[Kiran Chetry, Cnn Anchor:] Well, here's "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips. Good morning, Kyra.
[Kyra Phillips, Cnn Anchor:] Good morning, you guys. And thanks for starting your February off with us, 9:00 in the east, 6:00 in the west. Let's get you caught up on the news right now. Haiti's children of disaster. Americans trying to give them a new life. Others saying wait, these kids still have a life in Haiti. Powerless. Frozen. Parts of the southern plains would sure like to see the stuff melt. Spring might seem like it's an eternity away. And imagine taking your daughter to see the doctor only to learn he has a lot more than a medical degree in his past. He's also got a rap sheet as a violent sex offender. How on earth does that happen? And we are beginning with Toyota's putting the pedal to the metal with a fix for those sticky accelerators. Deb Feyerick's all over it. Going to tell you when you might hear from the company and how long that fix is going to take. Then Barbara Starr is going to fill us in on a big change at the Pentagon. The way America fights wars, getting a strategic makeover. And it's budget day in D.C. Hurray. We promised it won't you to sleep. We're going to tell you how the $3.8 trillion plan is going to affect you. Well, it's about time. The parts are on the way. So what took so long? Toyota now says that dealers should have them pretty soon so they can start fixing those gas peddles on millions of recalled cars. CNN's Deborah Feyerick live for us in New York this morning. So Deb, how exactly is Toyota trying to fix the problem now?
[Deborah Feyerick, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, they're trying to fix the problem by putting in a new part. And I spoke to the head of U.S. sales just this morning. He said that the parts are on their way. They should be arriving at dealerships any time between today or tomorrow, but certainly by the end of the week. Now the big headline, of course, is that after 12 days the car giant knows why the accelerator pedals are sticking and they can now fix them, and that's good news, of course, for some 2.3 millions affected car owners. An hour ago, Toyota released a video on YouTube it was a little more than an hour ago actually with a statement by the head of sales for Toyota in the U.S. It was his first public comment since the recall 12 days ago. Toyota says the problem stems from a friction device from the gas pedal. And that's what gives you the sort of steady drive. But in some cars over time, Toyota says, the materials used, the wear and tear and environmental conditions cause the pedals to stick rather than release smoothly. Now when there's too much friction, the pedal doesn't return as quickly as it's supposed to, or in the worse cases it sticks and the car doesn't slow down, instead it accelerates unexpectedly. Now Toyota says it has created what's called a precision cut steel reinforcement bars. It's not too big. It's about this big. It's going to be installed in the gas pedal assembly. They say it will reduce the surface tension and eliminate that friction. Now according to Toyota engineers have rigorously tested this new part which is being shift to dealers along with directions on how install it. Toyota says the dealers plan to stay open late to fix the problem affecting more than two million cars. That includes popular models like Camry, the RAV 4 SUV. What's more, cars with this problem will not be manufactured this week. Toyota planning to fix the accelerator pedal so that once cars do roll off the assembly line, they don't end up right back where they started. So Kyra, when you think about it, though, the number of hours that it's going to take to fix this, takes about 30 minutes to install this new device. So basically, think about it, about a million hours and more just to fix the problem. Kyra?
[Phillips:] Deb Feyerick, putting it into perspective for us. Thanks so much. And of course Toyota owners want to know two things when can they get them fixed and what took so long. Well, Toyota's U.S. president had some answers on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." Here you go.
[Jim Lentz, Pres., Toyota Motor Sales Usa, Inc:] From the time we stopped the sale of our product, announced the recall, stopped the sale of our product, and actually did something unprecedented by stopping the manufacturing of the product, so that we could insure that we had a supply of parts, all of our resources, moving towards taking care of customers as rapidly as possible. To us, what's most important right now is making sure that customers understand we have the fix and that we're going to take care of their cars as quickly as we possibly can.
[Phillips:] All right, so how quick is that? Well, Lentz says that dealers should be getting the new parts this week. We'll follow it for you. A missile test aimed at Iran. Well, not physically aimed at them. More intended to mess with their minds. But the intercept test missed its target. That missile test is just one act aimed at ramping up pressure on Iran. General David Petraeus has talked about sending more ships into the Persian Gulf. There's also talk of sending more arms into the area. Major change for the military is on its way, stepping away from the old two-war strategy. It worked for a quarter century. CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, with more. Barbara?
[Barbara Starr, Cnn Pentagon Correspondent:] Well, good morning to you, Kyra. You know, you talked a minute ago about it being budget day in Washington. It's not going to put you to sleep when you consider that the defense budget that will go to Capitol Hill today, $700 billion, and it will indeed be spent differently, because backing up that number is a new military strategy. Not so much worried about those old two wars, one big conflict in the Middle East, another big conflict in Asia. Now very much worried about emerging threats, cyber wars, cyber attacks, terrorism. Even the threat posed by global warming, which can lead to water shortages which can lead conflict. And humanitarian relief. Look what is going on in Haiti right now. The U.S. has some 20,000 troops committed to that relief effort. It's not a war, of course, but it's a war to save people, it's a humanitarian war. So these are the kinds of things the Pentagon says it needs to start focusing on, even while they worry about Iran, even while they do all those missile tests. A lot of focus now on looking ahead at what they call this new emerging threats, and how do you deal with all of them at once. A tough challenge Kyra.
[Phillips:] All right, in light of the president's speech last week, Pentagon also getting ready for the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" hearing tomorrow. Could we see changes?
