>> it probably does. let me make clear and echo what the fema administrator said immediate reports of the last few days. fema is well-funded right now. we just did that in december, we filled up the disaster relief fund began again and the l business disaster loan program. they have sufficient resources to address the immediate needs. we will have to calculate what the rest of it is. yes a good question, and that is how can we be good fiscal stewards of the public treasure and fulfill the responses of the federal government that are appropriate? is a delicate balance. the slot of my colleagues and i feel the same that we should be paying for disaster relief if that's an ongoing dialogue around here. it will be part of the reconciliation discussion -- >> we will leave this here but you can continue watching it if you go to our website c-span.org. we take you live now on this tuesday to the u.s. senate.

they certainly didn't get the message that america sent loud 5 thank you. >> i look forward to seeing the laken riley bill enacted into law with help of our democrat colleagues and i congratulate senator budd and senator britt for their aggressive but also very sensible common sense pursuit of this. i want to say briefly after a meeting with president trump last wednesday which was very successful, very substantive, and we deliver the message of

unity. i think that own and that meant but the american people when we came out afterwards and subsequent leak. on thursday going to have lee zeldin before the environmental public works committee, , a forr member of congress from new york. he is a veteran. he is very well studied not only environmental issues of clean water and air when he also knows how bureaucracies were and how washington works. we kicked off the day with our nominees hearings with pete hegseth, and we will be continuing this. i look forward to hearing from lee zeldin and others. i'm going here from sean to more open, but lee zeldin particularly since i'm the chair of the committee talking about how we're going to be committed to putting forward president trump's promised really to the american people to make your government work for you not against you. thank you.

>> senator britt and senator budd, thank you for your leadership on the laken riley actor in crilly important because american people have said they just want basic safety. this is about detaining people have committed additional crimes in the united states. that's common sense to americans across the country and across my great state. a lot of conversation we had and looking forward to one week from today would be president trump's full first day in office. the conversation has been the doge, government efficiency. will continue to talk about that as we did last week and this week and in the days had to figure out how to make this government more efficient. i don't need a single oklahoman, or anybody that arranges has the better government association entity in all the country. anybody sees berries of efficiency so looking for to continue to drive the message and worked was making our tax dollars go to what they should go to.

>> your message about pete accepted are you concerned that allegations in the past? if not, how do you plan to move the nomination forward? >> i think i didn't see all of it. i saw pieces of it but ever report i've had to read it from this point is that he did extremely well and made a strong argument for why he to be the next secretary of defense. if these reported out of committee, we will work quickly to get them across the floor obviously because that is a key critical, for national security position that needs to be filled. >> what do you think of the timing with respect to confirm a couple nominees on inauguration night? may be revealed because he's well known, what you expect on that night? >> first, i mean we hope we will have some cooperation to get

some of, and odyssey senator rubio colleague why the respectable side of the political aisle. i hope at least -- were not having these conversations full until they get their confirmation hearings. but my assumption is at least and in some of the key national security issues we have come a level of cooperation to delegate some of those positions filled. >> after meeting with the president last week to discuss reconciliation how do you envision reconciliation pathway to move forward given the laken riley bill on the floor and the need to fund it? does that make you think about more security? finally, what is your plan for moving the debt limit? >> obviously as i said before, border security is job number one. as the mention i think it was not to be comfortable to talk to

two issues come out of the election. the american people spoke loudly and clearly they want us to address that issue so i'm hopeful we can move in the reconciliation package on legislation that addresses the border and how that happens is still up for discussion,, negotiation but clearly the senate is prepared ready to move to have conversation with relevant committees here of jurisdiction to ensure that when the time comes we can move quickly. we will continue to work through the process through this, one bill, to bills. i think you get outside of the city, anybody who cares about that come to think about is the result and i think we will be working very hard to achieve a result to get an outcome that not only is in my view consistent with the campaign commitments that the president in many of our colleagues were running this last year made but the right thing to do for this country at a time when was it in a very dangerous world starting

with our southern border. thank you all. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

.

the president pro tempore: the chair lays before the senate the certificate of election for the state of west virginia. the certificate, the chair is advised, is in form suggested by the senate. if there be no objection, the reading of the certificate will be waived, and will be printed in full in record. if the senator elect will now present himself at the desk, the chair will administer the oath of office.

the president pro tempore: 'please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? mr. justice: i do.

the presiding officer: the senator. the presiding officer: texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

that brings me to my number six reason why south dakota will continue to be an example to the nation. and it is our babies. south dakota has the highest birthrate at any state in the america. our people are happy. they're having babies and that is a hope for the future. [applause] every baby brings boundless potential. we are caring for south dakota moms and babies vote before birth and after and lastly we talked about the first thousand days of the child's life on conception to their second birthday. these days are the most crucial

to a child's development. in the last year our brightest star program support of more than 600 mothers and over 500 infants and toddlers. one mom the start of the bright start as a teenager is now a registered nurse in an emergency room and she wrote wrote e department of health and said i talk about you and the bright start program all the time to new moms. i tell them that they get back you have my life and i'm forever grateful. this past november the people of south dakota endorsed the way we're taking care of moms and babies. they voted to support life and the department of health will continue emphasizing care for next generation. if you have any questions about pregnancy, parenting, financial assistance and adoption, a one-stop shop that will help you get all of the help that you need. our commitment to moms and the babies in families ensures that our states future is as bright and as hopeful as a newborns eyes.

now, we all need to keep our families safe. so the number five reason why south dakota and will continue to be an example to the nation is safety. i'm incredibly proud of the work we've done over the past six years to make south dakota safer. we supported and respected our law enforcement officers, and when much of the nation was attacking them and defunded them, we thank them and respected them. we lead the way in cybersecurity by banning tiktok for state government and we enhanced the mission at dakota state university, and we led the nation in prioritizing our border security when the biden administration has failed to keep america safe.

>> whenever we're ready. sure, bring it on. i've got two new requests that have to be done like tomorrow. how do you do, sir?

>> wonderful. we will reenact -- there we go. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter: so help you god? >> i surely do. >> congratulations. >> thank you, sir. >> a a picture of the three of you. >> up or down?

>> one, two, three. good. and we want to get your family in. >> and you and all your family, congratulations. i'm i going to be in this picture? >> get a couple of you guys. >> perfect. you got your badge on and everything. there you go, perfect. can i have you all face towards of the senator? you go, perfect.

one last one. thank you very much. >> thank all of you. >> thank you so much. [inaudible conversations] >> i'm just barking orders here. mr. cornyn: madam president, i

would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of s. 5, which the clerk will report. the clerk: 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. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, last week, i had a chance to lay out some of my top priorities for the new congress as republicans take the helm. today, wasn't to elaborate on the firth of those priorities -- the first of those priorities, which is to confirm president trump's cabinet. back in november, november 5, it seems like a long time ago but it was just the other day, americans went to the polls to elect new leaders, including a president of the united states.

voters made their voices heard as to which direction our country should go because they plainly believed that we were heading in the wrong direction. as a result of that vote, president trump won the election decisively. now, from my perspective, that means he's entitled to his team, absent some extraordinary circumstances, because it's his team or cabinet that will help him follow through on the promises that he made on the campaign trail. once confirmed, these men and women will then be accountable to him and the american people, to accomplish the goals that he has set out for them. that's the way the process is supposed to work. now, madam president, if you remember back in 2017, during president trump's first term, this process was not what you might call smooth sailing.

in fact, senate democrats did everything they could to delay and derail the president's cabinet. they did so openly, without shame or any embarrassment. in fact, when senate minority leader at the time was asked in an interview back in 2017 if he would attempt to keep justice scalia's seat open rather than work with republicans to confirm a republican president's nominee, he said, absolutely. well, it's funny how history works and how things work out, but of course democrats went on to criticize republicans for doing exactly the same thing that senator schumer said he would do, if the shoe were on the other foot. it was an embarrassing moment, or should have been an embarrassing moment for the democratic minority leader. he sent a clear message to all of us that he was willing to put

partisan ahead of the country -- partisanship ahead of the country, and before the voices of the american people who voted for president trump could be heard. if democrats repeat the same play this year, they will only further embarrass themselves and the party and be a disservice to the american people who elected president trump and jd vance on november 5. so i would like to caution my colleagues, my democratic colleagues, not to play the shame semon and begans -- play the same shenanigans again. unfortunately, it looks like they've come up with a new tactic. the delays we're already starting to see in the confirmation process are completely unacceptable. we know when president trump will be sworn in, that's january, 20 and we need to make sure that as many members of his cabinet, particularly his national security cabinet, are available to be confirmed when

president trump takes his hand off the bible. just two days ago axios news reported some interesting details. for example, surrounding the democrats' handling of the nomination of tulsi gabbard, president trump's choice to be director of national intelligence. according to this report, democrats on the senate intelligence committee are refusing to work as a team with republicans to schedule her hearing, citing concerns that her background checks are not yet completed. now, this is unacceptable. according to axios ms. gabbard has submitted all of the paperwork required on her end as part of the background check process, and this is someone who serves currently as a lieutenant colonel in the national guard. former member of congress, somebody who's been thoroughly vetted for security purposes.

but it is up to the biden administration, because they currently hold office, including all parts of the executive branch, including the department of justice and the fbi, it's up to them to make sure the paperwork is expedited so ms. gabbard can have her hearing and, presumably, if confirmed be available to serve on day one after president trump is sworn into office. so, the fbi needs to work 24/7, not we'll get around to it when we can. they need to work 24/7 to get these background checks done before the nomination hearings. and so, the hearings can actually be set. we know that if there's a will to get it done, that it can be done, and in my view it must be done. if democrats are so concerned

that the senate does not yet have her background check, then the president, president biden, should direct those concerns -- should address those concerns by making sure that his fbi and his department of justice get the background checks done, because they are still technically in charge until january 20. there's nothing the trump administration, the incoming trump administration can do officially to make that happen. it's up to president biden and his fbi and his department of justice. by slow walking her background check and causing delays for such a critical appointments, the biden administration is posing a threat, an unnecessary threat, to our national security. we all know we're living in a dangerous world, and now is not the time to have some prolonged and unnecessary vacancy for the

director of national intelligence. so i would hope our democratic colleagues and the administration, the current administration, would abandon this futile and dangerous tactic. as other nominees are working to complete their rec wisity paperwork -- requisite paperwork, i would urge the biden administration to work with the incoming administration, not against the administration, to expedite this process. they talk about a peaceful transfer of power. well, that's what this includes. this is part of that peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next. democrats have a duty and a responsibility to set aside any partisan tactics, and to give the president an opportunity to have his cabinet confirmed. just imagine how democrats, and even the mainstream media, would respond if an outgoing republican administration intentionally caused delays for

crucial appointments after voters gave them a mandate. they would claim this is a threat to our nation's security. republicans would be accused of playing games and playing politics with critical government agencies. and of course, their favorite pet accusation, democrats would undoubtedly call these tactics a threat to democracy. well, with the shoe on the other foot, the situation is no different. back in 2015, the senator from michigan, senator stabenow, said, quote, when a president wins an election they have a right to their team. that's exactly how we should understand this process. president trump was elected, and he has a right to his team. again, this doesn't mean that the senate will rubber-stamp any

nominee. that's what advice and consent is all about, the background checks, the hearings, like we see this morning with the secretary of defense nominee, mr. hegseth. this means committees must hold hearings and votes for each of the president's million tos. it's that civility and of course democrats have every opportunity during these hearings to ask any questions that they want and to vote however they want. we're not saying their rights should somehow be constricted. but to deny and delay the hearings outright is simply unconscionable and dangerous. democrats are not entitled to sabotage this president by denying him his cabinet. any efforts to do so undermines the democratic process and that peaceful transfer of power that we hear so much about and which is so important. senate republicans, senate democrats and the outgoing biden

administration alike must act in the best interests of the country, not in their party's best interest, not in pursuit of some partisan agenda, but in the best interest of the country. and it is far from america's best interest to have president trump sitting alone at the white house, maybe with the vice president and no cabinet there to support him in his efforts. president biden should remember that people around the country and around the world will be watching very closely his final days in office. unfortunately, his administration has already been marked by a multitude of failed policies and scandals. president biden would be wise to note that the handling of the transition at the end of his term can, if mishandled, further tarnish his administration's reputation. history will not be forgiving if

his outgoing administration decides to threaten the safety and security of the american people by causing unnecessary delays for cabinet appointments, particularly his national security cabinet. the american people elected president trump as the next leader of our country. now it's the time for the senate to do our job by making sure that the president has the team he needs to do that job. and i intend to do everything i can to see that his nominees can confirmed on a timely basis. madam president, i yield the floor. and i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

she business dealings, special

interest influence. remember donald trump's industry, billion dollars for campaign and return for fossil fuel. trumps big donors want payback the dump nominees are here to deliver and regular people will pay the price. budget committee we are headed into an insurance crisis. with huge stakes for the american economy and we need to avoid that crash. >> we are working hard to get

the amendments. >> we are working to get the amendment passed in the bill. >> : going to say is working with senators to get them a minute. >> what is the appropriate timetable. >> at least go through three things. >> go through hearings like the recruited and it will be on the

floor get done. [inaudible]

sees when it comes to the issues of the border and immigration

the lake and riley bill is the beginning of that change. deal with a pacific issue of security in and commend senators taking leadership on this to get on the bill. the lake and riley and the heartbreak that has caused the family to have this never happen again. what we are doing is to test the democrats on this and objective is to get the bill across the finish line to deal in a direct

way, the issue of immigration enforcement and something we can put on desk early on so with that, i'm going to yield on the bill. >> thank you for taking time to be here today. we had a big step but there's certainly more to be done and i'm say excited american people. america will about in clear and want to secure borders and i want to accomplish something and that's what the bill does. had this bill been in law, laken riley would be with us today.

