criminal authorities which we've worked with justice on a number of locations. what the problem is i think in part is there are multiple interpretation of existing law. there have been a number of court decisions over the past, call it seven years, that a clearly delineated bitcoin for sure in my view and others and also ether as commodities. whether it is a debate and if they get open. i have confidence but there's a debate about the other literally hundreds of other tokens and how we are to classify them and begin a 100-year-old securities test or just interpretation of what we get as a commodity or a security. this leaves the market in a place where it's unsure where it can participate and play and at least the regulated in a position where it wants to maintain number one mission responsible of customer

protection in doing what it can to ensure that you don't have fraud and manipulation leading the folks losing money. and the legislation all get to your question. i said this in my statement there been a number of effort i've been a part of in congress over the past couple of years both. [cheers and applause] can become jen thompson in the ag committee, senators and others have put forward bills over the past couple of years, not all perfect but really good effort that speeded this would be available to watch later if you go to our website c-span.org. we will leave it here to keep her over 45 your commitment to gavel to gavel coverage of the u.s. senate. no votes are planned and ascendant but we are anticipating remarks from the senate floor. live coverage here on c-span2.

vessel. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. spirit of god, >> let's pray. spirit of god descend from our hearts. life is sound signifying nothing. make our lawmakers during this time. they seek to be worthy of your great name transform common days

and intertransfiguring. because of the power of your presence and the wisdom of your words. cleanse to fountains of our hearts and make us fit vessels for your honor. we pray in your great name amen. >> would you join me in siting the pledge of allegance. 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: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business, with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: this week our nation mourns the loss of our 39th president, jimmy carter. with grief comes reflection on his life, a life well lived. there's no doubt president carter made an impact on scores

of americans. as for this senator, in 1976, i was on the ballot as a congressman for iowa's third congressional district and, of course, jimmy carter was on that same ballot. now he and i were bit by different political bugs, but we have a similar foundation. two small town boys anchored in our faith. as the only sitting member of congress today who served with the carter presidency, i remember him fondly. maybe a couple of times to remind you about, i don't know exactly what year it was, but i was in iowa. he made a phone call to me asking -- he was on his way to nicaragua to observe whether or

not a presidential election at that time was going to be a fair election. he asked me if i would go along with him, and i said the work of the senate doesn't allow me to do it at that particular time. so obviously i was -- i regretted that. another time, he asked me -- i think this was in the 2000 period of time, maybe 2, 4, or 5, he asked me if i would speak to a baptist group in atlanta, georgia, that he was leading, and i had that opportunity to be there and to have a private conversation with him and his wife, the former first lady. now, carter answered the call to serve his nation in many different ways. we remember as a naval officer, his call to serve in public

service, as our president of the united states, and his call to serve those in need after leaving the white house. first peter 4 verse ten, each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of god's grace in its various forms. end of quote. the light of the lord shown through president carter's life of service. he used these gifts to serve others even beyond the borders of the united states. we say good-bye during this time to this man of many talents. we know about his background as a peanut farmer. we know about his background as

a naval officer, and more famously as our 39th president, and lastly, as a home builder as he worked through organizations building homes for the needy. now we remember him as he is in his heavenly home now. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. thune: mr. president, this past november the american people gave president trump be -- and republicans a mandate. now the time has become to begin

executing on it. one of the most important issues in this last election is the illegal immigration crisis, that is the first topic of the vote we're holding in the senate under the republican majority. for the past four years the biden open bothered policies have wreaked havoc. one of those communities is athens, georgia, where 22-year-old nursing student laken riley was murdered by an illegal immigrant while out for a jog last year. her murder not only entered the country illegally, he was arrested twice in the united states and never deported. this week the senate is going to vote on senator britt's bipartisan laken riley act which would ensure that illegal immigrants are deported when they are arrested as laken was

for theft and burglary. while it is a commonsense measure, senate democrats opposed it last year despite the bill receiving barred support in the house of representatives. we'll see what they do when the new senate majority brings it up for a vote. we're also going to take a vote to support our ally israel, something that my friends across the aisle. i called on the democratic leader to bring up an icc sanctions bill that had already passed the house, again with bipartisan support. the icc's rogue actions only enabled the terrorists who seek to wipe israel off the map and they cannot be allowed to stand unchecked. in november i removed that if

leader schumer wouldn't bring the icc sanction's bill to the floor, republicans would and we'll soon fulfill that promise and have a vote to support our ally israel. senators can also expect a vote on another commonsense measure this month, as thousands of pro-life americans come to washington for the 52nd annual right for life. this straightforward bill states that a baby born alive after an attempted abortion is entitled to the same protection and medical care that any other newborn baby is entitled to. this vote will ask democrats to answer whether a living baby born after an attempted abortion should be provided with medical care or left to die. it shouldn't be a hard question. mr. president, the senate will also be working to give president trump's deem in place. beginning next week will hold hearings on the president's nominees. we will work to ensure each

nominee has a fair process without delays or obstruction and we will confirm those nominees swiftly 0 so the -- swiftly. finally, mr. president, republicans in congress are hard at work trying to address key priorities through the budget process. to begin with, the border security policies will need to be fully funded to maximize their effectiveness. increasing the number of immigrations of border patrol agents, increasing detention space and providing barriers in technology are some of the resources needed to secure the bothered. bothered security is you one key -- border security is one key part of providing for our national security. vechting in -- investing in our military is another. we're working on investing in military readiness so we can

deter our adversaries and keep the peace. we're also going to invest in american energy dominance. energy security plays a key role in our national security and republicans plan to use budget reconciliation to help advance american energy production. another priority is extending the tax relief that republicans delivered during the first trump administration. it put more money in americans' pockets and delivered a strong economy before the pandemic and we need to extend them to protect our economy and the american people from a $4 trillion tax hike next we're. mr. president, this is just the start. we have a lot of work to do, but the american people have chosen the right team to get it done. mr. president, i move to proceed to calendar number 1, s. 5.

the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 1, s. 5, a bill to require the secretary of homeland security to take into custody aliens who have been charged in the united states with theft and for other purposes. mr. thune: mr. president, i send a cloture motion to the desk for the motion to proceed. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 1, s. 5, a bill to require the secretary of homeland security to take into custody aliens who have been charged in the united states with theft and for other purposes, signed by 17 senators, as follows. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask that the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask consent that the mandatory

quorum call be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, i understand there is a bill at the desk due for a second reading. the presiding officer: the leader is correct. the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. the clerk: s. 9, a bill to provide that for purposes of determining compliance of title 9 of the education amendment, sex shall be recognized by a person's genetics at birth. mr. thune: in order to place the bill on the calendar, i object to further proceeding. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bill will be placed object the -- placed on the calendar. mr. thune: mr. president, i yield the floor.

we are waiting for the senator to come to the floor to speak. today former president carter is lying in the roe tun da. you are watching live senate coverage as we wait to a senator to come to the floor to speak.

>> america is still the key. a quick follow up or interference directly in the election process. to you, the person said new elections could be out of the current political crisis. we will focus on measures. we should expand on that. is there anything that our allies can do to save georgia's democracy. >> thank you, happy to start. on ukraine, as we have been very clear make sure as ukraine engages this year, 2025, they can do it from straight whether

that means continuing the fight because russia refuses to stop or it means entering a negotiation to get to a ceasefire and maybe beyond. as i mentioned a moment ago, we will continue to the very last day to bring that support to ukraine. our partners will continue well beyond if there is a negotiation or ceasefire because we brought it to that point. it's critical. the in coming administration wants to make sure they negotiate the best possible deal. real deterrence against russia repeating it's aggression six months, a year, two years. we know, putin has not and will not give up on his ambitions.

if there is a ceasefire, he will want to use the time to rest, refit, and reattack. that's why it's essential that part of us include an effective deter rant against any farther aggression by russia. that can take different forms including having certain countries or any demarcation or ceasefire the next administration will have to decide if it comes to that what role the united states would have to play. i believe the in coming administration if it is a deal one that doesn't have to unravel when russia sees an opening to reattack. one way or another, we need to

build into it the necessary deter rants so that doesn't happen. on georgia, we spoke about this as well. what they are seeing is democratic backsliding. not just the democratic backsliding but a retreat away from the aspirations of the overwhelming majority of the georgian people. aspiration to build a future closer to europe. having seen that backsliding. having seen a government that's acting in controvention of the people. having seen an election that raised many questions. having seen repressive actions taken by the government trying to speak freely and openly.

we as well as our partners have taken action. we sanction the leader of the dream party and other members of the government. we suspended american assistanc. acting with almost all of our partners this is the space. this is for action by civil society. the united states and france faced with the very unfortunately actions.

anthony blinken said since day one we were supporting ukraine. we would support ukraine as long as it takes and as much as it takes it is a matter of the future of international law. we would let -- we would allow them to provail. it's a matter for the french people and europeans. we should show no complacency. especially when it comes to the imperialistic of putin.

the threat by putin that changed. we see that putins launched a full scale invasion. it became more international as well by exporting the conflict and involving others as well. it became hybrid by getting into all of the conflict and attacking even members of the uk and union. like blinken said, with the priority we want to support ukraine and allow ukraine we do this with a strong hand and make sure there is no return of war in the european continent.

on behalf of the europeans. we needed to deter the threat from russia pushing towards the west. now, very quickly, interference in actual processes. europe has been very clear in 2022 at the time france was the head of the european council that set clear rules and applied to social network. we applied the regulations on digital services. i would like you to look at articles 34, 35, and 36. look at what their discussions on the network. they might have to pay fines of

6% turnover. it's up to the commission to make sure the european regulations apply. they are extremely firm and very clear. should the european commission fail to do so it would have to turn back to the european members acting in their name. >> matter will be shown. turkey is threatening the fighters and doing this to protect them and contribute to syria. next mr. musk will be joining the administration in a few days or weeks. he referred to germany and united kingdom as . . .

one can express their views. when one is about to join the administration. they hold a specific weight. communication process in the campaigns and number of countri. including in germany. if so, it was extremely careful. a long-standing position of the american republican position. now, france and the united

states have been working hand in hand for four years now to fight islamic terrorism. the disrespect in the presence of linken. i'd like to express my condolences to the victims of the terror attack in new orleans. it's reliable and resolute to fight terrorism. with the full regime. the hope that they will capture political and economic moral point of view.

it will happen if the communities find a role to play in this respect. of course syria shall have their rule they have been our companions. it is a matter for the future of syria and the curds can look to the future. the curds in syria and transition. they had discussions earlier today. we will continue efforts to that effect. let me remind you, thousands of terrorist prisoners captured by

the curds of syria. we want to make sure the security guarantee can be met. their right to contribute to the future of the country can be preserved. >> i agree entirely with what was just said. >> for both countries. it is essential that we keep a lid on the terrorist threat posed bias is. we have seen a manifestation of that with louisiana where the individual in question said he

was an aherdiant of isis. administer danger is if the more than 10,000 fighters were being detained under the vigilance of our kurdish friends if they were to get out in syria and iraq before being defeated this is an enduring american interest. quorum? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. schumer: thank you. today president-elect donald trump comes to the capitol to meet with senate republicans. we expect they will talk about their first order of business when they assume full control of government. and what is the republicans' first order of business going to be? will it be helping working

people, as donald trump promised on the campaign trail? will it be increasing paychecks or strengthening workers' rights or making health care more affordable? will it be investing in more american manufacturing jobs, like democrats did three years ago? no, no, and again no. donald trump and republicans promised to fight for working americans, but their actions already tell a different story. before even entering office, donald trump is working with the republicans to give very wealthy people and megacorporations another round of trillion-dollar tax cuts. at the same time that americans are struggling with inadequate health care and not -- inadequate child care and not enough health care and inability to buy a home, these republicans are talking about helping the megacorporations and wealthy people get tax cuts and many of them are saying, let's cut social security, let's cut medicare, let's cut health care, let's cut the ability of

first-time homeowner to buy a home to pay for it. so instead of working in a bipartisan way and put the needs of americans first, republicans are getting ready to -- to use the reconciliation process to reward the richest americans and give more tax breaks to america's biggest corporations. it's obscene enough that republicans want to make tax cuts for the ultrarich their first agenda item. but it gets worse when you remember they already cut taxes for those same people just a few years ago. and we all saw what a disaster it was. the last time donald trump and republicans cut taxes for the rich, they claimed it would trickle down to the working people, to the middle class. it most certainly did not. republicans promised the arch household would see $4,000 extra per year. but in fact real median wages grew less than half of a half of a percent.

less than half of a half of a percent in the two years that followed -- following these tax cuts. executive pay and bonuses meanwhile soared to record highs. stock buybacks which only reward shareholders hit a record in 2018. after the trump tax cuts went into effect, the highest income earners in america paid less effectively in taxes than the working class for the first time ever. imagine that. the highest income earners paid less effectively in taxes than the working class for the first time ever after the first trump tax cut and republicans want to repeat that performance? according to one study by economists at the university of california, the richest 400 families paid a lower tax rate than the bottom half of u.s. households in 2018. the richest 400 families paid a lower rate than the bottom half

of u.s. households in 2018. paid a lesser amount, i believe. there is nothing, nothing pro worker about cutting taxes for the wealthiest people in america. but that's precisely what republicans are preparing to do as one of their first orders of business. they're not debating whether they should do it, just what's the best way to do it, one bill, two bills. choose your poison. we already see a clear difference between the way republicans are preparing to govern and how democrats governed when we had the majority. we put bipartisanship first. we never made party line votes the only part of our main agenda as republicans seem prepared to do. let's not forget in the first year of the democrats' majority, one of our snu bills was a bipartisan effort to rebuild america's roads, bridge, and highways, to put people to work and fix our infrastructure. that's putting workers first. in 2022, democrats led a bipartisan effort to bring

manufacturing back to our shores, too make -- to make america the world leader in microchip production once again, to plant the seeds for good-paying tech jobs in america's heartland. that's putting workers first. in 2023, we even led a bipartisan effort to fix our immigration system with the strongest border security bill in over a decade. that was a bipartisan bill. we were hours away from voting on the bill here in the senate before donald trump killed it for no other reason than a cynical political game. so it's troubling so far we've seen little indication from republican -- the republican majority that they're interested in continuing the bipartisan streak of the last four years or that they're really interested in helping the working people of america in any way. instead republicans seem ready to use their majority to go back to the same old gop playbook. tax cuts for the ultrarich, trickledown affectses, and turning their backs on working

americans whom they promised to fight for. now on nominations. every time a new administration begins one of the most important things the senate does is carefully evaluate, consider, and vote on the president's cabinet nominees. strong nominees only come from a strong vetting process here in the senate. i've been very clear where democrats stand. we need thorough background investigations. we need hearings where both sides can prepare to ask strong questions, and we need a vote here on the floor. in other words, we expect regular order. it's deeply troubling then to see our republican colleagues already beginning to shun regular order. yesterday the chairman of the committee on energy and natural resources noticed a hearing for governor doug bergman to serve as the next is heing of the interior without minority consent as has long been the standard practice. senate democrats on the committee expressed reasonable objections to proceeding to this hearing because the committee had not yet received basic

information on governor bergman's background. why are republicans trying to -- what are republicans trying to hide by rushing this and other nominees through committee? it's very reasonable to wait a little, get additional background information so both sides can be ready for the hearing. why the rush? are republicans trying to hide the fact that maybe some of donald trump's nominees are not qualified for the positions she seek? are republicans trying to cover for nominees who will turn their backs on working americans and use agencies like the department of the interior to help giant polluters and big business? the american people should know if cabinet nominees will push policies that kill good-paying clean energy jobs created under president biden. these are good-paying jobs that support communities in red states and blue states. repealing these jobs would be profoundly antiworker, might cause many to lose their jobs.

americans deserve to know what kind of people are going to serve in president trump's cabinet. they need assurances that these nominees will fight for them, will cut costs, hold the big corporations accountable. when republicans try to rush nominees through the process, the american people have to wonder what are republicans trying to hide. now finally, i want to make a few brief -- a brief comment about the president-elect's press conference yesterday. donald trump throws out a lot of strange and rather random ideas on a regular basis. he did it yesterday when suggesting we rename the gulf of mexico the gulf of america. let me say this. i'd agree working with donald trump on renaming the gulf of mexico only if he first agrees to work with us on an actual plan to lower costs for americans.

that's what the american people want us to focus on first, not on renaming bodies of water. our priorities, our democratic priorities are so much more closely aligned with the concerns of the american people than donald trump's seem to be. the incoming president knows he has a tall task ahead of him. he spent years on the campaign trail making outlandish promises he won't be able to keep. in fact, he's getting rich to do the opposite of -- he's getting ready to do the opposite of what he promised by cutting tax cuts for the very, very wealthy. donald trump is in over his head. so he's doing what he always does in times like this, distract america with crazy ideas. renaming the gulf of mexico may be a dany new idea but it isn't going to help people save money at the grocery store. it's not going to make trips to the pharmacy more affordable or help anyone find a good-paying

job. donald trump says these things because it will get him attention and make him sound like a tough guy. if donald trump wants to rename an ocean to sound more patriotic, i say we'll them him on one condition and only one condition. let's come up with a real plan first, not a concept of a plan to lower prices for americans. let's do that first. then donald trump can have his fun. i yield the floor and note the -- i yield the floor.

mr. barrasso: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip is recognized. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, two months ago the american people gave republicans a clear mandate. a mandate to get america back on track. senate republicans won 53 seats. the house of representatives, republicans in the majority. and president trump won a historic victory. he won all seven of the battleground states, and he won the popular vote. the victory was decisive. starting it week republicans are going to begin to deliver on the pan date. -- on the mandate. just heard the minority leader in the senate talking about what are republicans going to do to help the american people. i'm going to talk about that because i want to contrast it to

what the outgoing president is doing right now in using his final days in office. the democrat president would is leaving is trying to put in place left-wing dangerous policies, policies that have been rejected by the american voters, and policies that are going to make it more expensive for american voters to live their lives. these policies will make america less safe, less prosperous, and more vulnerable. these aren't policies that the american people voted for. seems that the lame duck president is working overtime to undermine the american values and advancing the -- than advancing the wishes of the american people. the outgoing president has actually had his administration sign contracts with government unions so government workers have the right to stay home from work, maybe pretending that they're working while still getting paid for a job that they're supposed to be doing. to make matters worse, this past month, joe biden banned american

energy production on 625 million acres of federal waters. democrat leader says we need to do things to lower prices for the american people. that's not going to do it. that's going to make it more expensive for the american people with they use energy to heat their home, to drive their vehicles. joe biden and the democrats are using an obscure law to sabotage american energy independence and american energy production. and in the process of doing this, all in the name of the environment and climate, they're going to make it much harder for the american people to make ends meet at end of the month. in my home state of wyoming, the biden administration issued a midnight rule that limits agriculture production and oil and gas leasing in wyoming on public lands. he did this over the objections of the people of wyoming. this is one more insult from this outgoing administration on

the families and the workers of my home state. so it's not surprising that joe biden continues to do more damage as he shuffles out the door. under his administration, punishing regulations have replaced common sense. his war on american energy independence has hurt us strategically and has caused prices to go up dramatically. on the whole he has been the most anti-american energy president in the history of this country. and sadly there are plenty more examples of the malicious sabotage by this lame duck president. in december would did we learn? we learned that the biden administration was selling off materials purchased to build the wall at our southern border. sold materials for pennies on the dollar. bidding began at $5. this has -- this is vin diblive

and illegal -- vindictive and illegal violation of u.s. law. he hit more than 10 mill immigrants cross into our country illegally. among them we know were over 300 individuals on the terror watch list. so this morning when the democrat leader said what are the republicans doing? what are you starting out doing? well, this week we're going to be voting on the laken riley bill. she was a young woman, innocent young woman murdered by an illegal immigrant. came across into this country illegally. she was murdered. it's a bill that's been sponsored and cosponsored by every republican in the senate and now i'm happy to report that there are several democrats who have also signed on to that legislation. we're now talking about something that should have been done in a bipartisan way earlier, but we somewhere an -- but we have an opportunity this week to get a bill passed in the

senate that is absolutely bipartisan and would make a huge difference in trying to protect american citizens from illegal immigrants in this country. we're talking of a group at least ten million, some who are members of criminal cartels, drug dealers, people on the terrorist watch list. but yet by joe biden's actions, selling off materials that taxpayers have paid for, for pennies on the dollar, he's making it harder and more expensive for president trump to do the job at the border that he was elected to do and for which joe biden and his party were rejected at the ballot box. it week we also see that joe biden is rushing to release terrorists from american custody. one week after the new orleans terrorist attack. this president has set free 11 terrorists from

guantanamo bay. joe biden wants to give back a dangerous terrorist and close friend of osama bin laden. here at home we're seeing another type of joe biden jail break. last month the president pardoned 39 convicts, commuted the sentences of nearly 1500 more, more commutations in a single day than the last three presidents combined. these people are hardened criminals. they include murders, child abusers, fraudsters, conartists and corrupt officials. this ugly action was a disregard for the victims, for their families and for the facts and a slap in the face of every law-abiding citizens.

