Transcripts For CSPAN Washington This Week 20131013

And has been hospitalized due to injuries. There are im able to educate prevents about how to similar tragedies. Food safety is in jeopardy as well. The fda will not conduct routine inspections. Cdc is out significantly reduced capacity to respond to foodborne illness outbreaks and is unable to support state and local partners an in disease. While most usda investors continued to work, the agency has said that a lengthy hiatus would have serious adverse effects. Marketplaces are also being,. Ust bear a consumer he was the identity victim of Identity Theft is not able to access steps they further be able to protect themselves. The ctfc has few people for fraud any manipulation. Consumers ating potential risk. Thank you. Thank you very much. One of the things that you make me think of is that you were using specific examples. I think the rest of us have been overlay, ofneral, the situation. It always comes down to individual science experiments that cannot happen. One of the things our committee has done is to compile, and you of you, onn front Government Shutdown. It is 29 pages long. It could be 2900 pages long. A more human account of what is not happening. I ask unanimous consent of this report be made a part of the record. By ais is a report majority staff of the committee, is that correct . I just havent seen it. I have no objection. I now call on senator wicker look like senator to me but is. That because of the unprecedented blizzard in south dakota, he felt like he. Eeded to get back to his state when he heard about this hearing to try to make travel arrangements to get back but it that he has been unable to do so. I am sure he would have liked to been here. We wish him a speedy return in which the people of south dakota the best during this disaster. Know and most of the public is aware, republican members have been meeting in the white house with president obama and Vice President biden. Lasted longer than people expected. I guess that is a good thing. We were talking about this very subject. That is the reason why as Ranking Member i am late. I apologize for that. Thank you for your courtesy which you have always shown to me and members on this site. No one is happy about this. I said the things you said but i also pointed out that 50 of all of the cattle of south while are dead and buried they are under snow. Economic catastrophe. They do not produce oil. They do cattle, at her culture. Agriculture. Even his trying to get back here is a wonderful thing. Thank you for saying that. It is a tragedy and a catastrophe to be sure. During the clinton causedtration shutdowns in for load americans. The shutdown is likely to be no different. Hope it endsl soon. The new economic report shows me the twoweek shutdown would reduce Gross Domestic Product by. 3 . Rises over how we address our country skyrocketing debt. The divided government is often toughult, requiring decisions and leadership of both political parties. Set is still relevant today. Found commonrs ground by putting the best interest of the Country First while still adhering to their longheld principles. Both sides must Work Together. There are laws in place today we would like to see change. It is my heart that if both sides give a little, both sides will be able to walk away from the negotiating table with something of which they can be proud. They should be willing to sit down at the table and negotiate. Based on news reports and theyreing signs, getting closer to a negotiating process. This is a catastrophe of our own creation. For too long we have governed crisis to crisis. For the past several years this senate has failed to consider appropriation bills under the regular order. And stood relying on multiple continued resolutions to keep government running. A continuing resolution should be a measure of last resort, not taken up likely for the sake of political expediency. According to a recent article, in spite of the government government of expenditures are still occurring. After payments for entitlements, interest on National Debt and essential personnel and services. Only 17 remain subject to this partial Government Shutdown. Cutda how much we Discretionary Spending and will not be enough to bring our National Debt under control. Mainly mandatory entitlement spending. Most members would not agree that this partial Government Shutdown is having a negative impact. Perhaps we can draw on the experiences of our witnesses in balancing the budget of their respective organizations. Thank you. Thank you. We had a pipeline in west virginia. You coming down and spending a number of days trying those that have let you be there. The explosion was devastating. You were obsessed and absorbed by it. Down. Ew im not trying to praise you. Im saying what you had to do. What you have to do to surmise how this could be handled. Can you give us some things that have come across a desk that flat out frustrates you because theres nothing you can do about it . Have so few people left on the job, they may not even the the people you need when you go to a pipeline explosion or something. Can you talk to us . I think theres certainly the near to him that we are not thatng up the near term were not picking up. Theyre also the ones were putting on hold. We are working very hard to get it isompleted before th completed. It is choreographed to try to put in all of this work. Investigators are handling multiple investigations at the same time. Theyre working hard to get this done. For the years that we have been around, they have improved the safety of the traveling public. If we do not go we do not know. We do not know what some of the risks are if we do not launch on the accidents. One of the most frustrating things for me, watching what has happened, is that i have a workforce that want to get back to work. Work at the ntsb because they believe what they do makes a difference. They improve Transportation Safety. They are calling wanting to know if they can go. As a leader, that is one of the most difficult things to say to your employees that are committed, to tell them that you cannot do your job. That does not make any sense. I want to go to one question. I have to find you. I know. Well i will not for the moment. Can i go to you again . On were just clearly focused this. You see all the bottom feeding the other people dont. You see all the human tragedy. We spent a lot of time on this committee trying to protect children. They see onfor what television, their privacy, all kinds of things. Children and the Consumer Product Safety Commission toys, things of that sort. Bring them alive for the committee of what is not going to happen that is good or what could happen that is bad. Sure. For children, some of the things beyond this committees jurisdiction are having hugely detrimental impacts, especially for low income children. In terms of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, there are 23 people working at the commission. Gets is so much work that done every day that they cannot do. There are no inspectors at the time, especially at this before the holiday season. It is so important to have inspectors who now have renewed authority in renewed resources to be at the port to evaluate whether the products poses choking hazards, whether they levels ofcessive lead. They are unable to be at their job. Terms of recalls, only recalls that meet the high bar of an imminent threat to be public or to protect the property of the government are being conducted. We do not know what we are finding out. Is not being updated. There may be incidents that even they do not know about that the public certainly doesnt. They will not find out about those that could affect the safety of their children because the information is not being updated. I thank you. We now go to senator wicker. I do not want to depress anyone. At least youre coming up quickly. My testimony has been very compelling concerning the negative aspects of this Government Shutdown. Say this is your livelihood. A family run business. You putthe way groceries on the table and future families. On, youreling asking the secretary of congress to direct no employees to fulfill the task that you have already paid to do. Managements with cost. Is that correct . That is correct. How mr. U. K. . How much do you pay . Small percentage but