tv U.S. Senate U.S. Senate CSPAN December 12, 2023 2:15pm-6:32pm EST
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like-minded understanding of partners and allies, that's possible with a lot of hard work. just have to map up supply chains of which is put out a big report on chinese batteries and a half to delete the sort of frightening the structural dependencies we have on them there. but it's going to be or even how our policy is enhancing, exactly, like why are we doing this counterintuitively? if we w sit back and after cells -- >> we're going to leave this program here to take you back live to the floor of the senate here coming up, , lawmakers will vote on the confirmation of the national cyber director and we're expecting further deliberations on the 2024 defense programs and policy bill. live coverage here on c-span2. amendment -- coker nomination. is there sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll.
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the clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- baldwin, booker, butler, cantwell, casey, cassidy, collins, coons, duckworth, hassan, hickenlooper, hirono, lujan, menendez, peters, smith, sullivan, tester, warner, warren, whitehouse, and wyden. mr. cardin, aye. mr. blumenthal, aye. senators voting in the negative -- blackburn, boozman, cotton, fisher, graham, hoeven, lankford, lee, paul, romney, rubio, and schmitt. ms. cortez masto, aye. mr. moran, aye.
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the presiding officer: the yeas are 59, the nays are 40. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all those no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. reed: mr. president, i ask
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that the journal of proceedings be approved to date. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: mr. president, i call for the regular order with respect to the conference report to accompany h.r. 2670. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: conference report to accompany h.r. 2670, an act to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2024 for military activities of the department of defense, and so forth and for other purposes. mr. reed: mr. president, i ask that senator ernst be permitted to speak for up to five minutes and that following the vote on the ernst motion to table that senators hawley and lujan be permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. ernst: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. ms. ernst: mr. president, i move to table the schumer amendment number 1373 for the purposes --
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mr. president, mr. president, leader schumer is blocking us from having an important and timely debate on biden's unlawful, immoral policy to use tax dollars intended for our national defense to pay for abortions. the world is imploding because of biden's failed leadership and weakness, and our country is under greater threat than it has been in years. meanwhile the biden department of defense is waging a war on the unborn. mr. president, i never back down from a fight, and democrats' tactics will not deter my work to stop biden from forcing the pentagon to provide transportation tourism for abortion with taxpayers' hard-earned money. as a mom, soon to be grandma, and 23-year combat veteran and
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retired lieutenant colonel of our great united states army, i firmly believe the pentagon should be focussing on protecting innocent life, not destroying it. that's why i've led the legislation to overturn this abhorrent policy and why i am here today to continue my fight for life. congress has been clear for nearly half a century. the hyde amendment protects taxpayers from being forced to fund abortions, and that includes the department of defense. senator schumer should stop obstructing the world's greatest deliberative body from debating this important long-standing issue. a yes vote on this motion would allow me to offer the house-passed pro-life provisions similar to my own bill.
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including these protections in the defense bill would restore the dod's mission integrity by preventing any taxpayer funding for biden's radical abortion tourism, including travel costs. america is being threatened by adversaries at home and abroad. why are president biden and leader schumer dividing us with their radical abortion agenda? this is a moment where we should all stand united in the defense of our nation. let's do so today. i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote yes to defeat schumer's gross attempt to silence our voices and those of the unborn. mr. president, i move to table the schumer amendment number 1373 for the purposes of offering my amendment number 1376, and i ask for the yeas and
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nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin. the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. the clerk: mr. bud.
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mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young.