this abuse of power undermines our justice system and the power of the presidency. this week joe biden continued his march of shame by giving america's highest civilian honor to george soros. he is a pro-crime activist, he is an active supporter of defund the police. george soros spent $50 million to elect soft on crime politicians including alvin bragg. biden awarded soros by funding lawyers who launched the legal attacks against his political opponent, president trump. in his final days in office now, joe biden is making america less safe, less prosperous and more vulnerable. this is opposite of what the american people voted for in

november. it was a column in the opinion page of yesterday's washington post magazine, this is an opinion on individuals on what joe biden's legacy will be. this is by matt bye, called a bridge to nowhere. the big line is, joe biden will be chiefly remembered as a man who didn't know when to leave. didn't know when to leave. joe biden's shelf life has expired. it is time for him to leave. in our first days in office, republicans have started to get america back on track. working with president trump, we'll but the our focus on what the american people care about, stopping the chaos at the bothered, taking the handcuffs off of american energy production, and putting the safety and security and the

future of all americans first. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. durbin: for many presidents their legacy is written and sealed by take action in office, their post presidential activities is nothing more than fodder but not for jimmy carter. i remember the last days of the carter presidency. after 444 painful days of sustained, frustrating effort to release hostages held in tehran, we witnessed their release but it was on the day of our peaceful transfer of power from president carter to president

reagan. president carter's main goal was to make sure every hostage returned home alive. on that score, he succeeded. leaving office at the age of 46 years -- 56 years of age and passing away last month at 100, he had the longest post presidency in our nation's history and he certainly made it count. the same faith, empathy and desire to help others that motivated him to run for office compelled him to continue to help the world after leaving office. not content with a rocking chair retirement, he devoted himself to human rights, conflict resolution, election monitoring, health care, affordable housing, and so much more. he was a humble man in a world of politics where humility is often the first casualty. but there is no doubt that in corners of the globe near and

far, he left his mark. a public servant can ask for no greater legacy. as our 39th president lies in state, it is a time to pay our respects and reflecting. president carter's legacy tasks each one of us with a looking inward and asking, how can i use my place in life to do more good for more people? today i send my thoughts to all of those who knew, loved and were inspired by president carter. our nation and world is better off because of his service. may he rest in peace. mr. president, i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

>> we are waiting for a senator to come to the floor to speak. jimmy carter is lying in state before his funeral service tomorrow at washington

cathedral. you can watch the live feed on the c-span now video app or online at c-span.org. you are watching live senate coverage as we wait for the speaker to come to the floor to speak. >> other next guest is christian mcdaniels. she severed as the senior trade economist in the george w. bush administration at the white house from 2005 to 2007. to talk about a pending decision concerning u.s. steel and protest and push back from the biden administration. thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. >> for those not following as close as you are. explain what has happened concerning u.s. steel. >> the last few days.

they had made an offer to acquire u.s. steel. they returned to work the deal out. the committee on foreign investment in the united states, you will hear a lot about them on this case. the inner agency group of people the large enough deals that might offer legitimatement and don't pose national security risks. they did the investigation. they couldn't come to a conclusion there was evidence

they might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the united states. that's our now. both sides have taken us to court. people say, it will be held up for a while and the next administration will decide how it ends up. >> foreign mergers and acquisitions happen all of the time, you know, somebody with an opportunity and you know, they proposed the merge or aquisition in this case it sounds like what they said, they saw an opportunity to, you know, invest in u.s. steel in terms of the

advantage. the value chain and arguably superior. this is for specific capitol. they are more advanced in production contest. some what to rehab the reagan era. when he put-up the barriers for imported automobiles. what happened was japanese auto makers started making it in the u.s. same thing going on here. we see them getting more production. they want to invest in the united states.

this is a win-win for the japanese steelmaker and the workers. with that huge injection it could keep u.s. steel going. >> when you say keep u.s. steel going, can you elaborate? >> well, u.s. steel has been struggling on and off for decades now. the steel industry in general in the u.s. has been asking for protections for import competitions and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. the short-term, eventually global economic realities catch-up and come back asking for more production in president bush's administration that happened and then a live

antidumping continued. you know, before and after that special bush safeguard. of course, president and national security, section 232 for more tariffs for steel. and it's just been competition. whether that's right or wrong that's the reality of the situation. >> christian, mcdaniel for this conversation concerning the sale

of u.s. steel to a japanese company. if you'd like to ask questions about it and issues she spoke about. give us a call. you can text us your questions or comments. (202)748-0003. this is part of the statement from president biden with his concerns about the sale. there is a strong domestically strong sale for a security priority and critical for resilient supply chain. steel powers the country. of auto industry, and industrial base. as they determine this will face the largest steel produsters under foreign control and create risk for critical supply chain. that's why i'm taking action to block the deal. has there been a specific given

about the concerns. >> we have not seen anything public yet. no details on the credible threat. so, you know, they don't necessarily have to make it public. you know, maybe it's there and maybe not. i don't know. so far, it hasn't been publicly detailed what the credible threat is. what is interesting too. the committee on foreign investment in the united states is a committee out of several agencies . . .

he said this, president biden's actions today be shameful and corrupt. he gave political payback to the union without a touch of his minions members, workers and national security. insulted japan of our economic and national security ally and put american competitive, risk. the chinese, as party leaders are dancing in the streets and biden that all are refusing to meet with us to learn the facts. our employees and communities deserve better. what do you think of that

response? what's interesting about response to you? >> guest: both sides will be making their statements now. look, when this deal was first announced as an idea, was at last year? my gut reaction was oh, , that could be a great opportunity, good for the workers, good for the company, good for the u.s. steel industry. we have a fresh injection of capital, fresh technology, new innovative production come also really good, strong tie to such a strong steelmaker in a very strong allied country like japan. you know, and notwithstanding any credible national study threats, it should be up to the company to decide what you want to do and if they think it's a

win-win based on conditions and it's a win-win. so it's not surprising he's saying this. there's also been some reports that there has been some extra lobby on the case are the unions and then by another company which is another u.s. steelmaker. and so it sounds like that is being cited a lot in some of these court cases that are being filed. it will be interesting to watch how this plays out. >> host: that's the courtside. we have a new president come in just a matter of weeks. what's the president elects take on this deal? >> guest: so president trump has said publicly that he does not like the idea of a foreign

entity taking ownership of u.s. steel. but during campaign days people see a lot of different things. we'll have to wait and see. also president trump is someone who really seems to respect the market, not want to disrupt the market. he will have a lot of competing interests here. so far as he says he has opposed the deal, but we will see when he gets in and the team gets it and maybe they will have a fresh take on this, a closer look at all the information, not just the information that they were privy to. and who knows? i don't think this is over yet. >> host: what would change the situation on the ground either i suppose the change of position by either this president for the next but what are the factors could change? >> guest: there's a credible national security threat reported by biden, perhaps the trump team will have different

lens through which to view national security. what is seen as a national security threat to president biden and not be seen as a national security threat to president trump and his team. the criteria might be different for trump and his team, and we will have to and see. >> host: was there since if this deal were to take place how those employed by ust would be affected, with a loose job, be able to keep their jobs, any sense of what would happen to the employees? >> guest: yeah, that is what was so striking here because in their proposal committed to honoring all of the labor unions terms and conditions that all reworked out, so they were not going to touch any of that.

keep all the employees, keep all the salaries. but under almost terms tue condition. and they also agreed, unprecedented, i personally have never seen this before, they agree to give the u.s. government veto power over any potential plant closures in the united states. that was interesting because that touches on u.s. government interest in keeping up in daschle capacity, capacity running for steel in the u.s. that was a big thing driving trump section 232. that was a big thing. they want capacity at least a a certain percentage, i want to say 80, 85% come something like this. trump saw that industrial capacity being a certain threshold and not going below it is really important for national security.

maybe if they still have that criteria maybe they can work through that, i don't know. it's also you have to remember there's so much force is at the end end of the day. these are private investors, private shareholders. so even if nippon steel those about to come if you is no longer viable, they're not going to survive the long run regardless of how many terrorists go up. if you would want the best for u.s. steel that may or may not be an acquisition but it might be. you have to be open to this if you will want a vibrant u.s. steel company continuing. >> our guests served as a former white house senior trade economist in the george w. bush administration and distorting senior research fellow at george mason university. christine mcdaniel. let your from richard in pennsylvania, , democrats like

figure first. go ahead. >> caller: yes. what wonder is is why the politicians and everybody thinks that we can't take our steel plant and make it work? i mean, trying to sell half of our steel plant to nippon steel, i don't understand how, what makes anybody think them buying half of our steel and by all this equipment of our stuff, just like bethlehem steel years ago in buffalo, new york. they wanted him to clean up their admissions through taking care of i guess the stacks and stuff, and i did know exactly what. but then bethlehem steel was putting so many tactics of the for the area around their steel plant up their come bethlehem steel asked the politicians, could you give us a break on our taxes? they said no. they said, we would just close

the plant. it was about five miles on route five up there that was bethlehem steel. we can't keep giving with all our industry and these companies, bethlehem steel, i mean it's gone, now u.s. steel, now nippon wants to come into it. unity telling it's going to guarantee because nippon come in about our steel plant that we can't operate in a productive way to make money? i don't understand -- premo we got the point. thanks very much. we will let our guest respond to that tragic these are legitimate questions. nothing is guaranteed. these are private capital owners. they are going to put their money where they can get a return. the u.s. has a long history of acquisitions of u.s. firms by foreign firms. remember back when chrysler filed for bankruptcy, was it

2009? italian fiat came along and acquired a majority stake. five years later, that was a huge success. today now they're called stellantis, one of the world's largest automakers. chrysler might not it made had not it not been for the acquisition. oftentimes it doesn't always work out. remember when china acquired -- back in 2000 what that did not work out. sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. there are particular, , usually there's a list of things that happen when things do work out, and when they don't work out. one question is you think as incomes is nippon steel overpaying for this? not all of japan's investments in the u.s. a workout will appear on you then some of work out very well.

but nippon steel isn't just paying a big premium for u.s. steel. they have pledged to invest 2.7 billion in the u.s. steel union represented the subtleties. that is more than what u.s. steel was planning on doing. to the extent one is concerned about the long-term viability of u.s. steel, this is consistent with that notion. >> host: there's a viewer who makes the comment come better u.s. steel sales to allied countries like japan rather than a communist adversaries like china. how do geopolitics like that working to these kind of deals? >> guest: i mean absolutely. japan is such a strong, one of our strongest allies, arguably our strongest ally in asia. one of the largest investors in the united states in terms of foreign direct investment.

had it not been for may be a protectionist move in use, it would be interesting to see how this would have gone say ten years ago, you know? the mood seems different now. but no, absolutely. if you look at the deal, there's been about seven or so deals u.s. presidents have said no to that they are blocked, most of those have been with countries that are not close allies. in fact, i was looking at a list last night and about half of them were with china. absolutely japan is a a huge , an important ally and if there's anyone that can be a good strong partner for u.s. steel and their viability, you think they're definitely at the top of the list. >> host: this is from cairo carn ohio, republican line, hello, thank you. i wanted to know what role the

united states international trade commission is playing in some of these fields, if any? i was concerned i learned about a year ago that the trade commission denied of west virginia ten plant getting terrorists and subsequent the plant and all the employees lost their jobs and shuttered. my concern is that sometimes these agencies created in the u.s. like the international trade commission will deny american companies protective tariffs, therefore undermining u.s. workers and u.s. companies in supporting these foreign companies that sometimes are rather immoral and unethical the way they exploit workers overseas. thank you. >> guest: carol has a great point on that. the international trade commission has an important role in anti-dumping cases.

carol you are probably referring to that at the dumping countervailing duty case. so the itc, they do rule on those particular dumping and countervailing duty cases. this issue there is no direct role for the trade commission. this is an issue for the committee on foreign investments in the united states, agencies, departments in, within the administration. the itc as an independent agency so the outside of that circle. it does steel as within the administration so you get like treasury, pentagon, state, et cetera. so yeah, i could see it involved directly in this decision. >> host: lewis, another pennsylvanian joining us on a line for independents for christine mcdaniel. go ahead. >> caller: good morning.

it's been reported on unit that nippon initially offered u steel to purchase it but initially they only wanted to purchase a modern up-to-date mills that are in nonunionized areas, then the u.s. still came back and said you had to buy all your and so nippon did come back and make the offer. i imagine some concerns are that if nippon really didn't want the older type of steel mills that are unionized but yet hunter biden to make the deal work, that maybe somewhere down the road nippon will find a way to close those mills, keep the mills that are modern and in nonunion locations and that ultimately these mills are in western pennsylvania that people are so concerned about, they will close because even if you guarantee that you will do something in the future as part of a contract you can always break the contract and pay the damages if you really want to get out of it. that's something people are

concerned about that doesn't get mentioned much. thank you. >> guest: yeah, i mean who knows? i mean, what they abide by that or break that and pay the fines? i don't know. it's a good point about, it's true in the beginning they just wanted the higher tech ones. frankly, that's just a higher productive, productivity level, lower-cost . relatively speaking. nippon steel technological advancement i meet are amazing. i mean they have a blast furnace operations. they done digital transformations. using digital technology in their production processes. they invest heavily in developing these new steel alloys and materials. high-strength, lightweight steel. that would just be a huge plus

for u.s. manufacturing, especially at a time when the past initiation, the coming administration are so focused on rebuilding manufacturing in america. you really do want a vibrant steel -- you want u.s. manufacturers to have access to globally competitively priced steel, , right? wherever it is made. but if you have a preference that it is made in the u.s., then you want steel producers using the best technology or best quality and best price point. so look, i without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, with the new session of the senate and a new majority in the house and the senate -- actually the house had a majority, but the senate has a new majority and president trump and the white -- in the white house, one of the first things that members of the senate had to do was to choose

which committees to serve on. and i've been proud to serve on the senate judiciary, finance, and intelligence committee in previous congresses. this congress i'll be joining the budget committee for the 119th congress. i was particularly interested in joining the budget committee, because one of the biggest challenges we have is to get our budget under control with approaching $36 trillion in debt. we're paying more interest on the national debt than we are on defense. and at a time when president trump is asked -- has asked nato to up their investment in their own defense to as much as 5% of gdp, we stand about 2.7% of gdp here at open. clearly, we need to right size our spending and our debt and reprioritize what it is we're

trying to do here which national security i believe is the preeminent responsibility of the united states congress. we'll have the opportunity to pass a budget with reconciliation instructions. i'm not sure how much the american people care about the process. we care about the process because we have to deal with it. but the first thing we do have to do is pass a budget. that's something we haven't done since 2017. i remember in 2017 right after president trump was sworn -- or even before he was sworn into office, we passed a budget resolution from which we got the ability to then pass the tax cuts and jobs act, one of the most significant tax reform bills in 25 years. but we got that budget passed before president trump even took office because as a resolution between the house and the senate, it doesn't require a presidential signature.

so it's already january 8. we have 12 days until president trump puts his hand on the bible and is sworn into his second term of office, and we don't have any time to waste. the reason why a budget is so important for a variety of reasons, but one reason is because it allows us to pass budgetary legislation using the majority threshold which would allow us, republicans alone, hopefully democrats will join us, but with 53 republicans and everybody on the same page hopefully, we'll be able to pass legislation addressing our budgetary challenges. we do have unique rules here in the senate. one called the byrd rule which tries to make sure we don't use the reconciliation process and the budgetary process to pass substantive legislation as opposed to budgetary

legislation. and that's something we're going to have to work out with the house, because i know the house has different rules. they don't have any constraint on the types of things that they can do using reconciliation like the senate does, but that's the reason why it's so important for the house and the senate to get on the same page. some discussion here on capitol hill about whether we want to pass one budget or two budgets or more. actually even one budget with multiple reconciliation bills. frankly, i don't think the process is as important as it is to get the job done. we need to save the american people a multitrillion dollar tax increase which will occur unless we can renew the provision of the tax cuts and jobs act. as i said earlier, we need to deal with our rising debt and our funding for our national

security purposes. the goal of course for national security funding is to establish deterrence and to deter whether it's iran that has aspirations for nuclear weapons that's created so much havoc and misery in the middle east, whether it's north korea that's testing hypersonic missiles along with human yar weapons or -- nuclear weapons or whether it's russia which has aspirations to restore the old former soviet union or russian empire. currently by the means of taking ukraine back. and then there's china which as the presiding officer knows with all of his experience in asia is a huge challenge for the united states. president xi has stated he wants the peoples liberation army be prepared by 2027 to take taiwan

by whatever means necessary. we are not ready. and we have to be ready to maintain and reestablish deterrence so that that does not happen so president xi wakes up day after day and he says to himself not today. and tomorrow he wakes up, he says not today. that's what deterrence is about and we again need to deal with our budgetary challenges because we are not spending the amount of money we need to spend on defense and deterrence. nor are we spending the money we do spend and i believe the wisest and most appropriate manner given the current circumstances. so whether we pursue a second reconciliation bill or multiple bills, we can't lose sight of the goal, and that's to pass president trump's agenda for the american people. that's what the november 5 election was all about. and we are in lockstep with

president trump i believe the majority in the house and the senate to accomplish that goal. but we can't do that unless we work closely together which is why we need to be on the same page. we need to quickly arrive at that agreement so we can act swiftly to implement the solutions that will help improve the day-to-day lives of our constituents, the people we represent. in my case, 31 million people in the state of texas. president biden's policies have been a disaster for my state and for the american people. texans have been suffering under open borders and high prices for the last four years. those who run businesses are facing burdensome regulations from the out-of-control regulatory regime. and on top of this, as i mentioned, if republicans fail to act swiftly to extend the expiring tax cuts, 62% of

taxpayers will experience a tax increase. 62%. we can't let that happen. it would be insult to injury on top of 40-year high inflation for the american people to have to experience a tax cut if we are -- a tax increase if we are unsuccessful. so while we have important conversations and healthy debates over what budget reconciliation ends up looking like, we need to keep our eye on the prize in order to deliver on these critical priorities for the american people. now in addition to border security, abundant american energy, regulatory reform, permitting reform, and avoiding this multitrillion dollar tax increase, there's one more thing that i'd like my colleagues to remember as we deliberate the context of this package. i believe we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deal with some of the biggest

challenges that faces america, and we can't squander that opportunity. we have to address not only our discretionary spending which is about 28% of what the federal government spends each year, but also our mandatory spending programs outside of social security and medicare. we're not going to touch social security or medicare absent some bipartisan agreement, but there is still about $700 billion of mandatory spending that the federal government spends each year that is essentially on autopilot. we can address these mandatory spending programs by implementing commonsense reforms to programs like snap, otherwise known as food stamps, that have grown unchecked for years. by simply reducing payment errors for snap payments, for example, we could save an estimated $100 billion. by implementing a real work

requirement for means tested programs like congress did back during the clinton presidency, we could save an incredible amount of money for the american people and help ease inflation so that the federal reserve can bring down interest rates. or we could repeal the controversial 2021 thrifty food plan that would save as much as $300 billion. we're talking about real money, mr. president, but it's not just programs that got plus-ups during the pandemic era. let's take a look, for example, at the irs. by rescinding the remaining unspent inflation reduction act funds that were directed to the irs during the democrats' massive spending spree, we could save an additional $40 billion. now think about that for a minute. we could save taxpayers $40 billion just by spending less

money to the agency that when it comes to process their tax payments. that seems like a no-brainer if i ever heard of one. and this money has not been spent. if there are other demands in the future that congress needs to address, then we are prepared to act on those. but to simply leave $40 billion unspent and act as if there's nothing we can do about it at a time of sky-high inflation and reckless spending, i think would be irresponsible on our part. now here's another idea. by repealing davis bay con, a -- bacon, a law that requires federal construction projects take are carried out that applies them, that requires payment of a prevailing wage which isn't necessarily a market wage at the location you're talking about, the department of transportation alone could save

