the house of today the previous question is ordered the question is on the motion by the gentleman from new york all those in favor say aye those opposed no the ayes ha the asian names are requested those favoring a vote by the gays a nasal rise a sufficient number having risen the gays unaids are ordered members will record their votes by electronic device this will be a fifteen minute vote so the house is now voting on the economic stimulus plan as revised and passed earlier today over in the senate we talk to a capitol hill reporter shortly before or shortly after that vote in the senate stephen dennis roll call on the phone with us the senate has approved its version of an economic stimulus package what finally happened to allow it to occur well essentially the democrats gave up on this attempt to make it an all or nothing package you know majority leader harry reid had said all week that it was only going to allow one vote which was going to be on the whole package you know it was going to end up being about forty billion more in the house package over a couple years and that fell apart overnight and the democrats ultimately decided to go with what republicans were willing to add to the house package it's going to add you know a little over ten billion to the house package because they're going to add in the final numbers aren't completely clear but it's going to be an addition to the house package to to cover about twenty million low income seniors about two hundred fifty thousand veterans and there's a couple of tweaks to some of the business tax provisions as well as some things that are intended to make it easier make some mortgages to deal with the housing crisis but it's more of tweaking the house bill instead of the wholesale kinds of additions that the housing that the senate were originally wanted to do things like energy tax credits and the big losers here are the unemployed folks people who are losing their jobs won't get the extra thirteen weeks of unemployment compensation that the democrats really pushing for this week especially since last week's numbers showed the number of people losing their jobs or are spiking what's your analysis of the final vote pretty heavy eighty one to sixteen yeah i think once once the republicans got the senate leadership to back down on having the whole package they wanted to show that they were that they wanted to support the seniors they wanted to support the disabled veterans who were left out of the original package those are some pretty powerful lobbies you still saw some conservatives vote against the package as a whole because it's going to add to the deficit but it's it's sort of interesting going forward now because this unemployment insurance issue still going to be hanging out there and you've got a expect that democrats in the months to come unless the economy starts turning around are going to keep trying to bring unemployment insurance to the floor going to be interesting to see how long republicans can hold out against things like unemployment insurance food stamps and other things that democrats are talking about so the measure comes back to the house looks like the sebring what are the prospects for passage quickly how it's going to it's going to pass in minutes in the house you know probably by around six thirty and it's going to be an overwhelming vote there may be a few more conservatives who vote against it among republicans because it's going to be a little bit bigger package but the republican leader john boehner nancy pelosi both have embraced the general outline of this compromise in the past couple of days and  certainly get a white house signature as well you know the real drama of course was last night where democrats within one vote of passing that much larger package and any every republican now is probably going to face some t v ads in the fall campaign talking about all the things that they could have voted for and didn't so how quickly will taxpayers and others start receiving rebate checks it's going to take months you know that  there's going to have to be some complicated maneuvering by the i r s to try and the treasury department trying to figure out how they can accelerate these checks going out there's it's go take a lot of you know reprogramming of computers and figuring out what people would different people are owed some people are going to get three hundred dollars checks depending on how much they earn last year some are going to get six hundred dollars checks some are going to get three hundred dollars checks for having children so it's it's a complicated package that's going to have to be it's going to take several months that's one of the criticisms that some folks that have of this package and one of the reasons why people thought unemployment insurance would have been a quicker injection of cash into the economy but you know as a it's going to take probably until you know late april may june before a lot of the checks really start rolling out but you know more than a hundred million people are going to get these checks stephen denizen of roll call thanks for joining us and giving us an update on the economic stimulus package good to be here and here in the house members voting on that package now it passed in the senate as you heard a vote of eighty one to sixteen  earlier this afternoon the plan essentially is the house version that passed last week with amendments added by the senate coming up shortly there will be a briefing in the capitol with the house and senate republican and democratic leaders on the economic stimulus plan the pass passed both passed in the senate and is expected to pass here in the house this evening we'll have live coverage of that event on our companion network c span to a welcome like that's almost enough to make me want to run for office again job he always voted for me