we heard testimony border patrol has had to divert resources to respond to cartel tactics crossing of large groups or putting migrants in peril leaving other parts of our border unguarded, what i just mentioned earlier. we learned that tucson sector 52% of 700 pounds a fentanyl seized in the field was backpacked across the border by smugglers in between ports of entry. these are just a few of the facts that we learned today. and i want to thank the witnesses again for appearing. we appreciate your service. we want to work with you if there's ever anything that we can do to make your jobs easier, make your lives safer and secure our southern border, to help secure our southern border, we want to do that. this is a priority for the majority in this house of representatives, and i appreciate the substantive testimony today and look for to working with you in the future. with that, i now declare this committee hearing adjourned.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the u.s. senate is about to gavel in on this tuesday afternoon. today lawmakers are considering the nomination of a u.s. court of appeals judge for the fourth circuit. now live coverage of the senate here on c-span2.

the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. most gracious father, remind us that we never drift out of your love and care. faces may change and conditions may alter, but you are always there, just when we need you most. thank you for protecting us from seen and unseen dangers, for being our refuge and strength. today, lead our senators to do

your will. may their actions spring from thoughts that are pure, just, true, honest, and good. and, lord, we pray for the earthquake victims in syria and turkey. we pray in your strong name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer:

the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c, february 7, 2023. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable peter welch, a senator from the state of vermont, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patty murray, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is is reserved. on the mood of the nation.

joining us to talk about is paul, editor in chief of gallup, what did we learn about the mood of the nation ?

>> guest: with the exception of democrats on some issues the moon is dissatisfied . we were asking policy issues but also the general aspect of how things are going on in the country for decades in this poll for over 20 years and we've had some record highs and lows. most of them are really not going to be a surprise. the number one thing americans are dissatisfied with really is the nation's efforts to deal with poverty and homelessness. a three percent of americans are dissatisfied with that. 83 percent are dissatisfied with the level of integration in the country. 53 percent are dissatisfied with policies hot down so it runs the gamut. the most impactful for all of us assessment of the. most americans are dissatisfied with the have a pretty moody perspective on

what's going to happen in the nextsix months but there are a lot of partisan differences on that we can get into . >> the headline, americans still glom about the state of the union inmost areas . how did i compare to other presidents, other administrations as they prepare to talk to the nation about the state of the union, how does this branch historically? >> guest: it's a continuous story of a slow decline. these really negative perceptions really for the past three presidents, biden trump and obama, there's a general sense of how national government has been on a quick decline. it's interesting to note partisanship is always talked about and we see this in our data. that's another sign of this gradual deterioration that one of your previous colors talked about of the country coming together. it's not unique to lighting,

it's a continuation of this decline we see with americans dissatisfaction with many facets of life and that of bipartisan sentiment with some exceptions. >> host: let's take into the differences you alluded to. to that jump out from your polling is americans satisfaction with the influence of organized religion. among republicans 60 percent say they are somewhat satisfied with the influence of organized religion in us society, 30 percent of democrats, the bottom of what you're seeing on the screen. that talks about the size and power of the federal government, 14 percent of republicans think they're somewhat satisfied with the size and power of the us government. 52 percent of democrats saying their very were somewhat satisfied with the size andpower of federal . >> and those differences, the

most important problem, most consistent dimension has been poor leadership and it's not just republicans. democrats also are pretty frustrated with national government but simply in terms of the role of public life, republicans have a different view. the most important thing on that metric overtime has been thedegree to which the level of dissatisfaction has decreased . so we used to see safety five, 70 percent dissatisfaction in earlier dividends of the role of public life. that's actually weighing up quite a bit, coinciding with the rise of people who identify as none, people who don't have a religious affiliation. some are on the lines of gun policy, attitudes about the quality of the environment in the nation.

52 percent of republicans are satisfied, 83 percent of democrats are satisfied i will point this out, when you look at the partisan differences it's important to keep in mind that this year republicans look a lot more like independence on many of thesequestions . it's really democrats who stand out on some of these and it's not surprising the partisan swing we see, democrats with their president are more positive all of these metrics but we like independence, much more similar to republicans on some of these metrics . one of the important topics that don't get lost focus in the media per se but has consistently, on our poll is concerned about immigration. right now as i mentioned 60 percent of americans are dissatisfied with the level of immigration. when we asked among those dissatisfied, 54 percent say a lot less immigration into

the united states it's not necessarily something that democrats are overwhelmingly opposite on or happy about the state of immigration policy so immigration is one that continues to come up both in terms of the problem but also in terms of this satisfaction metric. the other huge one is abortion. 72 percent of americans or republicans are satisfied with the status of women, only 46 percent of democrats share that view. 39 percent of democrats are satisfied with the nation's laws, 13 percent of democrats share that view so nobody pleased with the state of abortion laws. obviously for different reasons the dos decision has triggered a big focus on women's rights and abortion is a topic once again in our times. >> host: gallup poll of the mood of the nation.

to bring it back to whether the state of the union still matters, did you expect a change in any of these metrics after tonight's each? have you seen that previous speeches can significantly move some of these numbers? >> not the speeches themselves, certainly they policy decisions in the speeches can impact that we haven't seen a huge change usually in terms of americans being paid one way or the other. avery partisan time in our country . that being said we can't stress enough 40 percent of americans identify as independent. younger americans are continuing to identify with independence longer than previous generations. so not all partisan but certainly a lot of movement in our nation. >> host: editor in chief at gallup, you can see that paul and we appreciate you running us to talk through some of these polling numbers on the washington journal.

a few minutes after president biden finishes we will hear the republican response. this year is being given by the governor of arkansas sarah huckabee sanders. she was inaugurated last month and the local story on it from the arkansas democrat gazette, arkansas governor will deliver the response and address the author on that story from the democrat go that is out, joining us provide assume. tell us what was the governor chosen to give the response. >> governor sanders as republican leaders put it she's fulfilling this divide between the new generation of republicans and the leadership values that they have an house speaker kevin mccarthy mentioned her father mike huckabee with sarah huckabee sanders was 13 years old in july 1997.

that's when he became the governor of arkansas and this is a big idea of the move for republicans. the all party relatively bold and the new ideas they want to see going forward. mitch mcconnell calling senators for this new wave of republican leaders, this new generation putting forward these new values and new ideas and putting the country back on track. >> at 40 years old the youngest governor in the nation . what has governor sanders said she's going to talk about tonight? >> she wants to put this new idea of optimism to the biden administration as well as democrats to have power in washington the last two years but keep in mind she's only been in office for a month but she's taken on him very conservative issues that conservatives are happy she's addressing through executive action. she's banned the use of tiktok on state documents and

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ar directly from the commander in chief about the tremendousr progress we've made as a nation, the challenges weaver overcome in recent years and how democrats are keeping our promises to make the lives of the american people better. i clearly -- i expect the president will make the case clearly and convincingly that today the united states is far better off than it was a year ago. inflation is coming down. wages are going up. gas prices have eased at last. unemployment is near record lows. and the pandemic, after causing so much suffering, so much destruction, no longer dominates our lives. our work is not finished, but today we can confidently say america's headed in the right direction, thanks to president biden's leadership, and thanks to the work of a strong, unified democratic party in congress.