$400 million. turning to our federal workforce, our federal workforce does by and large great work. they do important work on behalf of the american people but by reforming the pension system in line with the private sector standard, the government could save $5 billion over the next decade. we could reform the structure of the federal employee health benefit program and save an additional $18 billion. these are just a few examples of what i would call low-hanging fruit of the opportunities for us to save taxpayer money and to begin to reverse the reckless spending policies of the last four years. these are just some examples of the longer list that would save taxpayers as much as $1 trillion

over the next ten-year period. and of course i think we ought to put it all on the table. the money we spend through discretionary spending, the money we spend through mandatory programs, the money that's spent through the tax code, the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit alone represent $200 billion in spending. and this is using the tax code to basically create a supplement or welfare system because it's a refundable tax credit which means people get a check, get cold, hard cash using the tax code. we need to restore the tax code to its original purpose and not hijack it for purposes of expanding the welfare state. we can have healthy debates about what the priorities should be. i -- i think the tax credit is very important. we can talk about the appropriate levels of all of

these programs, including those included in the tax code. we have to start somewhere, and we have to start soon. little things do add up. over the past four years, families back home in texas have had to reevaluate their budgets. so why shouldn't the federal government have to make the hard choices that folks back home are making on a daily and weekly basis? they've had to tighten their belts as a result of high inflation, and the highest interest rates that we've had in a long time, which have eaten away at their monthly income. they've figured it out, and we can figure it out too here for the american people and for the federal government. i think it's only fair, mr. president, that the u.s. congress, which holds the pursestrings for the united states government as a whole, should have to do the same thing, that families all across texas, all across tennessee, all across the tunnel are having to do -- across the country are

having to do on a regular basis. it doesn't seem fair to me to have the folks back home have to make these tough choices, while the congress has been spending away under democratic majority control and with president biden in the white house. this is another reason i'm excited about the great work republicans are going to doen to the doge -- going to do on the doge caucus, the department of government efficiency, alongside our friend, elon musk and his partner in crime, vivek ramaswamy. i say that tongue in cheek, mr. president. they have volunteered their efforts and raised the visibility and profile of some of the massive inefficiency in federal spending, in a way that i think will galvanize the attention of the american people and enable us to get the political courage to do what we need to do to cut out waste, fraud, and abuse.

if this republican-led congress can make an impact on refusing spending, and i know we're all excited about the opportunities to do so. we are chomping at the bit. we just need to all get on the same page so we can 2k3we9 get -- we can get down to work. i urge all of my colleagues to remember budget reconciliation not only allows us to alvate re -- allocate resources to the southern border, which have been flat out ignored by the biden administration, but it's also a tool to reduce spending, inefficient, wasteful spending, and to right-size our priorities. you know, budgets are all about prio priorities. we have things we must have, we have things we'd like to have, and we have things we want, but we can't afford. those are decisions families have to make on a regular basis. so do small businesses all

across the country. why not the federal government? there's no good reason why the federal government shouldn't have to operate under the same rules. while we can notch some big wins in the coming weeks, we need to eat our spinach too. we've been kicking a lot of these issues down the road, until now, we've run out of road. et cetera up to us, the -- it's up to us, the elected representatives of the american people, this is our responsibility, it's not always going to be fun. it's not necessarily always going to be popular, but i believe if we explain to the american people the necessity of doing what i've been talking about here, they will understand it and they will respect it and accept it. after all, this is something i proposed that we do, that we have to do, because of what the american people told us they want, which is a change in direction for the country in

their vote of november 5 of this last year. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the gentleman from virginia is recognized. mr. kaine: mr. president, i spoke on the senate floor on december 11, about birthright citizenship, the guarantee contained in the 14th amendment to the u.s. constitution that all persons born in the united states and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are deemed citizens. i reviewed the legal history of this provision, the legal guarantee designed to erase the horrible legacy of slavery that had been embodied in the dread scott v. sandford decision. it was a desire to correct that decision that led to the inclusion of this definition of citizenship in the 14th amendment. i also rebutted during that speech two common misconceptions. first, that children born in the

united states to parents from other countries are not subject to the jurisdiction of the united states. that has been ruled false by the supreme court since the late 1890's. second, a claim often made by the president-elect, that the united states is unique in the world in guaranteeing citizenship to all born within this country. indeed, as i'll discuss in a few minutes, the u.s. did in fact lead the way in guaranteeing birthright citizenship in the 1860's, but in doing so has led to a global movement that many other countries have decided to embrace. i believe the constitutional basis for birthright citizenship is clear, and those challenging the notion are mounting an argument with no legal basis. but today, i want to move beyond the legal history and talk about the good that birthright citizenship brings to our nation. children born in america to immigrant parents, from all corners of the world and from all social conditions, have been

an enormous benefit to our country and indeed to my commonwealth of virginia. more than 47 million people living in the united states were born in another country, and another 16 million american children were born here to immigrant parents. currently, more than 25% of all american children live in a household where at least one of their parents is an immigrant. how has immigration affected american society? let's use one example, crime. the statistics are compelling and long-standing, that immigration does not increase crime. instead, the evidences is strong -- the evidence is strong that crime has decreased as immigration has increased. in 1980, immigrants made up 6.2% of the american population, 45

years ago. by 2022, the percentage had more than doubled, with immigrants now making up nearly 14% of the american population. what happened to crime during that period? as the percentage of immigrants in the united states doubled. during this time, the crime rate in this country, as measured by crimes committed per 100,000 people, has fallen by 60%. so, again, as the portion of our population that is immigrant has more than doubled, the crime rate in our country has fallen by more than 60%. a recent study you conducted by scholars at northwestern university pulled crime data from the united states going back 150 years, and during that 150-year period they were able to reach a uniform conclusion

that immigrants during this 150-year period have always been incarcerated at lower rates than native-born americans. another recent study, commissioned by the national institute of justice within the doj, looked at all crimes committed in texas from 2012 to 2018 and found that undocumented immigrants, the earlier statistics i'd been giving are about immigrants generally but this study in texas found that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half of the rate of native-born u.s. citizens for violent crimes and drug crimes, and at less than a quarter of the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes. immigration is a plus for the american economy. immigrant households generated more than $236 billion in income in 2022, and paid nearly $66

billion in local, state, and federal taxes. the congressional budget office estimates that immigration flows to the united states, that are projected, would likely increase american gross domestic product by nearly $9 trillion between now and 2034. i know, because of the background of the president, this next statistic will not surprise you. more than 45% of fortune 500 companies in america were started by immigrants or the children of immigrants. this is not just a relic of the past. it sticks to today. in 2023, 17% of new businesses that were started in america during that year were started by immigrants, and another 17% were started by the children of immigrants, fully 34% of new businesses there 2023 -- in 2023 were started by immigrants or

the children of immigrants. it's clear to me, the great-grandson of seven irish immigrants and scottish immigrant, who's dad was scottish and mother was irish, throughout our history immigrants tremendously benefited this nation. that is not something that is suddenly turning from a positive to a negative. in virginia, i was born in 1958, about one out of 100 virginians were born in another country. today it's more like one out of eight. that coincided during my life time with virginia moving from bottom quarter per capita income among american states to top quarter. of that movement has been significantly advanced by talented people from around the world deciding they wanted to make virginia their home. enough of the statistics. how about some stories? children of immigrants have made powerful contributions to the very essence of america. where would american fashion be

without people like ralph lauren, who just got a presidential medal, born ralph lifnitz, in the bronx to parents who immigrated from poland. where would american politics be without people like kamala harris, born in california to parents who had emgraded from jamaica -- imgrafted from jamaica to india. or marco rubio, or nikki haley, born in south carolina to parents who emigrated from the punjab region of india. or general and former secretary of state colin powell, born in new york to parents who imgreated from jamaica? where would american sports be without people like figure skater michelle kwan born in california to parents who emigrated from hong kong or alex rodriguez born to parents who emcrotchetyed from the --

emigrated from the dominican republic? or acting, with rene zellweger or bruce lee, born in california, who points who emgreated from hong kong and shanghai. where would american business be without ketchup magnate henry heinz born in pittsburgh to parents from germany? or outdoor gear entrepreneur eddie barr born -- eddie bauer. or estee lauder born in queens to parents from hungary and slovakia. or david geffen born in brooklyn to parents who were from palestine? or american music, without people like frank sinatra, or george judiciary win, the -- george gershwin 12k3w4 1234 all

were born here in the united states. some whose immigration status was unclear at the time of birth, and some of whose parents were clearly undocumented. that's the point of birthright citiz citizenship. when america is at its best, the status of our parents doesn't limit our ability to contribute to our community, and that's part of the genius of our nation. i believe birthright citizenship put into our constitution in the 1860's to rectify the sin of slavery and egregious dread scott decision has been a -- dred scott decision has been a blessing to our country. it has inspired a global movement, especially wrong nations in the americas, to guarantee citizenship to all born within their borders. there's slightly more than three dozen nations in the world that guarantee birthright citizenship, predominantly in the america.

why did it catch lowelled in the americas? -- catch hold in the americas? we called ourselves the new world, a phrase used for the unand americas to contrast with the old world that tended to lock you in a social status based on who your parents were. that was a reality pretty common when english arrived in jamestown in 1607 or plymouth rock in 1619, and as europeans and others were coming to the united states before we declared our independence in 1776. it was fairly common for people to be locked into a status where they were born. that's why so many of our ancestors wanted to come to the united states, because they would not be locked into a social status based upon their parents' social status. and look into a future where their own kids and grandkids and

great grandkids would be locked into a social status. the united states decided to an adopt a new world concept that if you're born in this country you are a u.s. citizen. it doesn't matter who your parents are. you have the same responsibilities as anyone born in this country are. it's part of the genius of this country. i could tell thousands of stories like the ones that i shared. and i plan to speak more on this topic in the months to come because i'm going to vigorously defend the constitutional principle of american citizenship against anyone who would attempt to tear it down. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. last week i joined one-third of this chamber in taking the oath of office so that we could start a new term of congress.

and to celebrate what it means to be able to say this is our new start. we've got two years. let's see what we're going to do with this congress. and while taking that oath to support and to defend the constitution and to defend our freedoms, i really felt and thought about what an honor it is to represent the people of the great state of tennessee. now over the last six years, i have fought vigorously to bring the voice of the people of tennessee to this chamber, to make certain that their thoughts and their wishes and their values were brought forward, and that we made the effort to defend faith, family, freedom, hope, and opportunity not only for tennesseans, but for all

americans. and i will tell you, we were able to get so much done over the last six years, and much of it was done by working with colleagues across the aisle, by taking these great ideas from tennessee, bringing them here and saying how do we distill this so that it becomes a policy that is going to positively impact and make better the lives of tennesseans and all americans. now in tennessee, we have a lot of veterans, and there are two provisions that i was able to shepherd through and get signed into law. one is the v.a. veteran caregivers act. and of course, as our veterans have returned from wars, as caregivers from their families

have stepped up to assist them, there were some basically some gaps that needed to be filled in. we did that. we also passed lepgs strengthening -- legislation strengthening the v.a. p is cybersecurity act. i was pleased that got signed into law, to make certain that the identities and the health care legislation, the benefit information of our veterans is going to be protected. in tennessee, we have a big military presence. fort campbell primarily sits in tennessee. we have the l naval station over in millington, right outside of memphis. we have oak ridge national labs. the air force has arnold engineering and development in tulahoma. and i was successful in pushing forward to end president biden's

covid mandate, covid vaccine mandate on our military communities. and every year, in addition to achieving that, every year, mr. president, you and i have worked tirelessly together to make certain that our military assets, our national guard our active duty were well covered in the ndaa. there's also been a foreign policy issue, a couple of them that i've paid close attention to. one is strengthening our ties with israel and standing with our allies, like taiwan and assisting them as we stand up to what i call the axis of evil -- russia, china, iran, and north korea. and one of the bipartisan measures that i brought forward after china took control of hong

kong was to make certain that we supported internet freedom and that we blocked the export of crowd control equipment to china and china-controlled hong kong and bar the faa from buying drones from u.s. adversaries. now, these provisions became law and they strengthen our national security. we also fought to end the modern-day slavery of human trafficking, especially with my bipartisan report act and the project safe childhood act. both of those signed into law last year. and standing up for women with the speak out act. senator gillibrand and i worked diligently on that. the women's suffrage centennial commemorative coin act, and also

senatorial baldwin and i just got across the finish line the women's suffrage national monument location act. and i will tell you, mr. president, so many people were absolutely shocked to find out that there has never been a monument in this city that recognized women's suffrage. we have also worked to confirm judges to the federal bench, including justice amy coney barrett. and of course we all know that that led to the overturning of the roe decision and the chevron decision, two decisions that will impact our nation. we worked with the first trump administration to protect life and to bar federal funds from going to planned parenthood. mr. president, you and i have put endless hours into making

certain that we secured relief for communities in tennessee and across the southeast that have been adversely impacted by hurricane helene. and there is so much more that we have done, but we've turned the page now and we're looking at how do we use this two years, this 119th congress that is in front of us. now we know that the american people have spoken. at the very top of their list is securing that southern border, getting that border under control,ing ending illegal entry into this country. and the american people know you cannot have, you will never have national security without a secure border. every law enforcement officer i talk with in tennessee says we can't get our arms around gangs

and drug trafficking and sex trafficking and crime in our communities until that southern border is secured. so legislation that i'm working diligently on to get passed, my clear act, which many of our colleagues in this chamber have heard me talk about this for years. basically this codifies the 287-g program, and it would ensure that our state and local law enforcement officials can apprehend and detain criminal illegal aliens, and make certain that i.c.e. deports them and that i.c.e. reimburses that local law enforcement agency. with all the harm that has been caused by sanctuary cities, this legislation would end

federal funds into those entities. and it should be a top priority of this congress. we also need to lower costs and make life more affordable. we all know the economy, taxes, inflation, affordability, another of the top issues for the american people, and they want us to hold this government accountable for what they've done to push inflation forward. it means that we need to make permanent the 2017 trump tax cuts. that created the strongest economy in decades and it truly spurred new investment in tennessee and across the country. it also means slashing this out-of-control spending p and making certain that we rein in this lawless bureaucracy that

makes life worse for so many tennesseans and americans. president trump is tackling this problem. he is doing it with the department of government efficiency or doge, which will be led by elon musk and vivek ramaswamy and congress can play a role in ensuring the roles last beyond the trump administration. you know, mr. president, the american people want us to change how the federal government does business. get the spending under control, get rid of the bloat that is in the federal government. i think we should concentrate on this to the point that we doge every single federal agency and turn doge into a verb, a term of

action. another goal at the top of the agenda -- and this is a goal that senator blumenthal and i share we have now worked four years on holding big tech accountable with the kids online safety act and ensuring that parents have the tools they need to protect their children in the virtual space. this is just a sample of all the work that is in front of us. but the list of things we can do to empower american workers and taxpayers and businesses and families and farmers goes on and on. and i'm looking forward to a new administration as we aggressively tackle these issues. expanding access to quality health care, especially for our vets, and especially in rural america.

defending female athletes in women's sports from the radical left's agenda, and celebrating the accomplishment of female athletes. we should pass my american girls in sports day for october 10 of each and every year and celebrate our female athletes. we should end the surge of violent crime in cities across this country. and when it comes to supporting tennessee's creative community with the american music tourism act, the no fakes act, which is a.i. protections, and the hits act for our recording artists. each and every one of these have a place on our agenda for the 119th congress. and before we can do any of

this, we need to make certain that we confirm each of president trump's nominees. make certain that he has his team in place, that his cabinet is in place so that they can carry out the mandate that was sent by the american people, which is no more business as usual, secure the border, make certain that we get the cost of living down, we get inflation down, expand and extend those tax cuts, and be certain that once again our allies know they are an ally and our enemies fear us on the global stage. mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll, please.

quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. quorum call: >> good morning, everyone. let me begin by expressing our deepest thoughts and prayers for the people of los angeles county who are in the face of a horrific extreme weather event

with their lives, property, homes, and families being threatened in a very horrific manner. .. and our government agencies that need to be there in times house democrats are prepared to provide any support necessary to this administration to the state government in california and to the people of los angeles county

as they navigate through these tragic fires. questions? >> the lake and riley act yesterday by the biden party more democrats than last time democrats with the switch not dealing with immigration and does this reflect the got religion. >> customer conflict forward to working with incoming administration and a republican colleague on securing the border in a common sense manner and fixing our broken immigration system in a bipartisan and comprehensive way. >> what about those numbers, there is criticism that democrats did not take immigration seriously with their

world change? spivak is my understanding there were eight to ten democratic votes this year as compared to last year there are new members of the house democratic caucus. thank you mr. leader. over the summer you had a private conversation with president biden and the run-up to his decision of the 2024 race in a new interview in usa today he says he believes he could have been president trump based on the polling, you sell the polling as well. is the president right. >> were looking forward not backward. >> but was he right we could he have the former president? >> happy new year. >> yesterday, what is your response? >> pardoning a violent mob that attacked the capital as part of

a concerted effort of the peaceful transfer of power seriously injured more than 140 heroic police officers threatened to hang mike pence, assassinate the speaker of the house and hunt down members of congress is the height of your responsibilities. >> thank you, sir. yesterday speaker johnson said that one of the debt ceiling in a reconciliation package so they can avoid having to negotiate with democrats. i wonder what do you think about are there any rules democrats cannot support because of that. >> republican party wants to social security, medicare, medicaid, veterans benefits and

nutritional assistant from the children and families in this country. house democrats will not support the reckless cuts because their focus should be on lowering the high cost of living for everyday american will and working-class folks all across the land not facilitating the gop tax scam part two which is designed simply to enact massive tax breaks for billionaires and wealthy corporations and not help americans who are really in the. >> leader jeffries, thank you. imagine the house democrats stand ready to help those in california. what could the assistance of? and how quickly do you think that will become a reality. >> we will evaluate request made from the government of

california as well likely from the current administration and were prepared to act quickly and stay in washington as long as necessary in order to get the emergency relief out to the families who are in harms way in california. >> congress passed a bill that would create a plaque to honor officers who were injured and responded on january 6. can you give an update of why that has not happened. >> i would have to direct you to the speaker of the house of representatives. >> we sent him correspondence on the human thank you. >> what dialogue have you had with incoming administration, the incoming president given he will be on the hill later today. >> is, expectation to have any conversation at any point today but we are looking forward to the dialogue to come in the next

few weeks and thereafter to find the common ground necessary in order to get things done for the american people. house democrats believe that we are not sent to washington to invade greenland, rename the gulf of mexico foresees the panama canal by force. we were sent to washington to lower the high cost of living in the united states of america. america is too expensive for working-class families and for middle-class folks all across the country. that should be our mission and that's what we will focus on over the next few years. >> leader schumer said he'll work with chapter reading the gulf of mexico to the gulf of america, where you stand on that.

>> i think we have to focus on the issues that matter to the american people. housing costs are too high, grocery cost are too high. insurance costs are too high. utility costs are too high and childcare cost are too high. we have to build an affordable economy for hard-working american taxpayers. that's what we will focus on and that's what we look forward to getting done for the people. >> thank you. on the lake and riley act how strongly did you encourage members of the house conference to vote against it and what have your conversations been like. >> there was no whip notice on that particular piece of legislation. >> senator fetterman did compare trump's talk about greenland to louisiana purchase. do you have a stance on the possibility of the united states

purchasing one of the territories if the deal is right? >> our focus is on lowering cost for hard-working american taxpayers. what about the november presidential election had anything to do with invading greenland or seizing it by force? i'm confused. by the obsession around these comments. what does that have to do with making sure that hard-working american taxpayers can live the american dream. the thing that is clear to me everyday americans across the country are fed up they are understandably concerned, frustrated or even angry about their decline by and their quality of life which is happened for decades. far too long the size of the middle class in this country has gone down but the cost of living

has gone up. that is a problem. the problem is not greenland the problem is not the gulf of mexico in the need to rename it. in the problem is not the panama canal. it is making sure the american dream is brought to life for everyone in this nation. >> two things can congestion pricing has been rolled out how do you think it's going on course to trump's borders are are not ruling out and returning to canada what you make of that? >> i don't make much of the comments, i have no idea, the context that they were made and there is nothing about the november election results and that suggest that any of this

foolishness should be part of what we tackle here in washington, d.c. on behalf of hard-working americans. with respect to congestion pricing i have not had an opportunity to evaluate implementation is only been a few days but when i return home i look forward to having conversations with people in the community to discuss their feelings on how things have gone to date. >> thank you, this weekend there will be a group of republicans at mar-a-lago to discuss reconciliation. one of the groups will be republicans discussing how to lift the salt deduction. what are your thoughts about those meetings and you think those discussions should be bipartisan with the members who represent all different parties?