it has come in the millions of dollars. It may interest the committee to know that there are three house members, three members of congress, that agree with your hastion that the secretary the authority to direct know what to resume these activities. Letterin my hand a signed by senator Lisa Murkowski congressman don young and don hastings from the state of washington. This is a letter that i am going to asked to be included in the record, taking the exact same position that you have taken. She has the authority under existing law to resume this activities and get you back to work. I would simply say that i agree with you. I agree with your written and oral testimony that the secretary has the authority to do this and should do it. Let me then move on to ms. Blakey. A comment tolly all of you. I lose this in my opening statement. It seems we have a new normal in the way we do our budgeting. We havent had a budget for four cycles now. The baroque the Appropriations Committee house and senate have different numbers to work with. We do not get our appropriation bills done. From our standpoint, those on my side of the i feel of the aisle feel we do not get an amendment and therefore it takes so much longer to reach unanimous consent. The Senate Passed their appropriation bill. The house passed their appropriation bills. We do not get them all done. , you mentioned predictability and you alluded to this in your written statement. Would you agree that we got back to the basic process of the regulard appropriation process . And this would be helpful to your agencies that your andnization works with having predictability. Absolutely. When i had the privilege of working with you, so many others on this committee in crafting a viable budget for several of the agencies we work with closely now. Both the faa and ntsb are the examples i am thinking of. Viable to come to terms with proposing a budget, understanding the views of both house and senate. Then you came together on a budget that had both predictability, clear guidance. We understood the priorities that made sense from the standpoint of congressional concern. We were able to act on that. That is an important thing. It gives a clear understanding have forhe taxpayers the constituents view. That is the way we used to do business. Would give now anything if we could go back to the point where we really had appropriations. Fiscal issueshave on both sides. I would remind our colleagues at the Senate Passed a budget in the spring and was asked 21 times to go to congress conference. 21 times to go to conference to have a budget in place. Your testimonyt and your restraint. If you are mad as hell youre not expressing in the way i feel and others feel. I will not say the company. I got called a two night ago Major Company in virginia, he built it over 50 years ago, 25 employees. 30 of the employees have been laid off as nonessential. The 70 who have been essential still are not getting paid because the processors of the checks arent in place. 25 years of work with this with this company with this company could go down in a couple of weeks. In terms of the shortterm effects of this idiocy, but the default, shutdowns, shortterm Interest Rates in the last few days. What that is doing to every business in america. Because of the irresponsible actions that are taking place. One of the incredible ironies , there areas passed federal workers. They will be compensated. This, yournued companies will get compensated. This company is not going to get fully compensated. At the motel owner on skyline drive will not get compensated. The remarkable thing is in the weiness frustration is that are going to cost the taxpayer more money because were going to pay the federal employees would be starting and stopping, the complete lack of business you canom those who say stop and start the enterprise and that does not cost more . It is so divorced from economic reality it is stunning. We have seen some good signs recently. Some may be willing to say maybe america should not default next week. Now that is greeted as progress. Why i do not understand is in the heck would any rational why we should keep the Government Shutdown while we negotiate. Anyone that suggests that lets one off as he read about a tragedy in the press, whether around the parks or around our vets or death benefits, we had you read about that before they say lets reopen that part. Tohave to wait some child die because a drug was an expected to reopen the fda or because someone got bad flu to reopen the usda . We read about the tragedy in tennessee last week. Is not a responsible way to operate an enterprise of the United States government. It is beyond the pale of comprehension that anyone would say keep this Government Shutdown because it might give us a little more leverage. Maybe we will say that part ought to be reopened. Tell us what parts of the government you want to keep shut. Layout those items. Let the American People know what is not essential. Maybe they should be permanently defunded. These are just the shortterm implications. We have all heard the term intel inside. What were doing is creating a cancer inside of our enterprise. Which one would join if you do not have any predictability . The rest of the world is not waiting on america to get their act together. They have not stopped their research. They have not stopped their innovation. We are going to have to do more with less. As a business guy who is led large enterprises, you do not degrade your workforce and drive down the morale with the future means youre going to have to do more with less resources. That is bad business. Businessbout enterprise. That is bad news for our country. I guess i would only ask that those who say lets one off, lets keep the government negotiate ade we them toim, come tell this 5500 Person Company in virginia that will become bankrupt in two weeks. Appreciate the restraint of the panel. Theyre not showing this restraint. May be a little more anger might be warranted. I do not appreciate the restraint of the companies. The restraint of the companies is not putting the real life in front of the small group in the house of representatives that is causing the shutdown. It is not about deficits. Defundingabout obamacare. We have seen in living examples all the way from Transportation Safety to consumer safety. It is losing by flooring creditors coming in and taking it. Ofis the case of the loss catches along the coast of the United States. At the science projects that are not getting done. I agree with everything you said. I have talked to your ceos and have asked them have they gone and talked to the members of congress . They are causing the shutdown. They cannot deliver bones because of the shutdown. You represent the most eminent trade association. Have you gone and sat down to those members that are voting for the shutdown and explains what is happening in their districts . The short answer is yes. We have had Small Businesses up here. We had a delegation with leadership, both house and senate, literally talking about the effects of this very recently. They are spending a great deal of time making certain people are bothd that they commercial fx pure something we have not touched on is the competitive issues. This is something that is absolutely critical. I will also tell you i am looking for a 5 00 discussion at the white house today. It is a vital dialogue. I cannot agree with you more. User not have to convince the white house. Im glad the president has called you. One of the things the president to enlist your support to get your executives of these companies. The companies have so many of the people that are being hurt the worst. The employees are being for lloyd. It is those ancillary small that deliver more day today, paycheck to paycheck, payroll to payroll that are getting her. I want to encourage you. I met with two ceos last week and they were not ready to set up and go talk to the leadership in the house of representatives to allow this to continue. Defaults is in another week and a half. I want to activate your people. Where are the people that are so effective at the spatial center, where are they going to go to the congressional delegation . I can go through the nasa centers. Need to put a fire under them. All of theo thank test of fires and express our gratitude on behalf of the