senator merkley needs to leave shortly. after this panel, the next panel will be governor markel and senator merkley. greg dotson, i ask your indulgence. you and fred krupp will be the panel after that. >> thank you for this opportunity to speak out. i will try not to repeat anything my boss said. i was born and raised in virginia in the heart of new river valley. my comments today marked the approaching end of my summer internship with appalachian voices. it is fitting that i will end my internship where i began. the summer has culminated, weaving together familiar lessons and foreign concepts. i am here today to present the most important lesson of all, their strength in numbers and in diverse city. over 1220llected individual comment cards in support of a clean powerplant. stretching across all of virginia and beyond, these individuals realize the opportunity to build their own state's economy due to the commonsense approach of the administration's plan. small business owners have also responded to cutting carbon polluti

merkley: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i ask to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: madam president, at this moment in my home state of oregon, 500,000 acres are ablaze. now, sometimes it's hard to get your hands around numbers, particularly large numbers, so let me give you a sense of this. if you were to add up all the fires in oregon and they were in one place, it would cover an area roughly 20 miles by 40 miles. that's an enormous, enormous section of a state to be aflame. now, because there are so many devastating fires at once, crews are coming from all over to help out, all kind of aircraft, all kinds of hotshot crews. and they're doing all they can, but it's not just oregon that has fires. other states have fires. there is over 250,000 acres of blaze in washington state to the north in a single fire. i believe it's the largest single fire in washington state's history. as a result of fires in oregon and fires in washington and other fires, we are drank ou

and so i want to just -- i'll conclude by thanking senator merkley for this program. thank witness cohen for his testimony about these fisheries. we're way past the debate on whether this is real. this is happening in people's lives now in ways that are unprecedented and we have got to get responsible about doing something about it. >> senator vitter. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thanks to our witnesses. first of all, i'm sorry i came too late for the first panel featuring director ashe. on february 25th, when he was last before the committee, i asked him some questions, important questions, i think, regarding the consultation under the endangered species act with regard to epa's new proposals regarding existing power plants. his job is about endangered and threatened species and understanding impacts on that. clearly these new regulations have the potential for major impacts on that and i asked him if he and epa were consulting under the law because of that. he didn't know. he didn't have answers. i asked him to follow up. he had not followed up. i sent a letter to hi

guest: first of all, jeff merkley is a progressive hero, an american hero. he is working as we can finally have the constitutional majority ruled that the framers envisioned. i hope the democrats take ads like that and just beat them back hard because there was one budget in the office, and it is the progressive caucus budget, which finally asks millionaires in wall street to pay their fair share, finding and closing tax loopholes, like the billions of dollars given away to the oil companies come and actually make investment in jobs, yet balance the budget. so hopefully jeff merkley and others learn the right lesson of what is happening in the political environment, which is that there is an economic populist side. people are not buying that argument. elizabeth warren is really leading the way on that front. host: our first call, battle creek, iowa for adam were in with the progressive change campaign committee. caller: it is battle creek, michigan. i wanted to ask about the outside spending on this , in particular the koch brothers' spending. i had read som

. >> thank you, chairman, merkley and ranking member wicker. before i get to the prepared remarks i don't know tom steyer from a bar of soap, but i would be willing to work with anybody to put some transparency on the dark money into the elections. i know this isn't about elections and dark money, but if went to save our democracy that would be the first step. we can get to the bottom line as far as the influence and the political agenda here in washington, d.c. with that -- >> since my name was used i can react to this. this isn't dark. this is light. this is something that everybody knows. it's out there, it's in all the publications. that means that much to some people. i wanted to clarify that. >> then let's get rid of that and the dark money too. mr. chairman, ind -- first of all, i appreciate you having here me here today with along with ranking member wicker. it feels like we should be on "cross fire." but i'm not a lawyer, i'm not a scientist, i'm a u.s. senator and a farmer. the impacts of climate change are felt far and wide and i bel