she celebrated her 23rd birthday last friday and is only about her life and legacy, it's preventing other families from having to go through the tragedy in her breaker family has. making sure our nation is more secure and our children coast-to-coast are safe and we are doing for the american people we are supposed to do. i hope we don't revert back to this sentiment not once twice. the 118 congress senate judiciary committee on these bills did not markup one bill immigration related so i want to thank the scene getting us on the floor early in getting the opportunity to yield results and i hope my democratic colleagues make the right choice and they have an easy choice the

biden-harris administration or they can protect american citizens. i think it's an easy choice. >> i want to thank you for reaching out across the aisle you can see the strong votes we've had in their willingness but we got more work to do. i hate that we even have to address this issue but there's a lot of heartbreak around this. all 100 counties in north carolina repeatedly echo the same thing over and over. every county in north carolina is now a border county because of joe biden's policies.

they are the same concerns including north carolina it's about preventing tragedy and should never have happened before. two main things, these are on reporter and unsafe internationally or in your own neighborhood and it will be for her family. it's preventing tragedies in the future and any democrat that doesn't support this, they certainly didn't get the message that america is loud and clear on. >> i look forward to seeing the lake and riley bill and i congratulate senators whether aggressive but also sensible common sense and we delivered

the message not only in that room but subsequently. i will have lee zeldin and former member of congress of new york a veteran, well studied not only in the environmental issues but also knows how bureaucracy works and washington so i think we take off with our nominees hearings pete hegseth and we will continue this and look forward to hearing from lee zeldin and others but lee zeldin decided to tear that committee been about how we are going to be committed from promise to the

america people to make it work for you, not against. >> this is incredibly important because the american people have said they just want basic things detain people who committed additional times in the united states and that's pretty common sense. a lot of conversation last weekend this week and looking forward to one week from today be the first full day in office and we will talk about that as we into new in the days ahead how to make this government more efficient, we anybody and everybody sees areas of efficiency make our tax dollars

go to where they should -- >> i didn't see all that, i saw pieces. the readout from the hearing goes extremely well and get them across the floor it is a key important national security piece of the bill. >> national security no money he is well-known.

>> we hope we will have cooperation real quickly and i hope to get this confirmation to like it through the confirmation hearings with the democrats and my assumption is we will have a level of cooperation to get these ugly. >> of having to move forward given the lake and riley? >> obviously as i've said before, border security is job

number one. one of the she's out of the election american people spoke loudly and clearly and they want us to address the issue so i'm hopeful we can the reconciliation package on legislation that addresses the border and thought happens is still up for discussion but clearly the senate is prepared ready continue conversations to jurisdiction to ensure we can move quickly need to work through the process. what they care about is the result in we are going to work very hard to achieve the result to get an outcome that not only in my view is still in the campaign amendment but the right

thing to do for this country starting with our southern border. >> thank you for waiting. sorry to be late. i want to thank senators read, closure and white house for doing this. it is a busy week. democrats remain focused on cabinet hearings starting today for the secretary of defense. today's hearing is a sense of what's to come, we are deeply concerned. labama. mrs. britt: i consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection.

mrs. britt: thank you, madam president. last week the senate took a big bipartisan step towards honoring the life and legacy of laken ri riley. answering her loved ones' call to action and protecting american l families. but that step, no matter how big, was just that -- a first step -- and there are many to follow if we want to follow through for the american people on the demands to secure our border and interior immigration enforcement, make it real, take it serious. and to do that, we have to break the cycle that we've seen year over year. the house passed the laken riley act not once, but twice. senator budd took this very bill to the senate floor last year and unfortunately our democratic colleagues blocked it. i personally took the bill to the floor a second time and call on my colleagues to pass it, but

not only did they say no, they stood in the way and didn't even allow us to have a hearing in the entire 118th congress. democrats persisted in their obstruction in moving this bill forward. it isn't just the laken riley act the democrats are standing in the way of. it is the safety and security of our american citizens. it's progress on making sure that we begin to have a more secure border and that our streets and communities are safer. but today is a new day in the united states senate, and people's tune has changed. while i'm hearing from many of my colleagues across the aisle that they want to vote yes on this bill, that illegal aliens who commit crimes should be sent back to their country, not released on to american streets, i am optimistic, but i want to caution my colleagues, don't

revert back to your partisan tribe. we can't lose focus on what this bill is about and what it would do. it would protect american families and save innocent lives. the laken riley act is bipartisan. it is straightforward. it is targeted, and it is commonsense. it will ensure that illegal aliens who committed a theft-related crime after unlawfully crossing our border are off our streets before they can commit the most heinous crime imaginable. laken riley's killer was first arrested for coming into our country illegally. then he was unlawfully he paroled and released by the biden administration. then in new york, he was charged with acting in a manner to enter a child less than 17. then again he was released without i.c.e. issuing a

detainer. then in georgia, he was charged for shoplifting, and again he was released without i.c.e. issuing a detainer. jose ibarra then went on to kill laken riley. the laken riley act would have prevented him from running wild through our country's streets. and hd it been -- and had it been law, it would have saved laken riley's life. and if we enacted into law in the coming days, it will no doubt save american lives, and it will save families from the heartbreak and tragedy that laken riley's family has had to endure. now i want to be clear, this bill does not attempt to fix every single thing in our immigration and border security system. we all know that there are

plenty, and we have had several other border security and immigration enforcement bills in the works. i personally have the wall act and the keep our communities safe act. but you'll notice i am not trying to tack those bills on to the laken riley act as amendments, because this is a targeted bill to protect american families from criminal illegal aliens. isn't that common sense? regardless of which side of the aisle you're on, i think this is clearly common ground that we should be able to rally around. i know that my republican colleagues heard the american people's voices in november, and we are answering that call. the question remains, will enough democrats join us to make it happen? unfortunately there are some working to create another push to block this vital legislation.

so special interest groups are working around the clock right now to try to kill this bill. they are waging a campaign of misinformation, and in doing so, trying to create enough momentum so this bill doesn't become law. they have created every far-fetched hypothetical that they can dream up but never discussing the real tragedies of laken riley and how they could have been stopped if we had only done our job. i've refuted their claims in conversations with my colleagues, and we will continue to do so. but what the american people should know is this -- these are the same groups that have publicly fought to keep our borders wide open for years. they are the groups who thought that joe biden was too tough on the border and immigration, if that is even possible. we know how far out of touch

that is. these are, of course, groups who don't want i.c.e. detaining criminal illegal aliens. they are the very groups that actually wanted to abolish i.c.e. i am hopeful that my colleagues will listen to the verdict the american people delivered on november 5 rather than the propaganda of these radical interest groups. the time to act is now. the american people have made their voices heard. they want action, madam president, and they want it without any delays. they want the laken riley act. it is a strong bipartisan piece of legislation that has support from both sides of the aisle in both chambers. 48 house democrats voted for it. it's cosponsored by senators

john fetterman and ruben guy yea goe of the -- gallego of the democratic party. now is the time for results. i have been encouraged by other members of the democratic party who have said this is a bill i would like to see across the finish line. last week we had 84 senators who voted to advance it. so each one of my colleagues is left with one simple question this week. what will you choose to protect? open borders or american families? to me, that's a pretty simple choice. it is time to fulfill the responsibility we have to the american people, to protect the citizens of this country from criminals who would do them harm. it is time to make sure that what happened to laken riley and

her family never happens again. it is time to pass the laken riley act, and it is past time to choose american families. madam president, i look foortd this body having the courage to doed that this week. thank you, and i yield the floor.

. . test.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. hawley: we are here in the second week of the 119th

congress with an enormous amount of work to do, we have a border to secure, an economic to resurrect, and a great nation to rebuild and nothing could be more central to that rebuilding than the strengthening of the american people, and nothing could be more urgent than the revival of the american working class and that goes precisely together. the truth is we have been living these last 40 years or so in the great american decline. our economy has declined. we were once the manufacturing and trade capitol of the world -- capital of the world, everyone wanted to trade with us, we were the envy of the world in every way economically. that is not true. we are a tetter nation -- debtor nation now. we were the leader of the free nations not so long ago, now the nations of the world rush to court china and regard the

united states as yesterday's news. our cities have declined, they're not safe. our health has declined, our hope for the future has eroded. and all the while this town has plowed ahead with the failed policies of the last four years, this town assured us everything is fine. we only need to spend a little bit more, issue a little bit more debt, give our giant corporations a few more tax breaks, maybe get involved in another foreign war or two. this town has pursued the projects of the governing class and neglected the weightier matters, the well-being of our families and of our working people. let's be honest, my party, the republican party has too often in these years been part of the problem. the republican party has too often spoken up for corporate interest rather than the interest of families. the republican party has too

often cooperated with a different agenda. we need a change in this town, we need a change in this congress and we need a change in this party and that is the opportunity we have in the moment before us. because i submit to you, madam president. the fact is this, you can measure the strength of a nation and the -- in the strength of its families, and you can study the struggles of a nation in the struggles of the working family and right now the working people are struggling. there was not so long ago a man got a high school degree, a job, and worked at it decidely and learned a skill and worked hard and saved and would be able to start a family, get married, provide for kids, have a future, have something to look forward to. that's not true anymore. those days are long since gone. during the last 40 years, real

wages for working people have flat lined and during the last four years working wages for working people have declined. the bureau of economic analysis reports that disposable income, income after taxes, fell almost 10% -- 10% during joe biden's presidency, and that was, i might emphasize, for all earners. that drop was even higher, more steep and more devastating for america's working people and america's working families. the fact of the matter is there's no such thing as a family wage any longer, not in this economy. now families have to work multiple jobs to have one or two kids if they have kids at all. in the 1960's, the average family had just shy of four children. today that number has fallen by more than half. and here's the really

interesting thing. families today tell researchers they would like to have more children. to be specific, more than half approaching 60% of american families tell researchers that they would like to have more kids but they don't. why not? because they can't afford it, and that's all families. the numbers are higher, once again, for working-class families. here's what i would say. there's something fundamentally wrong with an economy when the working people of that economy can't have children they want. there's something fundamental wrong with an economy with the working people who are the strength and source of all of its might cannot provide for the children they have from the labor of their might. that is the reality and where we are today and it is time to do something about it. a test to this congress will not

be what we do for foreign nations, it will not be what we do or our largest corporations, it will not even be what we spend on defense or how we increase the nation's gross domestic product, those those are important priorities, the test of this congress will be whether we strengthen america's families and whether we deliver for america's working people. because in those families lies the hope of this nation, and in those working people resides the well spring of our great national strength. the well-being of our families and of our working people is not one priority among many, i submit to you, it is not one more interest to satisfy. it is a moral imperative, it is our overriding obligation and it is for this congress a moral test. for every republican who went out and campaigned on strength erng families, on delivering for

working people and for every republican who delivered the new working class coalition, this is the time to deliver. this is the time to stand up and be counted. rhetoric on the campaign trail is cheap. deli deli delivering actual solutions in this body is the acid test. that's where we are today. it is time for this new majority, this republican majority to stand up be and counted. it's time to deliver on the agenda that we ran on. it's time to realize the promise that voters have invested in us, it's time to invest in the future. to meet that test, to meet this moral priority, we must reshape our nation's tax policy and rebuild our nation's economy around our nation's families. and the surest way to do that is to reform and expand the child tax credit.

you know, the child tax credit was first proposed in its earliest form by president ronald reagan who was looking for a way in the 1980's to deliver real meaningful tax relief to working families with children. and then in 1994, the famous contract with america promised, what became today's tax relief, to deliver tax relief for every working family in this country. it is time for us to strengthen that promise and deliver new tax relief for every family that will help strengthen our working families, get our economy working again for the people who make it work for the entire nation. under current law, the child tax credit is available to eligible families with up to 2,000 dollars in tax credit relief per child. here's my proposal.