as americans listen to president biden, i'm confident they will see the glaring contrast between democratic unity on the one hand and republican chaos on the other. democrats remain laser-focused on delivering our people-first agenda. every bill democrats passed last congress was written with average americans in mind, from the american rescue plan to the infrastructure bill to the infrastructure to gun safety, marriage equality and so, so much more. let's take one example out of many. it's an important example, but just one. senate democrats worked very hard to deliver $35 ins lynn cap for every american -- $35 insulin cap for every american on medicare. we tried to get it for everybody, before reconciliation, but the reconciliation bill only allowed us to pass in the ira an insulin cap for all americans, web an amendment was offered to add

everybody in, unfortunately we did not get enough republicans to vote for this. this idea deserves new life and bipartisan cooperation in this congress, and i look forward to hearing more from the president tonight. very soon, americans will feel the benefits of our agenda in their daily lives, implementation is going to be a top priority for senate democrats in the months to come. not everyone has the time to follow what happens in congress day by day, but when we start doing things, implementing the bills, oh, it gets out. just look at my home state of new york. after we passed infrastructure, many people didn't hear about it, to others it was a lane in the newspaper, oh, they have a bipartisan infrastructure bill. but last week, when the president came to new york to celebrate gateway, you could feel the exultation and excitement in the city. that etc. going to start happening again and again, everywhere, in every state, in every community, as these large bills that help american

families are implemented and people see the actual results in their communities. so let me say it again -- democrats are proud we stuck together and delivered on an agenda that lowered costs, lifted america out of crisis and helped lay a foundation for future prosperity. now, our maga republicans cannot claim the same. on the very first day in the new majority, house republicans passed a bill not to help average americans, but rather that helps rich, the ultrarich so they can avoid paying their fair share in taxes. the bottom line is these people who are going to be added to the irs were going to focus on all of those who are much richer than the average american, but pay at a much lower rate. but the republicans couldn't go for that. that's the people they want to represent. then they hardly stopped there. in just one month, the maga house majority doubled down on their war on women, tripled down on the assay nine sales tax

proposal, and republicans continue to hold the full faith and credit of the united states hostage to their radical agenda. in the coming months, nothing will require more cooperation and serious-mindedness than lifting the debt ceiling. i was glad to work with president's biden administration and trimp to lift the ceiling, but we did it without brinksmanship. speaker mccarthy are taking the debt ceiling hostage, saying our way or the highway, agree to cuts or we won't lift the debt ceiling. that's not going to work, maybe and simple. history shows those who try to threaten their way to an agreement end up losing. if speaker mccarthy is insistent on spending cuts, which we democrats will strongly oppose, he has an obligation to take the next step and actually sigh what those cuts are for. we will oppose tying the debt

ceiling to these types of cuts. the debt ceiling is debts we've already incurred and should be paid, without brinksmanship, without adding things to the agenda, which risks a great deal for the american people. so what are the republicans asking for? they say they want cuts. what are they? are republicans going to axe social security or medicare? we think it's not enough for the speaker to just say he doesn't want to make those cuts, because members of his own party, including some of the very maga republicans he followed in the first week of his session are saying otherwise. and they've shown, some of them, they can get their way in the new majority. speaker mccarthy needs to prove he won't cut social security and medicare by showing us the plan. his plan. what about funding for national defense? our military just shot down a chinese spy balloon. are republicans seriously

thinking about cutting defense on some bogus claims of fighting a woke agenda? what the heck does that mean? republicans, show us the specific cuts. show us the plan. what about families and children who rely on nutrition aid? the chairwoman of the house appropriations committee recently said they're still looking at cuts to snap benefits, at a time when children are hungry and groceries are far too expensive. this from the party that cut taxes for billionaires and megacorporations back in 2017. if making sure hungry children have enough to eat is part of the woke agenda, then we sure don't have the -- don't have the same definition. i know it's not easy for this new majority, the 20 or so extremists who dictated the house rule package can thwart whatever the speaker comes up with, if they feel the cuts don't go far enough. i'm grateful concerned things will be very, very hard for the speaker to manage, if he can come up with a plan are at all.

all this brings us back to what democrats have been insisting on from the beginning -- no brinksmanship, no hostage-taking, let's lift the debt ceiling together, let's pay the debts democrats and republicans, including donald trump, already incurred, without ultimatums. tonight i expect the president will make this very clear to the american people, and it will be the responsibility of house republicans to show that they take the debt ceiling seriously before they create an unprecedented crisis that will wreak havoc on every single american. now, on the chinese surveillance balloon, i strongly, very strongly, condemn president xi's brazen incursion into american air space with the chinese surveillance balloon. i commend president biden for being calm, calculated and effective in taking down the balloon over water to ensure the safety of americans on the ground and ensure we maximize our intelligence gains as we

examine this balloon, which is far less likely to burn and crash into a million pieces in water than over land. instead of criticizing china, i was shocked to hear maga republicans, before they even knew what was happening, before they even knew the whole story, direct their criticism towards the president, saying we should have shot down the balloon the moment we saw it. so it's clear, the maga republican criticism was at best premature, and at worst political. this is one area where we don't need politics. we need democrats and republicans to come together, to condemn china and be a unified front against the ccp. president biden and his team did the right thing, they waited and took down the balloon carefully, precisely, and with what both the military and intelligence experts urged them to do. had the president not gone along

with what the military said, i can imagine that some of these same republicans, so highly critical in their plit six would have criticized for not littening to the military leaders. now we can analyze the technology and the way it was done. again i applaud president biden for his leadership. on thursday all senators, all senators -- we have upgraded this because so many senators wanted a briefing. i asked the administration to do it as an all-senators briefing instead of the gang of eight. all senators will receive a classified briefing from the administrators on the balloon. finally on the fourth circuit, mr. president, the senate will take its first judicial nomination vote of the congress by advancing deandrea gist benjamin stoamb as a circuit court judge for the fourth

circuit. if confirmed, judge benjamin would make history as only the second woman of color to sit on that court, a long overdue step in making sure the bench reflects the vibrancy of the fourth circuit. judge benjamin's credentials are unassailable and i thank my colleagues in the judiciary committee who supported her. the senate is going to continue prioritizing judicial confirmations on the floor of this congress. we have a lot of outstanding men and women coming out of the judiciary very soon and we'll work quickly to move them out of this chamber and on to the bench. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: >>.

[inaudible]

>> hello everybody. good morning. happy sotoo day. is that how you pronounce it? it's great to be here, thank you for coming. first i'm going to talk about , i was lucky enough to bring nine guests to the state of the union and each of them symbolizes not only something important and good in new york but important all across the country so i'm going to name those guests and give you alittle about each of them . kevin kozlowski fromrochester and . i stood with kevin. he was a veteran of the 82nd airborne airborne, exposed to

burn pits and he went to the va, ask for help, got none and took it up as a crusade along with other rochester veterans. he's one of the people who exposed, exposed is probably a bad word. one of the people who taught me about the need for the pack and helped push it through so you'll be there in the gallery savvy on pollard is a syracuse university student, he's a navy veteran and is the first hire of my microns massive hundred billion dollar mega in central new york that's being built because of my bill for chips and science. there there will be sent beyond pollard's all over the country, getting good paying jobs for the first time in industries with a great future which we are returning from china to hear. then you ever her, she's a dear lady. i met her right after the shooting in buffalo. her son was shot in that buffalo supermarket.

fortunately he lived. and she came down and testified. here to talk about the need for gun legislation. obviously we passed some gun legislation that dealt with some of the problems of 18-year-old automatically getting ar 15 and that's what happened in buffalo so she will be here. taylor is from new york city. everhart is from buffalo as i mentioned. taylor is an nyu student, 25-year-old diabetes advocate . we passed a law ensuring all seniors, i wrote the law, we introduced it insured all seniors would not be a penny or more than $35 insulin. we wanted to get it done for everybody so i put it in the reconciliation bill. as you know the reconciliation bill knocked

out medicare so we're going to fight to get that done this year and taylor james represents a younger person who desperately needs help with the high cost of insulin . this guy is amazing. doctor stanley winningham. he's a professor at binghamton university. he also won the nobel prize for the inventing the lithium ion battery. he's the inventor and he's one great guy. he gets lauded by all these great universities but he stayed at binghamton university which is one of the finest in the country. a number of very outstanding graduates of thatinstitution that work for me . she reminds me of it all the time. but in any case, we got big federal investments, 60 some odd million dollars to start creating a lithium ion battery. we researched a manufacturing