and come november i'm going to vote for him john of course he spent years in public service at the state level and you know i both know it's a tremendous experience running for office in wyoming he told a story about dubai i'll tell a story about torrington wyoming i've never forgotten when i was running for my sixth campaign you know i've been in office ten years when i pictured been a newspaper and on television and so for that and the rallies and barbecues and all the door to door work for years campaigning through torrents and one day and i came up to one all cowboy with his back up against a tree a cowboy hat pulled down over his eyes told him reach for raise hand and said hi i'm dick cheney i'm running for congress and i'd like your vote he said you got it that food get in there now is no damn good one of these days john you're right in that he still there but also want to thank my good friend dave king for hosting us today dave of course is known to all of us as a leading light of the conservative movement he has a lot to be proud of he's led the american conservative union for many many years and in the past he worked in the white house on capitol hill for senator james buckley he's toiled in the political vineyards for a long time and he's made a difference and something else dave can be proud of he's the father of a soldier who served honorably and bravely in iraq once again a pleasure to participate it's a pack i'm in the eighth year of my current job and i've enjoyed being here many times as vice president to see pac brings together some of the nation's most committed to little activist the heart and soul of the of the conservative community east and west north and south you've got an impressive lineup of speakers over the next few days among these are some fine citizens now running for office including i'm certain the next prez in the united states the main event of course happens tomorrow when seatback two thousand and eight welcomes the leader of the free world our president george w bush my close association with the president goes back to the year two thousand when he asked me to lead the search for a vice presidential nomin that worked out pretty well but we've now begun our final year in office and we're not going to waste a moment of it we're going to revitalize america's economy in a time of challenge and we're going to stay on the offensive in the war on terror in a state of the union message last week the president set out a confident path forward and on that path we're guided by principle as conservatives we believe in a government that takes up a smaller share of the national income that treats tax dollars with respect and restraint and we believe in a government that keeps to its limits under the constitution never expanding beyond the consent of the governed and we believe in a government that defends the people the values the interest in the territory the president i came to face challenges to face them squarely instead of ignoring them or passing them on to future generations and this is required a lot of big decisions none of the none of them taken lightly seven years ago we inherited an economy on its way to recession so we acted quickly to turn it around down with tax cuts and rebates directly to the american people as a result of that program another pro growth tax policies passed that year the recession of two thousand and one turned out to be short and shallow and even after the shocks of nine eleven we haven't gone through a recession since that's an impressive record but it shouldn't surprise anyone ronald reagan proved it years ago and we proved it again lower taxes are always good for this economy stimulus package with the leaders of the house under the plan millions of workers will get tax relief and businesses will get new incentives to buy equipment expand their operations and hire new workers are stimulus packages simple and temporary but not a penny of wasteful spending to explode the deficit there won't be any new regulations or economic meddling by the federal government the entire tax package is tax relief not a single person in the country will see a tax increase after we address the vital economic concerns of the moment we'll still have even more important work to do on tax policy without action by congress most of the tax release we've delivered over the past seven years will be taken away that's all the bush tax cuts the income tax reductions capital gains and dividend tax relief thousand dollar child credit and the phase out of the death tax owing to fine print the law all of these tax cuts will expire in just a few years the effect would be an average increase of eighteen hundred dollars a year in the tax bill of some one hundred sixteen million americans aside from the huge risk this tax increase would pose in the economy there is a larger question of fundamental fairness to the american taxpayer letting the bush tax cuts expire would be one of the largest government money grabs in american history and we must not allow it to happen as we limit washington's claim on people's paychecks congress will have to make some tough choices and maybe wind up with less money to spend on needless programs or their own pet project president's budget this year holds non security discretionary spending to an increase of less than one percent he's also making major reductions or terminating one hundred fifty one wasteful or bloated programs totaling more than eight working americans have to set priorities and make tradeoffs in their budgets every day it's time for the federal government to do the same presidents also pointing the way to more transparency and accountability in federal spending by now all americans are familiar with the practice of congressional earmarks the pork barrel special interest projects that are quietly slipped into legislation when nobody