we should more than double that amount. we should dramatically increase it. we should make it $5,000 per child. more than that, madam president, we ought to allow families to apply this tax relief against payroll taxes. kushtly, even families who are paying into the payroll tax system, that is families who have a job, workers who have a job, a mom and dad who are paying taxes, they can't begin to claim the child tax relief until they meet a certain threshold of income. my view is this, we ought to allow them to apply this tax relief into every dollar they pay into the payroll tax system. more working-class families pay considerable sums in payroll taxes, but relatively little in income taxes. there's a lot of misinformation about, this miss nomers out there, a lot repeated by some who call themselves

conservatives. we heard many people don't pay into the tax system. that is not true. every worker who has a job is paying payroll taxes, that is over 15%, and many are paying full freight because they're self-employed or gig workers, if you've got a job wore working, you're paying into america's tax system and paying payroll taxes, and for many working families, they are paying significant sums of payroll taxes, because of the increased threshold for income taxes, they don't have a lot of tax liability. how do we deliver real tax relief to real working-class families who are paying a significant amount of money in payroll taxes but yet don't qualify for the income tax deductions that higher earners get? it like the home owner. for many working-class families

they don't qualify for those deductions or tax expenditures, they are paying significant sums in payroll taxes every single year. this proposal delivers significant tax relief to them it it allows them to claim tax relief for every child who they are racing as they go out there and work their jobs. i will say to you this is how it was meant to be. the child tax credit as it was proposed in its current form by the republican congress in the 1990's and in 1994 was supposed to be credited against payroll taxes. that was the original proposal, and there's good reason for that. these families are contributing to our economy system, to social security and medicare, they're paying taxes along with everybody else, they're not getting tax relief. the contract with america was supposed to change that. it is time to deliver on that promise. make the child tax credit available against the first

dollar earned in payroll taxes. here's another change. we ought to deliver the credit to families in regular installments throughout the year. the truth is, many working families cannot afford to wait until the end of the year to tally up and figure out how much tax credit they might get back, how much relief they might qualify for. they're paying their taxes in every single paycheck they earn. it's coming out of their paycheck every supple of weeks or every month, we ought to return real tax relief them in real incrementles let's -- increments, let's give it to families that they can use as they make a living, and we ought to make it available to expecting parents as well. we should say parents expecting children, a child not yet born ought to be able to claim that tax credit up to $5,000, depending be on the amount of payroll taxes that they pay even

if the baby has not yet arrived. pregnancy is costly, hospital bills are outrageous, and working families expecting children should be able to collect tax relief on the same bases as families with older kids. madam president, this plan would provide major generational tax relief for working families and their children. i propose it is working, it is not social assistance, it is not social insurance, it is a tax cut. you have to work a job and pay taxes in order to earn the credit. in our current system, too many families do work, too many do pay considerable sums in taxes but do not qualify for tax relief in any meaningful way. it is time to change that and make it relief available for working families. and this proposal advances a second important principle as well. and that's the principle that everyone who pays taxes ought to

get relief and relief ought to be available on the basis of family. conservatives have said for years that family is the cornerstone of society. we said for years that it's the first and irreplaceable building block of our nation. well, our tax policy ought to reflect that. our whole national policy ought to reflect that and we shouldn't shy away from saying that we ought to deliver tax relief and tax cuts on the basis of family formation, on the basis of family size, and, yes, on the basis of family need. madam president, this is only a beginning. there's much more to do. we have years of decline of the american family to reverse. we have years of neglect of the american worker to undo. the challenges are indeed formidable. but this is the moment for the revival that we seek. and so let us not delay. let us begin. i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. cotton: for tlm four years now -- for almost four years now, joe biden has subjected our country to economic misery,

uncontrolled crime, international humiliation. and now on the way out of his failed and scandal-plagued presidency, he's showering gifts and favors to some of the most depraved human beings. it started last month with hunter biden. pardoning his own son not just for the crimes he was convicted and pleateded guilty -- pleaded guilty to but for all crimes he may have committed. lord only knows what joe biden was trying to cover up. the hits continued when he issued 1500 blanket commutations for criminals whose record by his own aides admission he did not review, whose victims he did not consider. it was intended to correct specific and limited errors in the criminal justice system. among the beneficiaries of these commutations is a corrupt judge who sent hundreds of kids to jail for bribes. yes, a judge took bribes to

imprison children. the victims of the so-called kids for cash judge included a young man would later killed himself. these 1500 also benefited hundreds of drug dealers, fraudsters and thieves. joe biden and those who control him though, didn't seem to care about the victims of these criminals. instead they just continued their un cacaring giveaway to criminals. the hits continued. in just the last two weeks we learned the biden administration released 11 terrorists from guantanamo, including two suspected bodyguards of owe samba bin laden. and two architects of the 9/11 will avoid the death penalty as a result of a biden administration plea deal. that plea bargain is an insult to the sacrifice of thousands of young americans who left their homes, their families, and their professions after 9/11 and

volunteered to go fight on behalf of our country. that is a todays grace and would block the legacy of any presidency. there should be a senate resolution condemning every single one of these commutations and the release of every single terrorist. . unfortunately senate democrats would block every single resolution. case in point last month i introduced a resolution -- the kids for cash judge. senate democrats led by the senator of illinois objected to even that limited bill. therefore, i have come to the floor today not to condemn all of these atrocious actions, they all deserve condemnation, i'm here to simply judge democrat fealty to the disgraced president halfway out the door. i'm asking the senate to condemn just two of president biden's

latest and most inexcusable commutations of all, his commutations of death row inmates' death sentences. just two days before christmas, two days before christmas, when most kids had visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in their heads, the president announced that he was commuting the death sentence of 37 rapists, murderers and sadists. with that action he brought relief to 37 depraved monsters on death row and despair to the families of their victims during the holiday season. it's difficult to express the cruelty of reminding these families of the worst day of their lives and robbing them of justice right before christmas, a christmas gift to 37 savage murderers. and a reminder to those families that not only will they never spend christmas with their loved ones again, but they won't get

justice for their roofed ones. -- for their loved ones. the president showed disdain for the victims of these crimes and their families. presumably and cynicically hoping the christmas holiday would suppress media attention and public backlash against the commutations. i don't think so the president and his defenders would like the american people to think that president biden made these commutations out of some principled objection to the death pen til. i could respect that. i know people who are opposed to the death penalty, no matter how heinous the crime in all cases. usually founded in a deep-seated religious conviction. can i respect that. i certainly disagree with it but i understand it. but that's not what joe biden did. that is a lie. he commuted the sentences of 37 death row inmates and he left three killers on death row who are they in you may have heard of them. the mother of emmanuel chump

shooter in charleston. the tree of life synagogue shooter in pittsburgh and the boston marathon bomber. so clearly he believes in the death penalty for some criminals but not most. he made a choice, a moral judgment that the victims of 37 depraved murderers and their families didn't deserve justice. he also made a choice that not even he could defend the commutations of racist murderers and terrorists on political grounds or inflict that kind of grave political damage on his own party. but he wasn't motivated by principle. he was motivated by politics and guided by left-wing ideologues. he handpicked 37 murderers to save from death row. unlike the rest of his pardons

and commutations can't behind the excuses of staff incompetence, personal arrogance or affection of a father. he knew who he was pardoning and the evil crimes they had committed. so i'd like to discuss in little more detail just two of the depraved savages that joe biden saved from death row. the first is anthony battle who broke into his ex-wife's home and raped her, stabbed her to death with a butcher knife. she was heard screaming, quote, help me, help me, rape. she was a united states marine and anthony battle raped and murdered her. yet that murder wasn't even the crime for which he was on federal death row. he wasn't done. while he was in prison, he beat a 31-year-old correctional officer to death with a hammer hitting him in the back of the head three times until he was soaked in the officer's blood. the correctional officer hadn't

even done anything to provoke or confront battle. battle beat him to death anyway. when he was given a chance to apologize for the killing, battle said that the officer, quote, died like a dog. this is why we have the death penalty for correctional officers. so inhumane monsters who are stuck in prison for life have some reason not to start open hunting season on correctional officers. this is the man that joe biden decided deserved mercy two days before christmas, a man who raped and murdered a u.s. marine and bludgeoned a peace officer to death. joe biden also saved the life of marvin gabion, another rapist and serial killer. while facing trial for raping 19-year-old rachel tennerman, yes, that's right, he was on trial for raping a 19-year-old g girl, he kidnapped her. he bound her body with duct

tape, changed her to a concrete block, and he threw her into a lake while she was still breathing. her last moments filled with terror and agony. in addition, he also killed her 11-year-old -- 11-month-old baby, 11 months old. he allegedly confessed in prison that he, quote, killed the baby because there was nowhere else to put it. this is the man that joe biden also decided deserved clemency two days before christmas. it is an ancient truth that some crimes are so evil that the scales of justice can never balance so long as the perpetrator lives. every day that men like marvin gabion and battle draw breath at the expense of taxpayers is the day that justice is denied tlchlt is no forgiveness in this world for what they've den and no redemption. the sooner they exit this world

the sooner they will face the full measure of justice. that's just two. i could give you 35 more examples as well. that's all i'm asking for today. unanimous consent for two resolutions, the first one condemns the commutation of marvin gabrion, a rapist and serial killer. the second condemns the commutation of anthony battle who murdered a u.s. marine and bludgeoned a correctional officer to death. madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate resolutions which are at the desk, senate resolution 24, senate resolution 25. further, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate all en bloc. the presiding officer: is there

objection? mr. durbin: madam president, reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: madam president, i've listened carefully to the presentation of the senator from arkansas and waited to hear five words. i waited patiently as he described these heinous crimes and the action of president biden waiting to hear five words. to my knowledge unless i missed them, he went through his whole speech without mentioning those five words. they're critical to this whole issue. i'd like to clarify the record on president biden's recently -- recent clemency efforts. on december 23, president biden announced he would commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals who are on federal death row. these individuals will now have their sentences reclassified from execution and hear are the five words to life without possibility of parole. life without possibility of parole. now, i understand senator cotton

is opposed to the president's commutations in at least two of these cases. i want to be clear. the crimes he described and the crimes these individuals all committed are egregious and there must be accountability. the president's decision provides for accountability. with a term of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, this will ensure that these individuals will never again pose a threat to public safety, never again enjoy freedom in their entire human lives. now, my colleague from arkansas may disagree with the decision, that's his right. but i have long advocated for the abolition of the federal death penalty. i know he sees it differently. i commend president biden for his leadership. the death penalty is deeply, deeply flawed. history tells us a terrible tale of the victims of the death penalty in america. it is disproportionately been applied to people of color. that's a fact. that is why i serve as lead

sponsor of the federal death penalty prohibition act. bicameral legislation to prohibit the use of death penalty at the federal level. i spoke out in july of 2020 when the trump administration ended a 17-year hiatus on federal executions. in total trump oversaw 13 executions in the last six months of his presidency. i will continue to urge congress to pass my legislation to end the federal death penalty. following the lead of 23 states that have already done so, including my state of illinois. this failed and unjust policy has no place in a civilized society. if senator cotton is concerned about undermining the rule of law and robbing victims of justice, we should consider for just a moment president trump's. pardons. for example, president trump's decision to grant clemmency to all 10 health care presidents and doctors convicted in one of

the largest medicare schemes in the history of our country. these decisions wiped away years of prison sentences because of the action taken by president trump, and restitution totaled hundreds of millions of dollars for some of the worst health care fraudsters in america's history. at least seven people pardoned by trump had gone on to be charged with another crime a new one. president trump also used his pardon power to provide relief for his political loyalists. who am i referring to? his former campaign manager, paul manafort. his national security advisor, michael flynn. his former advisor, steve b bannon. and at least seven republican congressmen convicted of crimes. now president trump has promised to pardon the january 6 rioters of on day one of his new administration, calling them, quote, political prisoners. i'd like to ask my colleague from arkansas if he supports

pardoning the follow following of these individuals, david dempsey, convicted of assaulting police officers by using, quote, hands, feet, flagpoles, crutches, pepper spray, broken pieces of furniture and anything else he could get his hands on as a weapon. how about shane jenkins? trump pardon? convicted of using two axes to beat, break into the capitol, and assault police officers, by throwing furniture and a flagpole at them. kyle fitzsimmons, convicted of five separate assaults against law enforcement, including one that caused a career-ending, life-altering injury to u.s. capitol police act aquilino goodell. is he ready? kenneth bennowitz of the so-called proud boys, asalted at least -- assaulted at least six officers, placing one in a choke hold, lifting one by a neck. he lifted one so severely it forced him into retirement. i don't recall the senator from

arkansas or his republican colleagues introducing similar resolutions to criticize any of president trump's pardons. i haven't heard any senate republicans urging president-elect trump not to pardon the january 6 rioters. president biden's commutations providing for life imprisonment without parole are far more defensible than president trump's use of the pardon power during his first term or what he's planning for the second of his second term. for these reasons, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. durbin: if the senator from arkansas wants to -- i ask for recognition. the presiding officer: the senator is recognized. mr. durbin: -- the use of pardon power, i urge him to instead support my resolution urging president-elect trump not to pardon crimes committed during january 6, 201, the attack on the -- january 6, 2021. even our former senate colleague, vice president-elect vance said this week, i quote

him, you committed violence on january 6, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned. i hope the senator from arkansas agrees. show i ask for consent on my resolution. it is a resolution that contains the allegations i made earlier. let me read the necessary script for the record. i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to consideration of my resolution at the desk. further, the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cotton: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. cotton: reserving the right to object, which i certainly will. i want to briefly address what the senator from illinois said about my resolution condemning these two death sentence commutations. i want to acknowledge the senator from illinois is a longtime and principled opponent of the death penalty, barpsed i

believe in part on genuine and deep faith convictions. he has ha this -- ef has had that position for years. i can respect that. the senator from illinois presumably wants to see the commutation of the mother immanuel truth shooter, the tree of life chart and the boston marathon shooter. strongly disagree, i can respect it. that's no the what joe biden did. joe biden picked and chose which depraved murderers and rapists deserved to live and deserved to die, denying justice to the families of all those who were killed by anyone who wasn't totally politically toxic. second, the senator from illinois said he did not hear five words in my remarks. he repeatedly said he didn't hear five words in my remarks. those five words are life without the possibility of parole. that is true, he didn't hear those words in my remarks. that's not what these murderers

were sentenced to. they were sentenced by a jury of their peers to the death penalty. one of them, that i offered the resolution on, anthony battle, murdered a correctional officer while he was in prison for life. giving these 37 depraved murderers life in prison without the possibilities of parole doesn't solve the problem, it creates 37 new potential problems. open hunting season on correctional officers at every facility where they're incar incarcerated. again, that is why we have the death penalty for the murder of a correctional officer, because otherwise there is nothing for these depraved men to lose. now, senator durbin also mentioned a few of president trump's pardons of medicare fraudsters or political allies

or others. i haven't reviewed every one of those cases. i'm not prepared to say whether i support them or not. some of them sound pretty bad. here's what they aren't, though, heinous murderers who duct tape a woman alive, tied her to a concrete block, and threw her in a river while the murderer was on trial for her rape, then killed her 11-month-old baby because he didn't have anything better to do with it. he mentioned the january 6 defendants. president trump said he's going to likely issue pardons in some of those cases. i think that's appropriate. many of these men and women have been convicted of misdemeanor crimes like parading and picketing on public grounds without a permit. they had the book thrown at them. including a 72-year-old great grandma who was walking around wearing a red maga hat. i expect, i hope, the president will review these cases on a

case-by-case basis. i think all presidents should do that. whatever president trump does with january 6 defendants and commutations or pardons will pale in comparison to eliminating the judgment of these 37 depraved murderers, fellow citizens to impose the death penalty on them. it will pale in comparison to depriving these families of some measure of justice two days before christmas. so, i do object to this resolution, and i cannot believe that this senate, our democratic colleagues, cannot bring themselves to condemn some of these pardons over the last two months, of hunter biden or the kids-for-cash judge who sold kids into july detention centers for bribes, or now depraved murderers.