hub in binghamton new york. a lot of these cities and this is not just true in new york, to reduce no longer there. ibm was in binghamton no longer there these new industries will take their place and give these unities a sense of hope across america. pedro gamboa nunez from brooklyn. pedro was born in guatemala, worked as a baggage jfk international airport for more than 13 years. he came to the united states at a young age pursuing the american dream but now he's hoping others achieve that dream as well. he organized his terminal to form a union jfk airport and is pushing with the labor union for good jobs for the good jobs and good airports act, though i've cosponsored to get a better living wage for airport workers represented anderson from albany, this is a great guy. he's president and ceo of new york creates the all email to conference all email to in

each meeting a private partnership for developing the next generation of my conductor chips. he is probably the leading place in the world and we are hoping to get some chips and science bill to help fund places like this and we're hoping to getfunding for . he's the president of the they are doing and research that dutch firm that makes some of the machines chips we said we sell to china, their only us location is right there in albany. here's a wonderful lady, cheryl ran from yonkers. she's a leader in black internal health and resident of call sister to sister international. the horrible disparity, racial disparity in maternal morbidity issomething america should be ashamed of . cheryl indicated me on this issue we passed as you know in the omnibus one year funding on medicaid and chips for maternal health and we're

fighting this year to get the whole omnibus done. and finally, from long island. just started his family but they been rattled by huge amounts of student debt. but thanks to joe biden's extensions of the moratorium on payments, he spent hold will benefit even more when republicans got their push, the president agreed to do this right wing publicans are trying to get it overturned in court, they go to their special works where they know the judges are in their favor . this would go up to the supreme court and we're fighting back so he and many others like him can get their lives on track so these nine guests show two things. first, they show the amazing accomplishments that we had in the last session and i would remind people of our seven-page bill sitting last

year. six were bipartisan. but it also shows the need for implementation. and implementation of these major accomplishments will be a focus for us this year. working with the administration, working with our senators and working with the various agencies as well as whatever legislation is needed so let me go on now to the sotoo. i'm work looking forward to hearing president biden about the amazing progress we've made in improving the lives of american families and to hear his vision for the next two years in the administration. all of the, as majority leader under the leadership and vision laid out by president biden we've been able to deliver more for the americanpeople for . all the bills that we passed like like bipartisan

infrastructure, like chips in science, like marriage equality, we did bipartisan so people will say how are you going to get things done this year, i always try to get things done in a bipartisan way. for most issues we bipartisan check and of course when we can't get things done in a bipartisan way we will try to get them done on our own that was the american rescue plan back in 2021 and of course the inflation reduction act passed in 2022. and we have had one of the most historic sentence around . this senate majority has stuck together. we found in votes, unity is our strength and we're going tokeep . and i believe we will stay unified. really excited about the upcoming two years.

have acted earlier.ted the administration's hand-wringing and indecision finely downing the about ballooy

after it toured the length of our country was typical of how president biden and his team conducted our foreign affairs. our top military commanders and civilian experts say that our broader strategic competition with china is our most serious challenge, but this president's last budget request tried to cut funding for our military after inflation while about a schlanger keeps investing in their own capabilities. the commander of our u.s. strategic command told congress that china has more land-based intercontinental ballistic launchers than we do. the administration's reckless retreat from afghanistan blew past the expert warnings, cost the lives of 13 american service members, let thousands of terrorists walk out of prison and had america look cowardly.

hesitating, indecisive, self-deterred approach to helping ukraine before putin invaded and the earliest days right afterwards left freedom's friends flat-footed and making the subsequent fight more difficult than it ever had to be. and now -- now the biden administration is apparently -- has apparently pivoted from chasing another bad nuclear deal with iran and trying to let terrorists out of guantanamo bay. these are just some of the reasons why 41% of americans say the state of our union is weak -- week. -- weak. and only 13% say it's strong. of course this administration has also created problems for american families closer to home. a nationwide poll published last

week revealed that just 16% of americans say they're in a better financial situation today than they were two years ago when the president and his party assumed total control of government. for 84% of americans, one-party democratic control of washington either failed to live up to its promises or actively made life worse. two years ago over the objections over the top economists, washington democrats misinterpreted a victory as a mandate for an unprecedented spending spree. when president biden took office, inflation was at 1 point 4 -- 1.4%, from inauguration day to today, inflation is at over 13%. working families have seen grocery prices rise, and energy prices soar by 33.9%.

millions -- millions mf americans have earned pay raises at work but runaway inflation has left them with less purchasing power than before. our southern border is in crisis, shattering all-time records for illegal immigrant apprehensions. streets and neighborhoods are being swallowed up by violent crime after local democrats cut police budgets and national democrats spent years amplifying the kind of antipolice rhetoric that result in more crime. president biden is helping the radical left go on offense and bring a culture war to the doorsteps of normal american families. trying to squeeze catholic hospitals and faith-based day cares out of business. trying to take school choice and curriculum transparency away

from americans and on and on and on. president biden campaigned on being the adult in the room, but he's not calling the shots in his own party. over and over on issue after issue, this president handed the car keys to the radical left and turned himself into a passenger. that's why working families across the country have voted for change. they elected a republican majority in the house of representatives to put the emergency brakes on runaway liberal spending. they reelected all-star republican governors, and elevated a new talented generation of leaders, including the youngest serving governor who the american people will hear from tonight. merntionamericans are wonderinge democrats have accomplished in

the past two years, but they can be absolutely sure where republicans stand. the presiding officer: morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, deandrea gist benjamin, of south carolina, to be united states circuit judge for the fourth circuit. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: i want to begin by offeringmy

prayers to everyone affected by the devastating earthquake in turkey, 6000 reported dead just awful to see the pictures . we and ready to help wherever we can. now tonight mister president, president biden will come before a joint session of congress deliver his people the union to the american people. it's a chance for all us to hear directly from the commander-in-chief about the tremendous progress we've made us a nation, that challenges me in recent years and how democrats are keeping our promises to make the lives of the american people that are. i clearly expect the president will make the case clearly and convincingly today the united states is far better off with inflation is coming down. wages are going up. gas prices are less, unemployment near record lows and the pandemic has been

causing so much suffering, so much destruction is out of our lives. although we're not finished but today we can confidently say america is headed in the direction thanks to president biden's leadership thanks to the work of a small strong unified democratic party. as americans listen to president biden i'm confident they will see a glaring contrast between democratic unity on the one hand and republican chaos on the other. democrats remain these are focused on delivering our people first agenda every bill democrats pass was written with average americans in mind from the american rescue plan to the infrastructure built to the inflation reduction to gun safety and marriageequality and so much more . let's just take one example of many. it's an important example of just one. democrats worked very hard to deliver a 35,000 for every american on medicare but of

course wewant to go further . we tried to get it for everybody before reconciliation but the reconciliation bill only allowed us to pass in the ira account for all americans. when an amendment was offered to add everybody in unfortunately we did not get enough republicans to vote . but this idea deserves new life and bipartisan cooperation in this congress and i look forward to hearing more from thepresident .

last week when the president came to new york to celebrate gateway, you could feel the exultation and excitement in the city. that's going to happen again and again everywhere in every state and every community has these large bills that help the american family are implement it and people see actual results in their communities. let me say it again -- vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cruz: mr. president, when the covid pandemic hit, small businesses were shut down. millions of americans lost their jobs. schools were shut down. flights were canceled. and traveling ground to a halt. the sick and the elderly were forced to die in hospitals and nursing homes tragically alone, without the comforting embrace of loved ones. the corporate media told us there was no way that this virus

could have escaped from a chinese government lab, and big tech companies banned and censored posts laying out the evidence that it had escaped from a chinese lab. labeling that evidence conspiracy theory. masks were mandated everywhere. and when the covid vaccines came out, those were pan dated, too. -- mandated, too. doctors, nurses, and our brave service men and women who chose not to get the vaccine were fired, discharged, sent home. the corrupt corporate media's reaction to covid devastated our economy and led directly to massive inflation, to weakening and even destroying faith in

public health institutions, and resulted in learning loss that millions of american children may never recover from. the pandemic is over. president biden has even admitted that. the vast majority of america has moved on with their lives. but sadly the biden white house and too many senate democrats want to cling to power. during the pandemic we saw abuses of power at every level of government but especially the federal government. over the past two years i've been proud to lead the fight in the senate to stop these abuses by introducing targeted pieces of legislation that i've reintroduced in this new congress. five of these bills would get rid of mandates if passed --

