Positive changes in indianapolis overee the past 40 years, i see the fulfillment of the vision ow then mayor dick lugar. Now the midwest has a way of producing men and women of sense and decency. Not all of us fall in that category. Sometimes bear his question buto we do have individuals who have ability to see through the heart of the matter and to resolve and find a way to resolve the problem. In such scale is extremely valuable in the United States senate. A body by that very design issee supposed to foster compromise between legislators on issues before the nation. Ression t and so it was a naturalayor, progression that following his success as mayor, dick lugars best job would be serving hoosiers as a sen United Statess senator. Since 1977 senator lugar has represented hoosiers and served our nation admirably. Without question senator lugar is the type of lawmakernd and leader who worked hard to bringp boths parties together, find Common Ground and pass neededug legislation. And through that his contributions are manyserv inclg his long valued service on the Agricultural Committee senator lugars most Important Role in the senate has to be his a leadership of the Senate Foreign relations committee. As a twotime chairman of committee he has been one of the most influential on foreignpolicy in the United States and its history. He has worked tirelessly on policies and legislation tothe promote arms control, control to dismantleuc nuclear arms and amg address the global food crisis l among others and among his manyf accomplishments in the field ofr Foreign Relations is his signature piece of legislation that no doubt will be the cooperative Threat Reduction program more commonlys known asj nunnlugar. Ons com senator lugar joined the Foreign Relations committee in 1979 any travel and he traveled to the former soviet union on multipleo occasions h to gain a betterure understanding of how the United States could secure and dismantle weapons of mass destruction. His experiences led him to champion the landmark legislation that successfully resulted in the deactivation of nuclear t warheads. Taking this world a safer place. Today that nunnlugarivated prom has deactivated more than 7500re nuclear o warheads that were one aimed at theit United States, a contribution to which americans never give enough thanks. Over 36 years in thised dk institution senators from both sides of the aisle have it considered dick lugar a trusted resource when it comes to foreignpolicy and many other important issues. W he has been a consistent resource for those who can seek thoughtful answers in twon difficult political questions. When i first arrived here in 1989 senator lugar and i operated the unique joint Office Arrangement in indiana sharing office space and staff in our state. Many of our colleagues were surprised by this arrangement but dick lugar and id tell theal hoosiers that they we getting twice the service for half the price. All those who work in thision chamber can learn from dick lugars passion for public d service, his sincere desire to reach acrosses the aisle to finu commonni ground and his uniquebr talent for forgingingi coalitios and bringing people together to accomplish big things. A tribute to senator lugar would be incomplete without c of hisng the support wife charlene, his four sons and his extended family. Publicservice demands putsrt demands on our families and their sacrifice andny support plays an Important Role in any senator success. Its been an honor for me to work withworkh senator lugar url im thankful for his service to indiana into our country. Senator lugar, marsha and i wish you and charlene andha your famr nothing but the best as youyou begin this next chapter in yourr life. You have dedicated so much of your service toe our country. You ways in which you will be continuing tog t do that is a gt benefit to our nation and to our state. Im certain that we will continue to learn from your lifetime a lifetime of public service. I know my colleagues join me in thanking senator lugar for his many years of dedicated and distinguished service and it has been a pleasure to serve with the senator from indiana under your leadership and without mr. President i yield the floor. Federal reserve chairman ben bernanke continued to Warn Congress on the white house of the dangers of going over the socalled fiscal cliff. The white house was very controversial as most americans were. There was competition and he submitted a design for a palace. It was not particularly aweinspiring and in fact in 1821 a european diplomat told the congress that it was neither large nor aweinspiring but the answer the congressman gave said, the building served its purpose. If it were larger and more elegant perhaps some current president would become its permanent resident. Said chairman ben bernanke announced monetary actions that the Federal Reserve will try to take to sustain the economic recovery, including keeping Interest Rates low. Mr. Bernanke spoke to reporters after the Feds Open Market Committee meeting. This is an hour and 15 minutes. Its been three and half years since the economic recovery began. Unfortunately however unemployment is remaining high. About 5 million people, more than 40 of the unemployed for six months or more and millions more have been able to find only parttime employment or have stopped looking entirely. The conditions now prevailing in the job market represent an enormous waste of human and economic