i object, mr. president. the presiding officer: the the presiding officer: the

if mr. hegseth had nothing to hide and republicans do indeed think he is ready for one of the most consequential jobs in the country, why is the chairman hell-bent to keep all relevant information out of the hands of his colleagues. to dismiss the allegations against mr. hegseth but then reject full transparency is at best odd, suspicious, concerning at worst. unfortunately, the testimony failed to address the disturbing questions that plagued his nomination. so, it appears that mr. hegseth 's strategy is to follow the 5 d's of dodgeball. dodge, duck, dip, dip -- divan dodge.

>> feeling to explain for one why someone with his lack of qualification should be entrusted to lead our armed forces. why should american trust our military to trust a television personality to anyone that is never let any organization. he failed to answer for his deeply fault history over mismanagement. why should he be the one entrusted to manage the huge complicated and to god's budget when he cannot even do well with much tinier organizations. no good answer. when asked about his comments as recently as two months ago, two months ago, when he claimed we should not have women in combat roles, he had no good answers. being secretary of defense demands discipline, demand character, demands restraint. mr. hegseth history shows how he is in all of these qualities. it would have been deeply

responsible for the senate to confirm has -- him a secretary of defense. it is a risk that our military and civilian defense workers cannot take. but, of course he is not the only nominee we are concerned with. we want to make sure that these nominees, we say to the american people, we want to make sure that they are fighting for you and for your family. we want them working day in and day out to make our country safer. bring costs down and make life easier for all americans. that is what senate democrats are focused on throughout these hearings. you will see us continuously focusing on these and what we will fight for in the hearings. senator reid just got back from the hearing. >> thank you, leader. i went in with deep concerns about the qualification of secretary of defense and i have concluded that a lack of

character, confidence and commitment to do this job. he is probably the least qualified individual ever suggested to be the secretary of defense in my tenure and perhaps in the history of the country. there is something that i think is more fundamental that is taking place. hegseth will be the point person on the politicalization of these united states military. we have never had a politicized military. over the course of my life i learned at west point that our duty is the constitution and it is not to be a partisan. what he wants to do is insert partisanship into the military of the united states. so it becomes a political vehicle. one of the first things that they wanted to do was have their warrior board. i suspect president trump will announce that on january 20.

what that will do is identify everyone they consider to be a general officer level not compliant with trump. and they will eliminate them. and that will send huge impulses throughout the entire military about what does it mean to be a soldier, sailor marine guardian. it will also give people ploys about how they behave at should they give their best professional opinion or should they keep quiet because it may offend the president or the secretary of defense and they would be subject to a warrior board. they have already sent out anonymous e-mails to active duty offices saying we will get you. we will get you.

that is completely contrary to any of the traditions of the military of the united states. so, we are in a very difficult position. it is further complicated by the fact that there is an ongoing campaign of intimidation against people who would come forward and testify and also, i believe my colleagues. there are advertisements in their states now that they must vote for hegseth and there is clear sort of signals that if you do not play ball, you will have millions and millions of dollars directed against you as well as social media directed against you. to make your life. and, ultimately, this will come down to whether the senate of

the united states can perform its constitutional duty to advise and consent to the president of the united states, not to simply fall in line and do something expedient. so the senate's representation is at stake, the military of the united states is at stake, we are in for a very difficult one. >> thank you. thank you. over the next few weeks as you all know, the next few months, the senate will be carrying out our constitutional duty as senator reid just described of advise and consent we consider these nominees. i want to thank senator schumer for his leadership in pushing for the fbi background checks and for the ethics forms, the conflicts forms as you know a number of hearings have been

held off because people did not get those forms in. did not give us the necessary information for us and for the public for us to look at the just stepping back from the very important hegseth hearing today, there are the upcoming nominees and our focus on what matters to the american people. so when we look at these nominees, whether they are able, whether they have the background the ethical background but also what they do actually is consistent with what the american people need and want. when we look at reconciliation or whatever they will do after that, we are happy to work with the republicans on bringing down the cost of housing in bringing down the cost of childcare medical care and, of course, long term care. something we do not talk enough about. they will make that worse by giving a bunch of tax cuts to the wealthiest spirit we will be

looking at whether they are prepared to actually improve the lives of the american people. will they commit to continuing the prescription drug negotiations that were such a hard-fought negotiation in congress and then sent over and administered by secretary becerra and president biden. saving 9 million seniors on $.5 million in out-of-pocket costs in just one year. will they continue those negotiations? will they continue into next year 15 more drugs and 50 more drugs with billions and billions of dollars at stake. will they give big pharma a sweetheart deal. these are the questions we will be asking the nominees. what they commit to letting americans keep more of what they earned when they have children, when they have families in the child tax credit or will they give billionaires and corporations a massive tax break that would add tillie -- trillions to the national debt.

the treasury department study released friday found that extending the tax code for people that make more than $400,000 a year would cost $2.4 trillion and that would give the top .1% a tax cut of 314,000 a year. if they are willing to work with us on what happens for regular people to bring down costs, we are there. if they're messing around forgiving a bunch of people to the wealthy, we will hold them accountable. thank you. >> senator whitehouse. >> thank you, chuck. this late of nominees, the doors are freaking open to political partisanship and special interests control over the levers of government. the american people need to watch their wallets with this crew of trump nominees who are

out to lou to our public treasury and pollute our public spaces. trump and his billionaire buddies are out to get richer still at everyone else's expense , at the expense of working families, the planet and our collective future. so, democrats in these hearings will press for answers about shady business dealing, dark money corruption, special interest influence, remember for instance a billion dollars for his presidential campaign and return for lucrative fossil fuel favors. trump big donors want payback. the nominees are here to deliver and regular people will pay the price. i will close with the warning we have pressed through the budget

committee that we are headed into an insurance crisis driven by fossil fuel emissions with huge stakes for the american economy and we need to avoid that crash, now put government with control of the special interests who have been causing it. >> questions. >> yes. will you support the lakin riley act? >> we are working hard to get amendments to improve the act and we are discussing that right now. yes. >> we are working with the senator to get amendments to approve the bill. yes. >> all i will say to you again as we are working with the senator to get some amendments to the bill. we are very hopeful that we can get some. yes. >> what do you think is an appropriate timetable to confirm some of these nominees. i know that you say you don't

want to rush through some of these. give us some specifics here. >> every nominee should go through at least three things. the ei background check investigation should be made available to all of the committee members and to the public. second, they should go through hearings with tough questions and not just limited to one round as the senator did. third, there should be a boat on the floor. those things have to be done. thank you, everybody. >> can we ask one question? [inaudible conversations]

>> good afternoon, everyone. obviously, border security was a very, very big issue in november 's election. what they said is they clearly wanted change in policies when it comes to the issue of securing our border and immigration. the lakin riley bill is the beginning of that change. it is a targeted bill to deal with a specific issue with the respect of the issue of border security and security in our communities. i command senators for taking a leadership role on this. frankly, the fact that we got a big vote on it yesterday to get on the bill i think is a signal that the democrats perhaps want to play ball. this is an issue that will not be a comprehensive immigration bill. this is a targeted bill focus on

a specific issue designed to prevent tragedies what happened to lakin riley and the incredible heartbreak that that has caused her family never to happen again. right now what we are doing is trying to test whether or not the democrats want to work with us on an amendment process but the goal here, the objective is to get this bill across the finish line to deal in a very direct way with a specific order issue which is the issue of immigration enforcement and have something that we can put on president trump's desk that he can sign into law early on in his new administration. with that, i will yield to speak about the bill. and then you will hear from some of the rest of my colleagues. >> thank you, leader. thank you all for taking time to be here today. we had a big step last week. there is certainly more to be done.

i am excited that some of our democratic colleagues have heard the american people. there was no more litigated issue than this over the last four years. america spoke loud and clear on november 5. they want secure borders. they want safe streets and they want us to actually accomplish something. had this bill been in law lakin riley would still be with us today. as many of you know she should have celebrated her 23rd birthday last friday. when we are looking at this, it is not only about her life and legacy, it is about preventing other families from having to go through the tragedy and heartbreak that others have. the first step in making sure that our nation is more secure, our children from coast-to-coast are safe and that we are doing for the american people what we told them they would deal. i am hopeful that my democratic colleagues do not revert back to last year's sentiment when they blocked this bill not just once,

but twice. i want to remind you the senate judiciary committee that is responsible for marking up these bills did not mark up one bill that was immigration related. i want to thank the leader in this entire team. thank you senator bud for getting this on the floor early and giving us an opportunity to actually yield results for the people that we served. i hope that my democratic colleagues make the right choice this week, they have an easy one it is between the open border policies of the administration where they can actually protect american citizens. i think that that is an easy choice. let's do this for lakin and let's do this for our country. thank you. >> i want to thank leader soon for working on this. reaching out to our colleagues across the aisle. you can see by the vote their willingness. we have more work to do. when it comes to this bill, i speak of a father is three, two of those are daughters. i hate that we even have to

address this issue. there is a lot of heartbreak around this. in the time that i've spent, all 100 counties in north carolina, i hear shares repeatedly echo the same thing to me over and over in that is every single county in north carolina is now a border county because of joe biden's policies. while this happened in georgia, we had the same concerns including in north carolina. this is about preventing tragedies. something that should have never happened before. when you think back to november 5 it was about two main things and that is things are unaffordable in that they are unsafe. whether you are thinking internationally are you thinking domestically in your own neighborhood, it certainly was for lakin riley. and it forever will be for her family. so this is about preventing tragedies in the future and any democrat that does not support this, they certainly did not get

the message that america sent loud and clear on november 5. thank you. >> i look forward to seeing the lakin riley bill enacted into law with the help of our democratic colleagues. i congratulate senators bud and senator britt for their aggressive but also very sensible common sense pursuit of this. i just want to say briefly after meeting with president trump last wednesday which was very successful, very substantive, we delivered the message of unity. i think not only in that room but to the american people only came out afterwards and subsequently. on thursday, i will have lead zeldon before the department of public works committee. a former member of congress from new york. he is a veteran. he is very well studied not only in the environmental issues of clean water and clean air, but he also knows how bureaucracies work and how washington works.

so i think we sort of kicked off today with our nominees hearings with the hegseth and we will be continuing this. i look forward to hearing from lead zeldon and others. we will hear from sean duffy tomorrow. lead zeldon in particular for the chair the committee talking about how we will be committed to putting forward president trump's promise to the american people to make your government work for you, not against you. thank you. >> senator britt and senator bud thank you for your leadership on the lakin riley's act. the american people have said over and over again they just want basic safety. this is about detaining people that have additional crimes in the united states. that is pretty common sense. a lot of the conversation we had last week and this week and we are looking forward to one week from today seen president trumps full first day in office.

the conversation has been about government efficiency. we will continue to talk about that as we did last week. continuing this week in the days ahead trying to figure out how to make this government more efficient. i don't need anybody that i run into it says that the federal government is the most efficient entity. everyone sees areas of efficiency. continue to drive the message and work towards making our tax dollars actually what they should go to. >> you have not said much about the nominees. do you have any concerns about these allegations from the past? if not, how quickly do you plan to move this nomination? >> i think he has addressed those nominations. every report that i have had, the readout from the hearing this morning is they need to keep doing this extremely well and make a strong argument for

why are to be the next secretary of defense if he is reported out of the committee, we will work quickly to get him across the floor, obviously, because that is a key critical important national security position that needs to be filled. >> what do you think of the timing? do you expect to confirm a couple of nominees on immigration night? may be rubio because he is well known. what do you expect on that night >> first, we hope that we will have some cooperation. obviously, senator rubio is a colleague respected on both sides of the political aisle over here. i would hope the conversation hearing, obviously, we are not having these conversations in full until we get to the conversation hearings with the democrats. my assumption is on some of these positions that we would have a level of cooperation that enables us to get some of those positions filled quickly.