mandates. if passed into law, they would mean no more mask mandates, no vaccine mandates. no passports, no vaccine mandates for minors and for kids to go back to school in washington, d.c. two other bills concern vital health care. the give life act is named after a teenager in texas who was denied a kidney transplant because he hadn't been vaccinated against covid. mr. president, no american should be denied a lifesaving medical treatment such as an organ transplant because of their covid vaccine status. that's wrong. unfortunately we have seen this kind of discrimination over and over again. we saw it happen to a teenager

in texas. it also happened to a 31-year-old man in boston who was denied a heart transplant, to a 38-year-old veteran would had already had covid twice who was denied a kidney transplant in north carolina, and a man in south carolina was also denied a kidney transplant because he wasn't vaccinated against covid. just in december yet another teenager was denied a kidney transplant this time in north carolina because she wasn't vaccinated against covid. the give life act would stop the federal government from enabling this discrimination when it comes to organ donation. another bill, the ending discrimination and covid 19 treatments act would mandate the department of health and human services to require that

providers not engage in discriminatory practices when treating covid. i filed this bill in response to reports that states across the country have used race and ethnicity as a factor in determining whether someone is eligible to receive covid treatment, particularly monoclonal antibodies when they were first introduced. this bill now applies to all covid funding and treatments, not just monoclonal antibodies. this kind of discrimination and treatment has happened in the past year. in january 2022, a man in new york who had both covid and pneumonia was denied monoclonal antibodies. he told cbs news, quote, the doctor just shut me down and said this is the criteria. you're not of age, which is 65, and you're not a minority.

as part of its response, the new york department of health told cbs, quote, this guidance is based on cdc guidelines that show covid mortality rates are higher among certain demographic groups, including senior citizens, immune know compromised individuals and nonwhite hispanic communities. so what new york said is they were following cdc guidelines in determining how this covid treatment would be distributed. as new york itself admitted, the cdc guidelines are encouraging racial discrimination in the distribution of health care, and that's immoral and wrong. my bill would stop this discrimination. let's be very clear here. race, religion, ethnicity should not be a factor, zero, in determining anyone's medical treatment. doing so is unconstitutional,

it's wrong, and it's abhorrent. mr. president, these are battles worth fighting. for those of us who have been standing up against these abusive mandates, we recently won a big victory in december of last year on covid vaccines in the military. i have fought hard to end president biden's military vaccine mandate. and last month in december, we succeeded, we passed into law a provision to end the mandate finally, but sadly that provision was prospective. the democrats in congress would only agree to it going forward if it applied in the future but provided zero relief to the thousands or even tens of thousands of service men and women who were terminated because they declined to get the

vaccine. to fix this i've introduced legislation called the americans act which would allow those service men and women who were terminated to be reinstated if they want to go back into the military, and if they do, they could go back to their original rank and receive the benefits to which they were entitled and which they have earned. if those servicemembers choose not to go back into the military, my bill would ensure that they receive an honorable discharge, not merely a general discharge as too many of them have received, which will ensure that they can receive the benefits they earned by fighting to defend this country. mr. president, i'm committed to fighting for every soldier, every sailor, every airman, every marine, every coast guardsman who was wrongfully

terminated or wrongfully demoted because of the covid vaccine mandate. and i give my word i'm going to keep fighting for them until they see justice. that's why tonight we're going to be at the state of the union address on the other side of the capitol, and my guess tonight for the state of the union -- guest tonight for the state of the union is lieutenant levi barred, a naval officer. lieutenant beard is a texas resident and top rated officer. in march of 2022, he faced a separate board because he made the personal decision to decline to get the covid vaccine. but before the biden administration could kick him out, a federal judge entered an injunction preventing the navy from terminating lieutenant beard. however, the navy is right now trying to recoup from him $75,000 that they already paid

him in anticipation of lieutenant beard's becoming a department head. because he wasn't named a department head. well, the reason he wasn't named a department head is because he made the personal decision not to get the covid vaccine due to his own sincere religious objection. i'm proud to be welcoming lieutenant beard to the state of the union tonight. i hope that his being there will cause those in the media to tell his story because it really underscores how grotesquely unfair the biden administration's policies have been and how they punish those american heroes. so lieutenant beard will be in the audience tonight as joe biden no doubt will congratulate himself and try to avoid accountability for the problems his administration has caused.

mr. president, when it comes to covid, the pandemic we endured as a nation was an enormous challenge. the policies that were put in place across this country in response to the pandemic, many of them have caused enormous damage. i believe as a nation we will look back on these policies in the years and decades to and wonder what collective insanity came over this country. what insanity led to the judgment it's a good idea to shut down schools for tens of millions of children across this country for more than a year. it's a good idea for young children, elementary schoolchildren not to learn reading and writing and math. that policy has resulted in massive learning loss and that learning loss has been all the greater among the economically

disadvantaged, among hispanic and african american kids. the result of these shutdowns is a generation of kids that have been harmed perhaps irreparably. in our military, the results of firing thousands upon thousands of service men and women, and we don't know how many. i would note i've asked the biden administration over and over again how many of our heroes have you fired. the administration refuses to answer. it is in the minimum thousands. it may be in the tens of thousands. i can tell you, mr. president, i've spoken with navy seals, heroes who spent their lives training and defending this nation, and their he being fired -- and they're being fired. some of the youngest, healthiest people we somewhere in our country are being fired because they didn't comply with an arbitrary decree. and now the president and administration admitted that

decree should no longer be in force but the navy seals they fired last year or the year before are still out of the military all the while we have massive recruiting shortfalls and america is at greater jeopardy. you know, mr. president, you're new on this side of the aisle but not new to congress. there was a time in this body when republicans and democrats could come together and reason together. we're not -- where not everything we did was a shirts and skin partisan battle good morning. no, it's not. in lesser times, these shouldn't be difficult questions. when i forced a vote on the senate floor that the d.c. public schools should not throw out of school every student who hasn't received the covid

vaccine -- and, mind you, that's 20% of the students in the d.c. public schools, and in the african american community, it's 40% of the african american students in the d.c. public schools -- i'm sorry to say, when we voted on that on the senate floor, every single democrat, all of them, voted to throw out of public schools 40% of the black kids in d.c. you're talking about a 13-, 14-, 15-year-old kid. in ordinary, sane times, that should be a 100-0 vote. you would think it was almost satirical that someone would stand up and say, we are debating whether or not to throw out of d.c. public schools 40%

of the african american children. if you and i go home and talk to our citizens at home, to a person they would think that's nuts, unless they happen to work in this building about. -- in this building. on the question of servicemen and women, we saw in the preceding year, president biden called to congratulate a coast guardsman who showed heroism rescuing people. that coast guardsman within the week was notified that he was being terminated because he hasn't gotten the covid vaccine. this shouldn't be divisive. we want our servicemembers to be ready, to be trained, to be serving. and in the administration agrees, the mandate makes no sense today, why would we sit by and let thousands upon thousands of them remain fired, terminated and denied the benefits they

have earned? so, mr. president, i call upon this body -- let's have a return to sanity. let's fight for the men and women we are elected to represent. and i give you my word, i'm going to continue to fight against these mandates that are wrong, that are unjust, that are harmful, and i hope and pray this body can come together and embrace sanity once again. i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

hello, everybody. good morning. happy so to day, is that how you pronounce it? you say that on the air? date of the union. it's great to be here, thank you for coming. first going to talk about -- i was enough to bring nice nine guests to the state of the union and each symbolizes not only something important new york but around the whole country so going to name those guests give you an inkling about each other. kevin from rochester, new york. i stood with kevin from a better of his second born exposed to burn pit and he went to the va