notices a year ago the president ask congress to do the right thing and to cut the number and the cost of earmarks by at least half he also asked them to stop putting earmarks into committee reports so they don't get voted into law congress did not get the job done on either front so this time if congress sends him an appropriations bill that fails to cut the number and cost of earmarks in half he'll send it back with a  and last week by executive order the president directed federal agencies to ignore any future earmark that is not in bill language and not voted on by the congress if congress is unwilling to vote on a project we see no need to the president i hope the congress will do what's right for the sake of growth and jobs for the american people from the stimulus package to permanent tax relief to budget integrity to spending discipline important issues invite big debates and we've had our share but our best we've done hard things and done them well and in every case it's been clear to members of both parties that george bush is a man of principle and a man of his word he stood firm for the tax cuts fought for and title meant reforms strengthen private pensions to ensure that workers get their promised benefits sign trade agreements that support high paying jobs he's spoken with clarity and conviction on the need to respect human life in all its seasons and he has appointed superbug judges to the trial courts the appellate court and the supreme court of the united states the most solemn duties we carry are those in the field of national security and here to the nation and the world have seen the character and the resolve of george w bush only a few presidents in history have been called upon to make so many urgent and serious decisions he has faced the mall with the kind of realize i'm fair mindedness and decency that americans expect and their presidents guiding this nation through a time of peril it's a very tough job and the right man is in it he will never yield and defending the freedom and the security of the american people as a nation we've gone nearly six and a half years now without another catastrophic attack like nine eleven nobody can guarantee that we won't be hit again the fact is the danger remains very real and we know the terrorist are still determined to get us i look at it every day in our intelligence briefs they are fanatical in their hatred they've tried many times to cause more violence and death to america and so in a heightened threat achievement is a product product of some hard work by americans and intelligence law enforcement and the military and some very wise decisions by the present a united states not long ago president bush said that he knew full well that if we were successful in protecting the country that the lessons of september eleventh would become dimmer and dimmer in some people's minds then he said quote i just don't have that luxury nor did the people that work with me to protect america because we have not forgotten the lessons of september eleventh one great lesson of nine eleven was that we had to stop treating terrorist attacks merely as law enforcement problems or you find out what happened to arrest the bad guys put them in jail and move on the world changed with a coordinated attack which ended the lives of three thousand innocent people and turned sixteen acres of new york city into ashes as the president's made clear many times we are dealing with a strategic threat to the united states we are at war with an enemy who wants to cause mass death in this country and we must act systematically and decisively until this enemy is destroyed to wage this fight we have to marshal our resources to go after the terrorist to shut down their training camps take down their networks deny them sanctuary disrupt their funding sources and bring them to justice we decided as well to go after the sponsors of terror and to confront those who might provide these killers with more deadly capabilities and because some of the early battlefields of the war have been right here in the united states we have taken vital actions to defend the homeland against future attack to win a war like this you need good intelligence information that helps us figure out the movements of the enemy the extent of their operations the location of their cells the plans they're making the methods they use and the targets they plan to strike information of this kind is the hardest to obtain but it's worth the effort in terms of the plots that are averted and the lives that have been saved one of the ways we prevented attacks and saved lives is by monitoring terrorist related communications last year congress passed major revisions to the fights a law that's the foreign intelligence surveillance act but those revisions are set to expire next week we're asking congress to make those revisions permanent and to provide liability protection for companies that are believed to have helped protect america since nine eleven those who act in good those who act in good faith to defend this country should not be punished with lawsuits or hassled by trial lawyers just as we monitored the communications of enemies at large we've also gotten information out of the ones that we have captured the military has interrogated terrorists held at guantanamo bay and in addition a small number of terrorist  i value targets held overseas of gone through an interrogation program run by the cia it's a tougher program for tougher customers these include khalid shaikh mohammed the mastermind of nine eleven he and others were questioned at a time when another attack on this country was believed to be imminent it's a good thing we had them in custody and it's a good thing we found out what they  our eight or three eighty the night nays are thirty four the motion is adopted without objection a motion to reconsider