Obama Meets With Tech Giants; Tech Leaders Air NSA Concerns; Former Microsoft Executive To Oversee Obamacare Web Site; Web Firms Criticized For Tracking Users; Congress May Be Least Productive Ever; Wastebook Released
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington. We start with the heads of some of the country's top tech companies speaking with the president. They're trying to air their concerns over the NSA's surveillance programs. Google, Apple, Twitter, Yahoo! Facebook, AT&T;, just some of the names represented over at the White House. All of them deeply concerned with what the NSA has been doing and how it's impacting their bottom line. Joining us now, our Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta. Jim, we also just learned that a key Microsoft executive has been tapped by the president to come in and help with the Obamacare Web site.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Wolf, starting with the change, the big change at HealthCare.gov, Kurt DelBene who is an executive, a top executive over the an Microsoft, he's going to be taking over the job of really leading the effort to make sure HealthCare.gov is running smoothly. We know the White House has said that it's running better than it was on October 1st but they haven't worked out all the bugs. And they still have additional features to roll out over time, Spanish language feature, also that small business feature. They want to roll out those efforts at HealthCare.gov and DelBene will be leading those efforts. He takes over for Jeffrey Zients who really has been sort of in the fire for the last couple of months working out kinks with that Web site. And it has been a rather coordinated move by this White House and Microsoft. It's interesting to note, Wolf, that Microsoft and the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services, they were ready to go when this announcement was made with quotes from Bill Gates praising DelBene and saying that he'll do a good job in the new role over at HHS leading up HealthCare.gov. As for that tech executive meeting here at the White House. Wolf, you mentioned a very impressive list of companies here. We can tell you that from all appearances, that meeting is still ongoing. White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said in just the last few minutes during the White House press briefing that this meeting is still on going. So, if you do the math, that's two hours that this meeting has been going on here at the White House. Not all of that time with the president. But, Wolf, there was a light moment at the beginning of that meeting between the president and these tech executives when the president said that he would like to have an advanced copy of the second season of "House of Cards." He was wondering if any of those executives had brought that with them, specifically the head of Netflix who was also in that meeting. There were a lot of laughs there. All of this was captured by a White House T.V. press pool camera that was in the room. But then, that camera was removed from the room or escorted from the room, and then they got down to the business at hand which is obviously some big concerns among those tech executives with what's going on at the NSA. They just sent a letter to the president just last week laying out their concerns saying that really the balance has shifted too far to the state when it comes to the privacy concerns of Americans that use all of these Web sites -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Any reaction from the White House to that federal judge's ruling yesterday that at least some of the NSA surveillance programs may be unconstitutional?</s>ACOSTA: At this point, no. Jay Carney was asked about that at the top of this press briefing. And not surprisingly, Wolf, he again punted over to the Department of Justice which did release that brief statement saying, yesterday, that they believe that the bulk phone record collection that is going on at the NSA that that is at the heart of that federal judge's ruling yesterday who said that that is likely unconstitutional. The Department of Justice saying that they believe that that activity is constitutional and Jay Carney reiterated that. He also pointed to the fact that the president's review group that is looking at NSA surveillance activities has produced that report. That report went to the president. The White House is reviewing it. And the report will be released sometime in January along with what the president plans to do to reign in the NSA if that is even decided on at all -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, Jim, thank you. Jim Acosta over at the White House.</s>ACOSTA: You bet.</s>BLITZER: While leaders from companies like Google and Yahoo who have certainly criticized the NSA, they themselves have also come under fire for tracking users. Let's bring in our CNN Money Tech Correspondent Laurie Segall. Laurie, tell us how Internet companies track users.</s>LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Wolf. Essentially, they use little bits of code called cookies that go on your computer and essentially track what you're doing. And why they do that is because these companies, you've got to remember, they make money off of advertising. So, if they know what you're looking at, they can actually go and target an ad to you personally. But, you know, but oftentimes, they'll say this. These companies end up having a lot more information than we know they have, than they said they had. A lot of examples, Google had a settlement over Street View cars (ph). They were actually info off of people's Wi-Fi networks. They got in a lot of -- they came under fire for that. Also, Facebook, Google, Twitter, all three of these companies have had FTC settlements so -- over privacy violations. So, you know, they're all getting audited over the years. So, you know, Silicon Valley needs Washington and Washington needs Silicon Valley but this is an ongoing discussion. And oftentimes, Silicon Valley, we've got to remember, is asking for forgiveness and not permission -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: So, answer this because I guess a lot of folks are wondering. These big tech companies, they seem to get a free pass. They're tracking a lot of their users. They -- people just sort of accept that as business -- as a normal business practice. But the government is getting hammered for the NSA kind of surveillance. There seems to be a disconnect to a certain degree.