>> that's interesting about the whole state and local tax deduction issue. the republicans burn the house down and now going to pretend they are firefighters. are you kidding me the state and local tax deduction was obliterated as part of the gop tax scam in 2017. why was it done? because the republicans and far right extremist wanted to gm massive tax breaks down the throat of the american people so they passed the bill were 82% of the benefits are projected to go to 1%. that is the wealthiest in this country that is the gop tax scam part one. as a part of the effort republicans on a strict but

partisan vote destroyed the state and local tax deduction. now some of my colleagues want to race down to mar-a-lago to bended knee and pretend they are the firefighters. it's a laughable thing. house democrats will work with any serious minded individuals to fully restore the state and local tax deduction in order to help working families and the middle class who were hurt by the gop tax scam in the destruction of the state and local tax deduction.

>> the deal with the sanctions and prior to the. [inaudible] these sanctions made undermined efforts for the russian government and do you agree with this deal? >> i voted against it in the last congress and will evaluate how i go again. >> where you specifically see bipartisan cooperation on immigration? is aborted you from last congress on the four? the border deal is a starting place for a serious bipartisan discussion and were willing to have a conversation because we believe that we did is safe strong and secure border and we also need our broken immigration system and a bipartisan copy of

the plan. is everyone good. >> yesterday at his press conference speaker johnson said the democrats were going through an identity can't enter crisis, what is your response to that and the listening sessions to reevaluate. >> i'm not quite sure what that means but is going to be interesting to see how the republicans with the overwhelming majority in the house and the senate and the overwhelming electoral mandate that they have can get things done to lower cost for the american people. that is the situation in front of us. i look forward to the proposals that are put forth by my extreme

maga republican colleagues to actually keep their word. don't break your promises, keep your word, promise to lower the cost of eggs and milk, promise to lower grocery cost, we promise to bring down housing cost, we promise to lower insurance cost, improve the quality of life for the american people, why are you talking about an identity crisis. the republican conference is filled with individuals who can't stand each other. democrats are unified in our determination to make life better for the american people. thank you, everyone.

oo is quorum call:

we are waiting for senator to come to the floor to speak. former president jimmy carter is lightning stay in the u.s. capitol rotunda for public viewing before his funeral service tomorrow at washington national cathedral. you can watch the live stream of former president carter lying on state on the c-span video app or online at c-span.org. here on c-span2 five senate coverage as we wait for senator to come to the floor to speak. good morning my name is aaron klein i am the chair in senior fellow of economic studies. hearing at the brookings institution on behalf of working center on regulation of market the economic studies let me

welcome you here in washington on a snowy wednesday morning. we are here to talk about the future of financial regulation. particularly as it relates to commodities and futures and when you talk about the future of regulation for futures you are really looking in the forward and were joined by chairman benham the 15th chairman of the future trading. i'm going to introduce him in a second but i want to underscore to folks that you may think of this as abstract financial regulation and the finest derivatives commodity and on the one hand you may say this is stuff that moves markets and wall street but does not affect my life or the stuff we used to read about when you are looking at cotton futures and how farmers in an agrarian society

dealt with. that history is important to understand why the sec existed independent agency and why the united states alone among major global powers in the world separates the regulation of capital market between commodity and futures and stocks and bond. everybody else is one capital market we have to this comes from the unique role of agriculture in a macon society and regulation. i want to say something different. everybody who flew home for christmas or thanksgiving flew in part because of the commodity in the future. businesses all around the world that we depend on the provide services need to understand the cost of goods in the future. markets need to understand pricing in the future or the consensus best estimate of future pricing to understand their business decision. our economy depends upon

information about what will happen in the future. those markets are incredibly important and translated to day-to-day activity making our life better and more fulfilling allowing us to buy the plane ticket and allowing the company to know how much gas will cost when you hit the runway. those markets are incredibly important and easily overlooked. if not regulated well they can be manipulated and i don't need to tell folks in this room or anybody tuning in to spend their money they can about financial markets and future regulation the problems that occur in market manipulation and why we need tough and strong regulation that's why chairman is in a fantastic job as a 15th chairman of the cftc, i served as a commissioner since 2017 and i'll tell you quite a bit about his role but i will highlight three things. in washington people are often policies that come to financial

regulation and three things that the chairman prioritized during his tenure he had the first ever artificial intelligence, the first data scientist in the first diversity officer chief diversity officer to give you an inkling into the concepts that he molded this organization to tackle the challenges to hold our markets in society today and in the future he also the privilege of serving as vice chairman of the international organization of security commissioners because markets are global. if you're not interacting on a global basis you're missing the picture. in addition, while is fantastic and strong new jersey works working in the state of new jersey, a state i holding great respect you've seen the wisdom and beauty of maryland and it resides in the great state of maryland and baltimore with his wife and children. from one maryland are born and bred to another who came here, welcome to the stage and thank you for your service and were

excited to hear what's in store. [applause] >> that's a hard act to follow. i want to thank everyone who is here i know a lot of folks a virtually but it's a cold and post snowy day in washington we've been shut down for couple of days. i know a low attendance but a good crowd and looking forward to the remarks thank you again aaron and brookings for hosting we will have our final remarks as the chairman rate is a little bit early to fully process and articulate in a way with the last seven years have met for me. i can say without hesitation that i approach every part of the job with the utmost focus and care always prioritized above all else is a mission-critical oversight and enforcement duties in protecting customers and supporting reliable and resilient markets. within our static budget i've insisted that we build our expertise and support necessary

investment technology infrastructure and employee upscaling so we can continue to proficiently fulfill our responsibility's. by design the exchange traded and derivative market structure has proven only resilient but a "challenging times. in 2010 the derivative model provided a path forward from crisis and served for the fox market reform. a decade later treasury future followed suit looking back at most 15 years of organic growth in the historic market the introduction of new products including the digital commodity asset class and the significant market participant institutional and retail through technology have not been met with call for wholesale or moderate regulatory reform, rather ongoing success has been achieved by those who recognize that we are stewards charged with a solid foundation and not laying waste to what was never broken. with that in mind as chairman i

made it my priority to adjust to the regulatory enforcement initiative to meet the matter at hand. in my seven years alone we move their pandemic, weathered wars made it through market disruptions and realize technological revolution welcoming the rise of climate finance migrated to the cloud, broken ground with remediation manage multiple crypto cycles surface scandals and exercise agency and opportunity towards improving governance margin and clearing we've accomplished a lot more there is still much more to do, there's always more to do. i'm going to resist the urge to reminisce too much but i want to take a moment to acknowledge and reflect on the issues that i believe benchmark my time as a commission and i will continue their own trajectory in the years to come. one of my earliest efforts as sponsor of the cftc risk advisory committee focused on interest-rate benchmark reform

encouraged by the broad market participation in global cooperatives and consultative efforts toward the transitioning away and it contributed to the work of the benchmark subcommittee which promoted live transmission to bury initiatives as successful transition away has resulted in favor more reliable and stable financial markets. it also addressed climate related market subcommittee risk which released a report in september of 2020 called managing climate risk in the u.s. financial system, this was the first of the kind among the u.s. government entity among the 53 recommendations to mitigate risk to financial markets posed by climate change the climate risk report identified pricing carbon as a fundamental element for financial markets to officially allocate capital to reduce greenhouse gas emission. encouraged by the tremendous support from the climate risk report and cognizant of the cftc risk mitigation and price discovery put us on the front

line of the nexus between financial market and carbonization i established the climate risk unit before becoming chairman which alternately led to the commission to finalizing guidance regarding the listing of voluntary credit subcontracts in september of 2024. since the first bitcoin futures contract a binary option self certified in 2017 i urge for greater action to provide legal certainty with respect to rapidly developing fintech products like reptile currency. there are a few targeted efforts but overall the digital asset market continue to integrate in the traditional financial and should you should without comprehensive regulatory guardrails. concerns regarding customer protection increasing incidence of fraud and market abuse broader market resiliency and even financial stability are intensifying in the absence of federal legislation. we've seen this in our history where we leave large loss

outside of a reserve responsibility and time and time again that ends badly. american investor small and large have demonstrated eagerness into their portfolios. it's her duty to ensure when they do so the full protection supported by the regulatory oversight are in place and the illegal and illicit conduct is swiftie addressed, for the cftc whose role is yet to be determined the crypto era has highlighted the need for the rule for the derivative industry current course as more entities seek from the traditional unfamiliar models which evolved over decades and withstood countless shocks torch talkers structure of unicast to bella of increasingly novel products, new questions are ultimately arise. issues regarding vertical integration distance mediation and decentralization raise important questions of conflict of interest the strength of capital margin and segregation

requirement in the role and responsibility of suffering of the tory organization. building confidence supporting integrity promoting innovation and fostering evolution all comes down to data. indeed the single most foreign lesson that we learn from the financial crisis in the financial of the dodd frank act is that markets are interconnected. the common language for participants and practices and practicalities to all the endeavor to achieve is data. focusing on my time as chairman the division of data was a relatively new division that i've created from the cftc it department and parts of the division of market oversight. dod had talented and hard-working staff but would dodd frank priorities wrapping up and a host of new opportunities and lacked a strong vision to leverage its capabilities to benefit the data analytics foundation. we made dod leadership hires to

ignite the potential agencies analytics capabilities for years to come. soon after brought in the chief data officer dod director the cftc first data scientist to lead the development of new analytic services and tools for use across agency. the chief data scientist upscale staff to enhance their analytics and a.i. capability. in the past year alone 300 of our approximately 700 employees have taken the data science programming or cloud-based tools training. we are laying the foundation for sophisticated analytics program that staff from across agency can leverage to inform policy and contribute to ongoing oversight and enhance enforcement capabilities. this work is targeting all the typical data gain points and optimizing opportunities along the data lifecycle. the a.i. vision out

there were a few missions that required us to consider the need for bigotry intervention. we completed two thirds of the initial items on my list and make significant progress on the rest that should provide a strong foundation for future completion. i don't think any chairman or commissioner had the time and the tailwind to complete all their endeavors. indeed it's our nature as stewards to leave some business and finish for our successors. no works of this utc can be complete without the discussion of our enforcement program. we accomplished our mission

through three publishes them of effective self regulation direct oversight and a strong enforcement program. early in my tenure i shared my philosophy on enforcement and relationships between the regulator and the regulated and a focus on the need to check in on one another to build trust and work on relationships cooperation and transparency would be key when newcomers enter the derivative market mr. lankford: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma.

mr. lankford: i ask unanimous consent to set aside the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: mr. president, i don't even know how many times i've come to this floor of this senate to be able to talk about government efficiency. it's not a shock for me to be able to come back here again today and say let's talk about this. i don't know a single one of the great four million oklahomans, if i went to their house today and knocked on their door and said, is the federal government the most efficient government body? that they would say. every single dollar spent was taken from an american in tax dollars or borrowed so their children would have to pay for it. this should be a straightforward issue. every single year i put out a federal fumble report. i'll put one out in a month or so. and when we release that report,

everyone nods their heads and says, yes, that is areas of inefficiency and year after year i highlight things like federal tax dollars paying for something like a drag show in ecudar. if the nice folks in ex-ex -- ecudar want to have a drag show, why are the taxpayers paying for it. we paid for whether or not helmets are safe for drivers in ghana. yes, it will make it safer, why were the folks in oklahoma being forced to pay for ghana and whether they should ware helmets. they paid for a study that came out as a book that was analyzing humans and chimpanzees in sierra

leon and the effects of climate change. i'm sure there are folks there interested in that, why are my folks in oklahoma being forced to pay for that? i could go one after another on things we studied officer the years, but let me tell you what happens. when we highlight these things and a little sunshine hits them, suddenly people start backing up and agencies stop funding some of these things that everyone nods their head and says where did that crazy thing come from? because of the reports we put out, we are not paying for drag shows in ecuador anymore, we're no longer paying for the study on the russian wine industry that americans used to pay for, we're no longer funding the 3-d puppets that we used to pay for. we put sunshine on those things and that has stopped. the challenge is how do we put

this in a process so we don't have to play whacka mole, the people of my state don't want to pay for those things, they want to may for border security and good schools and good roads and they want to have lower gas prices many those are the things that they want. so how do we actually get to that? i could outline right now $170 billion of wasteful spending in the federal government just today. simple things that most americans would agree on. we spend a billion dollars a year just for federal buildings to lease them or to do maintenance for them. $8 billion a year. are currently most of those buildings because we have so many federal employees teleworking, most are 75% full. they are spending $8 billion a year on buildings mostly empty. most businesses in america would say that's a waste of money. i'm going to find a way to do

that less, except the federal government doesn't do that. we just continue to be able to lease empty office space and maintain empty office space. that should not be a partisan issue. that should be an issue everybody in this body looks at and says, there should be something we can do to make it better, let's be more efficient. starting with the new trump administration. they have launched a new initiative that folks have made fun of. doge, the department of government efficiency. and i'm fascinated by the number of people who make fun of this initiative to say this department of efficiency, and i ask do you know how to make the government more efficient? and people say, yeah. should we do that? yes is the answer. so the very simple statement is if we find duplication in government, why don't we highlight highlight it an

eliminate it, if we find tax regulations that slow the economy down rather than encourage economic development in the country, why don't we fix that? if we find areas of permitting where it prevents government growth rather than accelerates the growth of our economy, why don't we go after that? where there's waste in agencies, where there's empty federal buildings, federal projects that should be done by the state or local government, why don't we make those changes? that's what this concept is about the department of government efficiency is to create a mechanism to say let's stop talking about it and highlighting a little bit at a time. let's work to be able to make this better in the days ahead. i'm very pleased that a whole group of can colleagues are -- group of colleagues are passionate about this as well. they're coming to the floor to highlight some of these areas of inefficiency that say, yes, i

see it as well. while i do federal fumbles every year, i continue to say to my colleagues, we should not be the only office doing this, and, frankly, we are not. there are multiple offices that their staff are looking for areas of government deficiency and for the first time in a long time we built enough momentum to say let's get these done. let's not just show them and so ee embarrass agencies not to do it next year, let's set a process in place. so, mr. president, today i've invited multiple colleagues, including my colleague sitting at the dais today to find a moment in their very busy schedules to highlight areas where the government can be more efficient, where we can be more effective at protecting taxpayer dollars and where we can stop throwing americans' dollars out the door for things everyone would recognize as wasteful. when we have almost $2 trillion in debt, it is definitely the

moment for us to say, let's work on being even more efficient in the days ahead because we desperately need that. so, mr. president, with that, i yield the floor to my colleague from west virginia, who has been very outspoken in trying to protect taxpayer dollars in west virginia and for the nation and to try to make ways to make this more effective in the days ahead. mrs. capito: thank you. i want to thank the senator from oklahoma for his leadership on this. you know, we're just getting started here. so i'm very excited, as i know all of us are to -- embark on a serious mission of not just government waste, but pulling in our -- our government spending to make it make sense and more towards a balanced budget. mr. president, before i begin, i would like to say a few words about the tragedy unfolding on the west coast. i know many of us have been looking at the -- the television and watching the structure fires

and the -- heard from friends who have children there or themselves there and i think it's just unimaginable. so i just want to let them know in california that we're praying for them and their families for their safety and that hopefully this will all become under control sooner than later. but i would -- you know, i've seen this on the tv and i would say it from this podium that i urge all residents, if you are told to evacuate, don't waste any time. it sounds like a quick and fast evacuations are smart and are being advised. so, please be super careful as we move through this tragedy. you know, americans are resilient people, but the californians and those in los angeles are being asked for a lot right now. so it's really tough. so today i'm going to speak about an issue that weighs

heavily on the american worker and taxpayer. this is the waste, fraued, and -- fraud and abuse rampant in our government. when i say heavy, i mean really heavy. because billions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars are at stake here. under president biden, wasteful government spending has spiered out -- spiraled out of control, harming our hardworking americans and their livelihood. each misspent dollar represents a missed opportunity for our neighbors, our communities, our families. but that's going to end with this incoming administration and i think the control of the house and the senate. and the 119th congress are federal spending comes with a promissory note of accountability to the american people. no more spend thrift bureaucrats getting out of line, no more blank checks or wild excesses. the american people have had enough and rightfully so.

they're ready for the government to work for them. republicans are proud to have the department of government efficiency, better known as doge. i remember i probably heard doge, what, about a month ago. i'm wondering, what is this? i know that elon and vivek are busy american, so i want to thank them for con is sooefg this idea -- conceiving this idea and getting help to eliminate government waste many like a one-two punch, gong and the doge commission will address the most flagrant abuses of the federal bureaucracy. congress will bring the legislative authority. we plan to hit the ground running on day one of the trump administration to take aim at the worst excesses left over. when it comes to wasteful government spending in the jurisdiction of my committee,

which is the environment and public works committee, which i'm very thrilled as of yesterday's meeting to become the new chairman there, look no further than the groundwork we laid last year through the investigations of my committee. we worked on looking at the spending in the massive, bloated, ill-conceived inflation reduction act, which has the ira, so-called ira, which is a bill passed with only democrat votes, authorized billions of dollars in new handouts, from epa to the democrat-aligned groups, and recently an epa employee actually admitted its current grant making process, so that means between now and january 20 when president trump takes over, he equainted it to being a -- equated it to being akin to throwing gold bars off the titanic. that sends chilled to every american taxpayer.

throwing gold bars off the titanic. we've reached unprecedented levels of waste, fraud, and abuse. the american people rejected this kind of reckless governance in november through their voice at the ballot box. bureaucrats are desperately, right now as we speak, writing checks, because come january 20, they know president trump will take the checkbook away and ask for accountability. my committee already has issued a clear warning to the epa in a letter in december. we demanded to know who's getting these gold bars that are being thrown off the titanic and to what amounts. most importantly, we want a clear paper trail so the bureaucrats at the epa can't bury wasteful spending on the way out the door. the committee has already uncovered handouts to groups that are anti-american, anti-semitic, anti-israel,

anti-police, and an ply border -- anti-border security. that's it. not a dollar more. for example, of the $3 billion of the ira dedicated to the new environmental and climate justice block grant program through the ira, the epa announced, over the last several months, it would give $50 million to climate justice alliance, $50 million to the new york immigrant coalition, and $100 million to the ndn collective. the climate justice alliance promotes wildly anti-semitic rhetoric. the new york immigrant coalition advocates for radical open border policies. and most egregiously, remember, this is the one getting $100 million, the ndn collective goes as far as to call america

an evil country. so let me be clear. these groups should not and will not receive one dime of taxpayer dollars. the american people should be outraged, as i am, i think you can tell, my voice is getting a little louder here, abuse of their tax dollars. these funds were meant to benefit them, not to prop up radical political groups or line the pockets of bureaucrats with questionable policies. -- priorities. taxpayer dollars should never go to organizations that hate america or our values. it's pretty simple, when you put it like that. to say -- to those who say there's no alternative, that government is and always will be wasteful, i say look to the state of west virginia, my home state has consistently generated large budget surpluses, demonstrating that we can protect our values and our interests, without recklessly spending the taxpayers'

hard-earned dollar. i think it's time to bring some good old west virginia thrift to the bureaucracy in washington, d.c. many of our states are operating under the same parameters. so with the president, the house, the senate, the doge commission, all on the same page working together, we're poised to do just that. if we are to spend taxpayers' dollars, i do not believe there's an article 1 role for limited government spending. it must be in the furthering of the benefit of our nation. the american taxpayer deserves a government that respects their hard-earned dollars. the relationship between the government and its citizen has been frayed by years of neglect, waste, and distrust. mending this relationship will not happen overnight. it is a long process. it's a process republicans are prepared to take to embrace and undertake. we will end the reckless spending spree.

