tv U.S. Senate U.S. Senate CSPAN January 16, 2025 11:59am-5:58pm EST
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national guard including a lot of citizens trying to save their own homes. we need a better more sophisticated response and we have right now. this is something we need to recognize there's rural firefighting and things we have to do different going forward. >> on colorado river, important negotiations that are driven in the years ahead federal and state and has written
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collaboratively and especially water. in california we have the central valley addict and a state system that is truly interconnected so i introduce that to you and look forward to working with you on the challenges we will have to address going forward. >> continue watching, download our free c-span now that he all caps or watch on c-span.org. we leave for our 45 year commitment live delta gala congress. today a bill that would require the homeland security department to paint migrants for theft related. no votes are scheduled at this time. ...
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.. h eternal and abiding. teach them reverence for the transcendent, as you induce them to ascribe all good things to you. we pray in your precious name. amen. the president pro tempore: will you please join me in reciting the pledge. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
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the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. 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. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa grass i ask to speak in morning business for two or three minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: on sunday, january 12, it was national pharmacist day. i think it's quite appropriate that we pay attention and give reward to the work that pharmacists do. i'd like to extend a warm thank you to iowa pharmacists for their dedication and for their service.
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now, while we commonly know pharmacists as someone who fills our prescription needs and educates us about medications, pharmacists are typically the most accessible health care provider, and that's especially true for rural america. do you know what? nearly 90% of the u.s. population lives within five miles of a pharmacy. now, for several congresses, i've been leading a bipartisan effort that's called the pharmacy and medically underserved areas enhancement act. this bill encourages farmers or pharmacists only where they are licensed and trained to do this
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to offer their health care services under medicare, such as health and wellness, screenings, immunization, and diabetes management. this is necessary because for many seniors in rural areas, it's simply easier to get to a pharmacist than it is to get to their nearest doctor. now, i also know that it's vital to protect rural pharmacists from greedy pharmacy benefit managers who will place unfair pressures on pharmacies in recent years. in fact, i hear from a lot of iowa pharmacists that if we don't do something about pharmacy benefit managers, we're going to continue to lose pharmacies in the small communities of rural america and
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particularly iowa. so since 2018, i and about 65 or 70 of my colleagues have been trying to hold pbm's accountable and do that through legislation about three different pieces of legislation, so that we can lower prescription drug prices and in turn keep our rural pharmacies in business. we want to do this through transparency because nobody knows what pbm's do. it's an opaque operation, and yet they make up our form formularies, big companies -- do they help big companies or pharmaceutical companies or the consumer? we don't know and we need to do that. i hope this congress will move on some legislation to make
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pbm's what they do transparent because with transparency comes accountability. i'm going to keep fighting for our pharmacies and our consumers. i yield the floor. mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. thune: mr. president, i understand that there is a bill at the desk that's due for its second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the t the bill. the clerk: s. 6, a bill to amend title 18, united states code, to prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion. mr. thune: mr. president, in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i would object to further proceeding. the presiding officer: the objection having been heard, the bill will be placed on the calendar. mr. thune: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, the cabinet
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confirmation process is well under way here in the united states senate. confirmation hearings began this week with defense secretary nominee pete hegseth in the armed services committee on tuesday. yesterday we had six confirmation hearings, the most confirmation hearings, i might add in a single day since 2001 and we have more happening today and tomorrow. by the time president trump takes the oath of office on monday, the senate will have held hearings for 12 of his nominees. and there are plenty more to come. once the committee -- committees, i should say complete their work the process will move to the floor. we will move as quickly as possible on those votes. i hope democrats will provide a level of cooperation that will allow us to quickly fill these positions so that nominees begin their work for the american people. mr. president, one of the nominees being considered this week is a familiar face to us in the senate. yesterday our long time colleague senator rubio found himself on the other side of the dais of the foreign relations committee for his hearing to be secretary of state. members of that committee are well acquainted with senator
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rubio's expertise in foreign policy. he's been a leading voice on those issues here in the senate and on the foreign relations committee since he arrived here in 2011. and yesterday his expertise was on full display. whether he was discussing china, the middle east, russia, our alliances or anything else, our colleague demonstrated his command of international affairs. marco also clearly laid out the philosophy he will bring to the job. he spoke about peace through strength, restoring american leadership, and advancing america's interests. mr. president, our colleague is ready to step into the leadership that the biden administration too often left on the world stain. too many instance position the biden administration has chose ton appease our enemies rather than demonstrate strength. yesterday made clear we can expect senator rubio to bring a moral clarity to foreign policy that has been sorely lacking in the last four years.