>> after meeting with the president last week to discuss reconciliation, how do you envision the pathway to move forward given the bill on the floor and the need to fund it. does that make you think about border security? finally, what is your plan for moving it? >> as i've said before, border security is job number one. as has been mentioned, one of the top two issues coming out of the election. the american people spoke loudly and clearly. they want us to address that issue. i am hopeful that we can move in a reconciliation package on legislation that addresses the border. how that happens is still up for discussion. negotiation. clearly, the senate is prepared and ready to move. we continue to have conversations with relevant committees here. to ensure that when the time

comes we can move quickly. we will continue to work through the process for all of this. one bill, two bills, getting outside of this city. i don't think anybody really cares about that. what they care about is a result we will be working very, very hard to achieve a result and get an outcome that not only is in my view consistent with the campaign commitments of the president and many of our colleagues who are running this last year made, but the right thing to do for this country at a time we live in a very dangerous world starting with our southern border. thank you all. we are waiting for senator to come to the floor to speak. today the upper chamber homeland security department the bill is

named after lakin riley and 22 -year-old university of georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by venezuelan migrant who entered the country illegally. you are watching -- watching live coverage of the u.s. senate here on c-span2.

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to a virtual halt. we recovered from the devastation of this pandemic. we passed the american rescue plan to support working families and businesses and address a public health crisis. this law deployed vaccines to millions of americans and normalcy returns. in 2020 the world economy was in shambles due to covid-19. in april 2020 our economy lost nearly 21 million jobs in a

single month. our unemployment rate skyrocketed to 14.7%. but thanks to biden's leadership getting back to work. since joe biden has taken office our economy has added 16 million jobs. 20 million new business applications. the most in any single presidential term in history. under joe biden unemployment was under 4% for the longest stretch in 50 years. four years ago, infrastructure was nothing more than a punchline and a broken promise. an expanded access to clean drinking water and the high-speed internet. thanks to joe biden we took historic action to address the climate crisis through the inflation reduction act. the most significant investment in clean energy sustainability we guaranteed american

leadership in science and technology with the chips and science act. a bipartisan bill bringing semi conductor manufacturing back to america and bolstering our competitiveness for generations. because of his leadership, we are able to enact the most significant gun safety legislation passed in nearly 30 years. bipartisan safer communities act thanks to joe biden over $180 billion in student loan debt has been forgiven for more than 5 million americans. giving them finally a chance at life. we lowered the cost of prescription drugs, made historic gains in expanded health insurance coverage and continue to fight for the reproductive rights of all americans. history will also row cover joe biden for the violence against women's act. he wrote the bill, he championed it on the senate bipartisan legislation and made sure that every woman can live free from fear and abuse.

and as chair of the senate judiciary committee i'm proud to say that i worked with joe biden to confirm 235 judges to the federal bench after his leadership. including the first african-american woman in former public defender as a member of the supreme court. that is all here at home. from the global stage and historic faith in america is a work product the global leader and a responsive ally that would not tolerate post-world war ii global to be undermined by autocrats like newton. he defended ukraine, boosted competition with china and strengthen the lives in the south pacific. oversaw the expansion of nato and its bolstering defenses of the members. most importantly, thanks to joe biden, the office of presidency once again stood for decency, civility, respect and empathy. i sincerely hope our nation does not lose sight of these values.

thank you thank you senator byrd for being here. i thought we'd look at the election and look forward to be good here. the audience knows are the senator from alabama but you also have worked in politics before in the business community in alabama in the works for richard shelby who was here in washington for a few years as i recall. you understand politics and understand the tides and the ebbs and flows of politics. obviously was a great year for republicans but it was a like 2004, 20 years ago where you had the moralize liberals hunt energized conservators in the aftermath and 2006 and 2008 at. how do you in today's gop avoid that repeat of having this mandate it seems and have it to

be frittered away in the next few cycles? >> one thing left to do is to obviously stay unified. it's more challenging than it appears at times. if you streamline back to the summer, for me as a member of the republican conference this summer when president trump came to the nrc and sat down with all of the republican senators in that room that was the first time i had an opportunity to truly feel like it was part of a unified party. we talked through a lot of the different things we wanted to do for me to the senate back in when president trump took back the white house and we held the house what a member as and how do we rebuild our navy and secure our border. those conversations had the energy in that room truly cared us through to this day but as you know president trump came and spoke with us last week and talking about what can we do to

get -- to hit the ground running. you have an opportunity for the tides and polls of those three things in the media and the democratic party. remembering what we said to the american people what they voted for because there are so many things we have litigated over the last four years and when you look at what was done on november 5 the american people spoke. remembering what they said which was we must secure the borders and make safe streets and communities and not only for us but we want an opportunity for the next generation wanting to return to have common sense back in the policymaking state. it will take discipline and when you spoke about the things we were asked to do. did you use that opportunity with the president last week to get any plugs and for spaceforce or anything like that? >> one of the things i've been

particularly with space command and whatnot obviously for those of you in politics it's been a fairly contentious issue over the last couple of years. we in alabama believe the rightful home for the space command is here. we believe we have one that fair and square coming in first and ranking in that space that show that. obviously the biden administration took a turn and moved to colorado. worked diligently as a delegation and that's one thing we do well to specifically his work together in a bicameral bipartisan way to ensure that could be revisited. >> is the present aware of your issue >> absolutely and i taken the time to make sure the various cabinet appointments come through me talk about that as well. i take my duties very seriously and having the opportunity to

sit across from these people, you want to hear their visions and how they plan to execute president trump's agenda and it gives you an opportunity to talk about it and they will you watch this and will you commit to working with me >> to the point you want to get assurances from pete hegseth >> i wanted assurance it will be done fairly and i got that from him. that's what we are asking for when we were in the office explaining it to him. we want a fair process. he said absolutely having affairs as much of it which we believe it will be done in alabama. let me ask you something is very personal and that is this tragedy in california with some folks losing their homes to these wildfires. it's personal for you because you lost your home to a storm through alabama a few years ago. there's a debate now in congress about there's obviously going to be a need for federal aid for

california but there's now a debate in the speaker has mentioned this himself at some of that aid should be conditioned on policy changes for california. what is your view on that >> luck i love that you are fair and that's everybody knows you. what he is saying is i had an opportunity to speak to this directly as someone who has experienced it myself so back in april the 27th, 2011 by the grace of god my husband and my children and i are still here. a tornado came through and literally took out multiple parts of alabama. our entire neighborhood and whatnot. he looked around and we have lost our cars and our things are home. in those moments you don't realize what you don't have. we had a 1-year-old and a

2-year-old and i remember waking up two nights later and giving my son getting up to give my baby tylenol and not having it. simple things like that. getting your social security cards and figure out where your insurance is because everything you have is gone. what we need to be doing right now is standing firmly with the people of california letting them know they have our and support and we stand ready to be thoughtful about ways that we can help in making sure that they have the resources they need. that being said obviously you aren't just going to write a blank check. you have to be judicial as with our dollars and i think we will be what i think the people of california need to know that america stands with them. that you aren't drawing the line in the sand saying we are booking conditions on that >> i'm certain we will have conversations about these things with these people need our help. so we have got to figure out how

we can do that. we had to do it smartly. we can't just continue to ride -- write the blank checks when we are $36 trillion in debt that he had to help people in need and we have seen that in north carolina and people need to know that we plan to help them. you were elected two years ago a bit over two years ago and as we start this new congress new majorities in the senate the first bill on the floor is going to be a bill that you are the sponsor of the lincoln riley act. first off tell the crowd in short what the bill does. the lincoln riley act as many of you obviously followed in the news the tragedy of lincoln riley losing her life and when you look at lincoln riley's killer he had been charged both in new york for endangering a minor as well as a traffic violation in addition to georgia where he had been charged with

shoplifting. the point of this bill is that if you are here illegally you number one come across our border illegally and then you commit a related crime and you either charged with or convicted of it you will be detained throughout that process. that this had been in place lincoln riley would still be alive. when you are looking at her country we have 11 million people here illegally and their 7.8 million of those people who are in removal proceedings at 7.8 million. 1.4 million people have been given a final orders of removal which means they've been given their due process and we have said you need to be removed. of that when you look at the migrants that have committed sex related crimes at 66,000 migrants who are here illegally to have committed a theft related crime and of those 66,000, 69,000 of them have been

given final orders of removal. what this essentially does is it says if you commit a crime you were going to go to the front of the line for detention. one of the concerns of critics pressed by democrats is we are a tad overzealous if you have the 17 are located who stole a pack of gum from 7-eleven and the next thing you know he's deported. there's going to be amendments tonight and tomorrow. are you open to some kind of amendments that would offer clarity on how minors are treated or perhaps dreamers are treated >> a couple of things on that. i'm glad to see my democratic colleagues finally being concerned about minors that come across our border illegally. if you look back over the last four years in the biden administration we have had four to 68,000 unaccompanied minors coming across our border. under the biden administration hhs has lost 150,000

unaccompanied minors so i feel if we want to make sure these minors are safe and secure it's obsolete where we start. when you talk about a candy bar lets talk through that. first off i think it undermines our law enforcement officers in general because when you say charged with you have to have probable cause and a bench word so this isn't some kind of flimsy thing. second if you look what's happening in new york right now new york's migrant crime is running rampant. there migrated gangs that are committing theft and burglaries that have members as young as 11 years old so when you are looking at the actual target that's what we are talking about. when my colleagues ring up daca, so i dug into this for the youngest dr. recipient in the united states of america out of the 536,000 people that are dr. recipient at 17 years old.

out of the 536,000 dr. recipient there'll me 1000 between the ages of 17 and 20. the average age is 31, 35. there is such a thing as a daca -- so we have to be honest about that.

do you think senator vance has a right that you do punish those it commit violence >> yes. so you'd be on with a blanket party for anyone involved? this is one of things we continue to talk about about doj and not politicizing things. you look back to the summer of 22 and there were people who burn small businesses and government property and otherwise that were never charge for anything so looking at this and their people who are committing violence obviously and that's different. i'm with j.d.. let me ask you about the big news today on the hill which is the confirmation process by me getting underway for president trump's cabinet. where are you on the president's appointees, do you want to quickly approve all of them or argue still examining them and

you have some questions or concerns about any of this nominations >> obviously i mention it earlier in article ii section 2 is taken very seriously. advise and consent enough to process that i have is to give the president great efforts in all of this and every nominee that i've met with this answered my questions satisfactorily and has been transparent. we had some really tough back and forth in my office. like what? some the questions you've seen with its pete hegseth or talking to robert kennedy about different things when it comes to the issue of whose policies are there. i've asked those questions and i've asked the questions from the media and the answers i've gotten from each and every one of them have been transparent and direction i appreciate that and i think that's what the american people want. at this point all of the

nominees i have met with and have the opportunity to be with personally her people to process will go at committee hearings and that type of thing for the american people have an opportunity to see them for themselves. that would pete hegseth say >> i talked with him and his wife as well as he committed ensuring there are no allegations of mistreatment of women. he denied the claims that he committed sexual assault? writes. that's right and i asked if there were any additional claims and he said no. you are a member of the senate and you expect all these nominees today for? >> yes. let me ask about a topic dear to your heart which is these things are phones and the kids use of a phone. i'm not not sure if you saw this but the new governor and former

senator and the senate of new hampshire kelly ayotte came out the day of her inauguration said in new hampshire schools they were going to do it. do you want to see a version of that in all 50 states >> blocking kids access to phones during the school day >> did you have a phone during your years in school >> i'm too old. look my children their school administration at their school obviously read a lot of the literature that's out there that many of us have read and have chosen to go in that direction. it's interesting to look at my kids. my kids are 14 and 15 c. can imagine what i typically get phonecalls from them it's because their friends are asking is your mom really for banning tik-tok? call your mom. it is not a fan is moving out of

control of that. we have had spirited conversations in our home about this very topic. yes if you're asking me if we need to do more absolutely. on the state level or the federal level >> i hope the states will lead that it's important for us to push the conversation from the federal level as well. i partnered with brian schatz and chris murphy and tom cotton and myself and ted cruz. those are not people you particularly see pushing on one issue. we have all come to the issue to the table not as people are left are right that people who are parents of teenagers. we are seeing effects not only within our homes. our friends and their parenting experience and her children's friends as well. we had to put a guardrails. you have one in three high school and saying she considered taking her own life last year and then you have 9% of our high

school population saying the attempted death by suicide. doing nothing is not an option so i'm going to keep pushing and i'm partnering with them. you mention tik-tok and i'll ask you a quick. the quarters on the way they don't divest. where do you come down on that and are you supportive of that >> if you look at the ccc the data and collecting and the use of algorithm's against our young people would have to be smarting giving them an opportunity allows americans that ultimately if it stopped giving the chinese communist party of the upper hand at every turn especially when it comes to our valuable resources and access and that is her kids. receptors are present a laptop

invited you to the inauguration >> i think he casts a wide net when it comes to the coalition and peace through strength issues. that many times comes through dialogue and meetings and seeing eye-to-eye not figuratively. literally. >> you mentioned your work with senator schatz and murphy. the most remarkable coalition i think maybe bret fetterman for the student body president and the hoodie wearing fellow who lives next to a steel mill in western key is not the friendship that i would guess that you have become friends but how did that happen and take us into what the vibe is like? and that i was texting with them this morning. we became friends and orientations of the rewind to

that moment that is not a moment where he had been --synthesis of predetermined he was the bernie sanders backing fetterman not the fetterman now who's kind of like for democrats for many years. we just came off an election and was a very contentious elections between democrats and republicans as people remember. we struck up a friendship and struck up the friendship with gisele and we maintained it. we have continued that friendship and to be truthful with you when he was courageous enough to say hey i have some challenges and i'm going to seek treatment i go i think that's a moment we should all celebrate because if you think about how hard it is to have challenging conversations even with the people who you love most and love you the most and for him to do that in front of the world

was a beacon of hope and courage and it's an example for others to follow. we maintain that friendship and he asked me to visit him when he was there at the hospital. to be trusted not to be i always want to be worthy of that trust and we continued that friendship. as you know he is a big guy and so is my husband so my husband is six feet 8 inches 320 pounds. john called him the big unit. he's always like how is the big unit which is great because the two of them are basically the same size. yes great people he and gisele and we have is we have this tblisi i die eye diane many issues that we both share the same philosophy which is you have a common goal for someone on the other side of the aisle and the people you serve and you get in the room and try to talk. you were there before it was cool and now he's drifting to the right.