we will put an end to bureaucratic waste. and we will aim to ensure that every dollar that leaves the federal treasury is used in service to the american people. this is our commitment to rebuild trust, to prioritize the needs of the people, and to ensure that the government serves them, not the other way around. thank you, my fellow senator. i appreciate it, and i look forward to working with all of us here on this very important issue. mr. lankford: exceptionally grateful for all the work you have done. i'd like to introduce a fellow colleague, senator joni ernst from iowa. she's the founder of the doge caucus and has been the one that has been very passionate about trying to be able to find waste in government. i ask she be recognized to speak. ms. ernst: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. ms. ernst: thank you, mr. president. and thank you to my colleague

from oklahoma, senator james lankford, for arranges today's event. mr. president, a winter storm shut down the nation's capital this week, but did anyone notice? essential government employees showed up to do their jobs, while the others enjoyed days off. my telework report revealed that just 6% of workers report in person full time, and these bureaucrats are doing anything but working. this is sadly just more business as usual. how however, it's fitting, it's a fitting prelude to a much bigger storm that is headed this way, that will sweep over this city and forever alter the way it

operates. i am, of course, talking about the department of government efficiency, or doge. headed up by elon musk and vivek ramaswamy, doge is putting washington on notice. hence forward, every cent being spent will now be scrutinized. all regulations must be justified and continually rejustified. using data and outcomes, not just ideology. and the government works for the people, not the other way around. to support these efforts i am honored to be chairing the senate doge caucus and working

to downsize the government, which is why my colleagues and i stand here today. for that, i again want to thank senator lankford, a founding member of the caucus, author of his federal fumbles, and a true hero to taxpayers, for organizing today's discussion. it's a rare occasion for this many senators to assemble on the senator floor to call for spending cuts. in fact, since my fellow iowans sent me to the senate ten years ago to make the porkers squeal, it's been a very, very lonely fight. in this era of political polarization, democrats and republicans still come together in agreement over one issue -- living high off the hog.

when faced with proposals to trim the fat from washington's budget, members of congress from both parties act like goldilocks. it's always too little or too big, and never just right. but the real make-believe of this fairy tale is that it's impossible to cut spending without causing pain. most americans aren't even benefiting in any meaningful way from the hundreds of billions of dollars hidden in our federal budget. in fact, washington's out-of-control spending has been fanning the flames of inflation over the past four years, increasing everyday costs for families all across the country. there's no time to wait for doge to get to work, because even

being a lame duck isn't slowing down biden's reckless spending. biden's binge-buying bureaucrats are being ordered to work overtime, including weekends, to get billions of dollars out the door as quickly as possible before president-elect trump takes office. at the same time, the outgoing administration is cutting collective bargaining deals with government employee unions, giving bureaucrats the right to stay home from work until -- get this -- 2029. convenienting after -- conveniently after president trump's term. if federal employees don't want

to come back to work, well, you know what, doge and i are happy to make that dream come true. my new year's resolution is to put washington back to work and on a diet. this week, i am reintroducing my bills to drain the swamp by relocating federal agencies and bureaucrats outside washington. i am also putting forward a plan with $2 trillion in potential savings, which i ask unanimous consent to include in the record. mr. president, may i include this? the presiding officer: without objection. ms. ernst: thank you, mr. president. my proposal includes selling off thousands of vacant and un underutilized buildings, auditing the irs to fire the thousands of employees who owe tens of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes, pulling the plug on biden's billion-dollar

boondoggles for gravy trains that never leave the station, and electrical vehicle stations that aren't charging up anything but debt, bagging the swag and propaganda promoting government programs and agencies at a cost of $1.5 billion a year, and changing the composition of coins so we stop losing money making money. in fact, there's no better example of the cost of government inefficiency. washington spends three cents to produce a penny and 11 cents to produce a nickel. that makes no sense. a penny here, a nickel there, eventually these examples all add up to millions, billions,

and eventually trillions. the bottom line is that if you can't find waste in washington, there can only be one reason -- you didn't look. well, folks, i spent the last decade looking, while just about everyone else seems to have been looking the other way. until now. while this is a personal issue for me, it should not be a partisan issue. after all, every american benefits from a more efficient government, and everyone loses when tax dollars are wasted. i have worked across the aisle on a number of issues to make washington more transparent and accountable. so, i would invite anyone in this body, and everyone who may be watching at home who has id ideas, to join this conversation

and our movement, because doge is inevitable. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor back to my colleague. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska is recognized. mr. ricketts: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to compliment my esteemed colleague from iowa, who is the founding member of the doge caucus, as well as elon musk and vivek ramaswamy, for their effort to be able to create the department of government efficiency. this is something that is near and dear to my heart, because as governor of nebraska this is what we did. we focused on how we could drive efficiency through our state operations. now, if you want to think about the big argument between republicans and democrats on a really macro scale, what it is it comes down to what should government do? what should be the size and

scope of government? there are actually things we agree the government should do between republicans and democrats. for those things, we should do them really, really well. all too often government fails. because it's not properly managed. because we don't do a good job and when we don't do a good job, we end up wasting taxpayers dollars. as governor of nebraska, this is one of the things i focusedon to be able to do a better job on. take my private sector experiences coming from the business world and applying them to run state government. and we show the things you do in the private sector will work in running the public sector as well. at the state of nebraska we implemented lien six sigma, a process improvement methodology. there's a number of them out there. this is the one we chose. you break down an operation,

count what the steps are, what the steps should be, get the frontline people engaged, the people actually doing the work involved and looking at those steps and see if you can cut the waste. there are a number of steps and everything else so you can make the process more efficient. and that's how you can do a better job of actually providing services while reducing costs at the same time. and that's the thing. every time you get the government oh, we want to cut expenses, you're going to cut services, no, no, in the private sector you can't go to your customers and say i'm going to reduce your prices but i'll also reduce your services because your customers will go some place else. it doesn't work that way. so the private sector figures out how to do a better job of providing services while reducing their expenses. we can do the same thing in government. now in the private sector you have competition that's going to drive inefficient businesses out. in the government sector, it's going to require people like elon and vivek to be able to

drive that through our government agencies to get that efficiency. i want to talk a little bit about would we did because it was very effective. i mentioned that you measured the steps. you count how many steps there are and see where the overlaps are. one area we did it was air construction permits, for example. we had 190 steps that it took to issue that permit. we cut that down to 22 steps. and by doing that -- i'm sorry, it was 110 steps and we cut down to 22. by doing that we cut it down from 190 days to be able to issue that permit to 60 days. now, we can't change any environmental regulations. that was just a better job of issuing those permits. and when you free up your teammates' time because they're not wasting time on all those extra steps, they can do more work, they're more productive, and focus on things that are going to be more important. for example, more difficult permits.

and we use this in a variety of ways and showed lots of improvement. for example, in our economic assistance line, in august of 2014, it was taking about 23 minutes to answer that phone call. we set a goal setting five minutes or less to answer those phone calls for those people calling in seeking our assistance. we hit that goal all the way up until the pandemic. it was taking us 40 days to issue snap applications, food stamps. if you're one of those families in need and it's taking 40 days to process that application, what is that saying about how we think about you? we set a goal of getting those permits -- those applications done in ten days. we hit that all the way up until we hit the pandemic. and then wean with we got -- even when we got out of compliance, going above ten days, we knew we were above it and started taking steps to get that number back down again. we were able to do it in a variety of other ways, like, for example, department of motor

vehicles, getting you your driver's license. in our centers of excellence, we were able to get that from 22 minutes down to 8 minutes, get people in and out the door. our green sheets which is what we use in our department of transportation to able to make sure that our contractors are doing the right things with regard to the environment or antiquities or whatever, making sure they're following all the rules. we were able to cut that from 16 days to get it down to three days so that those contractors can get into the field faster and get our projects moving fast every. here's another one. we would issue reimbursement checks to families with children who had special needs. often these special needs children will have to have specialized care. families will have to travel to that hospital to go get that. they get reimbursed for those expenses. but it was taking us 13 to 15 days to reimburse those expenses. what's wrong with that? well, that's over a two-week pay

period. those families had to float those costs from one paycheck to the next paycheck. and you know and i know that a lot of families live paycheck to paycheck. that put a financial burden on those families with kids with special needs. we were able to cut that time down to two days to be able to make sure we could get those expense checks back to those families in need so that they wouldn't have to float that and experience that financial hardship from one payment to the next. what did we have to do to do that? we had to get everybody on board, our entire team. at the end of the day in the state of nebraska we trained over 30,000 of our team participates in the lean six sigma process, the introductory one. over 6200 of our mid-level managers in the yellow belt, the next level up. we trained 248 executive greenbelts, those are the upper level executives. again, more training. and then we trained nine black

belts. those are the folks that oversee the whole program. and by implementing all of that, we were able to save over 900,000 hours of our teammates' time. we had over a thousand different projects. we saved $115 million in hard savings. and because of those processes, for example, we were able to reduce the square footage that we were occupying in the state of nebraska by 60,000. 60,000 square feet we took off our rolls. we reduced our employment by 3.5%. and we were able to control spending. before i became governor, our bucket was growing at 6.5% a year. i would say that was not sustainable. we were able to on average while i was governor keep that growth of our budget to 2.8% a year. just 2.8% a year on average. now, i might just contrast with what we're doing here with the federal government right now. we spent $4.4 trillion. in 2024 it was closer to $6.8

trillion, $6.9 trillion. that's roughly a 55% increase in five years. folks, that is not sustainable. that is why this department of government efficiency, the doge, and what this incoming administration is going to do is so important. we've got to be able to get our spending under control. it is a risk to our country. we've got to get this under control. and we can do it. we can do a better job of providing services and keep our expenses down just like the private sector does by leveraging tools like lean six sigma just like the private sector does. thank you very much, mr. president. a senator: mr. president.

the presiding officer: the senator from kansas is recognized. mr. marshall: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, as you know most every january, hardworking families across this country gather together at a kitchen table and they work on a budget. then once a month they try to balance their checkbook. making a budget, balancing a checkbook. congress seems to be incapable of doing either of these. and that's why today this country faces a national debt of over $36 trillion, $36 trillion. i believe that debt is the greatest threat we have to our long-term national security and to the future of america in so many ways. so first when you look, how did we get here? how did we get to $36 trillion of national debt? i think many of us feel it's been driven by federal waste, by fraud, and gross mismanagement. now, last year's federal

deficit -- i want you to think about this. we're talking about the deficit now. we have a national debt of $36 trillion. this last fiscal year the federal government took in $5 trillion but we spent $7 trillion. we took in $5 trillion but we managed to spend $7 trillion. that's pretty simple math. for a deficit of some $2 trillion. now, this last year we eclipsed a new bench mark. the federal government spent more on interest, on interest alone payments on the debt than it did on funding the national defense or medicare. let me say it again. we spent more on making an interest payment than we did on national defense or medicare. and no matter what your priorities are, whether it's schools, roads, bridge, maybe you think we need more military, when we're spending a trillion dollars a year as a nation on interest, lots of things are going to go unaccomplished. now, the american people have clearly spoken. 77 million people elected donald j. trump to be the president.

and with them his priorities that we deal with the bureaucratic inefficiencies, overregulation, and a government that prioritizes beltway politics over the heartland, all without any transparency or accountability. so what am i talking about? the pentagon can't account for $824 billion. improper federal payments in 2023 were $236 billion. pandemic relief fraud and abuse was $2 billion. just those three items alone, $2.2 trillion of waste, fraud, and mismanagement. now, we take a peek again at 2023, the biden-harris administration's open border policies. think about the cost of taking on these ten million, maybe more, illegal immigrants. at least 150 -- $150 billion. our department of education spent over a billion dollars promoting dei initiatives in schools. let me say it again.

a billion dollars promoting dei initiatives in schools but our kids can't read and write or do math. meanwhile, the u.s. government adds $6 billion of debt daily. so we're $6 billion -- by the time you wake up in the morning and go to bed, wake up the next day, we've add more than $6 billion in debt. the detroit now as i said earlier over $6 -- $36 trillion and making an interest payment of over a trillion dollars each year. would can d.o.j. do here? -- doge do here. i'm proud to be one of the founding members and appreciate senator ernst's leadership. we want the federal government to run and operate with the efficiency and accountability that americans deserve. to address the spending crisis, we need a plan, we need accountability. we have some simple reforms that we can make on day one that slash the spending and disrupt the accounted for blank check spending that we're seeing out of this federal government.

so here's just a few examples. and i've been sharing these with people that are coming into this new administration. if this was a business, the first thing i would do -- and i saw that we had spend $2 trillion more than we took in -- the first thing i would do is freeze federal employees. i would not hire any more federal employees. next i would require all federal employees to return to their office to work. maybe only one out of ten, maybe two out of ten federal employees in d.c. are actually back in office working. next i would decentralized the federal government. there's many functions of the federal government that could be better, less costly if we would move them out of this environment. and then next i would implement term limits for political appointees as well as long-term employees as well. i think there's opportunities for agency consolidation. we can modernize the i.t. system.

we're spending a hundred billion dollars annually on an outdated i.t. system here at the federal government. the opportunities we would save financially with regulatory reform are infinite. we could roll back energy mandates, epa limit, meth than emission rules, expand land leasing for oil and gas production. next i would cut about cut -- would talk about cutting subsidy waste. taxpayer funded electrical vehicle subsidies could be done away with. why in the world are we giving tax credits to foreign entities? we have foreign countries, foreign entities that are benefiting from some of these tax credits as well. our grant oversight is just pitiful. spending money. the ngo research grants. we don't know who is spending it and where it's going and we're funding billions of dollars on gain of function research, teaching china how to develop weapons against americans. the biodefense program for niaid

is spending over $2 billion annually. again, to help communist china develop bioweapons against americans. we need more research accountability. there's opportunities for education reform. and then in the taxation and irs reform, we could rescind the $80 billion for irs funding under the ira act as well. and certainly simple -- simplifying tax laws would be great opportunities as women. that is just a few. that is just a handful of the ideas we have passed on to doge and to president trump's team and we look forward to working with them. i think it's enough said. enough is enough. it's time for federal agencies and unelected bureaucrats to remember that we the people sign their checks and that doge is absolutely committed to le store -- to restoring accountability and putting the federal government back on the path to serving the american people. these exclusions will give beltway bureaucrats the fitz. it will put them on notice and

on a path to work like a business. doge can help us identify and prioritize waste. so doge is going to help us identify and prioritize the waste, the fraud, the mispassage of the but it is up to congress to put their goffs on, roll up their sleeves and get the work done. thank you, mr. president. i yield back. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri is recognized. mr. schmitt: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank the senator from oklahoma for leading the effort here today to talk about this and air this out on the senate floor. quite frankly, one of my big surprises i think in my first it would years here in the united states national is how little we actually -- united states senate is how little we actually talk about this. so many of the conversations that happen inside the beltway here are so detached from the

conversations that i have back home in missouri. quite frankly, the people that i talk to who work hard every day can't believe the waste that happens here. they can't believe we spend millions of dollars on dragshows and dei trainings in countries halfway around the world and if they knew more about it, my guess is it would be an even bigger topic of conversation. that would be even more outrage. i think that's part of what the table set something going to be over the next six months or so here, which is to identify these things, highlight them and do something about it. last year when i gave my inaugural speech on the senate floor, i talked about how the administrative state was one of the biggest threats to our republic. nameless, faceless bureaucrats who are accountable to nobody promulgating rules and regulations that deeply impact everyday americans every day.

the epa can promulgate a rule that devastates farmers. a farm that's been in a family for generations can be under water just like that and they don't know who to talk about it. ranchers are impacted. none of these folks are ultimately ever held accountable. you don't know their name. the title is am big us with and they're in an agency you've never heard of. in the loper bright case, it dealt a significant blow to the power of the administrative state. noaa, which was attempting to force fishermen in that case, to pay out of their own pocket for federal observers on their own boats. there are many, many more examples than just this particular carricks but this one made it to the supreme court. they had an impactful decision. and real americans have been impacted by this bloated bureaucratic mess that's developed over the decades. while the administrative state

is still at grave threat, the good news is president trump will soon occupy the white house, doge will soon get to work and we can finally have some real momentum to dismantle the administrative state. returning the power back to the people. the difference is when the senator from oklahoma gets elected or i get elect, the folks get a say. they can send us back or they can send us home. if you want to ban gas stoves, we should have to vote on that. and my guess is, it would receive very few votes. but if you've got a bureaucrat that's not even in an office anymore, because only 6% of them are actually in the office, making these kinds of decisions, you lose every sense of accountability and our representative form of government is ultimately undermined. to ensure that president trump and doge hit the ground running, yesterday i introduced two bills that are a critical one-two

punch in dismantling the administrative state. the first bill is called the eraser act, which prohibits any agency from issuing the rule unless the same rule has repealed at least three rules. additionally, the bill prohibits an agency from issuing a major rule unless the agency has repealed three or more rules and the cost of the new major rule is less than or equal to the cost of the rule that's being repealed. this would make agencies think twice before promulgating new regulations, and because these agencies are addicted to the power that comes from regulatings americans, it could have the added benefit of stripping many regulations from the books altogether and freeing americans from the bonds of overreligions. -- of overregulation. the second bill is called the separation of powers regulation act which deals with the tearing down of the chevron deference that we've lived with for decades. this bill would enact a stricter

standard of review. no longer can agencies expect the courts to side with their interpretation of a statute like they could when chevron deference was in place. this bill would institute a did he know row standard of review. courts will weigh the merits of the arguments without deference, without deference standard to either side, placing american citizens and businesses either caught on the wrong side of regulatory enforcement action or challenging the validity in the first place on equal footing in a court with that agency. this is a critical effort which will strip power away from the unelected bureaucrats and put the power back in the hand of men's. i look forward to working hand in hand with the trump administration, with elon musk and vivek ramaswamy to finally reform and dismantling the

administrative state, shrink the size of the federal government, reinstitute fiscal san city here in washington, and stop these recessions from burdening american citizens with their onerous regulatory schemes. mr. president, i yield back. mr. lankford: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma is recognized. mr. lankford: as this body knows well, for the past hour we've had multiple colleagues that have come to this floor to be able to talk about how do we make government more efficient? they've been talking about outllowed what they're working in their -- out loud what they're working in their offices on. what we plan to implement. there is a lot of private, behind-the-scenes work because the focus is what we actually get done. there are a lot of areas of government efficiency that need to get done. this is a target-rich environment. you can pull out of this i

woulding about and look any direction you want at any number of agencies and get started there. but the focus that we need to have as a body is not what we're going to do to talk about government waste, what are we going to do to get it done? we are looking forward to president trump's inauguration in a week and a half. we're looking forward to beginning to implement both on the executive branch and the legislative action real changes that can actually get our government towards more efficiency. i have to warn everybody -- it is going to take a while because there is a lot to get done. but the good news is we're not just talking about it. we're actually going to get some things started. with that, mr. president, i

>> our deepest thoughts and prayers with the people of los angeles county who are in the face of a horrific extreme weather event with their lives, property, homes and families being threatened in a very horrific manner. we are thankful for the service and sacrifice of the firefighters and first responders who are racing toward danger to save the lives of others. exactly why we must continue to support our first responders,

public employees and our government agencies that need to be there in times of need for everyday americans. house democrats are prepared to provide any support necessary to this administration, to the state government in california and the people of los angeles county as they navigate through these tragic fires. questions. >> there are 48 democrats who voted for the -- is there n the party? number two, or democrats willing to mac not deal with immigration and does this reflect maybe thick cotton -- as the newport? >> house democrats look for to working with incoming

administration and our republican colleagues on securing the border in a common sense manner and fixing our broken immigration system in a bipartisan and comprehensive way. >> what about those members of who voted that way, there was criticism that democrats didn't take immigration seriously. was it regretted this for some of those votes change? >> it's my understanding to approximate eight to ten additional democratic votes this year as compared to last year. there are 30 new lows of the house democratic caucus. >> thank you, mr. leader. i know over the summer he met and had a private conversation with president biden in the run-up to his decision to -- 2022 race and in a new interview in use today he said he believes he could have beaten president trump race on the polling.

use all of wholly as well. is the president right? >> we are looking forward not backward. >> was he right? >> same answer. >> thank you. [inaudible question] >> pardoning a violent mob that attacked the capital as part of a concerted effort to halt the peaceful transfer of power, seriously injured more than 140 o'rourke police officers, threatened to hang mike pence,, says that the speaker of the house, and had been members of congress is the height of irresponsibility. >> yesterday speaker johnson said they want to put -- a budget reconciliation package specific so they can avoid

having to negotiate with the democrats. i wonder what you think that but also wonder if there are any bills that democrats may not be able to support because of that? >> the republican party wants to cut social security, medicare, medicaid, veterans benefits and nutritional assistance from the children and families in this country. house democrats will not support those reckless cats because our focus should be on lowering the high cost of living for everyday americans and working-class folks all across this land, and not facilitating the gop tax scam part two, which is designed simply to enact massive tax

breaks for billionaires and wealthy corporations, and not help those americans who are really in need. >> leader jeffries, thank you. you mentioned the house democrats stand ready to help those in california in the countries what could that assistance look like and how quickly do you think that good, really? >> we will evaluate requests that are made from the governor of california as well as likely from the current administration, and we're prepared to act quickly and state washington as long as necessary in order to get that emergency relief out to the families who are in harm's way in california. >> congress passed a bill that would create a plaque to honor officers were injured and respond unchained with sticks. that plaque -- can you give an update on why that hasn't happened?