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the presiding officer: the yeas are 47, the nays are 53, the motion to table is not agreed to. the senator from new mexico. a senator: mr. president, i rise in support of senator hawley's motion to table. mr. lujan: mr. president, i speak today on behalf of annie and henry and rosemary, tina, louisa, francisco, laura, wilbert, charles, and the thousands upon thousands of people who endured the suffering brought on by the nuclear weapon
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testing in new mexico and across the country. in july of 1945, annie was in her kitchen with her family when suddenly they heard -- and the next second they were on the floor. holding on to one another. trying to comfort each other. because around them windows were shattering and walls were crumbling. when they went outside they thought that it started to snow, but it was ash falling from the sky. some families that were away from the community later that night returned only to find clothing that they were hanging on a drying line full of this ash. they didn't know where it was coming from. both annie and her younger
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sister m marsha were the only two living in their home in capitan, new mexico. both died from cancer, henry was just 11 when the bomb went off. he recalled thinking that the world was ending. henry watched as his brother, nephew and niece all died of cancer. he was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 63. i'm sorry to say that we lost him in 2022. and it's not just the downwinter -- downwinter -- that were affected, he worked in a mine for eight years, he was given a single paper mask, one per shift. that mask was useless after into
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the first hour because it would get covered with something we've known to be called yellowcake, the particulate from the uranium mine ore, some of them would try to clean the dust off but they could not keep up with it because it kept accumulating. some folks were told to wait until you get home to shake off the yellowcake, because they would spread -- the yellowcake would stick to it after getting wet. many of these families, mainly the navajo uranium mine workers lived in a one-home generational
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house. if you start shaking your clothes with yellowcake, what are you doing to your grandkids and grandparents when that yellowcake is all around you. he lived with shortness of breath since his 20's, and eventually he needed a kidney transplant. he too sadly passed away. all of these medical traumas and pain are happening on our watch. while millions much people flocked to the theaters this summer to see a big blockbuster, they told the story about the trinity test that took place. some of us know what that is. trinity test, which took place in the basin, the first place that a nuclear bomb was set off on american soil to test it, but not much was mentioned about the families who are dying from
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cancer today. you know, some navajo elder, some women, some grandmas as we call them, came to congress when i was a member of the house to tf, and -- to testify, and during the conversation, one of the elders asked, are you waiting for all of us to die so that the problem goes away? i don't know what to say to her when i go home and i'll see her right now. because this legislation, which we all fought for, and i want to thank senator hawley for finding a way for us to work together to fight for the families in and around missouri, working with senator crapo and every one of you for making this happen and we passed with this with a bipartisan strong vote out of the senate. it has now been taken out of this ndaa in this conference.
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what do i tell to these families? there's a lot that i've learned in this body. the challenges and frustrations that exist for our constituents, for each and every one of us on occasion, but i also learned that especially here in the senate that the fight is never over. that there's always something that can be done. when i listened to the brilliant parliamentarian team and they teach me on how i can do better for the people that i represent. i know that a yes vote on this might be challenging, but the families and the states all across america, what can we do to help them? and the -- in the same way that
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this body came together to pass incredible pieces of policy to help victims due to exposure, i'll point most recently to action this congress took after 9/11 when we got together in a bipartisan way and we said we're going to pass the act, and not only was it passed once, but it was extended for 90 years because of it was the right thing to do. and it cost some money, but it was the right thing to do. there's a liability from the united states of america to these families. i believe that the cbo should use this as a pay-for. because when there's a liability from the united states of america and you fix it, it's a credit. it's a path forward to pay for everything else. for some reason the cbo does not release this aggregated data to better understand what is happening here. mr. president, i plead and i urge with my
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colleagues that we find a way to do the right thing here. by going forward we find a path to get this done. and i want to say thank you to all the staff and the members who know about these families now. you've taken time to understand them and many have given me advice on how to do things better. i thank you for that. the families thank you for that. i hope this fight will not be forgotten. i urge my republican and democratic leadership to work with us to pass the radiation exposure amendments. i thank senator hawley, and i yield back my time. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. hawley: mr. president, ib want to add a few words to my friend senator lujan's eloquent statement of the need to do justice to these good americans who have, let's tell it like it is, who have been poisoned by their own government, exposed to
