wyden: mr. president? parliamentary inquiry. can i yield to senator merkley time from general debate in order to let him complete his remarks? the presiding officer: with unanimous consent of the senate. mr. wyden: i would ask unanimous consent. the presiding officer: without objection. is there objection? mrs. feinstein: time to address the bill overall is going to be used on one amendment, i object. mr. merkley: mr. president? if there is no one else waiting to speak, i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business and will yield when someone is ready and prepared to speak to the bill. the presiding officer: is there objection? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. feinstein: let me do something i do sometimes correct myself. if the senator is offering the time against his amendment -- or time against the bill using that time, that's fine with me, as long as he's not using the time for the bill. mr. wyden: mr. president, i think this is acceptable, yes. mrs. feins

despite senator wyden and vocal criticism of syslog now goes to president obama for his signature critics of the law like the electronic frontier foundation say it violates american fourth amendment rights they say the government can get ahold of e-mails and phone calls without a warrant and without the person knowing about it none of the amendments proposed by senators to increase the bills transparency pass and with much of the media fixated on the fiscal cliff the controversial bill is likely to be renewed with little attention. and after the tragedy at sandy hook elementary school two weeks ago today there's been a huge push for more gun control and gun lovers have noticed there's been a significant increase in gun purchases these past two weeks are the corresponding guy and his you can take a look at this phenomenon about two weeks ago actually on this particular wall here . they are four rows down four rows across. with everything going on in politics right now with the possible back and everything everyone is flooding in. purchasing right away gun stores all across the u.s. are rep

mark udall jeff merkley and mike lee here's part of senator wyden speech from last night he argued that we simply don't know enough about what the n.s.a. and other government organizations are doing with the information they collect. the fines amendments act states that acquisitions made under section seven zero two may not quote intentionally target a specific american and may not quote intentionally acquire communications that are known at the time of acquisition to be wholly domestic but mr president the problem with that is it still leaves a lot of room for circumstances under which americans phone calls and e-mails including purely domestic phone calls and e-mails could be swept up and reviewed without a warrant. this by senator wyden vocal criticism of science and now goes to president obama for his signature critics of the law like the electronic frontier foundation say it violates americans fourth amendment rights they say the government can get ahold of e-mails and phone calls without a warrant and without the person knowing about it none of the amendments proposed by senators

ron wyden wanted to make the nsa or at least encourage the nsa to develop -- >> the national security agency. >> yeah, the national security agency was conducting these blanket surveillance. instead of traditional individualized fisa act, it creates individual warrants. a kind of blank check where the judges sign a very broad authorization and the agents have discretion about who gets wiretapped, as long as it's an international communications or surveillance with a foreign target, which includes a foreign group. so might be a google g-mail account. >>> as long as their purpose is to get information about al qaeda, they can do that. if that turps out after the fact oops it was an american's account. they can keep that in an nor mouse database and wyden said zej sensibly you are claiming our civil liberties aren't at risk because you have a robust oversight. shouldn't we at bare minimum have a rough stes estimate of how many americans communications are getting swept up in this database and the nsa repeatedly said essentially we can't do that and the reason we can't is secret. go to a

why or how a couple of the amendments that are on the table right now by senators merkley and senator wyden essentially try to tackle that try to get more transparency towards all of the compilation of information but even then earlier this year when senator ron wyden and wrote to the n.s.a. complaining saying hey we don't know how this information is being used being stored essentially they said well we don't need to give you any of that information we don't need to tell you how or why we're doing things so you know so what could be done to this bill to make it more palatable to. them oh well i mean it's essentially going to be little very small steps amendments that are on the table now essentially it's one by senator merkley essentially saying that they want more transparency in the communications of being able to access documents in order in other words if they ask the court for any sort of paperwork and they it gets denied they need to know the reasons why and that's one the one why an essentially is trying to get. some sort of. i would like to say more of a it infrastructure when it c