potential. A return to broadbased prosperity will require staged improvements in the job market which in turn require Stronger Economic growth. Meanwhile apart from temporary fluctuations a largely reflected swings in Energy Prices its likely to run at or below the federal markets to present objective in the coming quarters and over the longer term. Against the macroeconomic backdrop of higher unemployment and subdued inflation the the committee took several steps, first it decided to continue his purchases of agency mortgagebacked securities initiated at the september meeting at a pace of 40 billion per month. Second, the committee decided to purchase longerterm treasury securities initially at a pace of 45 billion per month after a skirt program to extend the average maturity withholdings is completed at the end of the year. And continuing its asset purchases the Committee Seeks to maintain downward pressure on longerterm Interest Rates and the financial thereby promoting hiring and Economic Growth while ensuring that inflation over time is close to her to present objective. Finally the committee today also modified its future rate policy to provide more information to the public about how it reacts revolving economic commissions conditions. After discussing our discussion to continue asset personages. Although the committees announcement today specify the initial ugly pace and composition of asset purchases we did not give specific dates in which the program may be modified or ended. Instead the pattern of future asset purchases will depend on the committees evaluation of incoming information in two respects. First, we expect to continue asset purchases until we see a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market in the context of price stability. In assessing the extent of progress the committee will be evaluating the range of labor market indicators including the Unemployment Rate, payroll employment, hours worked and Labor Force Participation among others. Because increases in demand and production are normally precursors to an improvement in labor Market Conditions we will look carefully at the pace of Economic Activity more broadly. Second the committee will be monitoring economic and Financial Developments to assess both the efficacy and the possible drawbacks of an Asset Purchase Program. Federal reserves asset participants over the past two years have provided important support to the economy. For example by helping keep Mortgage Rates historically low. The committee expects this policy to continue to be effective to remain manageable but as the Program Continues we will be regularly updating those assessments. In a future evidence suggest the programs effectiveness has declined for potential unintended side effects or risks become apparent as the Balance Sheet grows, we will modify the program as appropriate. More generally the committee intends to be flexible in varying the case of securities purchases in response of information bearing on alec or perceived benefits and costs of the program. Unlike the exclusively quantitative criteria associated with the committees Forward Guidance about the federal funds rate which i will discuss in a moment that criteria the committee will use to make decisions about the pace and extent of its Asset Purchase Program are qualitative. In particular continuation of asset purchases is tied to our keeping substantial improvement in the outlook of the labor market. Because we expect more over time about the efficacy and potential cost of asset purchases in the current economic contest, we believe a qualitative guidance is more appropriate at this time. Hinted a statement the Committee Also passes Forward Guidance to clarify how to expect his targets are the federal funds rate to depend on future economic development. Specifically the committee anticipates exceptionally low levels for the funds rate are likely to quote at least as long as an employment rate remains above 7. 2 inflation in years one and two ahead is no more than half a percentage point above the longerrun goal and longerterm Inflation Expectations continued to be well anchored. This formulation is a change from earlier statements in which or guidance of the federal funds rate was expressed in terms of the date. For example in a statement following the september and october meetings, the committee indicated that it anticipated that is accepting low levels are likely to be warranted quote at least through mid2015. The modified formulation makes explicit the fomcs intention to maintain accommodation as long as needed to promote a Stronger Economic recovery in the context of price stability of strategy we believe will help support household and Business Confidence and spending. By tying future Monetary Policy to Economic Conditions this formulation of our policy guidance should also made Monetary Policy more transparent and predictable to the public. The change in the former committees Forward Guidance is not in itself a change in the committees expectation about the likely future path of the federal funds rate since the october meeting. In particular the committee expects the thresholds for unemployment will not be reached before mid2015 and projects inflation will remain close to 7 over that period those given the committees current outlook for guidance introduced today is consistent with the committees earlier statements that except with low levels of the funds rate are likely to be warranted at least through mid2015. Let me emphasize the 6. 