is laid on the table the chair lays before the house the following communication nine nancy pelosi speaker of the house of representatives without objection the appointments are approved members please take their conversations off the floor and take their seats and bring order the house for what purposes the gentleman from missouri right madam speaker i asked addressed the house for one minute for the purpose of inquiring about next week schedule without objection the gentleman is recognized i think the speaker i yield my friend the majority leader from postponed until six thirty p m on wednesday thursday and friday the house will meet at ten am we will consider several bills under suspension the rules ellipse a list of those bills will be announced by close of business this week we will  the house sent hopefully early next week i think a gentleman for that information regarding buys a regarding the foreign intelligence surveillance act i hope that we're moving toward a long term resolution of that i know the senate we believe will pass a long term bill possibly as early as tomorrow  thank the speaker and on the foreign intelligence surveillance act as we hopefully move toward a longer term bill we had a six month extension the first of august we did a two week extension last week i think the senate will send over a bill that has a longer term and includes things like liability protection for companies that cooperate with the government under the law i also understand that  at least twenty one members of the majority have sent a letter saying they'd like to see a long term solution that dealt with the next week i wonder if my friend has any sense of how that my may go next week and again i'm hoping we encourage a longer term solution before this short term extension runs out and i'd yield i thank the gentleman for yielding i and i also appreciate that jim much confidence that the senate's going to send us a bill short term medium term or long term duration we've been waiting for that for some time obviously as my understanding the senate is going to address this bill on tuesday and that they send it to us on tuesday we will see what they have in the bill there obviously will be little if any time for a conference my expectation is there will be a difference between the two sent the house bill which passed here two and a half months ago and senate bill as i said on the floor when we passed the foreign intelligence surveillance act bill and on november fifteenth or sixteenth i said at that time i was hopeful that we would pass the senate would pass and then we could have a conference in which the very important specifics of the bill might be discussed and differences ironed out that has not yet occurred and fortunately  addition as i told my friend last week we had still not gotten access to the documents that we had asked to see to indicate what in fact immunity was being asked for those documents that was some my friend and i had an opportunity discuss that i don't know whether he had any role in that but they will now be made available as of today and as a matter of fact i intend to take the opportunity tomorrow  much of the morning perhaps even into the afternoon to review those documents some few members have had that opportunity already but very few so we've been very late and compressed  in the schedule of dealing fully with what is the thorniest issue on the foreign intelligence surveillance act bill and that is the granting of the munity i will tell my friend that as i said when we extended for fifteen days when we had an agreement to do that to get the senate time to act i was hopeful they could act within that problem we now find ourselves in if they act on tuesday and they send the bill to  wednesday or late tuesday night i don't know how long their consideration is going to take as you know there's substantial controversy is as is evident by the difficulty they've had passing it so i don't know exactly how quickly they will be able to pass that bill but as i've said on numerous occasions we believe i believe there are serious issues on which there are obviously honest differences of opinion so i agree with my friend we would like to have resolved this would like to have it results that we don't visit it monthly or every three months or every six months we believe as i said before that the current  by the administration it would require of course getting approval which the court's approval which was of course contemplated in one thousand nine hundred eighty when it was adopted so that with or without an extension or new legislation we breathe believe the administration can pursue as all of us want to there's nobody on this floor who doesn't want to make sure that we've facilitate the protection of the american public and america through the intersection of communications which may be by terrorists planning to attack us but having said that i'm sure my friend appreciates as i've said all along it's a serious issue difficult issue for many i think we're all agreeing on the enforcement and interception part it is the immunity issue and that gives many concerns and they want to look at that carefully and i think that's fair to do whether or not we'll be able to do that next week frankly i tell my friend i'm not sure well i appreciate that i hope we can i do think that there's a of the likelihood that a very quick problem develops  if you don't have the ongoing ability that we currently have to try to intercept communications some argument about even the short term of that but i can almost any any expert will say that the long term challenge there the defense actually becomes a short term problem pretty quickly we saw how cumber defies a court came when this this law was not in existence and how difficult it was i hope that the senate can act quickly we saw the mac quickly today certainly and