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nuclear waste by the united states government, by the united states defense department. these americans are happy to do their part for national security. they're proud of what they've done for their country but they deserve to be recognized, and they deserve to be compensated. and so i want to add again my voice in support of justice for these americans, and i want to say again to this body that it is wrong -- it is wrong to turn our backs on these tens of thousands of americans who have given their health, and in many cases, their lives for their country and not been recognized for it. in many cases not compensated for it and now they're told because of the actions-this -- of this body, because of the conference report, because of a back room deal struck in conference, this program that compensates victims of nuclear radiation will soon expire. tens of thousands of americans
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who have relied on this program for 30-plus years for lifesaving help and treatment will get nothing. the lights will go dark and these americans will be turned out into the cold and thousands more, like the residents of my state and new mexico and other states around this country that deserve compensation will get nothing, that is not acceptable to me, mr. president. it is not right. and i want to take a moment now to tell a story or two from the victims who are affected just to help everybody understand what's at stake here. because i know this is the national defense authorization act, and if i learned one thing about this bill, it is, the suits always get paid, the corporations, they always get paid, the defense contractors, they always get paid. they come out great in the end. it's ironclad. if you're a corporation, you do defense work, you're going to be fine. this body will take care of you. but will we take care of the men and women who don't otherwise
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have a voice in this body? will we take care of the men and women who don't pay fancy lobbyists, who don't work for the raytheon corporation, will they be taken care of? that's a question. let's meet a few of them. let me introduce you to claire. claire's parents grew up near weldon spring in my state, in missouri. weldon spring is the site of a manhattan project, uranium mining site. that sat untouched from the manhattan project era until 2001, more than 50 years after it was contaminated. in 2020 claire was diagnosed with lymphoma. she was 2 years old. let me introduce you to vita, claire's cousin. vita, her mom and dad, they all lived together right near that same site where nuclear waste
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has been dumped, not adequately cleaned up or dealt with. she grew up there and wouldn't you know it, just six weeks after her cousin claire was diagnosed with lymphoma, vita was diagnosed with leukemia. she was 4 years old when she was diagnosed. why is this happening in st. louis? i'll tell you why. st. louis was a uranium processing site like many other cities around the country. and st. louis was proud to do its part in the manhattan project. you won't get any argument from me about that or from missourians but here's what is not acceptable. after the manhattan project was concluded, the federal government didn't clean up the waste. no, the federal government allowed nuclear waste to sit out in barrels right near a stream that runs along schools, that runs alongside suburbs, that cuts right through the heart of the city. the federal government dumped nuclear waste into a public
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landfill. then it dumped the nuclear waste into a second landfill. then it dumped it into an area in the downtown part of the city. and here we are all these decades later, how much of it has been cleaned up? none of it. none of it. that's why these children are sick. let me introduce you to howard billiman. this is howard, a navaho code talker in world war ii. absolutely instrumental to the united states war effort. he died of stomach cancer after living downwind from the nuclear test that senator lujan was talking about just a moment ago. now his children who also grew up downwind have developed cancer themselves. so it's not just one generation, it's generation upon generation because the united states government has not done what is right. they haven't cleaned up the contamination. they haven't made whole the families that they injured. in fact, as this body recognized
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in 1990 when it first passed the radiation statute, the government owes these folks an apology. it owes them a cleanup. and it owes them recognition and compensation. that's true also of bernice gutierrez. here's bernice. she was eight days old, eight days when the government tested the first atomic bomb just miles away from her family's home in new mexico. her entire family was repeatedly exposed to nuclear tests. as a consequence, 44 members of bernice's family, 44 have been diagnosed with cancer or other radiation-linked diseases. her mother had cancer three times. three of her brothers have had cancer. her sister has had cancer. and she has thyroid disease. her oldest son passed away from a radiation-linked disease and her daughter now has thyroid
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cancer. add to that 36 additional relatives who have cancers linked to radiation. this is all one family in one state who have been compensated not at all, not at all. they have given their health for this country. they haven't gotten recognition. they haven't gotten compensation. mr. president, that is wrong. meet leslie begay. leslie is a navaho marine who fought for his country in vietnam. here he is. when he returned home, he went to work mining uranium to support the cold war effort. think about this. he goes to vietnam, fights for his country in vietnam. comes home, goes to the uranium mines to support his country's cold war effort. he says he was issued, in his words, just a rain jacket, safety glasses, and a hard-hat. that's it.