5 threshold in the Unemployment Rate should not be interpreted as the committees long term objective for unemployment. Indeed the Economic Projections submitted in conjunction with todays meeting the central tendency of participants estimates for the longerrun normal rate of unemployment is 5. 2 to 6. 0 however because of changes in Monetary Policy affect the economy with a lag, the committee believes it likely will need to be moving away from a highly accommodative policy stands before the economy reaches maximum unemployment. Waiting until maximum employment is achieved before beginning the process of removing policy accommodation could lead to an undesirable for overshooting of potential output and compromise the efficacys longerterm objection of 2 . As the fomc statement makes clear the committee anticipates policy and revenue guidance of the fully consistent with continued products that employment and inflation remaining close to the 2 objective over the longerterm. Although the modified guide should provide greater clarity to respond and dated by monies puts Monetary Policy and autopilot. Disregard let me make several points. First, the Committee Views its low rate policy as likely to be appropriate at least until the specified thresholds are met. Reaching one of those results however not automatically trigger immediate reduction in policy accommodation. For example if unemployment were to decline to slightly below sixpoint represented time when inflation and expectations were subdued and projected to remain so the committee might judge an immediate increase in its targeted federal funds rate to be inappropriate. Ultimately in deciding when and how quickly to reduce policy accommodation the committee will follow a balanced approach in seeking to mitigate inflation from its longer range goal and deviations in employment from its estimated maximum level. Second, the committee recognizes that no single indicator provides complete assessment of the state of the labor market and therefore will consider changes in an employment rate within the broader context of labor Market Conditions. For example in evaluating the decline in the Unemployment Rate, the committee will also take into account the extent to which at the time is associated with increases in employment as opposed to say, increases in the number of discouraged workers and falling Labor Force Participation. The committee will also consider where the improvement in the Unemployment Rate appears sustainable. Third, the committee chose to express the inflation in terms of inflation between one and two years ahead rather than in terms of current inflation. The committee took this approach to make clear that it intends to look through purely transitory fluctuations in inflation such as those induced by shortterm ternationally tradedices of commodities and to focus instead on the underlying inflation trend. In making its collective judgment about the underlying inflation trend the committee will consider a friday of indicators including measures such as median tram and core inflation, the views of outside forecasters and the predictions to the statistical models of inflation. Also the committee will pay close attention to Inflation Expectations to ensure that those expectations remain well anchored. Finally the committee will continue to monitor a wide range of information on economic and Financial Development to ensure that policies conducted in a matter manner consistent with their mandate. Is worth noting that the goals of the fomc asset purchases and federal funds rate guidance are somewhat different. The goal of Purchase Program is to increase the nearterm momentum of the economy by fostering more, Data Financial conditions while the purpose of the rates their the rates guidance as to provide information about the future circumstances under which the committee would contemplate resisting accommodation. I would emphasize the decision by the committee to end asset purchases whenever that is reach would not be a deterrent to tighter policy. While under that circumstance, its policy stance would remain highly supportive for growth. Only at some later point with the committee begin actually removing accommodations through rate increases. Moreover as they discuss today the decisions to modify the Asset Purchase Program and to undertake rate increases are tied to different criteria. In conclusion, fomcs actress at the airport of our ongoing effort to support economic recovery and job creation while maintaining price stability. As i have often stressed however Monetary Policy has its limits. Only the private and public sectors working together can get the u. S. Economy fully back on track. In particular at a critical that fiscal policymakers come together soon to achieve longerterm fiscal sustainability without adopting policies that fail the ongoing recovery. Thank you and id be happy to answer your questions. Spain mr. Chairman steve from cnbc. I have a lot of questions but i will offer a few here. Why are there different targets for qe and for the funds rate . What does that achieve . Secondly, what good is a target if you have to reference a calendar date. You pointed out in the statement that its different from the calendar in october. Do you have to keep doing that from now on and thirdly then you have another paragraph after that says, its not just targeting Something Else though its unclear wh