Gratitude that we thank you for the privilege of being called americans. With humility, let us realize the responsibility this privilege entails. Let your presence in us be the light that causes this nation to shine bright in the world. Grant your favor, wisdom and protection to our troops here and abroad. Place within our leaders and representatives here in the house and senate. May our president be guided by your truth and our differences let us seek you first. Please give each of us in this place and every citizen of this nation a contrite heart and a willingness to follow your way. N christs name we pray, amen. The speaker pro tempore the chair has examined the journal of the last days proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. Pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1 the journal stands approved. The pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from new york, mr. Higgins. Mr. Higgins i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america indivisible, with libe
Thank you. Wrote. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for holding an open and public hearing. Myself withto align the senators. Everyone in this room and other senators know i represent the nationals 38 and he. People get up every day. We have seen the revelations of eric snowden and we are not here to debate whether he was a traitor or a whistleblower. But i will say this. I am deeply disturbed that, while i support the need to review the to 15 project, to actually even examine it, i do not see the continual immunization of the nationals cured agency, whether in the media or in other forms. National security agency, whether in the media or in other forms. People do a whole host of other things to keep america safe. Eric snowden had his time. He gets an hour on tv. Row from brian williams. We ought to say to the National Security staff, that while we looked at the persecution a la the of other issues here, that we do not i have always maintained our must be constitutional, legal, authorize
Ambassador. David pressman of new york to be an alternate representative to the sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Department of defense, deborah ss. Wada of hawaii to be assistant secretary of the army. Federal Housing Finance agency, laura s. Wertheimer of the District Of Columbia to be inspector general. Department of housing and you un development, Bradford Raymond huther of virginia to be chief financial officer. The presiding officer the question occurs on the bass nomination. There will be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to the vote on the nomination. A senator ahmadinejad, i yield back all time a senator madam president , i yield back all time. The presiding officer without objection, all time is yielded back. A senator i ask for the yeas and nays. The presiding officer is there a sufficient second . There appears to be, there is. The yeas and nays are ordered. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote the presiding officer is there any senator wh
The about 2100 employees the. A budget of about 280 million a year operating. About half comes from the city of new york. The largest system. The other half comes from the return on of billion dollars endowment of the private foundation that employes me. And then we raise somewhere between 80 and 100 million a year. Also somewhere in the vicinity of where your 50 million a year on capital improvements. Again, most comes from the city, but it can also come from private sources. It is an amazing system. Almost unique in the world. Combining a Great Research Library System like the library of congress and the Public Library neighborhood system in washington d. C. The library of congress and the washington Public Library had nothing to do with each other organizationally here we are all within the new york public Library System. Close to 8,919,000,000 physical visits a year. 55 million items. It is really one of the great treasures of new york end of the world. Is our cars, prince, maps, m
Further ensuring that individuals privacy isnt properly protected without sacrificing operational effectiveness. To that end, we support the usa freedom act as an effective means of addressing the concerns that have been raised about the impact of our activities while preserving the authorities we need for National Security. We are urge this committee to give the house bill serious consideration as expeditiously as possible, consistent with this committees elaborations. We are ready to work with the senate to clarify language in the bill as necessary. In closing, we appreciate the committees leadership, in particular your support over the past year in considering issues related to our intelligence collection activities and privacy and Civil Liberties issues. We also appreciate your support for the men and women working throughout the Intelligence Community that includes the nsa, that remained dedicated to keeping our nation safe and protecting our privacy, and to have upheld the oath b