and asked for help, and took it up as a crusade along with other rochester veterans as one of the people exposed is probably about work -- taught me about the need for the pack act and helped push it through so you'll be there in the gallery. the syracuse university student, navy veteran, the very first hire of micron massive 100 billion-dollar mega of central new york built because of my bill. there will be savvy on all over the country, people getting jobs, good paying jobs for the first time in industries with a great future returning from china to here. anita everhart, a dear lady. i met her right after the shooting and buffalo. her son was shot in the buffalo supermarket. unfortunately -- fortunately, he

lived in she came down and testified, didn't she come down? yes, here to talk about the need for gun legislation. obviously we passed gun legislation that would have dealt with some of the problem of 18-year-old automatically getting ar 15's and that's what happened in buffalo so she will be here. taylor james from new york city and everhart from buffalo as i mentioned. taylor's an nyu student 25-year-old diabetes advocate. we passed a law ensuring all seniors, i wrote the law, we introduced it that insured all seniors would not pay a penny for more than $35. we want you to get it done for everybody so i put in the reconciliation bill as you know if the reconciliation bill knocked out below medicare so we are going to fight to get that done this year end taylor james

represents the younger person who desperately needs help with the high cost of insulin. this guy is amazing, there's doctor stan lee winningham, a professor at binghamton university. he won the nobel prize for inventing the lithium ion battery, he is the inventor and it's one great guy. by all these university, one of the finest universities in the country. i have a number of outstanding graduates of that institution that worked for me. she reminds me of that all the time but in any case, we got big federal investment, 60 some million dollars start creating lithium ion battery research in binghamton new york.

and it's no longer there. i began and bring into him no longer there but the new industries will take place give the commanders a sense of hope across the america. pedro was one in guatemala, worked as a baggage handler at jfk international airport for more than 13 years and came to the united states at a young age pursuing the american dream but now he's helping others achieve that dream as well. he organized his terminal two form a union at jfk airport and pushing with the labor union for the good jobs for good airports act, a bill cosponsored and a living wage for airport workers. david anderson from albany, new york. he's a great guy, president and ceo of new york create. the albany text call plant, the leading public-private partnership for developing

next-generation of semiconductor chips. probably the leading place in the world and we are hoping to get the chips and science bill and find places like this and hoping to get funding for it is the president of it in there during cutting edge research and the dutch firm that makes the machines that make the chips that we say to china, they are u.s. locations right there in albany. a wonderful lady, cheryl. she's a black maternal health and president of sister to sister and the horrible disparity, racial disparity and morbidity something america should be ashamed of. she educated me on this issue and past an omnibus one year funding on medicaid and chip,

maternal health and we are fighting to get this done. finally, from long island to started the family but rattled by huge amounts of debt. thanks to joe biden's extension moratorium on payments and able to buy a home and will benefit even more when republicans doctor push, president agreed to do this unlikely maga republicans trying to get it overturned in court. they voted their special when they know they are in their favor. this will go up to the supreme court and hiding the millions like him and give their life on track. these nine guests show two things. one, they show the amazing pad and i will remind people of seven major bills in the last year and six were bipartisan but

also shows the need for invitation and implementation of these major accomplishments will be taught focused this year working with the administration are senators and various agencies as well as whatever legislation is needed so let me go on now. i am looking forward from hearing from president biden later today about the amazing progress we've made improving the lives of american families and to hear his vision for the next two years in the administration. as majority leader and leadership by president biden we been able to deliver for more than the american people than ever before like bipartisan infrastructure, chips and science, like marriage equality,

we did bipartisan to people say how do you get things done this here? i always try to get done in a bipartisan way. getting things done number one in the senate for most issues you need bipartisanship. when we can't get things done a bipartisan way will try to get them done on our own and that was the american rescue plan. the inflation reduction act in 2022. we've had one of the most historic sense around the majority has stuck together. the gun unity is our strength and we are going to keep at it and i believe we will stay in five. i am really excited for the upcoming two years. as i said, an additional layer which is in fermentation and we will do everything we can to admit he's accomplishes.

they say well, a lot of people don't know them. they passed legislation, not everybody follow state today was going on in the senate or the house but here you will see us rolling out these things that matter to people. i started my home state of new york in past bipartisan infrastructure bill record amount of money for infrastructure. people read about it but last week the president and i went to gateway, a dream and passion of mine and announced it's really happening. exultation in new york, is and that will happen over and over and over in state after state and city after city and i believe you're going to see the american public really proud, popular and happy with what we were able to do in addition in the senate so we are unified here in the senate as democrat,

house democrats are pretty unified, to. the stark contrast to compare what's going on with house republicans, back and forth between speaker mccarthy and maga republicans, it shows lack of unity which is worrisome and troublesome. right now, the house public is our risking economic disaster holding our country hostage to just push their extremely unpopular and downright dangerous agenda and that scared to show their cards to the american people. in general certainly, it is plain and simple plan, raise the mr. cornyn: this evening president biden will deliver his second state of the union address.

presidents typically use the speech as an opportunity to claim credit for all the way americans' lives have exriewrved under -- improved under their leadership. former presidents touted everything from economic growth to battling the opioid epidemic. in this case president biden hasn't given his speechwriters much material to work with. people in texas are still being battered by inflation. i know that there are hopes for inflation to abate, but yet the federal reserve has shown no indication that they will fail to continue to increase the discount rate -- in other words, interest rates -- meaning that more and more they are concerned still about the impact of inflation. and inflation, as we've seen, mean that people's standard of living has decreased because

their earned income does not go as far as it used to. and we know high prices have wiped out wage gains, giving most workers a pay cut. we also know that public safety remains a matter of serious public concern, and starting from the impact of the defund police movement to now the difficulty that law enforcement has actually recruiting and retaining an adequate number of officers, we know crime continues to be a matter of widespread public concern. and then there's the failed policies at the border which have led to a humanitarian and public health crisis. the humanitarian part as evidenceed obviously by the millions of people who show up at the border with every expectation they'll be admitted into the united states. the public health crisis comes from the 108,000 americans who

died from drug overdoses where those drugs almost exclusively transit the u.s.-mexican border into the united states. we know the chaos of mass migration has helped make the drug runners' job easier and we know of the devastating impact it is having across the country. i don't know how much of this the president will actually talk about, whether it's inflation, whether it's crime, or whether it's the border, but these are the kitchen table issues that most american families care deeply about. the cost of groceries, the ability to put gas in your tank, and living in a safe neighborhood and raising your family. i don't know whether the president will dwell on any of those topics at all, but just to recapitulate, inflation now is the highest it's been in 40 years. we know that many cities have broken their all-time homicide

records, and we're still in the midst of a completely unprecedented crisis on the southern border. we've seen some pretty big missteps on the world stage too. for example, the biden administration led a deadly and disastrous withdrawal from afghanistan that resulted in the loss of 13 servicemembers and countless americans stranded in taliban territory. the administration continues to try to revive the failed iran nuclear deal and to give tehran even more resources to pursue its nuclear ambitions. just last week the administration hit an embarrassing new low when the people's republic of china flew a surveillance balloon across the united states, spying on the united states smilt and on -- on the united states military and on all civilians. it took seven days before the administration finally gave the

green light to shoot it down off the coast of south carolina. and to be specific, it wasn't just the administration, it was the president of the united states who gave that instruction. seven days after it began its transit across u.s. territory. during his first two years in office, president biden had a pretty big advantage. his party held the majority in both houses of congress. he had the golden opportunity to enact his agenda and address the biggest problems facing american families. unfortunately there wasn't a lot of overlap between the biden agenda and the american agenda. while people were struggling to keep up with high gas prices, the administration waged war on american energy. while parents questioned what was being taught in their kids' classrooms, the administration threatened to unleash the fbi on concerned parents who spoke out at the school board meetings. and while inflation raged,

democrats poured even more fuel on the fire by spending an additional $2.5 trillion-plus on purely partisan spending bills, namely the american recovery act and the so-called inflation reduction act, all passed without a single republican vote but which added easily $2.5 trillion to our national debt. so it doesn't come as a surprise, i guess, that voters decided to change the direction of the country in the last election by electing a republican majority in the house. tonight for the first time president biden will deliver his state of the union address before a divided congress. a democrat-controlled senate, a republican-controlled house. and a president who ran on the promise of governing from the middle and bringing us together, but who hasn't shown a willingness to do that so far. i think we're all eager to know