i hope we can adopt the wyden amendment to improve the reporting requirements of the fisa act. i urge my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment. with that, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. coats: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 1, for the purpose of calling up and debating the coats amendment. that following the remarks of senator coats, senator alexander be recognized, that the senate resume consideration of the fisa bill h.r. 5949 after that and all that provisions -- and that all provisions of the previous orders remain in effect. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report. mr. coats: i'd like to call -- the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 1, an act making appropriations for the department of defense and other departments and agencies of the government for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2011, and for other purposes. mr. coats: mr. president, i would like to call up amendment 3391. the presiding officer: th

hate this legislation now the bill itself hasn't been well received by privacy advocates when senators wyden and udall asked how many wiretaps there have been their request was denied apparently not even the people signing the laws into law are privy to the information collected in signing them and then there's this the intelligence community has acknowledged on at least one occasion the feis a court ruled collection had violated the fourth amendment but despite all of this is likely only a matter of time before the bill is passed in congress now to be fair at least the senate work today and spent most of the day debating fice of the house of representatives on the other hand gave itself the day off and that's going to do it for us for now but for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america and for the latest on greatest on the stories we covered and a little bit that we didn't have time to get to check out our web site that's r t dot com slash usa and don't forget to follow me on twitter at.

wyden: i will be happy to. mr. reid: the distinguished senator from oregon and i served together in the house of representatives. do you remember the days when the house voted as a body, not a majority of the majority, but voted as a body to come up with how legislation should be given to the american people? do you remember that? mr. wyden: i do, and the leader is being logical, and heaven forbid that logic break out on some of these matters, because i remember when we started out -- and i joke, i had a full head of hair and rugged good looks -- you and i used to work with peel on bot people ons of the aisle. we tried to show up early, go home late and, like the leader says, focus on getting some results. i thank the leader for his point, and again for the honor of being able to open this meeting. as i indicated, what i heard at home is we're supposed to be here, we're supposed to be trying to find some common ground. i know the talkingheads on tv say that this is just impossible, you know, can't be done. but as t

the national debate which started with gun control has wydened to include the american mental health system. >> and the -- i'm the mother of a mentally ill son. >> liza long blogged about her son. >> i love my son but he terrifies me. >> one in 17 americans live with a serious mental illness. less than a third rereceive professional help. lanza's brother said he had a personality disorder. and friends talked about her fear. there is no record of lanza getting help. >> the shooters of columbine also had mental health problems. >> many parents are struggling with children who have emotional symptoms. they go to the emergency room. and it's a band-aid. >> it was looking after 500 patients. in 1956 more than 7,000 people committed there. but over the years that number has steadly declined. and today it has a capacity of just 509 patients. >> in the last three years states have cashed more than $4 million. a time when the number of patients needing those services has increased by 10%. most health insurance companies do not cover street. for mental illness. it's often classified as a pre-e

ron wyden wanted to make the nsa or at least encourage the nsa to develop -- >> the national security agency. >> yeah, the national security agency was conducting these blanket surveillance. instead of traditional individualized fisa act, it creates individual warrants. a kind of blank check where the judges sign a very broad authorization and the agents have discretion about who gets wiretapped, as long as it's an international communications or surveillance with a foreign target, which includes a foreign group. so might be a google g-mail account. where they get information, if it turns out that was an american's account, if they didn't know at the time they were getting domestic intelligence, they said look, you're claiming we're -- not -- at risk, our civil liberties were not at risk, because you have this incredibly robust over sight, should not we have a rough estimate on how many american's communications are getting swept up in this data base, they said we can't do that, the reason we can't do it. it is secret. go to a secret room and read the reason why we can't do this. the