committee. I know it is difficult to run an enterprise. It is certainly difficult to be in public surface in any situation but under the sequester it has been difficult. This is be on the tail. As difficult as it is for folks to be at home, it is very challenging for you to be there and not be able to bring your folks back. We want to thank you on behalf of the committee. It is to the next iteration of scientist. They may have to go through the next couple of weeks and months with respect for what they do to a living and how that may impact our position with respect to science. Senator warner made the point very well that we are already in a position where we are losing our very imminence and science and therefore our ability to attract the best and brightest to join us. They are either staying where they are are going to other places. They are seeing the tremendous stress on the american scientific enterprise. Bet the statistics would were fine. The average age for a first grant at the National Science foundation now is 37. When i got my phd i was able to get my first grant at 25. That means that you cannot start an independent scientific career in the United States for 12 years longer than i was able. Of statistics are a direct result of the difficulty is that people are having in getting grants. If we want to build for the future, if we want to have a scientific enterprise that is the envy of all others in the world, were going to have to address these kinds of problems directly. Question with respect to the Airline Certification function. Hawaiian airlines is waiting on it so it can provide service. It is terribly unreliable and expensive. It was delayed as a part of the sequester. I would like you to flesh out exactly how the certification on rural committees in general. Their first responsibility is the operational safety of the existing fleet. There has to be some tradeoff between new activity, desired new routine, and what is actually possible to do with the cutbacks on the sequester. This does not go very far. What was the backlog before . Do you know what the backlog was before we got to the shutdown . But it ist significant. I can tell you that. I can be more helpful on the specifics. You that there is another aspect of this having to do with the licensing and registering of aircraft. You cannot transfer an aircraft unless you can register it. Was a 36 state backlog before this weekend. That was with everybodys peddling and working hard. Now theres no one even opening the mail. Every month 10,000 aircraft have to be registered or reregistered. Doing the math and see where it goes. It is a very disturbing situation. Thank you very much. Thank you very much are putting this meeting together. Thank you for being here. You probably get a sense of a little frustration. Why are we even here . Be on solidant to ground. You want to be on wavy waters. It is unusual for you to be on solid ground in october. We cannot recreate history here. I hear that we need to get on with negotiations. Theid that starting on resolution in july. The democrats have a number in the senate. When all said and done, we agreed with their number. Cut to this years next budget. We agreed with them. I know sometimes there is revisionist history. When people say we need to negotiate, we have. The government up. For all the reasons the captain laid out. We have a meeting before he came out. It is appalling to me. You are here stuck in the dysfunctional congress. For people to say we cannot get appropriation bills, i am missing the budget bill. Passed the senate. The budget passed the house. Guess they will be different numbers. That is the process. Then you go to the conference committee. 21 times. No one on our side has a problem with it. For whatever reason we cannot do it. Lets not have revisionist history in this body anymore. I get it. For all of you that are here, my question is very simple. You talked about your impact. It is broader. I enjoyed your comments, too. You are very similar. Marketailed to produce share goes to someone else. Areas to gog for around the world. It is multifaceted. Is that fair to say . Absolutely. I would like to start by mentioning his statement earlier. I want to thank them for recognizing that my fishery is feebased. Maybe im making a difference by showing up. I would like to thank everybody that is sitting here. For putting a bandaid on the fisheries. I really appreciate that. Going to get another bandaid for allocations . Some point youre going to run out of bandaids. At some point youre going to need a tourniquet. I said i am here on behalf of fishermen. I am here for fishermen. I am here for our economy to be good in people to be able to buy my crab. I do not want russian pirated crab to supplant my crab in the marketplace that only in japan but domestically. To me it is crazy. I think we are putting the russians to work and putting american fishermen out of work. Thank you for the questions. We compete around the world with our product. Were very proud of our product. The work you did prior to what youre doing here what youre doing now, we have some of the best safety records anywhere. We understand the business. When it comes to alaska, there is no business other than fisheries that we care a lot about. In the sky. Ghway it moves us from place to place. It ensures that when the captain needs material he get it out there. Its coming from the barge or plane. It is that simple. When you mentioned the satellite issue, it is not there. This could be in the hundreds of Million Dollars. In the last go around they did not fund them. We had to figure out how to fund them. Theres a hundred Million Dollars cost. You cannot build these things overnight. The last thing i will say is it is very frustrating. Peoples to the american that this is not complicated to sit down and get with the business. I think all of you would say that privately. We wish you were more outrage. I know you are. Youre doing very well. I appreciate that. Yet to solve these problems and not do it on six week intervals. Are only so many bandaids in the box. At some point we are going to put a turn a kid on and we may not be able to survive after that. I thank you for being here. We need your help in your voice. Today you are doing that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So to thank you for the segue putting this into orbit. We do a lot of work for the rest of our country. Even our private sector entities were cans in glove with the Public Sector with the department of energy in the department of defense. Just had a launch counsel. That is a window that we have now missed. Moment and look at what the shutdown means for my the doctorsi know intimately aware of this because how much science work we do but we have 32,000 federal workers out of 2 million residents. Those are just the federal workers that are directly federal workers. We have thousands more. We have thousands more at los alamos. We had to thousands of conjures alone. Said in the paper time it lapsesny we catch a cold. That is true. It is not even touch on the fact that we have the air force bases. Sands missile range. Carlsbad caverns national park. Dozens of parks and monuments. Parks that are unstaffed in the middle of hunting season. Currently process energy leases. Also unstaffed in the middle of hunting season. Would like to ask unanimous. Onsent to include an article our labs are about to shut down. Do, every day that they are closed we get closer to a recession in the state of new mexico. It will be included. I was surprised to hear from our colleagues at the shutdown is about the debt. Give the if we cannot debt ceiling increase, he knows what is going to happen to her Interest Rates. Is that outcome of that we will have more debt and higher deficit because of that kind of irresponsible behavior. As our colleague from florida up, last week it was about obamacare. Have got to realize how much damage we are doing to ourselves. I have one question. I had to ask him to step back in time to when he was 25 when he first got that grants. Sense forive us a someone who is getting their phd for the first time is spent years investing at a university was looking out at the rest of their professional career, what kind of a message are we sending to scientists across the country. Science is a continuous incremental process that has to go