how will president biden broach all of these topics this evening. will he simply try to gloss over his claimed successes and ignore his failures? will he try to blame republicans for the current state of our country, even though democrats controlled all the levers of government for the last two years? or will he finally acknowledge the many problems that proliferated under his leadership and get serious about solutions? one of the most critical areas where we need to see real leadership is the current border crisis which has been raging since president biden took office two years ago. day after day, month after month migrants have crossed our border in unprecedented numbers. we've seen plenty of migration surges but nothing like this. last fiscal year the u.s. customs and border protection logged nearly 2.4 million border

crossings, shattering the previous record. in december, customs and border protection encountered more than a quarter of a million migrants at the southern border. a quarter of a million people in a single month, which is a new record. and the president has not offered a single serious plan to address this crisis. secretary mayorkas keeps saying, well, this is something congress needs to weigh in on, but they have engaged in zero outreach or any visible indication that they actually do want a congressionally passed solution to this problem, one that the president would have to sign into law. the only policy changes that the president has offered will do nothing to stop people from coming, because they just parole them faster. in other words, they show up at the border, they're given a piece of paper and said go to the closest immigration and customs enforcement office in

wherever it is you're locating in the interior of the united states, with no follow-up and no real assurance that they will actually go to an i.c.e. office and ultimately end up in front of an immigration jungle. and we know that that's part of the game too. if the human smugglers flood the zone with people, they can overwhelm the capacity of our immigration court system to actually deal with these asylum cases. but those who ultimately end up before an immigration judge are only successful in roughly 10% to 15% of the cases. but if you flood the zone with enough people, you can overwhelm the capacity of the court system and you can basically succeed in living permanently in the united states, even though you have not complied with our immigration laws to do so. we know that for two years the men and women on the front line

of the border have been pleading with the administration to do something. law enforcement are understaffed and overwhelmed by the workload that they're expected to shoulder. nonprofit organizations and local governments are trying to mitigate the humanitarian crisis that has landed on their doorstep, and legitimate trade and travel have taken a big hit. mexico is our single largest trading partner, yet legitimate trade and travel are hampered by this flood of humanity coming across the border as well. so i hope the president will be candid with the american people tonight and acknowledge not only what he views as his successes, but where more work needs to be done. and now that he no longer enjoys a majority in the house and the senate but now has a divided congress, i hope he's candid enough to acknowledge that the only way we're going to be able to solve some of these problems

is to finally work together to do so. we know that what the president shouldn't say is that he will somehow use his executive powers to create new categories of immigrants or mike scop -- microscopic pilot programs. it needs to center on the idea of reforming or immigration laws and reforming our asylum system. that's the only way to restore order and get this crisis under control. mr. president, legal immigration is, to my mind, been one of the greatest successes america has to show to the rest of the country. legal immigration. orderly, humane, and legal. but what we're seeing now is the antithesis of orderly, humane, or legal. it's just the opposite. we know our country is facing a diverse set of challenges in our homes, schools, workplaces,

and along the border. and on the world stage, democracy itself continues to be under attack by hostile autocrats and dictators. the american people deserve to hear the president explain his plan to address each of these looming challenges, and i hope he does so tonight. once the state of the union concludes, arkansas governor sarah huckabee sanders will deliver the republican address. she's the champion for workers and families who have been left behind, and i look forward to hearing her response to president biden's speech, and i expect to see a stark contrast between the cloistered unrealities of the biden administration and the reality that american families are facing. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee.

mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. as my colleague from texas said, people are looking forward to hearing what the president will say and what he will not say tonight. and as i've been home over the weekend, one of the things i've heard from tennesseans about is the out-of-control federal spending. now we know what the democrats have done in plussing up the bnl for the last couple of years, but one number kind of stuck with me, and it's about $3.6 trillion. that's taxpayer dollars that has been spent on democratic wish list items. a lot of this is the green new deal. a lot of this is the reckless spending agenda that they are pushing. now, they forced through in 2021, a $1.85 trillion in spending. and then they came back around,

and they wanted to talk about inflation. and joe biden had 1.4% inflation when he took office. and because of this out-of-control spending and spending more and more and more and hundreds of billions of dollars, you saw inflation in june of 2022 hit 9.1%. people are frustrated about this. but, you know, mr. president, one of the things that got tennesseans was the fact that this president didn't say, well, it's because we put all this money, federal spending, your dollars, we're putting these back out there. no. he blamed vladimir putin. it was putin's fault. to tennesseans, this was outrageous. and it was the go blame somebody else game. the biden administration's

neglect of the economy and their complete disregard for the destructive effects of their spending is something that has caught the attention of tennesseans, and this term for this president wasn't even halfway over and already his policies are making everyday life too expensive to afford. and to be clear, tennesseans talked to me about being worried about the basics of life. food security, food for the table, clothes for the kids, gas for the car. they feel like this agenda, this set of priorities that this administration has is just stealing away a lot of their life, their living, their

enjoyment because there's not extra money left over. it is all going into necessities they're struggling to manage 6.5% inflation. they're looking at the cost of food that is up 13% from where it was a year ago. keeping the heat on in this cold winter, 16% more. and it's the same story when you talk about school supplies, when you talk about clothes for the kids. it's the same story here in washington where it seems that joe biden, this administration and the democrats are once again poised and ready to go spend more money. they're wanting to raise the debt ceiling without even a

conversation about spending cuts. to tennesseans, that's outrageous. now, my democratic colleagues have spent a lot of time talking about what will happen if congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, xi don't think -- and i don't think anyone here denies that the country has some serious discussions that need to be had. but i would ask my colleagues to remember that raising the debt -- is not a green light to keep spending money until we crash into another debt ceiling. tennesseans understand this. they've spent two years cutting costs because common sense tells them that you just can't keep spending with reckless abandon, and they want to know why the

democrats in washington don't get this. and yes indeed everybody spends too much up here, but why are my democratic colleagues unwilling to talk about making any cuts? now there are some things that we could do to start this process, and there are three bills that i file every single year. and, mr. president, when you and which were across the dome in the house, i would file these bills every single year because they're common sense. they would make a 1% or a 2% or a 5% across the board spending cut. every federal agency ought to be able to do that. the american people do that. making that one penny out of a

dollar reduction in spending would save us money, and there again, you do this in the discretionary spending to get things rolling. started there -- start it there, a penny and a dollar, then how about two pennies and a dollar. you know, if you cut just a penny out of a dollar, that would save you $5.2 billion if you did that just in discretionary, didn't do it in the military, didn't do it in mandatory spending, just discretionary, 2 cents out of a dollar, then you get $10 billion in savings. these are small, little steps. but you know what? in the end if you do that, you cut a nickel out, $26 billion. but do that every year, mr. president.

do it so we are not wasting taxpayers' money. this is not government's money. it is not your money. it is not my money. it's not the money of this chamber or of the house. it is the money of the people of this country and we are charged with spending that carefully, accountably, transparency to the people. tennesseans cannot take and they will not accept another year of this reckless spending. they are demanding change, and this is the bare minimum of what they would expect, tiny little cuts like that, steps in the right direction and then holding to it. don't come back in two years and say we've got to waive the caps. they want to see some structural change. now, unfortunately the president said that he has no plans to

negotiate his spending levels. it will be interesting to see what he has to say about this tonight because to tennesseans it's almost unfor unfortunatelys somebody said this weekend, it's laughable. it is shameful that he does not want to negotiate, that he's not going to talk about spending less, that he only wants to talk about spending more. senate democrats cannot keep putting off this debate in order to save the president's failed agenda. our job is not to serve the white house. it is to serve the american people and they are saying, do something about the wasteful out-of-control

quorum call:

just on the chinese spy balloon,

the commander of florida saying this incident represents the domain awareness cap we have to figure out, what is the domain awareness? >> it's one of the washington phrases that identify was inside or nobody understands what you're talking about. we may not have been as good as we wanted to be seen it coming. in this particular incident, the military attack nibbling for some period of time as we go back and look at the history of the balloons it appears in the past, i can't tell you i know but it appears past there were incursions and trips in chinese spy balloons circling the globe without being aware of it so one thing when you do is go back and look to see if there were failures if the of administration handle this well and what we can learn from it. >> report of "wall street journal" asked this question,