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now leslie is having double lung transplant. he lives in new mexico. he pays $700 a month for medication. and what does he get for his injuries, for his illnesses brought on by his exposure in the mines? nothing. nothing. zero. he's gotten zero. i want to introduce you to one more person. my friend, kristen camuso. kristin grew up in st. louis. she played in and around cold water creek, that creek where the government left barrels of radioactive waste sitting out for literally years. open. the rain, the elements, the waste leaked out of the barrels right down into the creek. and for decades the people of st. louis were told oh, there's no problem. the creek is final. no problem at all -- is fine. no problem at all. you can play it. your kids can play in it. you can build houses by it and
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people did because that's what the government said. and now thousands of people are sick including kristen. since her 2012 cancer diagnosis, kristen has had her gall bladder removed. she's had a total hysterectomy. she's had her left adrenal gland removed. after all of that, doctors found another tumor on her right adrenal gland and a lesion on her liver. her medication is so expensive, she has to ration the care. there's just no way around it. as she says, i'm forced to choose which way i could die. i say again, mr. president, this is not right. these are good people who have done nothing wrong. their government has caused this. when the government causes injury, the government should make it right. that's what we're asking for. that's what the radiation compensation program does and it is wrong to let it expire. it is an injustice. it is a scar on the conscious of
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this body and of this nation. and i will come to the floor as long as it takes until we do right by these americans who have done right by their country because they deserve better than this. here's the last thing i'll say. yeah, you think about the billions of dollars in costs that the government has imposed on these people, taking their health, taking their lives overdecades -- over decades and yet what is in this year's defense appropriations bills? one analysis recently found that house and senate appropriators have added at least $26 billion for programs the pentagon doesn't even want. $26 billion in one year. things like $5 million for a social network analysis for the army. $4 million to research the impacts of soil structures on
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hydrology. $12 million for new snow removal equipment. here's my favorite. $15 billion inserted by senators, $15 billion, billion with a b in one year, $15 billion for 636 weapons projects the pentagon did not request. 636 weapons programs the pentagon doesn't request yet we don't have a dime for these people. we don't have a dime for the people exposed to nuclear waste and radiation by their own government. no, mr. president, this is not right. it is not right. and i am not willing to accept it. senator lujan is not willing to accept it. and i urge the members of this body do not be willing to accept it. we must reauthorize this program. we must do right by these americans. they deserve it. this isn't a welfare check. this is justice. it's what they deserve.
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it's what they have earned. and i will continue to come to this floor as long as it takes. i'm going to make a motion now to extend debate on this bill. i have no illusions, mr. president, that this will not succeed. i realize my colleagues are eager, all too eager to move on. but i think it is important we take as much time as is necessary to understand the stakes of what we are doing and to understand the stakes of turning our back on these people. and so now, mr. president, i move to table the schumer motion to recommit and i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: os|all senate open
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mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen.
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mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. senators voting in the affirmative -- bennet, graham, hawley, heinrich, hyde-smith, johnson, lujan, rosen, rubio, and vance. senators voting in the negative -- blumenthal, brown, budd, coons, cornyn, duckworth, durbin, gillibrand, hirono, king, lummis, merkley, mullin, ossoff,
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the presiding officer: on this vote, 26 ayes and 73 nays. the motion to table has not been agreed to. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby bring to a close debate on the conference report to accompany
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h.r. 2670, an act to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2024 for military activities for the department of defense, and so forth and for other purposes, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the conference report to accompany h.r. 2670, an act to thorz of authorize for fiscal year 2024 for military activities for the department of defense and for the department of energy to provide military strength shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. the clerk: ms. baldwin.
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mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran.
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mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young.
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senators voting in the affirmative -- barasso, blackburn, britt, capito, cardin, casey, cortez masto, cotton, daines, duckworth, durbin, fetterman, graham, grassley, hickenlooper, hirono, hyde-smith, kaine, king, klobuchar, lankford, mcconnell, menendez, moran, mullin, murphy, murray, peters, reed, romney, scott of south carolina, stabenow, thune, tillis. mr. kennedy, aye. senators voting in the negative -- lummis, merkley, tuberville, welch.
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three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative -- three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to. the senator from rhode island mr. reed: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: mr. president, i have seven requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted mr. reed: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10:00 a.m. on wednesday,
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december 13, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. that upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate resume consideration of the conference report to accompany h.r. 2670 postcloture. further, that all time during adjournment, recess, morning business, and leader remarks count postcloture. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reed: mr. president, if there is to further business to come before the senate, a i ask that it it stand adjourned, under the previous orderment. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until
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some news from the emergency meeting at the un general assembly voted in support of a cease-fire in gaza. the ap is reporting a strong demonstration of global support for ending the israel hamas war paid the tally was 153 in favor, 10 against and 23 abstentions. unlike security council resolution general assembly resolutions are not legally binding. the assembly's messages are important barometers of world opinion. you can read more ap news.com. tonight cut hair for whistleblowers who were victims
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of sexual assault and harassment at the u.s. coast guard acade where they testified earlier today before a senate homeland security and governmental affairs subcommittee as par of a bipartisan investigation that begann september. watch the eire hearing at 8:00 n our free c-span now video apps app oronline at c-span.org. click c-span campaign 2024 coverage continues residential primaries and caucuses. watch it live from the c-span network the first vote from the country are cast in the upcoming presidential election along with candidate speeches and results beginning with the iowa caucuses on january 15 and the new hampshire primary on generate 23rd. campaign 2024 on c-span your unfiltered view of politics. ♪ a healthy democracy doesn't just look like
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