senator sessions followed by senator merkley and then administrator we're going to turn to you. >> thank you, madam chair, and the american economy is important, i know you know that. we have a decline in median family wages in america since 2007 from $55,000 to $50,000. we have an employment rate among working-age population as low as the 1970s, it's been declining steadi steadily. and energy -- the decline in energy prices, one of the finest things that helped the american economy in recent years so lower cost energy clearly creates jobs, it creates wealth and every $10 a family has to pay for an electric bill or more for their gasoline bill does weaken the economy if it is for no benefit. our little benefit. so we have to ask that. we can reach some accord on a lot of these issues, ms. mccarthy. i don't think there's any doubt about it. things that are cost effective, clean, efficiency programs are things that, properly done, i think do make america healthier and stronger economy and there are common ground that we can have. one of the common grounds i think is nuclear power and we ne

. >> thank you, chairman merkley and ranking member whicker. before i get my remarks, i don't know tom stier from a bar of soap, and i'd be happy to work with anybody to do some transparency and i know this is in a hearing about elections in dark money, but if we want to save our democracy, that is the first step we could get to the bottom of a lot of stuff as far as influencing the agenda here in washington d.c. >> says my name is reused i can react to that. this is something everybody knows. that means that much to some people and i want to clarify that. >> let's get >> let's get rid of that in the dark money, too. >> mr. chairman, i first of all appreciate you having me here today along with ranking member whicker. if you said we should be on crossfire, but we will do here. look, i am not a lawyer. i'm not a scientist. i'm a u.s. senator, but more importantly i am a farmer. the impacts of climate change are felt far and wide and i believe we need to take responsible steps to mitigate the impacts. what those steps are, some came out of some f

last but not least, senator merkley and then we turn the administrator. >> thank you, administrator mccarthy, for coming and addressing the clean power plan today. there is no question that carbon dioxide is a terrible pollutant having profound impacts. we see it on the ground in oregon in multitudes now ways. we see it with the bark beetle, it's not cold enough in winter to kill them off. we see in the terms of our oyster industry that's having great difficulty with the reproduction of the oysters because the water is 30% more acidic in the ocean than it was before the industrial revolution. we certainly see in the the climate basin where three worst-ever droughts have occurred in less than a decade and a half and thus carbon dioxide is waging an assault on our rural resources, on our fishing, on our farming, on our forests. it's absolutely right that under the clean air act we seek to control and reduce this pollutant having such vicious consequences across rural america. so thank you for coming and addressing the details of the plan. i look forward to the commentary and i look forward to

merkley. the "washington post" has described as one of the best ads of 2014. take a look. >> i was 21 weeks pregnant. i had an ultrasound. my doctor called me and said there's something wrong with your baby's spine. we need to look at terminating the pregnancy. the world stopped. >> the doctor was the first person to get the so. she was the first person who said congratulations, you're having a daughter. she was going to open her back and reconstruct my daughter's entire lower spine. she just hugged me. >> it's going to be okay, sweetheart. i've got her and i'm going to see it in a couple of hours particular the most precious thing i had. i trusted her. >> we have a 12 year old today because of her. to make an incredible senator. you always do the right thing. she will act with integrity. all of washington needs be full of people like her. >> host: brian donahue, why does it work? >> guest: it's a very good and. i know the producer and i think that wonderful add because it does exactly what i described earlier. it invokes emotion. it really helps you to unders

merkley: i have absolutely no objection to that. mr. enzi: i revise my i ask unanimous consent for my speech, then senator rubio for two minutes and then senator merkley. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. menendez: reserving the right to object. i'm sorry. the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: i want to join senator rubio in his. if it can have two minutes as well before going to senator merkley. the presiding officer: without objection the modified request is agreed to. the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: thank you, madam president. the speech that i need to give now is not one of my favorite speeches. it's a very important speech. there's an old saying we've all heard before, good help's hard to find. here's my experience. good help is not only hard to find, it's almost impossible to replace. those words have come to my mind quite often in the days since my state director, robin bailey, told us that she had decided to retire. as we began our search for a new state director, it soon became appare