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that's important, mr. president. moral clarity. and it's never been a challenge for marco rubio. take our relationship with china. the senior senator from florida has been a leading voice on the chinese communist party's malign intentions and implications for the united states. he's been clear-eyed about what the united states ought to do to outcompete china in this century. and he's been outspoken in calling attention to china's human rights abuses. he was the leading voice on china's repression of its own people in xinjiang and led the charge on the uighur force labor prevention act in the united states senate. and he didn't stop once it became law. he made sure the legislation was being implemented properly. he called out companies suspected of using forced labor and he advocated for the biden administration to do a better job of vetting imports. mr. president, all of us here in the senate nomar company us a
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unwavering commitment to freedom. he's been a strong supporter of freedom fighters and spoke of support for taiwan as the chinese communist party has grown more aggressive. he is also a fierce defender of human rights in latin america. his family watched their native cuba under a dictatorship and conversations with his frandz taker about cuba's plight that drew senator rubio into public service. he's no surprise he's one of the strongest defenders of the rights of the cuban people. he's also a strong voice for democracy in venezuela. marco has been outspoken in his criticism of the biden administration's appeasement of the ma cure row regime and he was a clear voice in defense of democracy as the country suffered through maduro's corrupt election last year. mr. president, as we heard in his testimony yield, our colleague is focused on advancing america's interests. as he said, and i quote, every dollar we spend, every program we fund and every policy we
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pursue must be justified by the answer to three simple questions. does it make america safer? does it make america stronger? or does it make america more prosperous? end quote. mr. president, i think that's what the american people should expect from a secretary of state and from their government. anybody who watched his hearing yesterday knows that's what we're going to get from marco rubio as secretary of state. i will have more to say about marco and other nominees for the trump administration as they move through the process here in the united states senate. and i look forward to hearing from each of the president's nominees in the near future. mr. president, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.
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in any event we look forward to working with you on those issues. often one of the most important decisions you will make in the future is unknown how the and you and the transition team will have to pick and omb director and that's important to us because all of us have, that are western states have tremendous amount of land. we had a real problem with this one. she's only got about 95 hours left. she was a terrorist. she engaged in the work that was done in idaho spiking trees. you probably know about spiking trees. since she's been director we haven't seen her. it. she'd been appear once in the four years and it divided this committee deeply with a huge fight and straight partyline vote. she got confirmed. we do once a like that running the blm particularly some we can find. i urge you to use your best decision-making ability when you
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choose that person. on another important issue, the issue for us in idaho is the windmill project. my good friend senator kaine have different views on windmills. bless you for taking the windows. you can have them all. we don't want to vent idaho. we hate them. they are tremendous blight on our view skate. we really don't like them. the new green deal that this a station has put together is trying to sell us with 100,000 acres, 100,000 acres with 241 241 windmills on tr little higher than the space needle. the good news is i appreciate you meeting with me and eliciting to how wrong this project is on so many different levels. the good news is, you don't know
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this yet i don't think but that project only is about 95 hours left to be on the table. that's going to go by the by. believe me and i know this is a 99 to 1% issue. we're going to be so glad to see it gone and it will be gone and you will not have to worry about it anymore after that. let me close with this. i'm so glad to hear that the president will put you in position is on energy. that's incredible. we needed. we all know his vision for making america independent, actually be an exporter, tapping our wealth. one word we have used here in that regard is nuclear. idaho was the birthplace of nuclear energy and university we still the first light bulbs we lit in 1951 by generating nuclear energy. we built about 52 reactors out there at the site. i don't know if you been to the idaho national laboratory not but if you're going to be in the