he has become one of the co-sponsors of the lincoln riley bill. do you think he would have moved like that had you not had a relationship with him early on in this the personal help the political >> look john has very strong convictions and john is going to do what john thinks is best regardless of who else is on board and europe to look across-the-board across the multitude of things he's done. we have an ability to have this conversation in their number of things were working on together behind-the-scenes and that's where friendships help. you have to trust and respect the people that you are working with. if you don't do that you can't be honest about the things that need to happen. i don't agree with this war what about this because if they are going to walk into cameron talk

about the issues you have or where you are you aren't going to have the conversation to start with the what happens is there's no progress in this country and moving things forward so friendships built on trust and respect help with that. >> this is important it to work across the aisle to get stuff done. obviously in trump's first term that was challenging. do you feel because of the nature of that democrats are more willing to work with you guys instead of barricading and trying to get stuff done especially issues that are not hot-button issues? >> i was here previously and this is a different posture for democrats but i think they understand america has spoken and they also understand they have lost touch with the people in america. when you look at things like what we'll see over the next few days will be interesting for the lincoln riley act. in the friendships and the freshman class we had another dear friend of mine is from

vermont. he was a freshman at 70s. we obviously did not see eye-to-eye. from vermont i guess not. i tell people from bonta and they are like bernie sanders vermont. truly he's committed to figuring out how we get back to semblance of regular order and he will be a driving force on the democratic side of how we bring amendments that we truly believe will improve the bill and how do we get back to working together? we are running out of time and i had to ask you one important follow-up question though. i couldn't help but notice when the aps top 25 college basketball pools came up this weekend auburn number one and bama number four. is alabama basketball state >> you know what we are going to o for just a little bit for sure. we are going to regroup on the football side and right now we are focused on basketball

season. you are going to regroup. politician. katie britt thank you very much. [applause] thanks for sticking around for overtime. i was just out here. listen you touched on the number of important topics of the administration already. the event is about the first 100 days of the new president and i want to take a couple minutes to talk about the outgoing president and i'm curious your experience with the next -- administration administration for how engaged have they've been with you and have you heard from them? >> no. as a republican in the house i didn't expect to be and was invited down to the white house for one bill signing. what was the bill, dear member >> it was early on in the

frustration and we passed 27 bills in that time. we were active but there was not a lot of inertia in. >> that you've never spoken to president biden >> only in a formal setting where there were lots of other people. understand what you are describing and i'm not sure it makes sense to me. i'm just in your house republican. it's an tight majority and you have expressed interest coming of a record of working in a bipartisan bases on a number of issues that are of some significance. did you truly have zero expectations of a phonecall >> zero, really. sorry. >> no, no. a lot of it comes from look in the house therefore to 35 if you and as a republican you are not on the first part of the call is to begin with and i would assume

most of my colleagues don't wake up in the morning thinking the present is going to call me today. >> you are the only one that founded the conservative -- and you feel there would have been an opportunity to work together? i will tell you john kerry was amazing. john kerry was very in tune with the work that i was doing. he met with us and he talked with us secretary granholm was engaged so to be fair to present was in himself than there were several people on his team who were watching what we are doing and making sure we were successful. what do you think the world was for that for republicans and the administration? >> in case everybody's not familiar with it a number of years ago there was a concern that the republicans were engaging in a climate conversations i a climate conversations i do whatever but he suggested i should do and i jumped in with both feet.

i founded the conservative climate conference to get republican engaged who patted me on the back and said he will get five republicans to join him here to tell you today there are 87 house republicans part of the conservative climate caucus and taint your question the role is incredibly important and the reason why did you have a conversation that something is significant and policy and out thank you can separate climate policy from energy policy in the last conversation we had about energy is so critical. if you just say 1/2 of congress is going to show up for that conversation you are going to get the best answer so if republicans are showing up for the conversations and not showing up for the climate conversation or the energy conversation at think it's critical to get the best policy so republicans are there and we are ticket waiting our solutions and debating their solutions are coming to the best conclusions.

>> do you think president trump, >> i know where this is going. >> if you aren't showing up for the climate and energy conversation it shows what president trump sees it himself. >> it's hard to know. if you look of his appointees we are going to have some serious energy/climate conversations and i'm here to tell you the narrative has been to be clean you up to give up affordability and reliability and energy dominance and this is where the republican voice is important. wait a minute you can be clean and you can hang on onto portability and hang onto reliability and energy dominance and clean at the same time. if you look at the president's appointees that resonates and by the way whether they are related to energy or not they come to me in the senate role and i'm

having this conversation with all of them about my work on climate and how i'm hoping they can help me. >> who do you see among those people that are the broader cast of characters in the administration that are in the clean part of that conversation >> i just came from the house energy in commerce committee and when i showed up seven years ago if climate came up in the hearing there was a debate about the science. by the time i left if climate came up now it's a debate about methods and how do we get affordable clean energy and i think you'll hear that more and more. think you'll see that and to be more specific with your question everybody that comes in records the epa a lot of connection there and pete hegseth on you and me and talking to him about that role and the role of energy and all those things. it's hard to find one topic that

spans every part of the administration as much as energy. tell me more about your conversation with him. >> i shouldn't have brought that up. listen to me i take very seriously the role that the senate has in the constitution for advise and consent. when mr. hegseth came to see me i had done quite a bit of research on him but not enough. so i asked him i said give me four or five names of people that you want me to talk to who can tell me and i'm very well aware as an official that's what is out there in the news may or may not be accurate and i want to know exactly. he gave me four or five names and i called him on my called additional people. i want to know who he really is. i smiled at him and i said you britt a number of books and i want to read your book do you tell me which one to read.

for me i can't make a good decision whether it's controversial pete hegseth or as noncontroversial as marco rubio. if i don't look at the entire sheet of music and that will include the fbi and i don't have these pieces together and i hope all of my colleagues take that same seriousness in our constitutional responsibility. the reason i think it's important is that's not going against the present. my view that's helping the president. they tend to view my role as a board of directors and who would hire a board of directors and say i want you say yes to everything i propose. >> a lot of people actually. >> it's not a good way to run a business but a business but he won't the trusted people around you to see what they are saying. it's advice but i can't give the president advice if i'm not early investigated and understood in every moving part

of this conversation. said how important not just with pete hegseth the nominees in general how important it he was personal character >> it's huge and i try to live my life. going back to my constituents i would put that out first and foremost so it is a big deal. the question is at what point do you cross that line because none of us are perfect and i'm the first to tell you i have things in my past that if i were a nominee would be coming up. that's the burden i think on us is where that line is. >> if you were to be reviewing a nominee was superb credentials a track record of good judgment on policies with some profound personal character issues you have to balance, all of those things you laid out its

1 degrees of qualification and degrees of flaws and that's the burden you try to decide where those are. as a nominee you know who i'm referring to but didn't make it. and i think universally it was felt that that equation was way out of. it didn't even get off the ground and it was too easy for decision. >> could you give us insight to how you are thinking of as the nominee? talty is the biggest probe for me she's been so low profile. she has come to my office so if you go back to that analogy a sheet of music her sheet is blank for me and i need more information and start reeling that end. and if i can't fill that in i can't vote for her so i've got to find a way to make that decision. >> what your assessment of the notes that are on the page >> always have is what's out there in comments and like i

said before is elected official in the first understand you can't really, you have to be careful with what you are hearing about somebody. so i want to do the research and i will do the research and before a cast that vote to make sure i fully understand what the packages. >> you've introduced legislation to limit the present ability not in the particular president that the power to issue tariffs for national security reasons. i wonder as you are looking at the way terrace have been used by president trump's first term and president biden and work looking ahead to the first hundred days of this term how much are you worried about unchecked security >> i want to be agnostic to the republican or democratic present as a general rule executive

orders are a way to run a country. we will see in a few days a rapid swinging of policies and executive orders in place just as we saw a rapid swinging of the policy four years ago but that's a way to run the country. the problem is only don't do our job in congress it makes it more tempting for the administration to do those things and it's incumbent on us to do our jobs. take away that temptation from a president. >> how do you do that? i've got built and it's amazing how simple it is. it's a study on carbon intensity, a study and it's a tiny little swing. here again this is why the president goes to executive orders because by nature the way the founders said it's hard for

us to get these done and i wouldn't change that but it is hard. at the same time i'm working months to get a simple study done >> someone is talked a lot about using executive order is -- to transform government and make it more efficient and use executive authority. how is that to you >> when i became mayor provost, we need more mayors in congress by the way. i inherited a budget that because of the financial crisis back in 2007 i had to cut the budget. we did so very carefully but we cut a substantial part of our city budget and increased employee morale and increased quality of services delivered to our residents. i bring that up because whether it's business or government there is always.

particularly when you go decades without going back so i welcomed the evaluation of that and i welcomed and evaluation of programs that were no longer needed and if we do it correctly we will come out the other side with increase morale and federal employees and better services delivered to our constituents. if we do it wrong we will destroy morale and quality of services we are here delivering so to the extent i have any influence in the process i want to make sure we do it right and i think quite frankly this is one of the things the american people are saying please go do this. people can see there is and that the debt is too high. there is broad consensus that something needs to be done and let's go do it right to up with that look like in the context -- >> for me and my experience if you come in and say this to say

hypothetically we are going to cut every federal government the federal government by 20% then he cut the good programs and you don't cut the brought -- bad programs as much as you should than to answer your question how do you do it right? you have to get into the weight weeds on everything we do and say could be done better or should it not be done at all. right now give you a glaring example of the number of empty office buildings here in washington d.c. with federal workers not coming to work takes the question should they be coming in to work and if not why do we have the buildings? we have those two needs and elon musk to blow it up because it's gone on for years in the state that it has and it will just continue and that's where the american people can see something needs to be done. >> do you think democrats are ready to deal? i'm really happy with the tone in washington d.c. right now. eight years ago it was the

stereotype we are going to work with the present. is not my president will do we can to stop them. that's not the tone right now but the tone right now is there things the american people expect us to get done and they are not all partisan. the american people do expect to fix the border and expect inflation to come down. i think, to sense from my democratic colleagues many of them want to be part of the solution. i just feel it's never perfect for republicans and democrats that they have the potential to find some synergy here and do some things the american people are expecting us to do. >> it strikes me in the past couple of administrations there've been meaningful bipartisan accomplishments and they haven't necessarily been on issues that are top of the mind for the average worker. say what you will about the

trips act and there are a lot of people wrapped up about semi-conductors maybe i'm underestimating it. but on something like inflation and immigration can you put something together that's not 51 votes like a reconciliation bill. 70 generational accomplishment >> if we are talking about border specific overall migration -- if we are talking about bringing peace and stability overseas it's very high. they go back to the campaign and those issues where i think the american people are frustrated and a lot of my democratic colleagues are willing to say let's find a path forward and i think it's incumbent on both republicans and democrats to find those places. agree to disagree on some like

immigration. you start with okay here's the border right here and here here's mass deportation of 20 million people are somewhere between there you are going to agree. it's not hard to see the what about over here? let's focus on this and then we will deal with this later. what would your device to president trump be >> he is going to do what he is going to do that might place to congress and to the senate in the house would be that's our job let's go find those places and let's work together. my biggest frustration is that those in the house and in the senate who are willing and who like to work together for the people that tend to call is. we don't make the headlines and we have got to find a better way to show the american people there are more of those than not and we are getting things done when we get things done we do a better job of bringing about it. >> thank you for your time.