$850 billion budget and we can't detect airship? >> this time it was detected it's my job to go back if there's evidence. that's a totally fair question, incredible amount of money on the defense and the idea that you could put the size of balloon in the country and the military not know about it is a very common question. >> the recovery operation continues, what are you going to do? >> obviously we are having an aggressive conversation about this by person views but there is real value in the ability to recover as we have them. look at the technology and there's real value having conversations about what are they should be shut down earlier but there's real value in watching how it operates and how maneuverable it is and what

emissions is emanating and collecting so we learned a lot about this and again i look forward to next couple weeks understanding exactly what was doing and the capabilities. >> did you think this was what you were going to be talking about? >> if you said i would spend five days talking about a balloon, you should watch with senior topic of. [laughter] as you become ranking member now. >> a couple of things, i'm trying to work with the chairman of the committee, we have some work to do to reestablish the committee -- what it traditionally was, a nonpartisan national security committee and no reason to rehash the past, the committee investigated donald trump's behavior in respect to the ukrainian weapons, it became partisan and polarized. we got to get that back. i think we will and there are big things we need to do that well for americans.

... is our intelligence community as sharp and capable as we want to be? are job is to be skeptical, to conduct oversight so we will be looking for ways to make the intelligence community and the military and other elements of the national security operation shark. >> to talk about the committee becoming partisan and i wonder what you think about the move to remove adam schiff and rick swalwell? >> i think we all knew what was happening when the democrats had the house they removed paul gosar -- and this was on this

list. there's a distinction. marjorie taylor greene and paul gosar with made lethal violent threats against colleagues. whatever you think of adam schiff or rick swalwell or the wave they act they didn't threaten colleagues. sadly what hurts me about that as that's an example of adam schiff and eric swalwell were experienced intelligence oversight members and now we don't have the benefit. >> congressman turner to blame for that? he that? you said you were excited to work with congressman turner. >> congressman turner is not to blame. i think of him as an old-school hawk. he wants to make sure the idea of peace and strength the removal of adam schiff and eric swalwell is a leadership decision. >> congressman jim himes think you the democratic ranking member of the intelligence committee. go ahead and call in republicans

(202)748-8001 democrats (202)748-8000. a long day on capitol hill. c-span coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern. >> i'm bringing a guide by the name is mark a constituent who owns an organization called the childcare learning center at stanford which is one of the best early childhood child education centers in the country country. why is this important? we are not supporting them as much as we should. too many par 5-year-olds are arriving into kindergarten not ready to learn because we just don't have enough support by families. single-parent households, mom or dad whoever whoever the single parent is doesn't have a good option for their child. they aren't in the workforce so we can do better making sure every family has access to good

competent childcare would be much stronger. >> he think president biden will talk about those issues? >> i hope so. my hope is one of the challenge we have is we spend a day talking about a chinese balloon into few people understand that president biden was able to achieve and let me give you the facts. let me put it in a partisan context. we passed a trillion dollar infrastructure bill after talking about for years on a bipartisan basis. the first in the generation we passed a bill that will make a huge investment in addressing climate change at lower the price of prescription drugs including today intel and we are paying more than $35 but i hope the president talks about that. my instinct is kitchen table americans are more worried about their economic well-being than worried about a balloon in montana. >> we are in the great room this

morning and a question from a viewer does the state of the union still matter today? what do you think? >> you know like so much that happens at the capitol a become sort of a stage. it's good for the present one of the things i've noticed since i've been in congress is where a lot less focused on working together to get things done and a lot more focused on what we put up on instagram or facebook. i'm not going to tell you i'm not guilty of that. what i hope we see tonight along with the economic winds at this president has said is the dignified behavior in the attempt on partisan members to calm the partisanship to find ways to agree on governing the american people. when i go back to my district some people get uptight about partisanship and a lot of people say will you guys just stop the? i'm willing to compromise but you can't spend 24/7 attacking

each other. that's the feeling i get. >> fairfield connecticut frank on the line for democrats good morning. >> caller: good morning mr. himes. i'm really pleased you are now the ranking member because i believe once the democrats retake the house you should be in line to be the chairperson of that committee. also i want you to remember please do not forget the district that you serve in this high-ranking position. there's a lot of need in our district more than the improvement on the interstate 95. the traffic is once again building as you drive from bridgeport down to stanford. finally just to let you know the contraband in westport use funds from the american rescue plan to commission a piece of music that we will have a world premiere in greenwich in march and that money was used from the american

rescue plan to recognize the effect of covid on the district. good luck with the new assignment and i wish you the very best. thank you. >> thank you frank and good morning fairfield. absolutely and even if i more time on national security issues like every other member of congress i have a wonderful district and terrific people to represent and i'll never forget my title is mike job description represents you and i'll never forget my primary job in serving the connecticut fourth district. >> i-95 as we sit here there are a lot of people sitting in traffic on 95. when you ask me about biden's achievements the first thing i said to you is infrastructure with trillion dollar investment in our infrastructure and by the way not just my district. if you're around any big city in

the big city and big city and united states in california miami or anywhere you understand we are trying to run a 21st century country with a 19th century infrastructure but the bottom line is we don't have what the germans in the japanese and the british have. we can't compete with them the way we want so absolutely wanting to get an infrastructure bill done. stick in virginia at jennifer on the line for republicans you are on with representative times. >> i lecture mind the congressman when john wilson of south carolina -- the republicans chastised him for that. i like him to also remember when nancy pelosi tore up the state of the union blood trump was president before the children of america that was disrespectful also had people praise her for that. we keep going back and forthwith this disrespect in front of

children and we want their children -- we don't want our children growing up in a violent nation because the representatives are violent. we have got to be able to call both sides out not just sit back and say nancy was okay and doing it. no she was not. if you are being disrespectful call being disrespectful call it and asrary are today. where allowing our representatives to be disrespectful in front of the american people. the state of their unit is important and i hope we will all act civil tonight and not get into our respective corners of who we are in the party and start being disrespectful because the children watch this. we have children shooting each other right here in virginia, shooting other kids in school. that's because these children are being disrespectful because they are watching leadership be

disrespectful. i would ask you to call and your colleagues and republicans to call and their colleagues to set the standard of respect tonight. thank you. >> jennifer from virginia, republican from virginia. i think i alluded to this and in the conversation jon and i were having. the sad fact is if you do something like tear up the or scream at the president or are in some way bring attention to yourself there's a minority of the population that loves you for it and they get on tik tok an instagram and more ominously they raised a lot of money and that's a whole other conversation about money and politics. i couldn't agree more with jennifer. we are enormously privileged to have this job. it's a job we have temporarily and i think we have an obligation to treat with the honor and dignity that being a

representative deserves. i'm not sure how often this happens but i couldn't agree more with jennifer the republican from virginia. congressman joe wilson a moment not during "the state of the union address" that the joint address in 2009 president obama and the health care plan. on that we've been talking about the state of the union addresses and we ask whether they still matter and we will continue that conversation throughout our program. for the next 10 minutes if you want to continue to call and our phone line is republicans democrats independents birmingham alabama good morning. i understand during the trump administration similar things -- i was wondering if those trajectories happen to coincide with the spread of covid reqs i understand if it may have come from the northwest. taking look at maps from these balloons may be the matching