[Starr:] You bet. Absolutely. We've learned that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, in fact, later this morning calling the chiefs into his office here in the Pentagon, closing the door and saying we will support the president's plan to support repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" laws which of course prohibits gays from openly serving in the military. We know the chiefs have a lot of concerns about it. They're worried it'll be disruptive to the force, in their view. But stay tuned. Tomorrow morning, Capitol Hill, again, the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mullen and Defense Secretary Gates will go before the committee and have an hour of questioning about the plan to repeal the law and the way ahead. How to make it all work. The bottom line, Kyra, is the chiefs, no matter what, will salute smartly, say they support the president, and try and figure out a way to make it work. Kyra?
[Phillips:] All right. We'll follow up. Barbara, thanks so much. Plus appearing more likely like the Obama White House will bend to local outrage then move the terror trials out of Manhattan. They say that no decision has been made on where to try self-proclaimed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or four other Guantanamo detainees.
[David Axelrod, Senior White House Adviser:] The president believes that we need to take into consideration what the local authorities are saying. But he also believes this. He believes that we ought to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and all others who are involved in terrorist acts to justice, swift and sure, in the American justice system.
[Sen. Mitch Mcconnell , Minority Leader:] What we need to do is deny these people a show trial. We need to proceed to interrogate them which we couldn't do obviously with the Christmas bomber. I mean, Larry King would have a more thorough interrogation of one of his witnesses than the Christmas bomber had. The Justice Department this is really dangerous nonsense.
[Phillips:] Residents near the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan say that the area has suffered enough and should not have to deal with the logistical and emotional nightmare of a trial. Among the possible sites, prisons and military bases, even the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. So who gets what? The president unveils his budget next hour. The copies are already on Capital Hill and nearly $4 trillion is what we're talking about. And you're probably asking, why should you care? Well, remember all those promises in the State of the Union speech? Now we'll know how exactly they'll be paid for. CNN's senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, live on Capitol Hill this morning. So, Dana, you're actually going through everything, line by line, is that true?
[Dana Bash, Cnn Senior Congressional Correspondent:] That's right. Well, look, this is just one book of several that just arrived on Capitol Hill. But I want to show you where I am. This is the House Budget Committee room. And this is where the president's budget director will come tomorrow for his first hearing and he'll face lawmakers and try to discuss and explain all of what is in here and what the president's priorities are. But I have something pretty cool for you. We take you behind the scenes. We are going to take you behind the curtain, literally. Come with me, just going to put this down. Come with me and I'll show you what's going on here in the House Budget Committee room. We have Democratic staff and the chairman himself, the House Budget chairman, going through, as you said, line by line. They just received the budget. They are going through it line by line to see exactly what's in it. This is what you all do and what they do every year when they get the president's budget, no matter who the president is. Now I want to come over and actually talk to the chairman, Mr. Spratt. Mr. Spratt...
[Rep. John Spratt , South Carolina:] Good morning.
[Bash:] Good morning.
[Spratt:] I am not getting up.
[Bash:] No, please. Please have a seat. You have a lot of work to do here. Now I was trying to explain this to our viewers earlier that obviously this is the president's budget, it's his priorities, but it's you all in Congress who have the power of the purse. So what is your job here?
[Spratt:] Since 1921. Since 1921, the president has the power, formal power, to propose a budget to Congress. But from
[Bash:] So just because the president is asking for specific things in here increases in education spending or maybe more difficult things like spending freeze doesn't mean he's necessarily get it.
[Spratt:] We pass judgment on all of the president's proposals.
[Bash:] Now, let me just ask you real quick about the spending freeze. As you know, it's pretty controversial with the Democratic Party. There are some Democratic lawmakers who say it's the wrong thing to do. That they're philosophically opposed to freezing spending at a time of economic crisis. How are you going to handle that?
[Spratt:] Well, it's one thing we can do to begin bringing the deficit down. We are looking for two things here. We want to see the economy and jobs going up and the deficit coming down. And with respect to the deficit coming down, we need to be able to say to the Congress, to the American public, into the financial markets, all, we are we have a plan in place to gradually work down the deficit. And in fact you see the effects of it in the president's budget and want to see and put the same affects in the budget that we report to the House.
[Bash:] Thank you very much. Thank you for letting us in behind the curtain here literally. Thank you, everybody.
[Unidentified Male:] We wanted to give you an education.
[Bash:] All right. All right. That sounds like a good education. And Kyra, so this is what's going on here now that the president's budget is here at the Capitol. This goes on here, as I said, every year. It is a lot of work and it is...
[Phillips:] But we never get this inside look. I love it.
[Bash:] I know.
[Phillips:] You went behind curtain number one. There is only one curtain.
[Bash:] Exactly. Curtain number two, that's for a different time.
[Phillips:] Exactly.
[Bash:] These aides behind me that are really looking through this, and they're going to help brief other members of the committee and other members of Congress on exactly line by line what the president is really asking for in this budget Kyra.
[Phillips:] Great stuff. Thanks, Dana. All right, budget director Peter Orszag says that the budge will help bring down the deficit while boosting jobs. Well, that was the talk right there in the budget committee room there with Dana Bash. It's a tall order. And a big part of the plan is the $100 billion jobs bill. Well, he talked about it earlier today on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." Take a listen.
[Peter Orszag, Dir., Office Of Management And Budget:] It will include a variety of things, for example. The new jobs and wages tax credit that president spoke about which help spur job creation among small businesses would be included within that $100 billion. That's about a third of it.
[Phillips:] All right. We want more details. As we said, President Obama is going to be talking about this new budget, 10:45 a.m. Eastern Time. You can see it live right here in the next hour. Were they doing the work of Jesus, helping Haiti's orphaned children or profiting from the hardship? Ten Americans now charged with child trafficking. We're going to tell you what they face.
[Rob Marciano, Cnn Meteorologist:] I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Severe Weather Center. A rough week last week for the central part of the country, and the mid-Atlantic. Now all attention shifts to the southeast for potential flooding. Weather is coming up after the break.