>> absolutely. great to be with you. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

welcome to the capitol everybody. good afternoon but but this is a great day for women in america. [applause] house republicans have yet again stood up for women. this is a commitment that we have made because important with what is right and what is common sense. we know from scripture and from nature men are men and women are women and men cannot become women. it's sad we have to say that. it's a matter and how we are made. we try to ignore that we doesn't -- we do so at our peril and the detriment of our daughters but across the country finau athletes like riley and paula and stacey have had to

compete head-to-head against biological men which is not right. around the world it's estimated more than 700 female athletes have been displaced by the males in their women supporting events and that's resulted in more than 1000 medals records and scholarships intended for women going to men. my own daughter compete in sports as they were growing up than i can imagine how i would feel if the dad if they had the trophy stolen from them. that's to me what many women are facing today. not just anger or fear biological men competed against women poses a threat to safety of our girls. it's dangerous it's unfair it's a rejection of reality and just plain wrong. but today the house voted to uphold common sense again. we voted to require all schools receiving federal funds to uphold the original title ix and keep biological men on women's

sports. the last congress who voted on this legislation as well. not one single democrat joined us and today was an improvement. we had two democrats join us. [applause] is shameful. there should have been many more. i would argue every member of this body should have voted for comments is to protect women that for some reason for politics i guess they chose not to be the american people sent a clear message november they want us to return to common sense but it appears that some of our friends in the other party are ignoring that. this congress with the power of the republican senate and we have donald j. trump returning to the white house. there's a sea change around here and we can't wait. together we are making good on our campaign could we could have done it without greg steube my colleague from florida behind me here. he's been pressing the issue for so many years. we are grateful for that leadership in this good to see

the hard work on a day like this. i will not turn it over to riley gates for an introduction. she is a member of congress now. she knows first-hand the dangers of allowing biological men to compete in sports and why this legislation is unnecessary. i'm a big fan of hers and i'm grateful for her courage and her voice on this very important issue. riley. [applause] >> thank you mr. speaker. well thank you. my name is riley gaines i'm an ambassador for independent women's voice in the vice chair of athletes for america with america first policy institute. in the former collegiate swimmer from the university of kentucky and let me at the speaker johnson's gratitude for the people who stand alongside me and behind me and their leadership on this issue and stood firm and i know it's not easy. nonetheless it's necessary and i

would argue it's urgent so i thank you all. i'm thrilled with the passage of a chart 2020 the protection of women and girls in sports act. truthfully i'm mad. i'm mad that this is something we have to do. i'm mad we as women have to beg for equal rights. i'm mad we have to beg for privacy in areas of in a mad we have to beg for safety on the field or walking in the streets at night for that matter. let's just go through a couple of the things we heard on the house floor today from democrats. we heard things like exams and girls will be asked to show within their. we heard they have to show internal and external anatomy and higher to peak at girls and on and on and on. fear-mongering about but that's what democrats do best.

if you don't know what they are to just look at what they are doing. there've only been a few girls who've been injured at the hands of a boy just a small percentage. that may tell you the message i received that i'm a waste of time. the girls around the country just like me are waste of time. their daughters are waste of time to all house democrats except the two who voted in favor the protection of women in sports act. to speaker johnson's point the american people spoke on november 5. the common sense every day americans who intuitively know that men and women are different we reject this notion. while i certainly believe to embrace his cabinet picks in the american agenda i believe people

turned out to the polls on november 5 to reject they and that's entirely and thoroughly with the democratic party has become, the third whether it's feeling like you have to refer to latino individuals as -- believing men can become women or men believing for what -- the long and boys and thoroughly. i'm here today for one reason and i'm not here to speak on the policies or anything like that. i'm here to debunk everything the house democrats of today. i'm here to tell you it's a hypothetical situation. my story is seemingly well-known but i won't get into it. i've hours sharing the feelings and emotions and the specifics behind watching a man still at woman's national title and the feelings of humiliation

violation of having nothing unclothed inches away from her six-foot four-inch man simultaneously fully exposed himself drifting down to nothing. male nonconsensual and i will add some form of voyeurism or sexual professor seemingly celebrated. last fall leading up to the election the independent women launched the riley gates stand with women's scorecard the first of its kind resource that tells americans who stands with women and who does not. the report card had pivotal impact with a 90% win rate approval. i'm honored to put my name on such a significant effort no more hiding phrases and taglines that the democrats used standing up for women's rights. go back and look at who voted

and supported the riley gaines act. if they said no when one or both they do not get to say they support women. men do not belong in women's sports and with the house passage of the protection of women and girls in sports act we are one step closer as a nation to making sure that not one more male athlete is able to take a trophy a roster spot playing time resources or an opportunity to compete from a woman. the american people, we believe that women's sports are for women and i can't believe we have to say this. unfortunately we do. it matters for the last thing i will say if you're curious about your representative voted to your senator or any federal elected official how well they stand with women check it out at riley gaines report card.com. appreciate you guys and i appreciate your leadership. so thank you.

[applause] and i think you've riley and thank you for advocacy on this and all of women athletes a lot of them we have here today have supported this for years. i've worked on this for years. in the new republican congress this is the type of thing even moderate independent women are appalled that their daughters are in plucker rooms with biological men men in and overwhelmingly popular is we want to protect women's sport yet democrats have for years tried to allow biological women to compete in our nation's women's collegiate activities and they did it on the floor in a debate that we just had. prior to that constituency they refute the title in olympic competition because the mail athlete who used to compete in men's olympics and men's

swimming and decided he wanted to identify as a woman. he was allowed to do that. it's absolutely we have to pass a bill that says only men can be in women's sports and honored to be part of the fight and honor that we got it done in a bipartisan fashion and i call on every senator and to quickly bring this bill up for a vote and for every senator to show that we do support stand with women athletes in our country. thank you very much. [applause] >> good afternoon. great to be here to celebrate the passage of this bill. and to be able to represent women in the mom of five daughters and i have nine granddaughters so this is how we are going to treat our women and girls. i want to applaud my house

colleagues for passing this critical were displaced and to protect our girls and i want to thank pete speaker johnson for his leadership in making this bill 1 of the first priorities of the 119th congress. the american people spoke loud and clear in november. they do not want men and women sports in one locker room and we are following with a mandate. it sickens me knowing men can take away years of hard work from our girls and enter their sports in their locker rooms. title ix was a hard-fought victory and we must not allow the left to be raised 50 years of equal rights in one fell swoop. we pass this bill in 2023 bit tone democrats refuse to take it up in the senate. i'm hopeful that leader thune in the gop senate majority will act swiftly and passing it in

president trump is ready to sign it into law on day one. thank you to each of you for your work to protect our girls and may god continue to support your efforts. [applause] this here some examples from the democrats perspective. angela carini left the ring after 46 seconds over paralympic boxing match because she noted she had never been hit so hard in the face as she experienced against a mailbox or was allowed to compete in the competition. she has won silver medals at the european olympics. anyone who voted against the protection of american girls in sports act of sending a message they approve the women athletes

being battered up used overpowered and left broken on the field in which they have worked so hard to compete. and how little those who want men competing in sports are about the physical damage. this is a radical movement to allow biological boys to compete against girls and it's all about erasing women entirely. the position of these radicals is still utterly that we need to make sure they are completely run out of women's sports women's locker room and from any position of power pitching -- taking action to raise women. i stand aside of protecting the dignity of women athletes in on the side of the american people who are disgusted that we have to be having this debate. this is a fight we must and will win on the half of our daughters and generations of women

athletes. [applause] we will take a few questions from a number of experts. many organizations are involved in this great effort. [inaudible] said it goes to the first book of genesis. i'm not sure there's interpretation on gender but you are open to interpret the scripture.

it's a commonsense as well. we know from our religious tradition. we make no apology about that of whether you regard that as the truth or not it's also nature. it's biology and biology is not as we say. the supporters of this legislation is to protect women and girls. it's been articulated well. wayford examples and it happens all the time across the country. congress has a role to play here. the it's an appropriate thing for us to do and we make no apology for it. it's not out of dislike or discrimination against anybody at all. this is the right thing to do and that's the rule here. [inaudible]

it's indicative branch function it's a big issue. probably the most famous ad of the campaign cycle. it resonates with the american people. as was mentioned it's an 80 to 90% issue or more on every poll you look at. it should not he partisan. we should have every single member of congress united on this and i would challenge you to question the democrats who voted against how the world they could but i don't understand it at all. again i want to thank all these fierce warriors and supporters who have stood strong in issues and made it possible. it possible to expect their senate colleagues to do the right thing as well and we will

and we will get to the presence desk for signature and one more thing in returning commonsense. [applause] and thank you all for being here. god bless. [inaudible conversations]

two months after he rejected his policies president biden is doubling down. last week and build a new front in this war on american energy is sweeping bam on new offshore oil and gas development covering the entirety's coast and large portions of the west coast for the eastern gulf of mexico and parts of the northern bering sea

in alaska. all told, all told he's closing up more than 625 million acres to new oil and gas development on top of the bands already in place. mr. president the president's decision last week was notable for its size and for the clear snub to american voters. this is just the latest in a long series of actions by the president to conventional energy development. a pause on approvals of liquefied natural gas export a sharp decline in leases issued for oil and natural gas on public lands and waters to restrictions on drilling in large areas of the national petroleum reserve in alaska. the cancellation of leases in called good neighbor rule designed to effectively force of fossil fuel power plants to

close. mr. president the list goes on. in short president biden has done everything he can to set up up -- set us up for a future of diminished conventional energy production and that's a problem. we are nowhere near being able to rely primarily on alternative energy and if we don't have sufficient conventional energy we will find yourselves in serious difficulties. for starters mr. president in sufficient conventional energy production could mean big increases in energy bills for american families. lack of domestic supply or the need to rely on expensive energy imports will be likely to make things like gas and electricity far more expensive. needless to say that's the last thing that americans are looking for after the steep increases in gas and electricity bills under the biden administration. and a part from price there is

the even more concerning process -- prospect of major supply shortages. i'm sure americans don't want to wait in long lines for gas or pay rationing or wonder whether the lights are going to turn on when they get those hit the light switch and then there the national security implications. if we we are producing enough conventional energy here at home that have to make up the supply from abroad. most likely from nations are volatile areas of the world. and european countries learned the hard way after russia invaded ukraine were lying on countries for your energy supply is not a winning proposition plus foreign production can be far less environmentally friendly than producing oil and gas here at home. one of the best things we can do for national security is to ensure that we have a stable reliable and affordable domestic

energy supply. mr. president fortunately the biden administration is being supplanted by the trump administration and i know president trump is committed to reversing president biden santee conventional energy policies and unleashing american energy production. hopefully we'll be possible to undo them to damage the president biden has been set us up for a secure energy future. but it's worth reflecting on what might have been and could be again if we don't have a the congress and the president committed to conventional as well as renewable energy development. i hope future administration's democrats as well as republicans will make american energy security a priority. mr. president i yield the floor and i suggest the absence of a quorum. mr. president today the senate began holding hearings for the

present lx lx nominees to serve in his cabinet. this morning senate armed services committee heard testimony from pete hegseth to serve as secretary of defense. few nominees will face the kind of troubling questions that mr. hegseth faced going into today's hearing. he is by our apparent woefully unfit for a job like secretary of defense. unfortunately mr. hegseth unfortunately for mr. hegseth his testimony thus far has failed to address the disturbing questions that plague his nomination. it appears mr. hegseth's strategy is to follow the 5d of dodgeball dodge, dip, dive and dodge. mr. hegseth failed to explain

why someone with his lack of qualifications should be entrusted to lead our armed forces. why should america entrust our military to a television personality who has never led any large organization. it's a huge organization dod. we haven't come close to having any of that kind of administrative experience and we didn't hear any good answers to that question. mr. hegseth failed to honor his deeply flawed history of financial and organizational mismanagement. why should he be the one entrusted to manage the pentagon's budget? again no good answer. when asked about his comments as recently as two months ago when he claimed we should not have women in combat roles, he had no good answers. finally mr. hegseth failed to assure us he had the temperament for the job. his history of excessive drinking is troubling for

someone seeking to lead our military and his reflexive defiance against the allegations regarding sexual assault undermines his credibility. if mr. hegseth had nothing to hide about his past that it shouldn't be a problem for the chairman of the armed services committee to allow all committee members to review all fbi background documents. but today worker rejected this reasonable request by ranking member reed to let committee members review mr. hegseth passed again if there's nothing to hide about mr. hegseth why does the chairman on keeping all relevant information out of the hands of his colleagues. he dismissed the allegations against mr. hegseth but then reject full transparency is at best and dangerous at. it of something hiding in the dark. secretary of defense demands

discipline character restraint. mr. hegseth history shows he's deficient in all of these qualities and bust so far this hearing is not change that. down the nominations tomorrow mr. hegseth is not the only nominee testifying this week who must answer for disturbing records for the number of people with disturbing records of the nominated some of whom are good nominees that the number of disturbing records and histories and don't think i can remember a time in history when they have have that many. tomorrow we will hear from a large collection of nominees. let me focus on two. russell -- director of omb and chris wright who served as secretary of energy. let me begin with russell boca quay picture in the first trump administration one of the key architects of the chief architects of the project 2025. this man is not just a bystander

who supported it. he helped put it together. no administration on earth can claim to be pro worker in the nominate someone like russell pogue to oversee the federal government's budget. you can't be pro worker and be for russell "vogue." he years pushing for chuluota cuts to america's social safety net to something that would cause immediate severe harm to tens of millions of american citizens. we all know his history very well and is awful and radical record from the first trump administration. even after leaving government he was the go-to authority for the most radical elements of the house gop advising them on budgets that punished american families seniors law enforcement others, a draconian budget cuts. his cottage at -- budget cuts cut to the deep. tomorrow when he testifies for the committee the that americans

will be reduced to the outlandish extreme agenda. project 2025 would cause your stomach to turn during election he'd be a nightmare scenario. if you're among americans working class or from low-income families are middle-class families working hard to make ends meet he would be disastrous. if you rely on programs like medicare and nutrition assistance he would put those services in danger. on the other hand if you're among the wealthiest of americans in this country you have a wave of good news produce ponch advocate of tax cuts for the ultra-rich deregulation for america's major corporations and even if that means adding chileans to the deficit. as we will all see tomorrow for ourselves confirming him will be a disaster for america's working and middle-class families. finally i'd like to say something about president

trump's nominee secretary of energy mr. chris write. there's a heck of a lot in his background that should trouble americans who care about affordable energy in creating clean jobs. mr. wright is one of america's wealthiest fossil fuel executives and has a history of sounding like a climate change skeptic. he said we have seen no increase in the occurrence of tornadoes and floods. mr. write look over california right now and say we haven't had increases in these kinds of products -- problems. tomorrow he must answer for his background and his comments. it's like putting a bot -- a box in the henhouse.