>> that's a question to direct to the speaker to house of representatives. >> have you pressed him on it? >> we have sent him correspondence on that. >> leader jeffries think you get what kind of dialogue have had with incoming administration especially given you will be on the hill later today? >> its is that my expectationf the conversation at any point today, but we're looking forward to the dialogue to, in the next few weeks and thereafter to find the common ground necessary in order to get things done for the american people. house democrats believe that we are not sent to washington to invade greenland, rename the gulf of mexico or sees the panama canal by force. we were sent to washington to lower the high cost of living in

the united states of america. america is too expensive for working-class families and for middle-class folks all across the country. that should be our mission, and that's what we're going to focus on over the next few years. >> leader schumer said he will work with trump to name the gulf of mexico to the gulf of america. where do you stand on that? >> i i mean, i think that we hae got to focus on the issues that matter to the american people. housing costs are too high. grocery costs are too high or insurance costs are too high. utility costs are too high, and childcare costs are too high. we have to build an affordable economy for hard-working american taxpayers. that's what we're going to focus on and that's the we look forward to getting done for the people.

>> thank you, sir. on the laken riley act hauschild did you encourage members of your comfort to vote against it and what is your conversation spin bike? >> there was no whip, notice that was sent with that piece of legislation. >> senator fetterman did prepare trump's talk to purchase agreement to the louisiana purchase. -- purchasing one of the characters if the deal was right? >> our focus is on lowering costs for hard-working american taxpayers. what about the november presidential election had anything to do with invading greenland or seizing it by force? what -- i'm confused by the obsession around these comments. what does it have to do with making sure that hard-working american taxpayers can live the

american dream? the thing that's clear to me is that everyday americans across the country are fed up, they are understandably concerned, frustrated, or even angry about their decline in quality of life, which is happened for decades. for far too long the size of the middle class in this country has gone down, but the cost of living has gone up. that's a problem. the problem is not greenland. the problem is not the gulf of mexico and the need to rename it and the problem is not the panama canal. it's making sure that the american dream is brought to life for everyone in this nation. >> two things. one, how do you think it's going? do you think it's on force? and trump's borders are is apparently not ruling out

locking new yorkers from returning to candidate over the states green light law. what do you make of that? >> i don't make much of those comments. i have no idea the context that they were made. i can clearly say that there's nothing about the november election results that suggests that any of this foolishness should be part of what we tackler in washington, d.c. on behalf of hard-working american families. with respect to pricing, i haven't had an opportunity to fully and body weight its implementation. it's just been a few days but when i return home i look forward to having conversation with people in the community to discuss their feelings on how things have gone to date.

>> this weekend president-elect trump will be hosting groups at mar-a-lago. one of those groups will be -- discussing how to lift -- [inaudible] what are your thoughts about those? do you think those discussions should be bipartisan since the effect members who represent constituents of all different party? >> the thing that's interesting that all state and local tax deduction issue is that the republicans burned the house down and i want to pretend they're firefighters. are you kidding me? the state and local tax deduction was obliterated as part of the gop tax scam in 2017. why was it done? because the republicans and the far right extremists wanted to jam massive tax breaks down the

throats of the american people, and so they passed a bill where 83% of the benefits are projected to go to 1%. that's the wealthiest in this country. that's the gop tax scam part one. and as a part of that effort, republicans on a strictly partisan vote, destroy the state and local tax deduction. and now some of my colleagues want to race down to mar-a-lago to bend the knee and pretend like they are the firefighters? i mean, it's a laughable thing. house democrats will work with any serious minded individuals

to fully restore the state and local tax deduction in order to help working families and the middle class who were hurt by the gop tax scam and the destruction of state and local tax deductions. >> speaker johnson's it is expecting -- do with sanctions against -- prior to that icc released -- do you think sanctions against icc may undermine efforts to bring -- russian come and do you agree? >> i voted against the bill in the last congress and i will evaluate how i will vote against or for the bill in the next few days.

>> where to specifics he places for bipartisan cooperation on immigration? is of the border deal from last congress on the floor? >> the border deal is a starting place for serious bipartisan discussions and were willing to have that conversation because we believe as democrats we need a safe, a strong and secure border. we also need to fix our comprehensive, our broken immigration system in a bipartisan and comprehensive manner. >> so yesterday at his press conference, speaker johnson's of the democrats were still going to an identity crisis. what's your response to that? any update from the listening sessions or the kind of reevaluation? >> i'm not quite sure what that means, but it's going to be interesting to see how the republicans with her overwhelming majority in the house and the senate and the

overwhelming electoral mandate that they have can get things done to lower costs for the american people. that's the situation that is in front of us, and i look forward to the proposals that are put forth by my extreme maga republican colleagues to actually keep their word. don't break your promises. keep your word. you promised to lower the costs of eggs and milk. you promised to lower grocery costs. you promised to bring down housing costs. promised to lower insurance costs, improve the quality of life for the american people. why are you talking about an identity crisis? the republican conference is

filled with marauding band of individuals who can't stand each other. [laughing] and democrats as far as i can tell our unified in our determination to make life better for the american people. thank you, everyone. >> thank you.

.

[background sounds] [speaking [speaking in native tongue] >> secretary blinken welcome. as -- like i said on occasion, i would like to tell you that you embody the face of america. america, the service with which lafayette decided to provide all of his support when he joined --

19 thousands away victory. americans celebrate as well in germany to commemorate d-day normandy. america, thanks to values and attachment to freedom contributed to building on the ashes of the cycle of war, international war debate. i would like to say that -- all of this mandate that was yours you've done a lot. you contributed a great deal to form many international test i'd like to commend your action in the middle east in particular. in lebanon, with thanks to our combined efforts we managed to put an end to hostilities with a ceasefire agreement that if

implemented thanks to -- yielding results, being disarmed and now it's almost one-third of the israeli forces who withdrew from -- we join all efforts to contribute to facilitate the action of the president. the vote will be taking place tomorrow we very much hope i present will be elected in lebanon troll and continue with it. institution took place. we also work together to help ukraine the russians aggression we agree -- without the ukrainians there can be no

discussion regarding -- without the europeans and no solution can be found in this crisis if the solution were to be, not any interest of ukraine. so from a financial point of view, sanctions for three years almost now we have been providing ukraine with the support that it so much is needed to preserve, to defend its freedom, it's territory integrity but also to protect and defend the interests of come security interest of europe. and beyond everything you have done in the middle east, for ukraine and in many other places, we talked together about sudan weathers a humanitarian crisis at the moment and we are

extremely -- but i could see you act so how much of the season diplomat that you are, you are very human and you know all about these problems. you know what to do to act for peace and security to gain ground, so thank you for all of this. thank you for your actions. i i would like to commit as will the work of the american ambassador in paris who will soon be leaving paris and would like to thank her for everything she's been doing. i wish you all the well and this is not a farewell. it is simply an eyewall and will be seeing each other very time soon. >> allow me first on a professional and personal basis as well to tell you how much

deeply i appreciate our partnership, our friendship and what we've been able to accomplish together. i am delighted that you will continue carrying the torch over the next years on these crucial issues for our two countries. i had a wonderful colleague with you. thank you. >> i also have to say how grateful i am for the extraordinary partnership the united states and france has enjoyed these past four years that we've been in office. obviously a partnership, a fraternity that goes back many, many, many years. i think it's fitting that my last trip as secretary of state brings me back to france. we know, both of us, that this is a world that we have to face against that is more complex,

more competitive, more contested senate in time in recent memory. but we have a sheer determination, our two countries, to advance our shared interests and values and to do it together. we have an enduring belief that this partnership is essential to try to build a world that is a little bit safer, but more secure live that more prosperous for the people both of our country's and well beyond. as jean-noel said i think we seek manifestations of that partnership and what it can produce in lebanon together, france and the united states produce a ceasefire in lebanon that is holding, that's moving forward and that is creating the possibility for a much different and much better future for the country as well as for its relationship with israel. together, we put together an oversight mechanism to address concerns about ceasefire

violations, and it is working. challenges remain but so far the mechanism is functioning well and we've seen as recently as yesterday now the withdrawal of about, more than a third of israeli forces in lebanon. i think the ceasefire can be a bridge to a durable peace that allows people both sides of the border, israel and lebanon, to return to their homes, to return to their lives and to move forward in greater peace and security. in syria where jean-noel just made a very important visit along with our friends the german foreign minister, we see as well genuine hope for the future after five decades of an assad regime that brutalize the syrian people. now they have an opportunity for a future that's not under the thumb of a dictator, not under the thumb of a foreign power, not under the thumb of a tariff group. a future in which a sovereign

syria respects the rights of all of its people and the country is not used as a base for terrorism or the bad things we have seen. effect people will be on its borders. so there as well. france and the united states are fully united in, what we want to see come what we expected work we do to help achieve the effect on ukraine, as as jean-noel said, france has been from day 11 of the staunchest supporters of the for ukraine, one that can resist and overcome the ongoing aggression that russia is posing. global support for ukraine, that france and the united states have helped bring about together, is one of the strongest examples i've ever seen of burden sharing. and we sit in particular in france's leadership from trading more than 15,000 ukrainian soldiers the signing of bilateral security agreement with ukraine earlier this year, the french firms boosting production to strengthen our

transatlantic defense industrial base. i think in the months to come france's leadership will be essential for ensuring that ukraine has what it needs to be in the strongest possible position to defend its democratic independence, whether that's on the battlefield or at the negotiating table. one of the things the foreign minister and i discussed is the fact that ukraine is maybe the best example of a proposition that security in europe is intertwined with secured all around the world. if you look at what's happening in ukraine right now, what is allowing the russian aggression to continue, support from north korea, with artillery, with ammunition, and with the troops, and everything that china is doing to support russia's defense industrial base, machine tools, microelectronics, all flowing in to russia from china, from hong kong that are allowing russia to keep manufacturing

weapons, munitions and other things essential for ongoing aggression. that's just a demonstration of increasingly the indivisibility of security. the fact that actors far away from ukraine, from europe are having a big impact on what is the biggest threat to european security since the end of the cold war. in response, our two countries have work worked to deepen euro-atlantic and atlantic pacific convergence notably on the threat posed by the prc to our shared security and to our shared values. we welcome france's expanded engagement with indo-pacific partners and hope it will continue, including by strengthening for example, freedom of navigation in the region. we've also worked to forge together a common vision for the global economy, one that is given by rules of the road. we've invested in our collective productive capacity. we have stood up against chinese

overcapacity and unfair trade practices. we have diversified our supply chains to reduce reliance on beijing. in these and so many other ways this partnership between us is producing results, results that matter, that will make a difference in the lives of our people. and i'm convinced that in the years to come our country's will continue to work together and to lead together on the world stage, not out of convenience, not out of charity, but because the challenges we face demand our engagement, demand our partnership, demand our cooperation. we will confront a changing world as we always have, guided by shared commitment to bring greater freedom, greater opportunity, waiter security to the people that we are entrusted to represent. so for that, the work that we've been able to do together, for the work i know our country's will continue to do together, let recently safe thank you, to share my gratitude and to share

my conviction that when our country's are working in common cause, to, in fact, there really is nothing we can't accomplish. thank you. [speaking french] >> translator: ministers will take a few questions. >> thank you. michael birnbaum from the "washington post." secretary blinken, i wanted to, you know, we've been on this trip with you. we first went to south korea where the former ally president yoon is holed hold up resg arrest. we visited tokyo where leaders are rather annoyed about the decision on blocking the purchase of u.s. steel. we are here in paris where apologies, but you know, the far right is on the rise.

the government is a little chaotic and we're going to italy next where the prime minister is close friends with elon musk. so i wanted to ask, you've talked about your legacy. you said you are handing over a set of alliances that's in better shape than when you inherited it. looking at this pattern, what would you tell the united states people about challenged relationships that you're facing? a quick question about greenland. what did you tell minister barrot about trump's interests taking of european territory. how worried are you about a conflict between the trend and europe on that front? and lastly, apologize, elon musk what should use allies make of his eagerness to support for right leaders in europe and around the world given his closeness to president-elect

trump and his global business interests? and minister barrot, i just want to ask what is france prepared to do to defend greenland and denmark if trump continues to press forward in his attempt to take over greenlandic territory? thank you. >> michael, thank you for covering the waterfront. let me take is out of order. greenland first. i think one of the basic propositions we brought to our work over the last four years is that we are stronger, we are more effective, we get better results when working closely with our allies, not saying or doing things that may alienate them. having said that, it's, the idea expressed about greenland is obviously not a good one, but maybe more important its opposite one that's not going to

happen so we probably should waste a lot of time talking about it. .. >> and to do what we need to do to advance the interests of the american people to actually solve this incredible multiplicity, complexity, interconnectedness of challenges that we face, more than at any time in the 3 the 2 years i've been doing it. we're so much better off working with others than going it alone. and i think we demonstrated how much more we can get cone when we're working closely with our allies and partners. if now, most of the countries

that we're working closely with, is our democratic base. that doesn't mean we're not working with countries that this don't neatly fit our definition of what a democracy is. the challenges we face demand that we work with any country that is interested in solving a problem. but we're always starting with our base of fellow democracies. and one of the hallmarks of a democracy -- and we talked about this when we were in korea -- is that when we have challenges, when we have issues including internally, what sets us apart is the fact that we engage them, we confront them. we deal with them openly, transparently. we don't sweep them turned the rug. and sometimes that's not particularly pleasant to look at, it can get with ugly. it can be painful, but that's exactly what we do. we talked in korea about the fact that the koreans are dealing with their own challenge right now pursuant to their constitution, pursuant to the rule of law and doing it peace

him from and i fully expect that they will emerge stronger on the other side. with japan, do we have a difference of a particular business deal? yes. but seen in the context of the fact that we are each other's largest investors, one deal does not a relationship make. and on the contrary, the partnership, the alliance with japan is stronger than it's ever bench including economically -- been, including economically. here in europe, i talked about this already, the work that we've done together with our core allies and partners in support of ukraine has been nothing short of historic. and also the best example, as i said, of burden sharing that i've ever seen in my 32 years. so i could go down the list. maybe what's most important is this, as we transition, as we work the hand off to the trump

administration, what i've been animated by these past couple of months is making sure we give them the strongest possible hand to play in dealing with all these challenges. the world doesn't stop because we have a transition. there are so many things happening in realtime that i want to make sure the administration that's coming in is fully prepared to engage from day one. and that's exactly what we're doing can and what we've been doing. and it's why i'm continuing my work for these next however many days it is right until noon on the 20th of january. and i believe in area after area we're handing off in some cases things we haven't been able to complete, but that create real opportunities to move things forward in a better way. in the middle east, we're really close the a ceasefire and hostage agreement. we've talked about this too in recent days. i hope that we can get it over the line in the time that we have left.

but if we don't, then the plan that president biden put forward for a ceasefire-hostage deal will be handed over to the coming administration. and i believe that when we get that a deal, and we'll get it, it'll be on the basis of the plan that president biden put in front of the world back in may. we've done an incredible amount of work in terms of the necessary arrangementings for gaza's -- arrangements for gaza's security, its reconstruction, a day after plan. we talked about this with the foreign minister as well. there too we're ready to hand that over to the administration so it can work on it and run with it when the opportunity is there. and more broadly, the work, the investment we've made in transformative arrangements for the middle east starting with the normalization of relations between vape ca and -- saudi arabia and israel, all of that is ready to go if the opportunity presents itself with a ceasefire in gaza as well as

understandings on a pathway forward for the palestinians. so there's tremendous opportunity there. similarly with ukraine. everything we've done to make sure that ukraine would survive. not only survive, have an opportunity the thrive in the future, is ready to go forward. putin tried to to erase ukraine from the map, he failed. he's endured, i i think a heavier and heavier strategic setback in everything that he's done in ukraine. now we're at a point in the coming year where it may be that the parties will choose to negotiate. we want to make sure, and i think we are making sure, that the incoming administration will be able if it's going to oversee such a negotiation, to make sure it's doing it from a position of strength and president trump could get the strongest possible deal. i can go down the list, but the point is this: we're handing over a lot of positive opportunities, initiatives,

work. and if the next administration chooses to around carry it forward, i think that will be, clear, -- clearly, in the if the interests of the united states with. >> [inaudible] >> private citizens can, in our country, can say what they want. what they believe. and everyone else can draw their own conclusions and take their own positions on the matter. so i'm not going to comment beyond sawing he, he like any, any american has the right to express his views, his opinions. >> [inaudible] >> translator: as far as i'm concerned, first of all, let me tell you the -- can is working. and regarding the french foreign policy, its line has been expressed once again very strongly by the president on monday on the occasion of the

meeting of the french ambassadors. the second, the friendship between france and the united states goes back more than two centuries ago. i mentioned lafayette9. i talked about d-day which president macron -- together, and i'd like to tell you that we survived some 59 american elections and, of course, we'll survive the 600th american election. 6 60. then let me tell you about, remind you where we stand today with more specifically antiny blinken and myself. this is exactly here in front of this -- that some 75 years ago almost to the day -- made a statement that launched the

political institution of the origins of the european union. that was on the 9th of may, 1950. at the time, the european organization -- the -- [inaudible] so, like tony, we'll put a question to you. do we believe that the united states will take greenland? [laughter] the answer is, no. no invasion of greenland. that being said, are we entering a period of time where force is present as well? the answer is, yeah. as it comes to what you're to doing in terms of competitiveness and -- [inaudible] we are expressing who we are.

like, once again, president macron said on monday, europe has to wake up. [speaking italian] french -- speak -- [speaking french] >> translator: what do you make of the statements made by donald trump regarding greenland, and second, what is, what are the american guarantees to to provide support to ukraine beyond january? >> translator: i can only repeat what i said a moment ago. quite frankly, why are we quelling on this question? it's -- dwelling on this question? in it's not going to happen, so let's not waste time discussing it. as far as american, u.s. support, what i can tell you is during the biden administration we will continue providing our

support to the ukraine including during the upcoming days. at the same time, we have an exceptional support from our partners. during the some two years of pressure against ukraine, we've brought some $1500 million support to ukraine -- 100 million. our friends from europe and outside in asia have brought $150 million. >> -- so we know that our partners are doing what needs to be done, and i'm sure they will continue to do so for the ukraine. >> translator: thank you, ministers. one question. >> thank you so much. [inaudible] on ukraine again. president zelenskyy gave an interview early this week, and he said that, in his view, there

can be no meaningful -- [inaudible] for ukraine if the united states is not part of it. do you think europe alone can do it? and, mr. foreign minister, same question but differently. given the -- viewpoint, can you see -- [inaudible] of european countries that would be willing to provide -- to ukraine which will be enough fo- [inaudible] power is not there. is america still a key on this? and if i may, a quick follow-up on concerns across the continent. or russian interference directly in the election processes. what can europe do to vaccinate, if you want, against that problem? and finally to you, georgia, macron -- [inaudible] protesters and he said a new

elections could be -- the current political crisis. is there anything that the -- can do to save georgia's democracy? thanks so much. >> thank you. happy to start. on ukraine, as we've been very clear, what we've all been working to do is the make sure that that as ukraine engages this year, 2025, it can engage from a position of strength. whether that means continuing the fight because russia refuses to stop or whether it means entering a negotiation to get at least to the a cease ceasefire and maybe beyond. and as i mentioned a moment ago, we'll continue to the very last day of this administration to bring that support forward the ukraine. i know that our partners will continue well beyond.