ron wyden wanted to make the nsa or at least encourage the nsa to develop -- >> the national security agency. >> yeah, the national security agency was conducting these blanket surveillance. instead of traditional individualized fisa act, it creates individual warrants. a kind of blank check where the judges sign a very broad authorization and the agents have discretion about who gets wiretapped, as long as it's an international communications or surveillance with a foreign target, which includes a foreign group. so might be a google g-mail account. as long as their purpose is to get information about al qaeda, they can do that, and if it turns out after the fact, that was an american's account, as lock as they din know at the time they were getting domestic communications, which, of course, you wouldn't, it's all legal and they can keep that in an enormous database indefinitely. and widen said, look, you are claiming we are not at risk. the civil liberties aren't at risk, then we shouldn't at bear minimum have some rough estimate of how many americans' communications are getting swep

ron wyden wanted to make the nsa or at least encourage the nsa to develop -- >> the national security agency. >> yeah, the national security agency was conducting these blanket surveillance. instead of traditional individualized fisa act, it creates individual warrants. a kind of blank check where the judges sign a very broad authorization and the agents have discretion about who gets wiretapped, as long as it's an international communications or surveillance with a foreign target, which includes a foreign group. so might be a google g-mail account. as long as their purpose is to get information about al qaeda, they can do that, and if it turns out after the fact, that was an american's account, as as long as their purpose is to get information about al qaeda, they can do that, and if it turns out after the fact, that was an american's account, as lock as they din know at the time they were getting domestic communications, which, of course, you wouldn't, it's all legal and they can keep that in an enormous database indefinitely. and widen said, look, you are claiming we are not at ris

wyden is set to become chairman of the senate energy and natural resources committee next month. opponents believe the unchecked exports would threaten jobs and exports in manufacturing. >>> in the meantime, the low cost of gas here brings a plan to build a north american facility just to ship it back to europe. the "wall street journal" reports the company will build the $659 million plant in the u.s. or canada and the facility will huge natural gas to produce iron which will be sent back to europe to be processed into steel. >>> meantime, the nasdaq falling today but get this, shares of research in motion, yes, r.i.m., bucking the trend. seema mody with us now. this is not a typo, is it? >> not a typo. take a look at shares of research in motion. as you point out, best performing stock on the nasdaq 100, quite a sharp rebound when you take a look at shares in comparison to last friday, when the stock dipped lower by around 20%. of course, many traders calling this a relief rally when you have a lot of traders covering their shorts. there is also some blogs out there leaking pic

from the snows of iowa, through the heat of the debate, to election night, the political divide wydened. the u.s. re-examined its role abroad and a second term president claimed it. we look ahead to what happens next with michael duffy of "time" magazine. john harwood of cnbc and the "new york times." doyle mcmanus of the "los angeles times" and karen tumulty of "the washington post." >> covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capital. this is "washington week" with gwen ifill, produced in association with national journal. corporate fuppeding for "washington week" is provided by -- -- corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern, one line, infinite possibilities. >> we know why we're here, to chart a greern path in the air and in our factories. >> to find cleaner, more efficient ways to power flight. >> and harn es -- harness our technology for new energy solutions. >> the people of boeing are looking to tomorrow to build a better tomorrow. >> that's why we're here. >> additional corporat

than the one theater rayon terrorist organization gets backing from washington or port from terror ron wyden many of that believe little has really trained within the group. around the world this is all see with me your national holiday thanks for joining as far as the sale season is underway in britain where millions of people still indulging themselves with some festive holiday shopping they will do they know that much of the money they thought they were spending on goods made by u.k. companies actually goes into the pockets of foreign owners. has the story for us. proud to be british brits and terrorists alike often pay for their quintessentially british experience says unaware that they're run by foreign companies harrods the dorchester hotel and even the queen's grocer fortnum and mason keeping the fortnum and mason is a british store. is it not. it's been here for ages so i assumed it was wholly owned by british people. never mind everything's ok now you know the reason that things are getting. almost half the companies in the u.k. and now in foreign hands the coalition government in b

from the snows of iowa, through the heat of the debate, to election night, the political divide wydened. the u.s. re-examined its role abroad and a second term president claimed it. we look ahead to what happens next with michael duffy of "time" magazine. john harwood of cnbc and the "new york times." doyle mcmanus of the "los angeles times" and karen tumulty of "the washington angeles times" and karen tumulty of "the washington post."