on in a continuous way over time. For a young person to think that their career will be stop and start will make it extremely difficult to see real accomplishment over time. Science has to be continuous. We have to be continually workgroup is working on whatever the problem is. Were losing this to our competitors. Science has gotten more collaborative. We collaborate all over the world. We also have National Interests and we have to maintain that National Standing as well. If you are simply somebody who right now cannot acquire data on longterm research whatse of the shutdown, impact will this have on our science over the next coming years . It happens in two ways. One is so there is an interruption in day delay. The timeseries studies are totally dependent on continuity. If you have a break, e might as well not have done the earlier part. This is only going to tell you the results as a function of being a continuous process. Looks like aall hiatus, it is not. Frequently it means throw away everything you did before because you will not have that continuous series of measurements. Thank you for holding this hearing. Thank you. Thank you. I really wish our colleagues on would be here. O these really are important issues. Is impact of the shutdown having on the American People. Were hearing in detail about how it is affecting business. For a minute i thought i was the only one that will cup with extra angst about the situation. Now hearing it is permanently ending it is permeating. We are getting real stories by constituents who are suffering greatly all because we will not open the governments. I am almost overwhelms on where to go with my questioning. I have so many questions. I could ask ms. Blakeley about aviation in this registry issue which means planes cannot get delivered and customers cannot get planes which mean people and jobs are going to be delayed. The information that i have about the faa and the fact that the radar system needs to be and if it isnt it has problems and complications. With theituation weather buoys that we have in the northwest are critical, Vital Information for us about whether that impacts fisheries. I guess you could say we dont have to worry about that because we are shutdown, but when they are fishing, it is Vital Information. Andead of them working giving the information, last week many forecast between the seattle area and vancouver island. Going to idea what was happen. When youre talking about 60 or 70 mile an hour winds and weather forecasts, you can see , notis picture understanding weather the storm is going to hit in seattle and what needs to be done or whether it will hit in british columbia, that is where we were last week. We do not have the information. There are not people on the job. I look at the situation. I know my colleague from mississippi things you can read , anw letters and agency. Iparty called about getting these fisheries open. Have already called about getting these fisheries open. People have made decisions based on the interpretation of the law. We can disagree with it. Thean all disagree with logic of what lawyers have advised. The bottom line is that is what they have said in a shutdown happens. Is closed. Y happened, it you have been here a few years ago. I said there are so many people on my office team that love you and love that show. They dont work for me though. [laughter] that is my point, actually. When i was sitting here listening to my colleague from mississippi tell me that it was all about an amendment, that someone did not get an amendment, i started thinking about that picture of your vessel tossing around in the ocean. If you could see this closeup, you can see the eyes all over the vessel. You can see the difficulty the vessel has to operate. You have to come back here just to go and do this job and hear somebody talk about how they did not get an amendment and that is why the government is shut down. Weis unbelievable to me that are sitting here and that you have to come into this instead of being able to do this job that is already dangerous and treacherous to begin with. Now you have to show up in washington, d. C. Who speaks about that speaks a lot about who you are. Youre telling us to get our act together. Ask you about this issue. I think some people are under the false impression that it will not matter and that at some point in time you can just go catch these fish, like it will is someer, if there piracy in between now and with the fisheries open that somehow they will be caught. When you mentioned this 500 million being lost in 2000, we are talking about people who were helping you. Of theh the difficulty shutdown, this impact of piracy and this impact that we are going to roll into loss of business is really going to hurt the fishery if it is not fixed in the next 40 eight hours, 72 at best. Is that not correct . Theven if they do have we will stillts, be delayed by at least three to four days on our normal start date. That is already a given. At is a what if we do not know for sure if you will be able to do that. I would much rather be up in alaska right now. Seenbody knows and has what i have done is a dangerous job. At times it can be kind of scary. I will be on this. I am lot more honest sitting in this room i will be honest. I am more scared sitting in this room talking on this microphone. It is even more terrifying when i start hearing about weather systems and weather forecasts getting shut down. A lot of things that impact us thatn the ocean and will impact people land phase. The senator from north dakota with the blizzard that just hit him recently. Where the blizzard go after that . Ultimately, i am concerned about the possibility that is very real that we will lose our market share to russians. They will not catch our crab. Our crab is protected right now. If they lose more funding, there will be no doubt thered to patrol the daylight. Back 30have been cut five percent. They have a very complex set of missions. If theres any organization in the federal government that has been asked to do many things resourcesinimal it is the coast guard. I think it will be challenging for them if we do not get this government open to continue to focus on the piracy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I want to join in thanking the chairman for having this hearing as well as the staff of the committee for doing such a great job putting together a hearing on such short notice. On a problem that i think is obviously vital for us to address. Thes listening to one of bec aau cupse of coffeeiw and a a cut it out of the corner of my ear. S buying a i heard about because i was getting coffee and herded out the corner my ear. I heard the cost has risen in ther opinion of what government does. Not necessarily the congress, which i think under stanley has understandably has diminished in but a greater understanding for what the people who work in the government do. Which is understandable because they do not have those folks working for them and doing their job. All of the stuff they take for when people go into a Fast Food Restaurant there will be some oversight investigation of diseases, foodborne diseases that they may find their. Those foodborne diseases to not go on under the for low. Do not go one for loaded. Furloughed. O un the unsafe toys or devices or the other kinds of things that own thoseir safety issues are not put on hiatus or furlough. Is something very important happening that may be longer lasting. Appreciationater that these enforcement and other kinds of activities that are taken by the government, and the american public, the taxpayers, pay for them. They should appreciate what is done for them. I want to express my appreciation to the captain for traveling the 4000 miles and making us aware of one aspect of these effects. Point i heard one of the folks saying congress does not understand the effects. Of course we do. We are hearing it now. But we have also been hearing it to literally day after day, hour after hour, from our constituents. We are listening to them. It is a small, very fractional fringe group. They are iny complete contradiction to the appreciation in the government. They are nice lists. Nd they are nihilists adn anarchists. Frankly i think they have been shown to be wrong in their opinion that the government is worthless, that it does no good. I want to