if there's going to be a negotiation, if there's going to be a ceasefire because we brought it to that point, i think it's going to be critical. and if i believe that the incoming administration will cant -- want to make sure that they negotiate the best with possible deal. and the best possible billion deal has to be one that builds into it real deterrence against russia repeating its aggression six month, a year, with two years, you name it. because here's what we know, putin has not and will not give up on his imperial ammunitions. and if there's a ceasefire, he'll want the try to use the time to rest, to refit and eventually to reattack. that that's why it's absolutely essential that part of this this include an effective deterrent against any further aggression by russia. now, that can take different forms including the form of

having certain countries place any demarcation or any ceasefire line. and that's something that i know that's been discussed a fellow kansan, to honor the life of a soldier, a servant, a great man, owen mitchell. while owen was born in oklahoma, kansas is the place he called home and we're honored to call him our own. growing up in western kansas teaches you a lot about discipline, service, and hard work, and i know that owen's time in elkhart and hutchinson, kansas, taught him valuable lessonsment, which provided him with a love of country and taught him to love his neighbors as himself. his character was further defined alongside thousands of other young men like him who fought in world war itch i. -- world war ii. owen received a purple heart after being shot two weeks

before d-day during his service in italy. even while being injured, he continued to serve in the military police. after his service, owen received the bronze star, the combat infantry man badge and several other medals and service ribbons. in june of last year i had the opportunity to call him on the 80th anniversary of d-day while he was visiting normandy and seeing the beaches of france. it was my honor to thank him for his service during world war ii and how much of a privilege it was to know him and his story. the greatest generation has left a permanent impact on the world, and that is why the loss of another world war ii veteran is caused for mourning in this nation and around the globe. we remember not only their grit, sacrifice and bravery but also their kindness, their dedication, and their humility which has changed communities across america and changing those communities changed

america. olen embodied the compassion, kindness, and courage we all remember, and he changed the hutchinson community for the better. i know every time i was in hutchinson and i had the opportunity to be with him, it was just a great experience for me but you could also tell that those around us admired and respected him. he was a pillar in the community and so often involved in everything good. occasionally he would drive me in the 4th of july parades and you could tell how the community responded not to the united states senator going down main street but about how much it was -- how good it was for them to see their friend olen. he was a loving husband who was married for 68 years until his wife passed away. olen was also an uncle, a great-uncle, and a great, great uncle, three generations of family and loved ones had an exemplary role mold as an inspiration figure who showed them kindness, love, and

devotion. a few times a year veterans visit washington, d.c. on honor flights. and olen visited our capitol in 2014, it enyears ago. -- ten years ago. meeting veterans during these visits brought me certainly great joy and i'm always moved by the veterans you see for themselves the memorial built to honor their comrades and themselves. my own father was able to see the world war ii memorial. before he saw it i called him to tell him about it. so i'm at the world war ii memorial with my flip phone. i call my dad at home in kansas to tell him i love him, i respect him, and i thank him for his service. i told this story before. my dad then calls me back and says gerald, you left me -- he left me a voice mail but i didn't understand it. would you repeat it. olen is no longer in a position in which i can tell him what i told my dad nor is my dad. so on behalf of all of us and

communicated to olen and all of his comrades, we today again say, we love you, we respect you, we thank you for your service. after olen's passing the kansas honor flight foundation shared in their post heaven needed a hero just in time for christmas. olen is a hero to his country, to his family, to his loved ones, and to his community. his story will be and should not be forgotten and the state of kansas, our country, and the world are forever grateful for his life of service and dedication. olen, thank you for your life of service. thank you for your friendship. thank you for being such a great member of a great family. i yield the floor.

>> as long as 81 requests for information. and last, the president, governor newsom and others received a briefing on the devastating wildfires in southern california which the department continues to monitor. at the president's direction, the department of defense will provide additional fire-fighting

personnel and capabilities. the federal government is working closely with the national guard which is deployed under the governor's state of emergency declaration. the california national guard is adding two modular air fire-fighting system units, and two more are being readied by the nevada national guard. the department of defense has four additional that could be used if needed. additionally, the department is sending ten navy helicopters the immediately assist with aerial suppression. and with that, i'd be happy to take your questions. lita. >> thank you. on ukraine, the latest amount is not clear, the entirety of what is left. how concerned is the administration that the you're leaving a pretty substantial amount of money not delivered to ukraine? in terms of weapons, several billion dollars, and and do you think that those weapons will

eventually get to ukraine, and is this a danger of lag? >> sure. so on ukraine, you know, as you mentioned, there will be a few billion dollars in authority left for the incoming administration to decide what they decide to do with that remaining authority. and, you know, what i would say is on the question of are we concerned, ukraine has bipartisan support within congress, and it is because of our efforts that ukraine continues to be successful on the battlefield. and you, you know this, you know, back in february 2022 when russia invaded ukraine, many people, many pundits thought that ukraine would fall, you know, immediately. and it is because of this administration's way forward and the commitment of the ukrainians and their courage in fight on the battlefield that they continue to survive.

but they do that with the support of the united states and other allied countries and coalitions through the ukraine defense contact group. and i think it's pretty clear that the ukraine defense contact group is more than just a common understanding, it's a common cause. so it's really up to the incoming administration to decide what they use, what they decide to do with the i remaining authority that's left. but, of course, we hope that in some way the ukraine defense contact group remains on, but certainly support remains strong within congress. i'm sorry, you had a second question on ukraine. >> no, that -- >> oh, okay. >> just on the assistance to california. for additional, you said, i'm sorry, ten navy helicopters? that's active duty, correct? >> it would be california national guard working -- well, the department is feeding into the california national guard's request. so right now it is the all

through state authorities. >> so these ten navy hell don't -- helicopters what then? >> we are standing by to send ten navy helicopters with water delivery buckets. it's -- i don't have the authorities on which they will be provided under, so i am happy to get back to you on that. >> i'm asking for is that active duty navy that's going to be flying -- >> yes, that would be my understanding. >> kuhn how many personnel -- >> no, i don't. >> do you have any details, and is that the only active duty -- >> actually, i'm, can i take the question, i just don't want to misspeak, and i want to make sure that i get you the right information. >> -- active duty would be helpful. >> sure. let me get back -- >> these are federal assets. >> these would be, correct. and then, jen? >> okay. can i follow up? it seems like slightly anemic amount of federal assets being provided to the largest fire in california history with the

commander in chief out there. why not flood the zone, if you will, with more assets? >> well, jen, it's a matter of also can those assets get in the air, and right now -- i mean, cal fire is, has some of the capabilities and equipment to fight fires in california. we can surge assets, and the president has directed this department to bolster whatever california needs, but with we have to work with california. and right now we can't even gets a a setted up in the air because the fires are so bad and the winds are so bad. you're seeing the footage of the ground, i know you're covering it as well. until we can gets a sets in the air, there's only so much we can provide. we're going to be standing by to support in every single way that we can, and you sea -- saw the president has directed the department of defense to to feed into what california needs. but the safety protocols that have to be followed and until we

can get our additional air support in the air, you know, we're standing by ready to support california with what it needs. >> and to follow up -- does not have military plans if ordered to do so. >> yeah, i thought i'd get a questionen this. appreciate i. look -- appreciate it. look, i saw the comments. i'm certainly not going to get into hypotheticals. i think that's for the incoming administration to speak to. we're concerned with the real national security concerns the that confront, you know, this building every single day which is why you're seeing the secretary convene the udcg tomorrow in. ram stein -- ramstein. we're going to continue to keep our eye on the ball and focus when it comes to ukraine, when it comes to what we're doing in israel and also continuing to push for a ceasefire in gaza. and then, you know, while we only have limited amount of days left in this administration, we're certainly keeping an eye

on our pacing challenge in the indo-pacific. >> you are a planning organization. are there plans to take -- [inaudible] if otherwise tord to do so? >> appreciate the question, and i'm not aware of any plans to do. that's adrian. >> yesterday doj filed a motion to stop the plea deal for four of the detainees in guantanamo bay. obviously, you can't talk about it because it's ongoing litigation, but what is the administration's policy on guantanamo bay? do you want to close guantanamo guy? what is your actual policy on gitmo? >> i mean, i think the president has been pretty clear that what you've seen over the past few months is more detainees, you know, leaving guantanamo bay. but again when it comes to this specific appeal, there's a process that we are going through with the appeals process, and because of that, you know, these individuals are going to stay there for the

foreseeable future. but, look, i think every administration has made a concerted effort to try and get detainees out of guantanamo bay and slowly close that facility. these things take time and, you know, as early as this week you saw us make an announcement about to other detainees being transferred to err countries. to other countries. when it comes to the appeal, i'm just going to have to leave it at that. >> but how, how can you say -- how is it in line with the policy to close gitmo if you're filing a motion to not let four of them out? >> well, right now they don't have somewhere to go, so we have to go through the process of -- i mean, they're still under, mine, this is an appeal that, as you remember, over the summer when the secretary weighed in on this process, that until it's resolved in the courts, you know, we have to let that play out. so at this time we have to go through the judicial proceedings. and, you know, i just, i don't

have anything more to add -- >> [inaudible] >> sure. >> -- on yemen. what is the administration's policy with strikes? it was initially the degrade the capability to strike shipping lanes. is that still the policy? if you can just define what the policy is when it comes to -- >> specific policy questions today. sure. so when it comes to the houthis, nothing's changed about operation prosperity guardian. that still remains intact and is there to continue the degrade houthi capabilities but also to protect commercial shipping and our ships and other allied ships and coalition ships that go through the red sea and the b.a. a m. when it comes to our policy on houthis, we never said we were going to take every capability off the map. what we did say is we're going to continue to work to degrade capabilities and to ensure, you know, upholding the international rules-based order and the free flow of commerce through that region. so, you know, we continue to be

successful in our strikes. we're not going to take the capability, but every time we conduct a dynamic strike or do the strike that you saw centcom announce this morning, that further degrades their capabilities and takes things off the map that they can use against commercial ships or our own navy ships. did that help? >> [inaudible] two questions on north korea and the ukraine. first question -- launch new hypersonic middle range -- the. [inaudible] it could effectively penetrate any -- barrier and -- [inaudible] as the target in the ca case of

contingency. what is the pentagon's reaction? >> so we're aware of north korea's launch of a ballistic missile, and as always, we conduct closely with our allies in the region. we condemn these actions, and, you know, would continue to urge the dp if rk from further unlawful and destabilizing acts -- dprk. we've seen this type of behavior before. and while we don't assess that it presents a threat to u.s. forces, we're going to continue to monitor the situation. >> -- by -- violation of -- the. [inaudible] if. >> yeah, i mean, janie, i think you've heard us say that previously many times before. again, it's something that we've seen the dprk in the past. we take this seriously, and we're going to continue to consult with our allies in the region. >> ukrainian president zelenskyy said the u.s. -- with russia --

[inaudible] how would you -- [inaudible] >> you know, janie, i'm going to let president zelenskyy's words speak for themself. he is, ultimately, the one that is going to have to decide, you know, how this war comes to a conclusion. that's not for us to dictate, and it's not for us to dictate those terms. what we are doing as the united states and as the department of defense is what the secretary has done since april 2022, which is convene the udcg and bring together partners and different coalitions to help ukraine with what it needs both in the short term and the long term in its battlefield requirements. so that's what you're going to see convene tomorrow. and we'll leave it at that. mike. >> -- navy at sets, the helicopters, are they coming

from san diego or the other navy, the other big navy if bases in california? >> i don't have more information on where they're coming from just yet. >> thank you. >> uh-huh. constantine. >> centcom has a announced a series of strikes against isis. some of them seem to be larger than kind of the usual battle rhythm. is that an indication that the organization -- that isis is either reconstituting itself or is posing a greater threat than usual to the u.s.? >> no. i think from when you saw the fall of assad, you saw, you know, russian assets further consolidate which allowed u.s. central command to take actions in the bedee ya desert and elsewhere where we hadn't previously, you know, done significant amount of strikes. i wouldn't read into the fact that isis is reconstituting in

she any way. that's exactly why we are in syria and iraq, to prevent that from happening, to prevent them from becoming, you know, the strength we saw a decade ago. and that's why the mission there is so important. but, you know, these strikes when they are conducted, it is the at the time and place of the commander's choosing, but it is also because it is that opportune moment in that we will inflict the most damage because of that timing. i wouldn't read so much into the cadence as much as it's more about the right time, right place for these strikes to be done. >> fair if enough. so then given all that sort of in the context of new orleans and that particular attacker's pronegatives of isis ideology, you know, is there an assessment from the pentagon that while perhaps militarily the organization is not an increased threat, that ideologically they're still able to influence u.s. servicemen -- u.s. citizens in the homeland?

>> you know, i certainly think there is -- we're certainly aware that groups like isis and other terrorist groups use social media or social media platforms to reach all, you know, anyone. and that's something that is incredibly concerning, but that's not something that just this department deals with. that's an interagency effort including with homeland security, you know? in terms of, you know, the new orleans suspect that you referenced, that is under investigation, but i think something that the investigation is going to look at is just how and why this individual was able to be influenced and targeted and swayed by a group like isis, you know, many years out of the service. so it's, of course, something that we're concerned about. and that's why our mission in syria and iraq is so important to continue to degrade isis as we've seen them proliferate in other parts of the world. we want the make sure that we

are, you know, addressing that head on, and that's why we are where we are in both of those places. yes. >> [inaudible] a number of the casualties -- korean soldiers, about 3,800 -- the. [inaudible] north korean soldier -- [inaudible] >> excuse me, sorry. the question was on north korean soldiers and casualties. anything has changed from our assessment which i think we gave a few weeks ago or last week, i'm losing track of time. approximately 1,000 dprk casualties. that's' a mix of killed in action and wounded in action. again, i don't have more than what we've previously provided. >> thanks. -- [inaudible] in syria, there are -- state

thing -- [inaudible] if so, what is the current -- >> yeah, i don't have anything on those reports. again, i think you know that our partnership is with the fdf. we work with them when it comes to continuing to further degrade isis' capabilities in the region whether that be -- or unilateral strikes that you've seen central command conduct over the past decade and most recently, you know, in the past few weeks. >> how does this, the transition and the administration in damascus currently -- the. [inaudible] if. >> okay. so, again, the work that we do in syria is a partnership. so i think it's important to remember that the whole reason why we are in syria is the to continue that enduring mission to defeat isis. that is a partnership with the f, df. whether it be in partnered raids or, you know, in strikes, our

entire mission in syria so to ensure the continuing defeat of isis. tony. >> a couple of pda follow-ups. >> sure. >> exclusive about what's going to be released tomorrow. this massive, substantial the pda, how much has been obligated, how much has been drawn up-to-date of the 72 pdas roughly? >> i can tell you how much we have left in authority. i don't have the totals of how much over time. i said in my topper at the very beginning that it's approximately 162 -- 126 billion in security assistance the ukraine that the united states and our partners have collectively committed. >> right. >> in terms of authority, there will be a few billion dollars left in authority left. >> my question is though, when this comes out tomorrow, for size and scope it's going to be useful for the public to know how much. it's, like, over, and billion. can you get that round up from 2021 through -- >> tony, appreciate it, i'm not to going to, i'm not going to

get ahead of any announcements. you can go back and look through all the different p das and totals that we've released over time. i'm not going to do the math from here right now. but what i can tell you is that the authority -- you can look and also see what congress has allocated to the department. there was going to be a few billion left in authority for the next administration to decide what to do when it comes to ukraine. >> may i push back a little bit here? >> sure. >> the pen gone's got an obligation to do the math rather than have the public go through 72 of these things. that's' one point. i think a lot of people are going to wonder, why were you unable to use all the authority, the 4.8 billion, why not? why are you leaving any left given the urgency of the situation? >> you might remember earlier last year we had a gap in funding that we were not able to resuccess our own shelf and our own supplies. so when we weren't able to do

that and we were operating -- when we were operating under a time when we were able to not resupply our own stocks, that prevented us from getting pdas out the door. and you saw us pause for several weeks on being able to supply ukraine with what it needs on the battlefield. with every single pda, we have the weigh it against our own readiness. and if the secretary and the chairman do not feel that we can provide a package in a certain amount of time, we will not be able to provide that package. that delay in funding severely limited on -- limited the department on what we were able to provide ukraine during that time. >> the thing was passed in april, we're in january. a prudent person who doesn't follow this closely would say that was a long time ago. >> and i would tell that prudent person that, look, it takes the defense industrial base, it still takes a while the produce these capabilities. i mean, the fact that we're at the point of providing over 70, you know, presidential drawdown authority packages to ukraine, i

think, speaks volumes to this department and this administration's commitment the to ukraine. >> [inaudible] >> louie. >> a follow-up -- >> sure. >> can i get a clarification -- >> yeah. >> -- on the math? the numbers -- [inaudible] how many are being provided, how many are being being readied? if. >> one second here. so sorry, louie. let me just go back through -- the california national guard is adding two, and who two more are being readied by the california national guard: and the federal government has four more, if needed. >> a meeting at the white house, and it said northcom is preparing four more. >> i would say the d.. >> okay. and when you talk -- [inaudible] do you have an update on the

transition -- [inaudible] in the time remaining in his term, is secretary the austin intending to speak with secretary-designate -- excuse me, the nominee, pete pete leg? if. [laughter] -- pete hegseth. or has that happened? again, does he intend to or has that happened? >> i don't have any calls or meetings to announce at this time. >> so does that mean there are plans to should he be confirmed? i mean, what is exactly your statement? >> right now i don't have anything to announce. if i have something to announce about a meeting or a call, i'll keep you updated. i'm going to go to the phones and then come back in the room. chris gordon. >> thanks, i have two questions, one on ukraine and one on iraq. regarding ukraine, can the pentagon provide the number of ukrainian f16 pilots that have been trained in the u.s., even if you have the take that question, and you provide us with a general idea of the u.s.

support for the f16 pilot training program under this administration's tenure? and then my second question, on the actions against isis, can the pentagon explain a little bit more about what exactly happened in the rocky mountains? were the spireds that conducted -- all u.s. aircraft? did the f-16s conduct preplanned airstrikes as a part of this operation? just trying to understand that a little bit more. thank you. >> thanks, chris. on your question on the isis strikes, i think you're referring to that from a few weeks ago. i think central command put out all that we're going to the on those strikes, but for more information i'd refer you to them on that specific operation. on the f16-program, i think you're pretty well versed on it. we've trained, we are a co-lead on the air capability coalition. we have trained a handful of ukrainian pilots. that training took place here in the united states, but, of course, other countries did host

ukrainian pilots and continue the train them. i'm not going to get into specific numbers right now, but i think you're certainly well versed in all the training that goes into the f-16, and, you know, the air capability if coalition is still working to train more additional pilots when ready. [inaudible] connor. >> [inaudible] the harry s. truman -- preventing phlegm attacking sites in yes, ma'am sentence are you concerned whether or not th- [inaudible] but the houthis and whether or not that, in fact, prevents anything. and central command's policies on -- [inaudible] is there a policy for when they will alert the united states public about any attacks on -- [inaudible] >> heather, apologies, you came

in a little muffled. i think i got a little bit of your question. so i think you asked about an attack on the harry s. truman or maybe if the harry suspect truman was hit. -- harry s. truman was hit. the ship was not hit. our destroyers on the carrier strike group, whenever there is something launched from, you know, the houthi-controlled areas in gemmen -- yemen, they will shoot that down in defense of our ships or other vessels transiting the red sea. but i'm not aware of any attacks on u.s. personnel or ships recently. in terms of, you know, policies on attacks, i think centcom tries to put that out as frequently as possible, but i'd refer you to speak more of that.