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energy business you really need to. there's a tremendous tremendous resurgence of interest in nuclear. the thing that went by the way after we had the unfortunate three-mile island incident but the renaissance in nuclear not just in america but around the world is staggering. coming off the drawing boards and in the very near future, small modular reactors will be followed by the micro-reactors. that is going to change the world as far as energy is concerned. i'm glad to talk about baseload because when you're talking about nuclear you were talking about baseload. i suspect the world as we go through the century will rely heavily on nuclear. there's tremendous, and my other half and were as china foreign relations committee idea with countries particularly eastern european countries. they are entering contracts and it is an national security issue because we compete with china,
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with russia, and to a degree france when these new, when these new projects are coming on board. thank you for what you're doing. god bless you. we welcome you. >> senator gallego. >> appreciate our time together. we kind of hit upon this but one of the biggest related issues is going to be the colorado river. it's a part of our national defense, shotmaking, agriculture and food security and, of course, home to the fifth-largest industry in the country. 22 of the 30 colorado river basin a river basin tribes are in arizona. rules governing the reduction of the colorado river water expire at the end of 2026 and post 26 operation conversations are still ongoing. lower basin states have put forth a proposal measure of the
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colorado river that shows the risk among all states. however no agreement has been reached and lead to potential conflicts within the basin which we would all like to avoid. would you work with arizona parties and my office so that any -- is not overly burdensome to any one state and consistent with the colorado river compact? >> senator, you bring up an important issue and this is with a 2026 date looming coming forward and, of course, as you know interior does have some specific authorities relative to open with a lower and upper basin. i would say as a former chair of western governors i know this has been a battle that's going on as long as there been people, people fighting over water in the west. my experience in north dakota has been more on the missouri river basin but also some deep battles with canada because we have two rivers that are in north dakota fo north into
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canada, so whether it's international or the complexities the missouri i've got some good understanding and good exposure. i think you can count on we will look for for a collaborative solution that serves anyone. it's going to also we have to look for innovation on ways on the conservation side because you can't make one more water but if we can use what we have wisely that's going to look for the best solutions. i appreciate your engaged with his peer i know how important it is to arizona and its economy. >> in our meeting we discussed our tribal communities and nations and very glad we have good background and understand the relationships with them. we talked about tribal law enforcement, some put forward to increase tribal law enforcement but, unfortunately, we see high rates of missing and murdered women as well as other violent crimes. due to lack of tribal law enforcement and communication with agencies that are supposed to be have oversight and
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collaboration. i have worked to my time encoders to try to increase the funding for tribal law enforcement but our federal budget cuts put all that work at risk. can you tell me or think about what is your plan to work collaboratively with congress and tribes across the country on tribal law enforcement and proven efforts and that he planted sure we can do this in a bipartisan manner? >> i think there's nothing partisan about enforcing the law protecting the citizens of the united states and one of the great tragedies is the lack of law enforcement on tribal lands and the fact we got organized crime that is preying on the gaps, they are aware of the gaps and whether it's training centers. senator hoeven has been particularly supported along with senator cramer. we don't have enough training centers across the nation for the northern tribes or southern tribes. we need more recruiting.