</s>SEGALL: It's a good point. But you've got to remember that most of these services are free. And a lot of people use these services understanding and knowing that maybe they'd give up a little privacy. Maybe they've give up a little private, maybe they're served ads and that's kind of how this works. So, you know, a lot -- it's a well-known fact that Gmail scans what you're talking about to see what kind of ads they can serve up, whether it's if you're talking about going on vacation, they -- you might see an ad for Kayak or Travelocity. You know, but there's a big difference between that and having the NSA or a government program looking at that. It has a different feeling. I think that's why you're hearing this sentiment.</s>BLITZER: Laurie Segall reporting for us. Thank you. The notorious NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, as you know, is living in Russia right now but his political asylum there could end next summer. So, he's actively shopping for another place to live. His first choice may be Brazil. A letter posted online today and addressed to the Brazilian people suggest a deal. In effect, he's saying give me permanent asylum and I'll help you fight U.S. spying on your country. Could be a shrewd move. Brazilians have been outraged by the NSA's surveillance unprecedented surveillance of their cell phone communications. Although the letter was directed at Brazil, the wording implies the same deal for any country willing to take him in. We'll see how that part of the story unfolds. We're also learning at least one federal agency came under cyber- attack during October's partial government shutdown. An investigation by the Center for Public Integrity found hackers in China were able to access the Web site of the Federal Election Commission. A Spokesmen for the non-profit watchdog group says the attack crashed the servers and no one was there to fix it.</s>DAVE LEVINTHAL, CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY: And it came as the FEC had absolutely no regular employees actually serving at the agency because of the government shutdown. It was one of the agencies that actually went completely dark during the government shutdown, only had the commissioners themselves manning the doors, manning the systems and they are not I.T. experts by any stretch of the imagination.</s>BLITZER: The FEC Web site maintains public financial records on federal elections. The compromise budget deal that sailed through the House of Representatives clears a major hurdle in the Senate and moves a step closer to final approval. Earlier today, the Senate voted 67 to 33 on a procedural move to move the bill forward. Twelve Republicans joined all 53 Democrats and two independents in the vote to break the GOP filibuster. The bill now needs just a simple majority to win final passage. Our Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash is following all the developments up on Capitol Hill. We expect that final vote tomorrow, Dana, is that right?</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's correct. We expect it tomorrow, and we expect it to pass pretty easily given the vote count you just laid out. Definitely will be some difference. Some Republicans, for example, voting no. And some Democrats voting no on the actual measure itself whereas this was more of a procedural measure. But regardless, we expect it to be -- to pass very easily.</s>BLITZER: It will pass. It certainly only needs 50 votes. If it's a tie, the vice president would break the tie in favor. So, it needs 51 votes. But let's talk about the major objections. What are they?</s>BASH: Well, there are several. Let's just stick to the Republican side for now because that was the only, you know, negative that we saw on this particular procedural vote. Number one, we are seeing Republican after Republican come to the Senate floor this afternoon after this vote saying that they thought that it did not do enough to cut spending, in fact, just the opposite. It did not do enough to address the debt and deficit. Just -- maybe just the opposite. And maybe one of the biggest and loudest criticisms of this measure is the fact, as you and I have discussed, that there -- as you see there, there is a reduction of military retiree benefits. But what is maybe most interesting, Wolf, and this may be one of the political subplots here is that of all the Republicans up for re- election next year, those who have primary challenges, all of them, all of them will end up voting no on this because of their concern about the threat from the right.</s>BLITZER: Yes, even Lindsey Graham who often is willing to make a vote like this, a bipartisan vote.</s>BASH: Right.</s>BLITZER: His friend John McCain voting in favor. Even Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, he's voting -- he will vote against it presumably, voted against the procedural -- overcoming the procedural hurdle, that filibuster today. Let's talk a little bit about this 113th Congress. Is it on pace to be one of the least productive in history in terms of the number of laws that have been enacted?</s>BASH: Absolutely hands down it is on pace to do so. And just look at the numbers. You can see them very starkly. Right now, 57 bills have been enacted into law, and that just pales in comparison to what we've seen in Congresses past. Now, we should say that we're only one year into this Congress. Congresses are two years long. But still, let's just say that there's 57 again next year, it won't come close to what has been done in the past. What are some of the major things left undone? Well, first and foremost, Wolf, the basic responsibility of Congress which is to fund the government, pass 12 spending bills. None of them has passed. We expect them to come back and pass one big one when Congress comes back, a farm bill which they have a couple of years, but it -- a few years actually. But it is absolutely critical for so many farmers out there. It also addresses food stamps and milk prices. I mean, you name it. And they have been negotiating for so long, not done. And, of course, the unemployment benefit extension for about 1.3 million Americans. That is why some Democrats may, in fact, bolt tomorrow on the budget deal. But we should also point out -- again, Wolf, you and I have discussed this before as well, that just because -- going backing to that 57 number. Just because it is such a low number, doesn't mean that all -- that it's that unproductive, meaning you have a lot of people who have come here, been elected by their constituents to stop bad laws from going through. And they believe that that is a productive way to spend their time, not just sending bills to the president's desk for a signature.</s>BLITZER: That's a fair point. Sure. All right, thanks very much, Dana, for that. So, $1 million spent to build a bus stop, just one of the items in this year's waste book, as it's called, highlighting $30 billion in wasteful spending supposedly. We're going to tell you about some of the items when we come back.