[inaudible] >> thank you. just wanted to clarify the four mafs and the ten helicopters, is it accurate to say they are going to california or they could go? and i was hoping you could clarify your statement about how nothing can get in the air. aren't there areas outside of los angeles where the u.s. military could put assets in the air to help with the fire? thank you. >> jeff, you know, for more on where assets can fly, i think california would be better the speak to that. my understanding is the wind conditions are so bad that the even to put out the fires right now, you cannot get aircraft or helicopters in the air where those the fires are concentrated. of course, there are other areas in california where you can fly. again, i'm not a fire expert. i would refer you to the state of california to speak more to that. in terms of more the helicopters, the department is sending ten navy helicopters with water delivery buckets to

assist with aerial suppression. and the mafs, the department has four additional that could be used if needed. with that, coming back in the room. >> thank you, sabrina. that's back to syria with, local media shows that there is increasing u.s. forces activity in northern syria and parts of north of iraq claiming that these forces moving into syria. and there are some reports that specific units went into kobani which has nothing to do with isis. there's no isis threat that we know of, and that is in a specific area. can you give us any information on this, or can you approve these reports? >> yeah, i think what you're referring to is some reporting that we were -- that the united states is somehow setting up a permanent structure, a basing facility in kobani, and that is just not accurate. the fdf has been operating in

that region. i don't have anything to read out on u.s. forces setting anything up permanently in the northern part of syria. as you to know, our footprint in syria and the de-isis mission is in that eastern part of the country. >> so pre-inauguration there is no, any change in the posture of the u.s. forces? >> nothing has changed in terms of our posture or mission when it comes to syria. yeah. >> thank you, sabrina. as previously reported, there are now around 2,000 -- [inaudible] in syria. do they have -- [inaudible] do they have another role? >> similar to the question with i just got, there is no change to the mission. the mission continues to be -- the focus on insuring the defeat of isis. that's why we have our troops there on the ground. that is their sole mission. >> one more.

turkish -- [inaudible] bombed a mass gathering of civilians in kobani. they were protesting against the threats posed by the duringish-backed forces -- the turkish-backed forces -- [inaudible] if. >> i don't have anything for you on that. i haven't seen those reports. yeah, last question. >> back to -- >> oh, sorry. i'm so sorry. charlie just got very upset that i was going to the say last question, but he's sitting in the back, so, please. >> back to combating the wild first. there's a significant number of americans who think that dod's sole mission in life is to drop bomb, fire missiles and shoot at the enemy at faraway lands overseas, but in reality, the disaster relief mission is a significant part of dod's mission. could you please speak to that, the level of commitment d work d has to helping out people overseas, i mean, abroad or domestically, and why is it important for americans to understand that level of commitment? >> you certainly just with outlined it. do you want to come up here?

[laughter] look, i think, i think there is, of course, the perception about the department about you,, you know, when you see some of the imagery and systems and capabilities of the systems we have in our stocks, that immediately invokes some type of idea. but you're correct, the department does provide humanitarian support not just for folks here at home, but all around the world. you know, middle of last year the department was involved in a humanitarian mission to get aid into gaza, to get life-saving food and medical supplies into gaza. we've been involved in missions when it comes to haiti and, you know, in areas of the world where there have been horrific natural disasters such as flooding or hurricanes or earthquakes. and so, you know, while, of course, the mission of the department will always be to to defend our national security

interests, of course there's a humanitarian aspect the that. and -- to that. and i think, you know, i can can't to go on from here, but i would encourage you to speak to to each of the services who have their own involvement and own humanitarian work that they do in their missions all a around the world. and if i think certainly, you know, of course as we with think about what our folks are doing on the ground whether it be, you know, how we helped assist residents in north carolina to, you know, residents in southern california, i think we to do a lot of great work that, of course, doesn't always get covered all the time. but our service members do it very proudly. and with that, i will go to charlie, last question. >> completely left field. venezuelan authorities say they've arrested a number of americans, and among those is a high ranking military official. confirm, deny, acknowledge? >> i've seen those reports, i can't confirm that. i'd refer you to the state

department. i just can't confirm -- >> military aspect of it? >> i cannot confirm that right now. >> in the past 24 hours, centcom put out a statement that a coalition partner was killed in the anti-isis mission. >> uh-huh. >> do we know which to coalition partner that might be? >> i don't have that in front of maine i'd refer you to centcom for more details. >> centko, this -- centcom hasn't been forth with. >> i just don't have those details. central command should be able to -- >> [inaudible] >> okay? >> it was a coalition -- i can rule out, it was not an american that was killed. all right. thanks, everyone.

>> morning, everyone. [inaudible conversations] >> let me begin by expressing our deepest thoughts and prayers with the people of los angeles county who are in the face of a horrific, extreme weather event

with their lives, property, homes and families being threatened in a very horrific manner. we're thankful for the service and sacrifice of the firefighters and first responder s who are racing toward danger to save the lives of others. if it's exactly why we must continue to support our first responders, our public employees and our government agencies that need to be there in times of need for everyday americans. house democrats are prepared to provide any support necessary to this administration, to the state government in california and to the people of los angeles county as they navigate through

these tragic fires. questions? >> [inaudible] >> there were 48 democrats who voted for the laken riley act yesterday. is there a divide in the party? if. [inaudible] number two, were democrats a little bit asleep at the switch not dealing with immigration, and does this reflect if maybe they've gotten religion as -- >> house democrats look forward to working with the incoming administration and republican colleagues on securing the border and a common sense manner and fixing our broken immigration system in a bipartisan and comprehensive way. >> but with what about those numbers though who voted that way? the idea that democrat -- there was criticism, there was criticism that democrats didn't take immigration seriously. was there regret and that's why some of of those votes changed?

>> there were approximately 8-10 additional democratic votes this year as compared the last year, there are 30 new members of the house democratic caucus. >> thank you, mr. leader. i over in the summer if you met and had a private conversation with president biden in the runup to his decision to exit the 2024 race. in a new interview in "usa today," he said that he believes that he could have beaten president trump based on the billioning. you saw the polling as well -- on the polling. is the president right? >> we're looking forward, not backward. >> but was he right? could he have beat telephone the president-elect? >> same answer. >> thank you. [inaudible] happy new year. said yesterday he's going to to pardon -- the. [inaudible] what is your response? >> pardoning a violent mob that attacked the capitol as part of a concerted effort to halt the

peaceful transfer of power, seriously injured more than 140 heroic police officers, threatened to hang mike pence, assassinate the speaker of the house and hunt down members of congress is the height of irresponsibility. >> thank you, sir. yesterday speaker johnson said that they want to the put the debt ceiling in a budge reconciliation package specifically so they can avoid having to negotiate with democrats. i wonder what you think of that, but i also wonder if there are any bills that democrats may not be able to support because of that. >> the republican party wants to cut social security, medicare, medicaid, veterans' benefits and nutritional assistance from the children and families in this

country. house democrats will not support those reckless cuts because our focus should be on lowering the high cost of living for effort americans -- for everyday americans and working class focus all across this land and not facilitating the gop tax scam part two which is designed simply to enact massive tax breaks for billionaires and wealthy corporations and not help those americans who are really in need. >> leader jeffreys, thank you. you mentioned the house democrats stand ready to help those in california in need. i'm curious, what could that assistance look like, and how quickly do you think that could become a reality? >> we will evaluate requests that are made from the government of california as well as likely from the current

administration, and we're prepared to the act -- to act quickly and stay in washington as long as necessary ford to get that emergency relief out -- in order to get the emergency relief out to the families who are in harm's way in california. >> congress maaed -- passed a bill that would create a plaque to honor officers or who were injured and responded on january 6th. can you give an update why that hasn't happened? if. >> that's a question you have to direct to the speaker of the house of representatives. >> have you pressed him on it? >> send -- correspondence on that. >> thank you. >> what kind of dialogue have you had with the incoming administration, incoming administration if especially considering he'll be on the hill later today? >> it's not my expectation to have any conversation today, but we are looking forward to the dialogue to come in the next few weeks and thereafter the find the common if ground necessary

in order to get things done for the american people. house democrats believe that we are not sent to washington to invade greenland, rename the gulf of mexico or seize the panama canal by force. we were sent the washington to lower -- to washington to lower the high cost of living in the united states of america. america is too expensive for working class families and for middle class folks all across the country. that should be our mission, and that's what we're going to focus on over the next few years. >> just to follow up on that, leader schumer just said he'll work with turn to the rename the gulf of mexico to the golf of america. where -- gulf of america. where grow stand on that? >> i think that we've got to

focus on the issues that matter to the american people. housing costs are too high. grocery costs are too high. insurance costs are tattoo high. utility costs are too high. and childcare costs are too high. we have to build an affordable economy for hard working american taxpayers. that's what we're going to focus on, and and that's what we look forward to getting done for the people.

our focus is on lowering costs for hard-working americans. what about the november presidential election has anything to do with seizing it by force? i'm confused. obsession around this, what does it have to do with making sure hard-working american taxpayers can live the american dream? what's clear is everyday americans are fed up understandably concerned, frustrated and angry about their decline in quality of life which happens for tickets with the size of the middle class has gone down. that is a problem.

the problem is not raymond, it's not the gulf of mexico and the need to rename it in the problem is not the panama canal it's making sure the american dream is brought to life for everyone in this nation. >> from border czar is not ruling out what it is you really delegate authority i have no idea the context to something about november election results. this foolishness part of this in

washington d.c. and the american families. congestion pricing is an opportunity pretty it's been few days. discuss feelings on. >> president-elect trump helping one of those addressing this. what are your odds? those who represent all parties. >> the thing that's different about this issue is that

republicans burn the house down. our you kidding me? it was obliterated as part is the gop tax in 2017. why was it done next the massive tax breaks down for the american people are 80% of the benefits protected to go to 1%. that is the tax scam. that's part of the effort on a

strict partisan vote progress and now my colleagues are not. the individuals fully respond in order to help family and those who are hurt and the list of.

>> the sanctions and prior to that the efforts to discuss russia's government. >> going against the bill last congress and the bipartisan cooperation. >> we are willing systems.

>> yesterday democrats, what is your response to that? should. >> i'm not quite sure what that means. the overwhelming majority in the house and electoral mandate to get things done and i look forward to the proposals to vote for by my mother colleagues that keep their word. don't break your promises, keep

your word. lower the cost of eggs and milk and costs, bring down housing costs and improve the quality of life. he talking about and identity crisis filled with individuals who can't and each other. [laughter] democrats are unified.

that they would say yes. they should not be a partisan issue and government should be more efficient. every dollar spent was taken from an american and tax dollars or was borrowed.

this should be a straightforward issue. every year i put out a report and when sweet release the report it is efficient and i highlight things like federal tax dollars. if the polls and ecuador want drag shows, why are my folks in oklahoma forced to pay for them? we did a research study to determine whether helmets make people on bikes saver. i can tell you yes, they will make the paper but like are they worth to pay for the city and go with?

the folks in oklahoma papers that he that came out in a book that was analyzing humans and chimpanzees and the effect of climate change. again, why are my folks forced to pay for that? i can go one after another after another on things we said it but let me tell you what happens. when we highlight these things and sunshine hits them, suddenly people act of and everyone else there head and where does it come from? because of what we put out, we are not paying for helmet that is in gaza anymore. we are no longer paying for the study on the russian industry americans used to pay for or

funding what we want paid for. we have put some of those things and those things have stopped. in we are not taking down one after another after another. people in my states don't want to pay for that. they want to pay for good goals and roast. they want to lower gas prices. those of the things they want. i can outline right now $170 billion the federal government today. simple things americans would agree on, eight billing figure just for federal buildings for maintenance for them.

buildings that are mostly empty, most business in america would say it's a waste of money. the federal government doesn't do that. we just continue to maintain office space and should not be partisan issue. especially in issue everybody looks at says something we can do to make this better, but speak more efficient. starting with the trump administration, folks have made fun of the department and they make fun of this initiative.

should we do that? yes. the very simple thing the regulation doesn't make sense but encourage economic development in the country. the state and local and highlighting in this time, let's work.

because every angle year i can say to my colleagues should not be the only one doing this. there are multiple offices their staff are looking at and for the first time in a long time they say let's get this done. let's not just show them. so mr. president, today multiple colleagues including my colleagues today to find a moment in their schedules to highlight areas and be more efficient and more effective at

protecting taxpayer dollars and stop spending american dollars, on things that everyone will recognize as wasteful. this is the moment for us to say let's let them be even more efficient because we desperately need that. should my colleague from west virginia who has been very outspoken and protect taxpayer dollars in west virginia and ways to make this more effective than the days ahead. >> we are just getting so i am excited to embark on a serious mission of not just government waste but going in government spending to make it make sense

toward a balanced budget. i would like to say a few words about the tragedy unfolding on the west coast. the television and watching structure fires and from friends who have children there. it's unimaginable so i want to let them know that we are praying for them hopefully this will become under control sooner than later. i've seen this on tv and i urge all residents, if you are told to evacuate, don't waste time. it's a quick and fast evacuation. so please be super careful as we

move through this. americans are resilient people like californians and los angeles are out right now so it's tough so today i'm going to speak about an issue that way seven on the american worker anti-vaxxer. waste fraud and abuse. really heavy because the lens of hard earned taxpayer dollars and the president biden wasteful government spending has spiraled out of control. dollars represents missed opportunity for neighbors and communities, families so that's going to end with this and coming administration and the control of the house and senate and 119 congress spending, staring note of accountability

to the american people. bureaucrats getting out of line, no blank checks or wild access. the american people have had enough and rightly so. they are ready for the government to work for them. republicans are proud to have the department of government efficiency. i remember probably heard d.o.j. a month ago. like what is this? i know elon and vivek ramaswamy are both men. thank you for this idea and beginning their time and energy and gathering other folks to eliminate government waste. like zero one -- two punch they will identify and address the most fragrant abuses of bureaucracy. it will provide ideas to these men in congress will bring the constitutional oversight and legislative authority.

we plan to hit the ground running day one of the trump administration and take aim at the left over. mike committee which is the public's committee become the new chairman there. look no further than the groundwork we laid last year. loaded and inflation reduction act. it's a bill passed and authorized billions of dollars of handouts to the democrat aligned groups. the current process between now

and january 20 when trump takes over, equated to bars of the titanic. we've reached unprecedented levels of waste, fraud and abuse. writing checks january 20 already has issues, a clear warning in a letter and december. we demanded to know guessing these old cars thrown off the titanic and to what about? we want a beer paper trail and

they can't very wasteful spending. the committee has already uncovered handouts that are anti- american, anti-semitic, anti- israel and a police and anti- border security. dedicated to walk friend. and $50 million in the justice alliance, $50 million in the coalition and 100 million to the collective. the climate justice alliance most wildly anti-semitic rhetoric. new york immigrant coalition

advocates the radical open border policy hitting 100 million, the collective goes as part as well america so let me be clear, they should not and will not receive one time of taxpayer dollars. the american people should be outraged. and the priorities. taxpayer dollars should never go to organizations that hate america or are values. it's simple when you put it like that. to those who say there is no alternative that government is and always will be wasteful, i

think to the state of west virginia. my home state generate large surpluses demonstrating value and interest without recklessly spending taxpayers hard earned dollars. many more states operating under the same parameters. the president, the house and the senate they are all on the same page working together to do that. if we spend taxpayer dollars, i do not believe this article one for government spending and the benefit of our nation. human taxpayers deserve a government that respects her apartment dollars. the relationship between the government is been frayed by years of neglect.

it will not happen overnight, it's a long process. in short every dollar for the american people. it is our commitment to rebuild trust and prioritize needs of the people and enjoy the government towards them, that the other way around. i look forward to working on this very important issue. >> no like to introduce senator joni ernst from iowa the founder of his and very passionate

trying to work on this. >> center from island you to my colleague from oklahoma james lankford for arranging today's event. a winter storm shut down the nation's capital this week but did anyone notice the central government employees showed up to do their job while others enjoyed days off? my report revealed 6% of workers in person full-time bureaucrats are doing anything but working. sadly more business as usual.

as a prelude to a bigger storm headed our way sweeps over the city will forever alter the way it operates. government is headed up by elon musk and vivek ramaswamy putting washington on notice. every cent being spent will be scrutinized and regulations justified and continually re- justified accusing data and outcomes, not just ideology and

the government works for the people, not the other way around. i'm honored to chair the senate don't caucus and downsize the government which is why my colleagues and i stand here today. a founding member of the caucus and author of federal and true hero to taxpayers organizing today's discussion. it's a rare occasion on the symbol floor to call for spending cuts. as my fellow i would set me to the senate ten years ago, it's a very lonely fight.

in this era of political polarization, democrats and republicans come together in agreement over one issue -- living high off the hog. trim the fat from washington's project, members of congress from both parties act like goldilocks. two little or two big and never just right but the real make-believe of the fairytale impossible to cut funding without causing pain. most americans benefit in any meaningful way in the hundreds of billions of dollars in our federal budget. washington's out-of-control

spending and the flames of inflation over the past four years increasing everyday cost for families across the country. there's no time to wait for coach to get to work because even a lame duck is slowing down biden's reckless spending. there were to work overtime including weekends to get billions out the door as quickly as possible before president-elect trump takes office. the same time the administration is having bargaining deals with government employee unions giving bureaucrats the right to stay home from work until 2029

conveniently after president trump term. if federal employees don't want to come back to work we are happy to make that dream come true. my new year's resolution is to put washington back to work and on a diet. this week i am reintroducing are billed to drain the swamp relocating federal agencies and bureaucrats outside washington and putting forward a plan with $2 trillion in potential savings but to ask unanimous consent to include in the record. may i include this? >> without objection. >> my proposal includes selling off thousands of vacant

underutilized banks, auditing irs to fire thousands of employees, tens of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes and pulling the plug or gravy train that never the station vehicle stations and government programs and agencies of the cost of one of the billion year and changing the composition of coins and result of losing money making money. there is no better example of cost of government inefficiency. washington spends 3 cents to

produce 1 penny and 11 cents to produce a nickel. a penny here and a nickel there, eventually they add up to millions, billions and eventually trillions. if you can't find waste in washington, there can only be one reason -- you didn't look. the last decade looking while everyone else is looking the other way until now. this should not be a partisan issue. americans benefit from a more efficient government and everyone loses when tax payer dollars are wasted.

i would invite anyone in this body and everyone may be watching at home and has ideas to join conversation and our movement because it is inevitable. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor back to my colleague. >> center from nebraska is recognized. >> i rise today complement my colleague from iowa is the founding member of the caucus. with a little effort to have government efficiency it is something near and dear to my heart. this is what we did, focus on how we can drive efficiency for

state operations. if you think about republicans and democrats at scale, it comes down to, what should we decide and government? there are things we agreed the government should do and for those things, we should do them well. too often government fails because it's not properly managed. we don't do a good job and we don't, we waste taxpayer dollars. this is one thing that focused on to do a better job. take my private sector experience and apply it. the private sector will work the private sector as well.

implemented a prosperous provement methodology. break down in operation and what the steps are and should be in get the frontline people engaged in doing the work and cut the steps and everything to make the process efficient and that's how you do a better job of providing services reducing costs at the same time and every time you want to cut expenses. no, you can't go to customers and say i will reduce prices because your customer will go someplace else. the private sector figures out how to do their job while reducing expenses.

we can do the same thing. in the private sector you have competition will drive an efficient businesses out. in the government sector people like elon and back to the bathroom. you cannot how many steps there are. we had 190 steps cut it down 22. we cut it down on 190 days to issue 155 days. we can't change regulation. i was just a better job and when

you free up time, they can do more work and focus on things more important and will use this and a variety of ways 2014 single five minutes or less to answer phone calls what does it say about how we think about it? it's done in ten days, we headed all the way up until the pandemic and even out of

compliance with go about ten days. we do it in a variety of other race. getting your drivers license, 22 to eight minutes people in and out of the door. in the rules. and get our projects moving faster. we will issue reimbursement to families with children and special needs will have

specialized care and travel to the hospital to get that. and p, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and morning business be closed. furthering -- further, upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to calendar number 1, s. 5. finally, notwithstanding rule 22, the cloture vote with respect to the motion to proceed to calendar 1, s. 5 occur at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. thune: madam president, if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 1:00 p.m. tomorrow.

watch liv coverage of the u.s. senate lawmakers return their on. two. >> president biden is in southern california in response to the wildfires and is there for another reason as wel. the washington post with thick smoke covering the sky ben arrived in l.a. for the