maps of the covid spread i think that should be your first priority. congressman. >> yeah so we are in the process of understanding the history of these balloons because there's a history and there was an airport general who made a comment and i i -- during the previous demonstration we have seen these balloons possibly flying over united states. i want to step in on the covid question. there is no evidence, no evidence whatsoever that these balloons are in any way shape or form involved in covid and the government is working hard to understand the origins of covid pandemic and its harder by the chinese' unwillingness to share data and statistics. our experts, are pretty confident that it emerged in the city of wuhan in china and don't know how or where it emerged but i can tell you with certainty

there's ethel and no evidence that these balloons as frightening as they may appear are in any way shape or form involved with a pandemic or frankly with any other weapon. a question from bradenton, florida. >> is worthy -- one of the frustrating things about this conversation is become very partisan to joe biden made the wrong decision and i filter that out. donald trump that had treated as full and precise biden did my constituents be sending baskets and bottles of champagne. so two things and then again we are learning a lot. number one the military adviser to the present advised him not to shoot it down over land because of the risk it would represent. as someone who works in intelligence there's immense value and i referred to this early amount of value in

watching up close seeing how it from its maneuverable and seeing what may be collecting. we can protect the things for example a random example worried about them taking a picture when f-35 fighter jet and we move that fighter jet into a hangar so we can mitigate the risk. i think the national security adviser is saying there's a danger to bringing tons of metal down on the continental unit -- united states and let's try to retrieve it as intact as possible. but to shoot it down over granite mountain top you will be scraping its charred remains off of a bunch of rocks were his landing it over water hopefully it's in better shape than overland. >> pat in california edith on our democrat line. good morning. >> good morning. thanks for having me. i have three comments. my first comment he talked about

childcare and the price of childcare and especially for single mothers. i'm hoping that they would do something concerning the single mothers who have to work. over 100 some dollars a week for childcare. how are they going to make it and one other thing i'm hoping that they would give then and they made a bad decision when they decided to suspend their -- for child support. how are they going to get to a job? to me that was. they should find another way to let them keep their dollars and i'm hoping that they would go back and address that again and

think again how they have -- these people left to pay child support. gaeta thanks for the comment. i'm not super current on what you were referring to as a second driver's license. i think that maybe a state issue but i do really appreciate the opportunity to highlight the challenges that parents and single parents have raising children. edith alluded to this imagine you have a child and you get a crack at a new job that will pay $30,000 a year and most of that money will go to paying for childcare. what's the point? now you have a single parent who is not in labor force and a child who arguably is not getting an education very early and i think this is something we can find bipartisan agreement on. there will be different views about this but for example senator romney had the film less

congress providing every american regardless of their mint a good option for their kids. fingers crossed and i hope this is a focus. as chairman of the economic disparity committee i have some of the wealthiest people on the planet frankly in communities like greenwich. i've also got cities were there's poverty so i see the spectrum in a childcare and housing that jumps off the page for me. we just had two things to do. if we could make housing more available to people if you could make housing more available and childcare more available would have a much more robust economy. democrat of california gym himes the ranking member of the intelligence committee in the house a member of the gang of

eight as it's called what does that mean and how does that change your day? over the years it's been a long negotiation between the congress and administration and this goes back to the 60s and the 70s when the cia did activities that make congress nervous. i would have a world where there are two committees on the house and senate side that are briefed on almost everything. literally mostly held secrets are briefed to the select committee on intelligence. there are operational details that are so time-sensitive or so sensitive generally meaning if there wasn't disclosure people would die critical sources would be hurt for terminated and the leadership of the two chambers and leadership known as the gang of eight. it's not as because everybody

wants more members of congress and to know. why? at the end of the day the think about it and democracy where we act on behalf of the people if you have something as sacred in the intelligence world and the intelligence community you want some of the representative people like chairman turner to keep an eye on that to make sure the activities are consistent with our laws and values. >> on classified information why declassify documents keep showing up? >> that's a great question, before the blend. we see the current present the ex-president and the ex-vice president and their residents with classified information unprotected. that's bad and we need to do a much better job and it's a hard problem to solve. you leave the white house and many leave the vice presidential presidential -- someone looks through the boxes you are taking

with you. it's not a hard problem to solve. like my republican friends were very angry at the rate of mar-a-lago and mike pence and joe biden have done better to cooperate and abide by the subpoenas to cooperate. that's what the fbi felt the need to go into mar-a-lago but the point is that to make sure classified information is secure. >> is that the folks at the top are you concerned this is happening farther and farther down the line of who has access to these documents? >> is suspected of on my suspected of all my parp are particularly it happens in the white house and the vice presidential mansion in the race i think that is when i go went and access that information by going to what is known as the skiff and information facility and a take off my watch and put my iphone in the locker and when i walk out i'm conscious of what i've got. if you work in the white house

the white house is a secure facility and you can take classified information and when you have a president in transition you have 24 hours and i think the process is a lot sloppier in the presidential transition or the vice presidential transition than if you have regular access to classified information. >> tom in illinois on republicans line huber on with jim himes. >> thank you for letting me speak unto things. president biden was a senator when he took out a truckload of classified papers that were gone for almost eight years. the other thing is representative swalwell was going out with -- after his wife had a baby and then he sent her back to china so she couldn't testify against him. it was all swept under the rug. the other thing is with

mr. schiff,er he to the fisa cot and he to the whole russian collusion all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 5. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will read the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary. cindy k.chung of pennsylvania to be united states circuit judge for the third circuit. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to

bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 5, cindy k.chung of pennsylvania to be united states circuit judge for the third circuit signed by 18 senators as follows -- the presiding officer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 9. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the executive. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk.

fer. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 9, jena r.mendezh.miro. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum calls for today be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. schatz: i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 3, deandrea gist benjamin of south carolina to be united states circuit judge for the fourth circuit, signed by 18 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 nomination of deandrea gist benjamin of south carolina to be united states circuit judge for the fourth circuit shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the yeas are 54, the nays are 43. the motion is agreed to. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kaine: mr. president, i understand that there is a bill at the desk and i ask for the first reading.

the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the first time. the clerk: s. 299, a bill to amend united states code to provide for automatic continuing resolutions. mr. kaine: i now ask for a second reading and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i object to my own request. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the bill will be read for the second time on the next legislative day. mr. kaine: mr. president, i have one request for a committee to meet. it has the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. kaine: i ask unanimous consent that the senate recess until 8:20 p.m. today and proceed as a body to the hall of the house of representatives for the joint session of congress, that upon disallusion of the joint -- dissolution of the point senate that the senate adjourn until 10:00 a.m. on february 9, 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 proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the benjamin nomination. that at 11:00 a.m., all remaining postcloture time be considered expiertd. the -- expired. the senate reassume the chung nomination, that the cloture motions filed ripen at 1:45 p.m. on thursday, if any nominations are confirmed during thursday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kaine: we will gather in the senate chamber at 8:27 to proceed as a body to the house for the state of the state of t. if there is no further business, i ask that it recess under the previous order. the presiding officer: the the presiding officer: the

today the senate continuing consideration of judge benjamin's nomination to be a u.s. court of appeal judge for the fourth circuit. lawmakers advance in omni after late afternoon votes. several floor speeches today in advance of the state of union address presenters will gather to make their way to the house chamber for the joint meeting shortly. you can watch live coverage of state of the union speech on c-span followed by reaction afterward live here on cspan2. preorder your copy of the congressional directory for the 118th congress. it is your access to the federal government with the bio and contact information for every house and senate member. important information on congressional committees, the president's cabinet, federal agencies and state governors. skin the code at the right to preorder your copy tod for early spring delivery.

his 20 cap dollars and 95 cents plus shipping and handling every purchase help support the nonprofit operations at cspanshop.org. sexy state of the union is strong because you, the american people are strong. [cheering] the. >> president biden the louisiana state of the union address outlining his priorities to congress tonight's first state of the union speech since republicans won back control of the house. following the speech arkansas governor sarah huckabee sanders will give the republican response but watch our live coverage of the state of the union tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. c-span now our free mobile video p or online at c-span.org. ♪ c-span is your unfiltered view of government. offended by these television companies and more including charter communications. >> a charter is proud to be recognized as one of the