly owned state and locally owned utilities across the country collectively serving 45 million americans. american utilities collectively own about 8% of the nation's transmission lines of 138 kilovolts or greater and the great majority is members of transparent that is dependent on facilities owned by oberst require of the electricity they need for their retail customers. our members report more transmission is needed in almost every area to serve a variety of purposes including increased use of renewable energy reliability and enhanced competition. in our view the single most significant impediment to getting new transmission belt continues to be cited and we urge the congress to clarify and continue to support the authority included in each pack of five. deciding authorities for a major step f

the credit union national association has $578,000 in holdings. talk about this and how they're responding currently? guest: it is a powerful interest group. we will have a case study of its power over the next year as congress tries to put together a financial services regulatory regime. they have weighed in heavily on initiatives discussed. consolidating various agencies into one strong begin later. many of the banking groups do not like that. they are comfortable with the current system. it is one of many interest groups who have strength in washington. it is a powerful group. when they come together to fight an initiative they usually have a strong cloud on capitol hill and within the administration. host: how would you gauge their strength in this administration compared to the previous one? guest: probably had a little more sway with the bush administration. it is a strong force. the banking industry is a force to be reckoned with. host: check out our website if you want more information on this. these are figures on the political action com

we've seen the fcc, the national telecommunication association really make an investment in the small agencies who are called on to do this work, and that makes a difference. 1-888-call fcc, it's a very good resource, complimentary to that are the hundreds and hundreds of local resources in cities and communities across the country. >> host: erica swanson is with the leadership conference on civil rights, and their web site civil rights.org/dtv if you'd like to see what they're doing. bill lake, final question. what would you do differently that we didn't do if you could do it all again? >> guest: i think we would have started the concentrated outreach efforts that we're engaged in now well before february, and i think if we had, we would be in even better shape in terms of reducing the number of households that are unready. >> host: would you have stuck with the coupon program? >> guest: i think the coupon program has been very good because we've heard there are a number of people for whom that $40 is asian -- decisional. if the box cost $50, that additional $10 is a problem for some

the national governors' association and we've got i think all 13 of us in the senate to use a big governors and chief executives of stays with medicaid programs, it says that the medicaid expansion alone will cost the state's $500 million over 10 years if you count of this expansion of medicaid in the increase in reimbursement costs that are provided in the kennedy bill. in tennessee alone the amount of money that we would be -- have to come up with whoever the governor is in 2015 would be additional $1.2 billion. doesn't sound like a lot of money up here but in our state that would be about the new 10% state income tax, that is how much of that money is. this is on top of the washington post reported in this year. last week it said that we have in that proposed by this administration that would add nearly three times as much to the national debt as we spend in world war ii in today's dollars so the question how it has to be asked, how this legislation which w p