thank each of you for coming here today and expressing to us, very pointedly and persuasively, the harm and hardship that has been done to the sectors of the economy that you represent and the segments of people. Maybe you can elaborate a little bit on the specific examples you about individuals who are injured as a result of this shut down. There are many that i can discuss i cant discuss because i do not know about them. Incidents that i highlighted having to do with children. The first was the incidence of a twoyearold girl in san diego, california, who, after she took a bath, went to get clothes out of the chest of drawers and her family heard a loud crash. A tragic accident occurred that we are seeing more and more of. She was crushed to death . Her skull was crushed to death i a large television that was on top of the chest of drawers. And the agency that is responsible for overseeing the safety of those kinds of devices or equipment that hurt children is a Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is known colloquially as the cs pc. Psc that is one of this alphabet soup of agencies that is underappreciated by the american public. I just want to say thank you for being here, thank you for making that point. I know it is in your testimony. My time has expired. Inc. You offer to thank you mr. Chairman and thank you all for being here. The senator has been kind that say i just had a hearing with congressman brady. Zandi the witnesses, mark , who is an economic adviser to john mccain in his campaign, testified about how already with this shut down we have seen a 75 decrease in domestic product growth. Goes on forif it even a few more weeks we will be 1. 5 decrease in growth. I think people think about the furloughed workers and they are not spending money and things like that. That is really the icing on the cake. It is the guts of it, from what i have seen. I guess i would just come in this week alone i have had emergency calls i guess i would just, in this week alone i have had emergency calls. M 60 exports. They are all and commerce were they have to go through the registry department. Over 80 of those employees are laid off. Mining companies, these are routine permits, not competent ones. They have not been able to get their permits. I love the analogy, because it is what i have been thinking about all week, as this has been static. Competitors all over the world are ready to come in and take the market. People need to start thinking about this beyond the furloughed employees when it is slowing down american business. We have been able to pick up the economy. Issues i start on the jet. These are planes they make for people in countries all over the world. Ms. Blakey, i know you are familiar with sales and final deliveries of aircraft. Can you discuss the vital role this office plays with commerce across the country. Absolutely. In fact, i can tell you i am very pleased to assign backlog ofgrowing aircraft that not ony are ready for sales and transfer, but at the same time they have timelimited funding. The financing is only in place for a short. Of time for a short period of time. At the same time do not get longterm loans. If you time at your financing your back at the beginning of things and maybe do not have a deal at all. Or is a tremendous amount at stake on this. There is a tremendous amount at stake on this. I will remind you that the congress, after 9 11, requires everyone that owns red that owns aircraft reregisters every three years. Those are backing up as well. It is a very serious problem and one that needs to be addressed. Thank you very much. Secretary fox has been great about talking to the companies. Until we open the government, not on a peaceful basis cause i dont think they are even on the this in have to do total. I amwoman hersman, familiar with the work that national Transportation Safety board does after a bridge collapsed. How many ongoing investigations have been curtailed the echo in that bridge collapse curtailed . Collapse ge ending by closing down other bridges in minnesota so we could fix them. I cannot even imagine the effect of that. We complete about 1500 investigations every year. 1000 hase to say over been halted in their tracks. There is very little we can do to keep those moving. We have to establish a very high bar to bring our people back to work. We have only been able to do that on five occasions in the last 10 days for five different events. The rest we have had to let go. , safetyin many cases delayed is safety denied. Question, i want to put some questions on the record about the very important consumer issues you have worked on. This is the 10th anniversary of the do not call registry opened ftc. E fcc and the registry is not operating and protective programs are not running during this shut down. We know there have been some issues, there was a hearing on this do not call registry and improvements that need to be made. I cannot imagine what people think because they call us all the time. What is the status of that the echo it is still not functioning. The ftc website is entirely off line. There is a page that says this website is closed. Am there is critical information on this website. If you want to find out what to do and maybe your state Consumer Protection agency sent you to the ftc to find a we should do in this circumstance, how do you try to minimize the damage, there is no information available. As many Different Call Centers the ftc administers and other hot ones that are critical to entertaining critical to obtaining information, they are currently not people. Your system is shut down. Im hoping these negotiations will produce something but i think we all know that the senate bill simply opens the government. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. You, mr. Chairman. Thank all of you for being with us today. Of whatn the middle really should be an avoidable partial Government Shutdown that nobody wants but nobody seems to willing seems willing or able to end. Lets hope that changes quickly. Im encouraged by some of the discussions that have been happening here over the last day or so. My state of south dakota, like every state in the country, has felt the effects of this. We cannot ignore both the immediate and longerterm impacts of having the Government Shutdown. We also cannot ignore the problems that have precipitated from the current crisis. One of the reasons we are where we are today is because around here we too often play the short game and not the long game. Hour, up at the 11th grasping a solution to try to solve a problem and everybody is waiting the political impact of how this is going to benefits who, who is going to lose, and we really ought to be doing the work earlier in the year and thinking on a more longterm basis. We didnt to an appropriations bill this year, we havent been doing appropriation bills like we normally should. Me, at least, that as we think about the fact that we have a 70 trillion debt we should not get up to where we are doing anywhere where we are doing a debt ceiling crisis to talk about that. Debt ceiling crisis. To talk about that and to play the long game is in the long term interest of the country. We are always dealing from crisis to crisis around here. I think that is an unfortunate way to govern, i know it is the neighbor i notice the nature of the beast sometimes. I think we can do much better. Order,id follow regular to the budget, do the preparation bills the way they are supposed to be done, we would not find ourselves in the situation. I just wanted to make one observation. I know there has been a lot of my colleagues today criticizing the targeted bills that have been passed by the house of representatives. I know that approach is not ideal but it is not all that different from the process we followed when the appropriations process is working. Discrete bills are taken up on the floor. What we consider areas that have been discussed today, i think it is worth noting that matters that measures passed by the house would fund the food safety ,ommission, the research at nih and the faa function cited in keys testimony. While all of us want the government to reopen i would hope that we could knowledge that there are things that the senate could do today. The senate could do today to mitigate the effects of the shutdown, as we have done for the