bill and a number five contractor agreement this is things to an amendment sponsored by senator ron wyden and what it does is require the pentagon to disclose when it enters into indemnification agreements and this is where one party agrees to protect another party from being sued an example is the k.b.r. the largest military contractor portland jury rules that it must pay one hundred million dollars in damages for exposing veterans to toxic chemicals but the company is now suing the u.s. army corps of engineers because it says it's protected by an agreement with the pens a god and a number for cyber combat command this would require the pentagon to consult lawmakers if it wants to raise u.s. cyber command to an all out scum that and command in other words congress needs to know when warfare is shifting from cyber war to actual war. and i number three embassy security this provision would also raise up to a thousand marine corps personnel to provide security advisor with embassies this of course is in the wake of a tragedy in benghazi where a u.s. ambassador was among the americans killed

following any leader remarks, the senate begin consideration of h.r. 5949, the fisa bill and senator wyden will be recognized. further, that the previous order be amended so there be up to seven hours of debate on the bill, that's the fisa bill, and all other provisions to that previous order remain in effect. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, we've been able to work things out to i hope everyone's satisfaction. we're not going to have a roll call vote -- we're going to have a roll call vote early in the day on thursday. it will be at 5:30 p.m. on thursday. it will be in relation to the fisa bill or the supplemental appropriations bill. if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 12:00 noon on monday, december 12:00 noon on monday, december >> of the topic that's been on the minds of american parents across this country. and that is what do we do about the tragedies of the sort that struck in newtown, connecticut, to avoid such events in the fut

that will still leave senator wyden's amendment that we'll worry about taking care of that tomorrow sometime. madam president, i ask unanimous consent that at 5:30 any remaining debate time on the amendments be yield back and the senate will vote on the penny amendments, that there be two minutes divided equally between all votes and all shall be ten minutes. >> procedural that they are doing right now. gotten indications that maybe mitch mcconnell is speaking. wanted to hear what he had to say. harry reid put a wet blanket on things and when we got word out of the house, things came pack. >> the biggest take away from all of this and what we've seen over the last couple of months. just shows me a lot of people are not fully invested or out of the market. because of the voluntarily and the news changing dey to dey. they have kept the cards off the table. >> any way to make any money right now? >> sure, but if you have the ability to have a long-term outlook you have a lot of the opportunities. sitting back and waiting for the selloffs, intraday for today, waited this morning and had prices s

bingaman: madam president, this is an amendment offered by myself and cosponsored by senators webb and wyden. it would provide for the approval of an agreement between the united states and the republic of palau in response to super typhoon bofa. madam president, few people are aware that as hurricane sandy was making its landfall in the northeastern part of our country of the united states a super typhoon known as bofa was tracking a path of destruction across the western pacific. the republic of palau, one of our closest allies and which we are tied with the compact of appreciation, was struck by bofa on december 2 causing extensive damage. the president of palau issued a state of emergency and this massive storm went ton kill -- went on to kill over 1,000 people in the philippines. fortunately there were no deaths in palau but high winds and torrential rains caused widespread damage. a week ago the ambassador from palau, the honorable hersey kilta wrote to me as the chair of the committee on energy and natural resources for assistance to nations that are in free association with the unite

this is a live picture of oregon democratic senator ron wyden on the floor discussing the deadline. we have learned that the president called the democratic majority lead, minority leader and house speaker and senate minority leader. now coming up at 8:15 the fiscal cliff negotiations and the effort to prevent one of the largest tax increases and budget cuts in united states history. >> we are still watching the accident in napa. >> we have a lot of traffic around fifth street near downtown. the westbound lane blocked due to a two car crash. a woman was trapped inside of her car. we will take a look at the bay bridge. you can see traffic flowing nicely. 880 near the oakland coliseum we have traffic gluing well in both directions. no delays to report. in the south bay 280 at 880 split those headlines northbound traffic toward santa claire a. >> hi. we are -- taking a live look outside. showing you cloud coast mostly cloudy skies over most of the area. key headline, it's dry, we have a break in the rain for today. its been an active weather pattern over the past one to two weeks. we w

