Transcripts For CSPAN Washington This Week 20131013 : vimars

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