military. Even though it may not be the ideal way to do things, i think it is in portions to point out that there is a cr, it is in the house. Theres nothing we can do in the senate until the house takes it up and acts on the house is sent us numerous bills that fund various portions of the government. My question for all of you is, are those bills that have come over here from the house that are funding bills, would be fund the various functions of government and things that you have mentioned are Important Services the government provides . Dont all jump at once to answer that question. No. Did i get you correctly . You are saying the bills would not fund those portions of the government . It depends on the bill. Nih . The nih, if ira number correctly, was the clinicals if i remember correctly, was the clinical center, not the entire agency . Under fda . I would argue that the piecemeal approach does not adequately protect the consumers. In order for consumers to be protected in terms of their the transparency and fairness in the marketplace, their food, safety, the air they breathe, thears they use government needs to be fully funded. Would the fda funds be funded by legislation sent into that sent white house . I believe parts of it would be. I dont think that is true. I believe all of it would be. The functions and Services Provided by many of the agencies that you all have mentioned today our mentioned our system of food safety is actually insured by three agencies, ef tc the ftc, the cdc, as well as the usda. It is not Just One Agency that works on it but there are agencies that Work Together and collectively share information and build upon the work of one another. I will acknowledge that you all want to see the full process work. I think we all do. I think we have to acknowledge that when you come up here and talk about funding deficiencies for specific agencies for programs, there are bills that came over here that would fund many of those agencies and services. Fema . Reserve . Guard and that is not something anyone on the panel wants to answer. I was to ask a question in regard to the faa regulation issue. It basically suggests that many of those employees in the last time we went through this, were declared accepted employees and accepted employees. In the letter that was sense that pointed out that this was , other important impacts including Economic Impacts that were already mentioned today, could you elaborate on some of the challenges and some of those Economic Impacts related to the Registry Office . I would be happy to. I think we are like of mind, the registry needs to reopen. I want to point out one thing that didnt take some the gang that did take some digging to get to. The faa actually had an appropriations bill passed. It was not covered during the shutdown. Big difference because there were a number of Appropriations Bills that congress has passed at that point. The issue you are raising is a legitimate one in terms of the importance today. A letter asking that secretary fox reexamine the clarification of the registry. As you look at the curative effect, it might be harder to argue that there was immediate safety ramifications. We believe very strongly that not only do you have genuine safety concerns of not being ,ble to transfer these aircraft at the same time you have big economic impact, the lack of funding that is going to be there, you have 10,000 a month that you really do need to provide registrations for. And then there are security issues. Thatongress requires everyone reregister their plane every three years that we would know who is up there. Where is ownership of these . Is an important issue from home and security standpoint. There are a number of ramifications that do argue strongly for opening the in trying to deal with a big backlog of aircrafts. We believe it would be possible to reexamine that in light of the growing problems. There were also problems because a 36e sequester they have they have a 36 day backlog before this even began. All could see clearly to doing on that front, we would very much appreciated. Hopefully we will not be in this position much longer. I hope we will follow your advice and some of our colleagues it and the advice of some of our colleagues. Thank you. I did bestow upon you a sub papal blessing. I know you are in the leadership. Half your economy is being wiped cap your economy being wiped out is not something people experience as a broad body of state. Thank you, very much. This is a very important hearing. Pretty cleares it what is going on. The tea Party Controls the house of representatives. They do not like the government. Down. Ant to shut it as people start to complain they say we will take they say we will pass bills piece by piece. So far they have only past eight or nine. They say people Like National parks. People want to make sure that women and infants are taken care of. People want fema to be funded. This reminds me of a story of a little boy in russia. He hated crowd lack he hated kreblach. His mother decided to show him why she should like it. Andtakes out the dough starts to make it just like a pancake. Then she took up the meat and chopped up for me chopped up the meat. She put that in. Then she baked it up, put it in a soup. She says, you like soup. She put the crib lack in the middle of it she put the kreblach in the middle of it. He said, i hate it. Thetea party are going, government i hate it. Piece by piece they like what it does. You like the nih. You like the national parks. Piece by piece, by christmas we will have the government reestablished. Together, theut Tea Party Members will go, kreblach, i hate the government the say when furloughs 90 of its employees. No one is posting reports to the online Consumer Product database tot i worked to create ensure that the news of deaths or serious injuries are made available. Reports of actual death caused by Consumer Products to ensure that additional lives are not lost. In the cap in the last couple of weeks an explosion killed a worker in the d. C. Metro. In plane crash in arizona. The safety board is not investigating any of these incidents. Hastraffic administration furloughed 56 of its employees. More people are killed in highway accidents every day. They furloughed 56 of their employees. No investigation of an automotive safety the consumer has had furloughed staff, 28 people are left to monitor 300 trillion markets. How may people are being ripped off . Are there any fewer bad guys right now . What keeps them from doing the bad things . The cops. As each day goes by it is going to be like kreblach. You like the Consumer Product Safety Commission, you like the commodities commission. Piece by piece the republicans will have eight bills, 20 bills, they have tobills pass as the public comes to understand what is in our government. That is why extent, the polling is so bad. And to a certain extent they are increasing the understanding that the Affordable Care act is quick to make sure that every poor child in america has health care. Theyre willing to passed a bill to the agency refunded but still keep the Government Shutdown. I dont think the public is there. I think what you all have been talking about the cessna has been explained more fully has explained more fully what it is the government needs to do. What is the government . The government is playing a role that individual families cannot do. That is why we have a government. It is the stuff we all of a sudden have to together. We all decide we have to do together. American people believe it is important. They havent decided yet that the national Transportation Safety board or the national Highway Safety traffic demonstration is important. But they will. As each day goes by they will understand how peoples lives are permanently altered because of this. So much for everything that you have been doing. I want to add my concern that this shutdown is harming American Science and innovation economy. That is who we are as a country. We are shutting down the nih, we are shutting down these other science based and innovation based programs. China and india looking at us. That is your business plan. That is what you are afraid of. Afraid ofave to be them. But we should respect them. They are coming at they are coming out is in need of these areas. I have a letter here from the from susan