senator wyden and i have proposed comprehensive tax reform as something that needs to be done, regulatory form is something that i support. but if we don't acknowledge that the final package presented to us incorporates those long-term solutions, we will simply be back here in the next debt limit crisis, we'll be back here in the next fiscal crisis, we will continue to see our country languish in terms of providing growth and job opportunities for our people, and we will not have addressed the problem, kick the can down the road one more time i think to the disgust and displeasure of the american people, they're cynical enough about our ability to do something as we speak, let alone what might happen if we can't come to an agreement that everybody knows we need to come to. mr. president, when i decided to run again in 2010 after being out of the senate for more than a decade, i didn't do it just to regain the title of senator. i didn't put retirement on hold and more time with my family aside because i thought it would be fun to be back here. i did it because i want to be able to leave a

we have people like senator ron wyden, congressman ed markey of massachusetts all lining up in opposition along with the dow chemical corporation. these three arguing that exports could raise the price of natural gas domestically and hurt industries like dow that use an awful lot of it. here's what the ceo said about that. he said, quote: the report, the department of energy report, offers the baf ling conclusion that the u.s. would be better off using its domestic natural gas advantage to fuel growth and jobs in other regions versus strengthening the u.s. economy ask through manufacturing and benefiting consumers with lower energy costs. that brought this reaction from the oil and gas industry. >> what's goose is good for the gander. if the chemical industry wants the free market to work so they can produce product and export it, we should apply the same standard to the natural gas and oil industry. >> reporter: so how much natural gas do we actually have? well, according to the industry, about 900 years -- 100 years' worth, so much so that in the u.s. could become energy self-sufficient

including senators collins, feinstein, gillibrand, kerry, landrieu, merkley, mikulski, murray, vitter, and wyden. they are tireless animal advocates, and this bill is indeed, the amendment as well, are about ending animal fighting, which plainly and simply is a blood sport. it is something that is cruel and inhumane. it leaves animals scarred and disabled. and it is associated with many other criminal activities. people who attend animal fights are often also engaged in drug dealing, extortion, assault, a variety of criminal activities, and the enabling activity is animal fighting. and that is why this bill increases the penalties for knowingly -- knowingly -- attending an animal fight with a child and, indeed, makes it a crime to knowingly attend an animal fight. so these penalties -- stricter penalties for bringing a child knowingly and criminal penalties of up to a year imprisonment or a fine or both for knowingly attending an animal fight -- are contingent on a purposeful support for this cruel and inhumane sport. very simply, it provides new tools to law enforcement through the animal-fight

the bill be the following, judiciary committee reported substitute, leahy sunset, leahy oversight, wyden public report,, wiendz back door searches, and merkley which is about declassification of fisa court opinions. that there be an hour of debate equally divided and controlled between the opponents and proponents on each amendment, that there be up two two hours of debate on the bill equally divided between the proponents and opponents, upon the use or yielding back of that time, the senate proceed to vote in relation to the amendments in the order listed, that there be no amendments in order to any of the amendments prior to the votes, that upon disposition of the amendments the bill be read a third time and the senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill if amended. before the chair rules on this, mr. president, it's pretty easy to figure out how much time this includes. this is the better part of a day, the better part of a day if we got this consent done. so i ask that chair approve the consent agreement. the presiding officer: is there objection? ? >> reserving the right to objec