in fact today's a good example of what we can do working together the house worked together we sent a bill to the senate the house stood firm in the defense of that bill and at the end of the day the senate said a bill back to pretty quickly with improved with the changes that the house could agree to i'd like to see us respond to a bipartisan senate bill and i anticipate that will be the case with a bipartisan house vote and even though we had sent a bill initially over a long time this issue has been out there a long time i think the documents that the leader was talking about were available all at the white house at an earlier time but i'm glad those documents are now available in a way more easily accessed over the next few days for our members and hopefully that resolves what the leaders just described as the last significant outstanding issue and that we get this done it is a significant amount of what we know about our enemies in the world is found out today through the structure of the foreign intelligence surveillance act and we want to continue that we're not going to i would i agree with my friend that that is correct and that's why i think all of us want to sillett and ensure that the work of the n s a and others can go forward i don't know whether the gentleman had an opportunity to hear or see this but i want to just bring to your attention because we do share that concern that in testimony this morning before the intelligence committee the director of the national intelligence mike mcconnell whom we've worked with said that all current surveillance activity under the protect america act would continue even after the law expires he went on to say after being asked about the backlog of surveillance because you recall when we were back in august or july of last year there was a concern about the backlog and therefore couldn't get approval as quickly point time so i think we can have a confidence level i agree with you we want to get this done as quickly as possible but because i'm concerned that we not have a gap we are trying to assure ourselves and believe we are assure that there will not be a down time for intelligence this should we not be able to reach agreement with the senate or with ourselves in the timeframe of next friday but i'm hopeful that we can do that and we will work toward that i'm hopeful that to appreciate that in an article from the new york times january twenty third two thousand and eight that the leader was able to share part of with me on that weinstein who's the assistant attorney general for national security said in an interview according to the times quote that if the august bill was allowed to expire in ten days that was ten days before the expiration date intelligence officials could still be a would still be able to continue word he used was eavesdropping on already approved targets for another year under the law i think that's essentially verif friend's comments on that and possibly as you've explained to me the animals comments this morning but mr weinstein went on to say but there is a risk that the officials would not be able to use their broad authority to identify and focus on new suspects and would have to revert to the more restrictive pre august standards if we wanted to eavesdrop on someone i think we want to number two that if we don't have t e i believe that the two and a half months we've waited for the senate and now the two weeks that we've had in addition to that time hopefully will turn out to be appropriate and certainly as we've work together this week to get the stimulus package off the floor this is a critical item that i hope we can all work together next week to try to find a permanent solution not an ideal i thank you from my friend for yielding i appreciate your bringing t attention and we discussed the second and sentence which you just read regarding the more restrictive when he refers to the more restrictive he simply refers to the fact that they would have to go to the feis the court for  approval of such intercept as they want and that would be within the of course authority within seventy two hours to act and then get approval after the fact which is why i indicated and why i indicated that admiral mcconnell had said that the backlog had been eliminated you'll recall previous testimony or comments that one of the officials who dealt with these in the administration indicated that and the court could with frankly within minutes give approval in many situations and now that the backlog has been eliminated it is correct it would be more restrictive it would have to go to  risk having said all that we still agree with you that if we can get this done in a timely fashion that would be good i want to tell my friend the very candidly i think there are some sentiment  that if we don't get it done that that's going to put this out of the aisle that wants to look at this bill after the senate passes back to us with whatever provisions they include in it carefully we understand that we're going to be portrayed somehow undermining the security of america we think that argument is bogus but we do think it may well be made my friend well i if i determine pick the argument out i'll tell my good friend i'll make it in good and we do have a difference of opinion on this hopefully the senate will get its work done in a way that will a maximum amount of time in the relatively short time available here to look at this and we won't have to have the argument about how critical that change is i personally believe that the one thousand nine hundred seventy eight law was written in a way where it was not anticipated that we'd have to go to the fires of court to listen to people in a foreign t i really don't think that we have much difference on that issue because we agree that technology has changed as well know there's a switch here in the united