avery. She notes that the cost associated with a Government Shutdown far exceed the real or heart documented costs, particularly in the science community, where funding interruptions can have a Lasting Impact on science experiments, longterm observations, and research personnel. That b included in the record in its entirety. So worded. That should that be included in the record in its entirety. That should be included in the record in its entirety. So worded. Yes or no . Yes. Yes. Sure, yes. Yes. In a very i am not good position to judge what you have laid out there. I have for yeses. They are not in a good position. We have lost many of the fundamental protections because the federal government is being held hostage by an extreme faction. Do you agree that the federal shutdown has increased market manipulation in our equities because the cost on the beach was supposed to please the markets . I do. Is it possible that once the financial relators get back to work they will never have the time nor ability to for thoroughly analyze the large backlog of data, awaiting them to ensure that any wrongdoing should take steps of prosecuting. Yes. Of marketector Research Says that the annex of markets the annex markets have been wild. Trading is running rampant. Surely be finding a new way to fund the Commodity Futures Trading Commission so that the next time theres is a dispute over the budget we cannot force the pull off the beat . This is another example of the need of more robust funding for cftc and for cftc to be self funded. And finally, what are the implications of the federal trade commission, the agency in charge of Consumer Protection and privacy, closing its doors for an extended. Of time . Were extended time . For an extended time . There is not. Kreblach. We disaggregate the government and see but it doesnt daily basis. I think you for the government. I thank you for doing what youre doing. Im so glad youre here. Like cantwell would mine will be short. Question that the Ranking Member asked. You dont want to give the crossways of the big issue we are dealing with here. The coast guard was not in any of those bills. Noah was not in any of those bills. The satellites were not in any of those bills. I am happy to answer these questions because i think it is a good question. The assumption is those bills coming over, if i funded for every single one of those piecemeal bills you would still be out there today. The satellites would not be in the air. That is a fact. Fair, the faa wants this bill. I agree with that. The fact is half of their budget is satellites. It is tremendously important across the board. We are also still struggling with the effects of the that will become immensely difficult for all of these agencies. One of the questions i had was the issue of aviation, the other ce of the equation schedule changing acres in alaska. That takes work with the faa and that is not happening now. Is that also i am understanding from any of your members i am not as detailed on that as i would like to be. One of the difficulties of the air Traffic Control situation right now is why you have the controllers you do not have all of the work that goes behind them, planning the changes that have to take place. Theres a lot of work that is not necessarily seen. But right now it is critical and not happening. Very good. From south dakota, i agree, we should have those Appropriations Bills. The government is open. Every time we have done those, the government is open. Point. That is a good you might call these ones coming over, you might call them many appropriation bills. Chairman mr. Chairman, thank you. Can you comment on the instrument landing system and how that works from variable weather conditions and your knowledge about how the fda a the faa works on that. Ils around the country are very important from the it isoint of navigation. Something they operate at varying levels of technology. Not know the specifics on the coast guards need in this regard. We are not close to that day in day out interplay between the requirements of the agency coast guard and the faa. Look into happy to it. My understanding is that we, from an operational perspective, even though i would consider that preservation, the fact that these coast guard flights arresting people and flying them on the ins on an instrument landing system, that would be added to your list of these issues at the faa that are not being processed or kept up with so you have the coast guard operating these flights and taking people out taking people out of all sorts of ferent routes you different routes. The ongoing certification right now went down tremendously in terms of the manpower to accomplish those things. I will be utilized if this goes on a lot longer. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Any other questions . If i might just ask one more. All thatdisagree at the should be handled in a normal appropriations process. We do a single appropriation bill. We try to do one across the floor and did not pass it. And my point is this i understand what you are all saying. If you cant have everything in it is not a good outcome. I would throw this out there as , isnt having some funding better than having no funding . We are checking. Outnt think they picked individual pieces of it. All i am saying is that according to the senator of massachusetts there are some republicans in the house that do not like some russian dish you are dating yourself there. I get that. A have a funding bill over there. They have a clean funding bill. They have not voted yet. They will, i hope, at some point. I hope, at some point, move something. In the meantime, what we can do is to some of the things they send us. We have done some things. We have passed legislation that would fund the activeduty military. I offered a unanimous consent and it was rejected. All i am simply saying is and i guess that is the question that isnt it better to have some funding then no funding . I will answer that. Not if you are the person that is not getting the funding. I agree. The one family that has a and the others family that has nothing i am not talking about the whole enchilada. If we do not get everything then we cannot perform the functions that are required. Im saying isnt it better in some of those agencies to get some level of funding, rather than none. Workld have people back to in some of these essential areas, which strikes me as an important priority. There is nothing in the senate we can do today other than encourage our house colleagues to do something with what they have over in front of them. All we have is something that we can do. We have an opportunity that we should take it vantage of to fund some of these essential things. The problem with what the captain just said, if we voted for every single one of those, his livelihood is collapsed. We are picking winners and losers when what we should be doing is looking at the totality of government and saying lets put it back to work and lets have these debates. You and i have agreed on things that we need to to curb back. You three win, you five dont. We also suggested amending those bills and sending them back there. We have to be careful who the when thend losers are house is fully funded. Private safety is not, faa is, National Safety is not, coast guard is not. I see twoandahalf winners. That means the economy, not the government employees, but the hybrid sector people that he they are waiting for the shutdown. They will move on. They are not waiting for some magic to happen here. That income never comes back. That is my concern. If we put a bill on the floor that i would vote for an amendment that you would offer to fix that particular situation. We are limited to what we can do in the senate until the house does what it needs to do. All i am simply saying is in the bills that we have sent back to the house, they are the identical bills that we have sent over. We have tried to send them again, the same thing we have sent them before. That has been the tooling unanimous consent, the request we have on the floor. If we picked them up and passed him by unanimous consent liquidity active military bill, we restore important functions of the government. There are certain things that are really important, there are priorities in my state and your state that ought the acknowledged. And inly you are right