if you believe in clean energy view could have the worst nominee. we'll mr. wright fight to lower cost for making consumers are fight to help the bottom line of polluters and will mr. wright push policies that build on the progress we made in the inflation reduction act has hundreds of thousands if not millions of good paying paying jobs or will he kill those because it's such an ideological extremist? if confirmed will mr. wright advancer country to prosper as affordable clean energy future or will he take us to do the bidding of -- he must answer these questions and more tomorrow. say thank you mr. mr. president but i rise today to discuss the senate confirmation process because today's senate communities are beginning their hearings. starting to hear from the nominees from president-elect donald trump a qualified nominees. we'll hear from many of the nominees this week and i just

heard the minority leader talk about what's happening today. at this very moment pete hegseth is testifying in the armed services committee. he is the president's nominee to be the secretary of defense. i've been following these hearings closely. pete hegseth is getting strong answers to tough questions. he's confident these knowledgeable and he should be confirmed quickly. there's a significant problem in our military with morale and with recruitment and pete hegseth is the right person to address those issues of military readiness. mr. president the incoming administration is ready to act and deliver on the historic mandate the president trump won in november. his victory in electro-kolfage in the popular vote gives him a mandate, mandate to undo the

damage of the current administration and to unleash american prosperity. president trump understands the old saying that personnel is policy but that's what he nominate his entire cabinet before thanksgiving and it's a strong team. doug bergman chris wright will take the handcuffs off of american energy john ratcliffe will underscore american strength no more weakness from america on the world stage. scott doesn't full stop the 4 billion-dollar tax increase in pam bondi full stop the weaponization of the justice department and she will enforce the law. kristi noem will make sure the border secure. these nominees are not returned to business as usual. business as usual gave us painfully high prices.

business as usual gave us wide open borders. business as usual gave us the disastrous death of the soldiers in the fall of afghanistan. these nominees by president trump or bold choices. they are motivated skilled and committed to the safety and security of every american. most importantly they show president trump is serious, serious about bringing fresh eyes and a new outlet to washington d.c.. that's exactly what the american people voted for in november. senate republicans are committed to get president trump's team in place quickly. our committee chairs are working aggressively to give each nominee a fair and consideration. that's how the senate had operated historically especially when faced with such a mandate from the american people.

mr. president in 2009 the president coming to to office obama had seven cabinet nominees confirmed on his first day in office. within eight days of taking office he had 14 nominees confirmed and all but five of his nominees for 2009 for confirmed by voice vote. president trump deserve the same deference. it's interesting to me to hear the democratic leader talk about republicans rushing the process this year. four years ago senator schumer pledged to hold hearings right away for president biden's nominees. he pledged to hold votes on inauguration day and he said the. nicole: it's traditional for a new president. i believe senator schumer was right to move quickly but now the shoe is on the other foot democrat should work in good faith with us with republicans to uphold that tradition under president trump. i have my doubts that democrat leader reportedly told his

caucus to create fireworks at this week's hearings of our nominees. we have seen democratic obstruction before. due to senate democratic structure and present trump had five nominees confirmed in january during his first term. we saw obstruction for the sake of obstruction. americans have chosen a new direction. they have chosen this present and the present victory was decisive. elections have consequences in you and i know that mr. president for this week united states senate is engaging in our constitutional duty of advice and consent. advise and consent means to deliberate to debate and giving advice to the nominees and we are doing that and they have done it. it's no excuse to distract and delay for the slander and to try to search and destroy. the senate will follow the mandate of the american people

can confirm president trump's strong nominees. we will do it swiftly. we are committed to working around-the-clock including nights and weekends when democrats choose to delay. with this majority that are new president-elect will deliver a new direction for america. thank you mr. president. mr. president many senators used his pulpit to wax poetic but only on special occasions do i quote poetry. my former college friend of several decades in the nation's 46 present feels appropriate to do so. quote history says don't hope on the side of the grave. once-in-a-lifetime to long for tidal of justice can rise up and hope and history rhyme. some of president biden's

favorite by poet seamus haney. as i reflect on this time in our nations highest office i think it's only right to use these words again. over the course of his long service to this country president joseph biden has been the source of hope and an author of history. and just as haney observe he's become one of the rare leaders amid hope and history right in america's better for it. over the decades i've found president joe biden. he's proven to be one of the finest public servants america has seen. coming from humble beginnings he worked hard and put himself in positions to give back to this nation that is given so much to him. i came to making decisions of consequence and issues that mattered most to the american people joe biden put america first. though through immense personal

tragedy setbacks and obstacles of president biden has taken the strength and wisdom he learned from his family held steadfast to his faith in america gave millions of people reasons for hope. his record as a senator while serving as vice president under barack obama was sitting behind the resolute desk himself speaks for itself. when future generations hear the name joe biden will think of the incredible growth recovery in progress america has made under his leadership. the covid-19 pandemic change live in america as we knew it could claim thousands of american lives and brought our economy to a virtual hault. thanks to joe biden recovered from the devastation of the pandemic. we passed the american rescue plan to support working families and businesses and address the public health crisis. this law deployed vaccines to millions of americans and normalcy returned.

in 2020 the world economy was in shambles due to covid banking. in april of 2020 or economy lost nearly 21 million jobs in a single month. our employment rate skyrocketed to 14.7%. thanks to biden's leadership many workers were able to get back to work. since joe biden is taken off as our economy has added 16 million jobs. 20 million new business applications have been filed the most in any single presidential term in history. under joe biden unemployment was under 4% for the longest stretch in 50 years. for your cigar for structure was nothing more than a punchline that thanks to joe biden to pass bipartisan infrastructure law to replace their aging infrastructure and expanded access to clean drinking water and the high-speed internet. thanks to joe biden me to historic action to address the climate crisis through the inflation reduction act the most

significant investment in clean energy sustainability and climate resilience in america's history. and we guaranteed american leadership in the science and technology with the chips and science act of bipartisan bill bringing manufacturing back to america and bolstering our competitiveness for generations. we were able to enact the most significant gun safety legislation passed in nearly 30 years. the bipartisan safer communities act in things to joe biden over $180 billion, billion dollars in student lunged at has been forgiven for more than 5 million americans giving them finally a chance at life. we lowered the cost of prescription drugs made historic gains in expanding health insurance coverage and contained the fight for reproductive rights of all americans. history will remember joe biden for the violence against women act. he wrote back the bill and championed senate bipartisan

legislation for everyone to leave -- live free from fear and violence. i'm proud to say i worked with joe biden to confirm 235 judges to the federal bench under his leadership including the first african-american woman in public defender the supreme court and asked only here at home. on the global stage is restored faith in america as a world power global leader in response of l.a. that would not tolerate post-world war ii -- undermined by autocrats like putin. he defended ukraine boosted competition with china and strengthened alliances in the south pacific oversaw the expansion of nato and bolstering defense and historic numbers. most importantly thanks to joe biden the office of presidency once again stood for decency civility respect and empathy.

i sincerely hope our nation does not lose sight of these facts and there's no doubt when it comes to haney's words president biden's words have imitated art through inspiring hopes of so many people and his commitment to ensuring american lived up to the lofty ideals of president biden and honored to count myself as your colleague and your friend. on the help of a grateful nation and world i want to say to you and to jill and her family who shared it with us for so long thanks for keeping hope and history alive

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on day one of this administration

and so you instructed me, you instructed all of us to rebuild, to rejuvenate, even to reimagine our lives and partnerships. i remember we told me then you said we do not know when this is going to make a difference. mom are going to these friendships on these partnerships, but someday, some way, some where they are going to be critical for advancing the natural national interest. that is exactly with the men and women in this department have done. we have been able to care that charge two reasons. first, the people you see before you in so many others who are out in the field.

you said when you came here four years ago the leadership and diplomats doing the daily work of the government is essential. and they proved. that daily work has become nightly work, 24/7 seven days a week hammering out agreement, jumping into action crisis. creating opportunities for our citizens around the world. producing expert advice for you and your team at the white house. everyone here knows this work can be tough. it's also not very glamorous. but it makes us stronger. it makes the world a better place. we simply could not do it without the extraordinary men and women you have the force. as well as our remarkable partners and governments. starting with the great white house team led by jake sullivan, my friends and colleagues from

across the administration, the secretary of defense, usaid, secretary-treasurer, commerce and so on. all these partnerships we built, we built with teams that made a difference. to all of my colleagues, thank you. thank you for your friendship. thank you for your for partnership. as one other reason we've been able to be engaged in our diplomacy. worcester president, that is you. you have never wavered in the conviction where america leads, it's engagement there is little we cannot accomplish. this country remains a force for good, a force for progress around the world. your unshakable belief in the promise of america has inspired me for more than 20 years, inspired so many people in around the world.

it's for the privilege of my lifetime. to work with you, to work with his extraordinary team you have assembled. and it is the honor of a lifetime to introduce one more time 46th president of the united states, joe biden. [applause] [cheering] thank you, thank you, thank you. thank you. [applause] thank you, thank you, thank you. it's good to back the state department.

tilney, of a mate start by saying this, one of the finest men i've ever known and. [cheering] [applause] you have incredible character. more integrity than almost anybody i know. thank you. appreciate it. [applause] folks, i'm grateful for his counsel and friendship as well. also want to thank the members of my cabinet on the members of congress who are here today and to all of our diplomats. government experts, service members and professionals. many achievements are going to be discussed today are the result of your hard work that is not hyperbole, that is true. thank you, thank you, think if you're extraordinary service. i commit to the state department

report to the american people on the progress we have made in the last four years. he said and many time we are at an inflection point post-cold war period is over. a new era has begun. these four years we face crises and we have been tested and come through those test stronger in my view that we entered those tests. this is a fierce competition underway. fierce with the global economy, technology, human value thanks to my administration the united states is winning the worldwide competition. compared to four years ago, america is stronger. our alliances are stronger for our adversaries and competitors are weaker. we have not gone to war to make these things happen for through my presidency i increased

america's power in every dimension. increase our diplomatic a power created morality as the united states has ever had in the history of our nation. we've increased our military power, making most significant in decades. increased technology power, taken the lead in artificial intelligence as well as technology of the future. we've increased economic power the most dynamic economy in the world from the bottle up in the middle down not from the top down. in short, we took office our nation had are stronger at home, are stronger in the world and now america's more capable and i would argue more better prepared than we have been in a long, long time. we have the wind at our back because of all of you. this is what we're heading into over the next administration that's what we are handing you.

today i want to lay out what we have done and the opportunities you made for america and those going forward. today i can report to the american people sources of national power part stronger than we were we took office. our economy is booming although there's more work to do. for example advanced semi conductors the envy of the world. we've made the most significant investments in the american workers hence, the new deal. to rebuild our roads, bridges, ports and airports, clean a watersystem, portable internet o much more. to build american manufacturing and make advanced semi conductors. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. thune: madam president, i have one request for a committee to meet during today's session of the senate. it has the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. thune:

madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the appointments at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: as in executive session, i ask unanimous consent that the injunction of secrecy be removed from the following treaty transmitted to the senate on january 14, 2025, by the president of the united states -- treaty with the united arab emirates on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters treaty document number 119-1. i further ask that the treaty be considered as having been read the first time, that it be referred with accompanying papers to the committee on foreign relations and ordered to be printed, and that the president's message be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. so ordered. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 26, which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 26, a resolution to constitute the majority party's membership on certain committees for the 119th congress or until

their successors are chosen. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 12:00 noon on wednesday, january 15. that following the prayer and pledge, 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 the senate resume consideration of calendar number 1, s. 5. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under that it stand adjourned under today in the senate regarding, secure department to detain

migrants affect related crimes. after laken riley a 22-year-old nursing student was murdered last year by venezuelan migrants who enteredhe country illegally. also today former west virginia governor was sworn in as a new member he delayed his swearing-in until the state patrick morrissey took office on monday. you can watch live coverage of the senate when members return here on cspan2. stay tuned to the sea spent network culprits of coverage of confirmation hearings, present electronic cabinet nominee. wednesday's florida senate marco rubio nominee for secretary of state senate foreign relations committee john ratcliffe presumptive nominee cia director testifies before the senate intelligence committee. florida attorney general pam pambondi nominated u.s. attorney general begins her confirmation hearing to testify for the senate judiciary committee

tuesday wednesday and thursday also on thursday the nominee for treasury secretary testifies by the senate finance committee. watch live on the c-span network or on c-span now are free mobile app or online at c-span.org. >> this is democracy unfiltered with c-span expense history as it unfolds with c-span a live coverage of this month as republicans take control of both chambers of congress a new chapter begins with a swearing in of the 47th president of the united states monday januarl day coverage of the presidential inauguration as donald trump takes office becoming president of the united states. stay with c-span this month for comprehensive alive unfiltered coverage of the 119 congress and the presidential inauguration. c-span, burke democracy unfiltered.