the prior government and now you're seeing it in the economy in the inaugural hoo vice presidential wyden going to the inaugural doesn't go to a lot of inaugurations so you should read into that. the media focuses on the security questions but it goes a lot for them at. so, i think that you will see that continuing it immigration is a complicated question to deal with in the bilateral context. the president in mexico kind of learned a political lesson in mexico of stating too much on inspecting the immigration debate in the united states over something that he really couldn't get paid a political price at home for the failure to deliver something that was never in his power to deliver which was comprehensive immigration reform in the united states. i feel that he has learned that lesson. and i don't think that you will see him being particularly assertive of what should have been in the legal construct in the united states. i think you are exactly right the trend of the migration, the mexican government, the prior mexican government and this mexican government are very concerned and they

senator stabenow, senator mccaskill, senator baucus, senator wyden, senator tim johnson, senator franken, senator tom udall, representing all kinds of parts of our nation, who understand the impact that drought has had, who understand the impact the fires have had, they've come together from different parts of the nation to say, we are in this together. let us not leave stranded our ranchers and farmers when we gather to debate tomorrow. let's let this amendment be brought forward and let's get it passed as part of this very appropriate response to this very terrible disaster called hurricane sandy. thank you, mr. president. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent the veterans' affairs committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 4057 and the senate proceed to its consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the cle

stabenow: let me just take a moment and thank senator merkley, senator baucus, wyden and mccaskill for joining us. i know others will join us as well. we are still working very hard to complete a farm bills to have the house take action, but in the meantime we have disasters that have occurred, and this -- these provisions are lifted directly from what we already passed in the farm bill that address what has happened in terms of livestock drought and fires and assistance for fruit tree growers, and we will be speaking at a later time about it, but these are essential to be included for thousands and thousands of farmers and ranchers across the country. i thank my colleagues for allowing us to step in. ms. landrieu: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. ms. landrieu: thank you, madam president. i am going to truncate my remarks to five minutes. i came to speak on the supplemental and the great needs in the northeast. generally, because i know that there are other senators that have other items to discuss, and i will come back at a later time for extended re

i do want to express my appreciation to democratic senator ron wyden and chairman paul ryan for recognizing that a solution must be found to get this country on stable ground. we as americans must applaud and encourage bipartisan solutions. we must strengthen our social safety net and ensure its long-term viability. of course, getting our debt under control impacts more than what we do domestically. it impacts to protect our homeland safe and free and empower leadership on the international stage. the 10th district has a history and tradition of thoughtful global outlook and a special appreciation for the positive role american leadership can and must play in the world. this is a responsibility that i fully embraced and advanced. i have been honored to work with the ar menian community -- armenian community here in this congress and i thank ken and all the people at all saints church and the armenian cultural center for their support in educating me about their committee issues and concerns. i also want to recognize the bahai community in the 10th district which helped me build support to r

wyden: mr. president, given the events of yesterday, this is the last opportunity for the next five years for the congress to exercise a modest measure of real oversight over this intelligence surveillance law. here's why: colleagues, it is not real oversight when the united states congress cannot get a yes or no answer to the question of whether an estimate currently exists as to whether law-abiding americans have had their phone calls and emails swept up under the fisa law. that is the case today. colleagues, it is not real oversight when the congress cannot get a yes or no answer to the yes of whether wholly domestic communications between law-abiding americans in this country have been warrantlessly intercepted under the law. that is the case today. colleagues, it is not real oversight when national security agency leadership states in a public forum that the agency does not keep dossiers on millions of americans, and yet they will not give the congress a yes or no answer as to whether the a

wyden: mr. president, both sides are working on an agreement to approve the intelligence authorization bill for 2013 by unanimous consent. i voted against this legislation when it was marked up in committee. i objected to it here on the floor last month. but i am able to support it at this time. the bill has a number of valuable provisions in it and i thank chairwoman feinstein and vice chairman chambliss for making the changes in the bill to address my concerns. the changes that senators feinstein and chambliss have made would remove a number of provisions that were intended to reduce unauthorized disclosures of classified information of course known as leaks. i objected to these provisions because, in my view, they would have harmed first amendment rights, led to less-informed public debate about national security issues, and undermined the due process rights of intelligence agency employees without actually enhancing national security. i'm going to take just a few minutes to explain my views