think you find a lot of support for amending those bills. We did the dod bill. Because of a rush and a half hazard crisis management, we forgot. We had to do in of the rush. I have run businesses, i have been a mayor, it is the worst type of policy because you will miss things just as we did. Thatnted to make sure safety is taken care of. My priority is mine. To go right back we have vehicles on the floor right now. Appropriations bill. My amendment would be to open up government. The senator for washington can pass that amendment. Nothing gets funded. What we can do here in the senate is all we can do. I would like to make a statement. Box i was waiting for this. I was waiting for this. I think the problem with what gimmickry the real is to lessen the pressure on the house and do with the house have to do. The house does not want to do. We cannot take care of that in the senate. Rejecting some of these is government isnt it just agencies. Government is a vast enterprise that works together. Or governmentness has to feel that the future is going to be stable. If you buy off one group or another group, that all sounds good. What it does, to me, is undermined the whole concept of government, a decent government acting as a whole for the American People. We have to make the whole government be back in order. We have to fund it all. That doesnt even get at my vast frustration of sequestration. I think it is an overwhelming sickness. It has to be eliminated. There is good to be a much thinner magazine when people start saying it is like when people go to be geriatricians in medical school. A terrific vic thing to do. But they last about two years and then they switch to a much more wellpaying anesthesiology or something of that sort. The pay isnt as it should be and older people are harder to work with and all that kind of thing. You have to have a holistic effort where everybody is stitched. D is inter and that we put down, what i think, is we put down what, i think, is a hijacking effort. There is a pull out now that came out this morning. This one indicated something to 35 of republicans identified themselves as tea party. It is part of what i am talking about. We are separating ourselves from each other. It is going to be a live form today, big deal. Some judge gets voted on. We are doing big things. We arent even approaching that. Institution as a whole, people have lost so much confidence. We are at five percent. We are lucky. If they lose confidence in the future your people have to have confidence in the future. Big debtsutting down for longterm efforts. They wont get nobel prizes but they will make a big difference. Everyone one of our folks partfying this morning are of not just something called the national Transportation Safety board, they are part of something called the United States government and its responsibilities to people as a whole. Everyone of us are joined in that. We have decided because of this phenomenon that has come up and bill,e of the health care we have decided we are going to tear each other apart. Cannot cure that by funding 2. 525 people. 2. 5 25 people. We need to stay that way. Your scientists and experts on pipeline explosions and this and oft can have a sense continuity for themselves and not start looking for another job. That people do not hang around waiting for us to sort out our problems. They have to move on, they have to live. I dont think any of us can say that we get out of bed every morning anxious to run to work. I have spent 50 years in public life, starting with the peace corps. Starting with the peace corps, loving every single day because of something called public policy. Why do i love this committee . Because it has smart people on both sides of this committee. We have an enormous range for spots abilities, some of which are less known to the American People, all of which are enormously important in affecting families, their livelihoods, and selfesteem. Our country is losing its self esteem. Gimmicks and trickery and not facing up to problems. When a country begins to lose its selfesteem, when it begins to separate itself from government, as if it is not their favorite outlet, something which can be there for them when , it is a whole effort and the opposite of whatever that soup is from russia you are talking about. [laughter] think we are at a crux and this thing has to be settled one way or another. It is going to be political, it is going to be unpleasant, it is past the point where it can be done logically. We try to put each other in a position where we cannot do the right thing. That is a horrible rut a horrible way to run a country. It is a horrible thing to do to the American People. I can stay angry for three weeks just saying that. I can say that all day and stay angry. I will get off my soap box. I think this is a holistic solution for it is a catastrophic resolve for the United States of america. I do not want that. This hearing is adjourned. On the next washington journal, steve bell of the policy center talks about the treasury department. Kaiser Health News Correspondent Julie Appleby looks at the number of people signed up on the Health Care Exchanges since they opened on october 1 and the differences between the state and federally run exchanges. An amtrak president and ceo boardman talks about the shutdown and sequestration. The houses recessed for the weekend but the senate is live today on our companion network. They are debating the Government Shutdown and the debt ceiling. You can also watch online at c span. Org and let us know what you think on twitter or go to our Facebook Page at facebook. Com cspan. He called because he is so frustrated know how the Government Shutdown is affecting you. Lease send us make your short video of the shutdown and upload it see what others are touting about. Tonight part two of our conversation with josh bolten. Start off by giving us what you saw with the press, the media, that world. How did you view them knockout usually with hostility. It is the natural state of affairs between the white house because that corps is the nature of what the press needs to do. They need to try to catch the white house out on whatever is going on. More with Bush Administration chief of staff josh bolten, tonight at 8 00 on cspans q a. On tuesday, the u. S. Supreme court heard that Campaign Finance case. He challenges the limits on the total amount of money one individual can tribute cant intrude on each election cycle. One of the donors urged the court to strike down total contribution limits. This whole argument is an hour. We will hear arguments first this morning in the case of 12 536, mccutchen versus the federal election commission. Made please the court, aggregate contribution limits are an impermissible attempt to participate in the political process. I prohibiting contribution that is in the modest a still image of congress to combat the reality or the appearance of corruption, d seek to these seek these cannot be justified on circumvention ground because the concerns the covenant has hypothesized has already addressed the multitude of direct anticircumvention measures. How is that . They impose numerous circumvention measures. We have provisions on your marking contributions on your marking concretions, we have related to restrictions. There are proliferation restrictions on creating multiple paths that are all designed all of these were here at the of i guess the court thought something could happen like the candidate smith, you can only give him 2600. He has a lot of supporters. Each of them its a brainstorm. Each of them puts on the internet a little sign that says , this money goes to people like sam smith, great people. He can give each of those 45,000 they are courted native they are not coordinated or established by single person. We know that a total of 5000 times 40 will go to the sam smith. What does that filed it . There are 8 what does that violate . Rocks there are a couple of problems with that there are a couple of problems with that, your honor. There are a total of 5,000 that. An be given to a pac 5000 times 4000. Five times 40, 5 times 400, how much is that . Earmarking without proliferation no earmarking. It requires that you write the check or in a Company Letter that you want the money to go to it does not. The relations are broader than that. If you have a pac that