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we need lots of other things that are going on. you mentioned first time it's come up but the missing and murdered indigenous women. this is again an unseen tragedy in america. over 6000 unsolved cases and i believe again it is a complete tragedy. it seems we lose a college student at spring break, it's a netflix series and whole nation no surname and we have the same individual tragedy that happened over and over in indian country of people are not even aware that it's going on. we've got to change our entire approach. >> unfortunately in the last four years, thank you again for that come look for to working with you on that, a lot of sensitive history of house side on this. the last four years we learn from -- glen canyon dam has some design flaws that limit its ability to pass water at lower elevations. which means we have to fix that
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and pretty soon. we need the ability to pass water around the dam if we can't go through the especially hydrology in the region worse. how would you make fixing the dam that delivers water to the grand canyon and the 3 million people downstream from that lower basin and, of course, mexico's treaty obligations a primary? >> appreciate you bring that to my attention. this is one issue i was not aware of about the glen canyon dam deficiencies but obviously with the bureau of reclamation being the second largest operator of hydroelectric dams in the country behind the army corps of engineers, i will quickly be meeting with the team if i have the privilege of being confirmed for this position about this issue because we've got to working facilities on these critical rivers. and as we know we've got to have more reservoir capability because part of the issue is we not linked to fix but upgrade
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some of these so we can add more storage. >> i'd love to work with a person. thank you. >> senator hyde-smith. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think you guys will be very happy i am probably the last one to do so soon be over. but i just certainly appreciate your willingness and your eagerness. i enjoyed the visit we had in my office and the sincerity that you have but most of all your capabilities. you're so capable for this position and i'm very thankful to you and your family that you willing to do this. i am going to be brief but one of the things we talked about in my office was a local mississippi thing. william faulkner what's there to understand the rest of the rope you first must understand a place like mississippi. we are very blessed with the national park service is that we have several sites in mississippi that certainly contribute to our tourism, the economy of our state, and we
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work with them very closely with public-private partnerships. and we are working on a visitors center with the state of mississippi public-private partnerships and big spurs national military park, friends of the park. we certainly want to make sure that continues and matches the state -- historical sites to better couplet that matches natural and historic sites. i want to you to visit those and ask for your willingness to commit to working on these particular projects. >> center, thank you. for small i just to thank you for your capabilities. state senator who grew up in agriculture and also was a high commissioner profess fantastic that i spent most my life my family was involved in agriculture my entire life in many of my cousins still are.
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so it's such an important part of our national security as well. but in terms of national parks, as a zippered we've got big deferred maintenance issue big opportunity is of the precious spots out of the billions of acres of surface and subsurface and offshore that we own. national park is for americans as a priority and we need to take care of the sites whether the stored or others. again we are to make of handling and supporting the visitors the want to see the. we know they're great for the local economy. appreciate invitation and look forward to working with you. >> thank you on that. i'm going to go to south mississippi, offshore oil and gas production in the gulf of mexico. of course the place a vital role in the gulf states the card as well. we called our blue economy down there. the anchor platform has recently come online with the gulf of mexico but it will produce 75,000 barrels of oil per day and this oil is refined in
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mississippi and obviously the jobs it provides a and the benefits that we have but it's important the department maintain a steady leasing schedule to ensure companies can continue the opportunities for exploration for new production to support the affordable, reliable energy. so the current national outer continental shelf oil and gas leasing plan, five-year plan, includes only three possible lease sales come the histor. you believe the current five-year plan is adequate to continue to meet the energy needs of the nation? and if that will it be a priority for injury to develop or finalize a new five-year plan? >> senator, i think you know the long lead times it takes for the private sector to make the significant investments to do safe, secure and smart
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sophisticate offshore development, it's really important part of our nation's economy and our national security. the fact that during the current administration the lease sales of its unpredictable and disruptive and the fact that they're projecting forward to have a month of use we've ever had almost would guarantee we would see a decline in energy production and offshore in the years ahead because the lead times. and knowing that we are in an national security battle underway, the way that we ensure america's future is that we've got energy dominance, this is opposed to the present direction. the president would night, president biden delivered his farewell address, reflecting on his four years in office, which will be remembered as one of the most productive periods in modern american history. working alongside president biden for the american people
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was the honor of a lifetime. when president biden took office, america was in crisis, the pandemic was surging, the economy was reeling, our democracy was under assault. but president biden, with good help from senate democrats, got right to work, and together i'm proud that we achieved one of the most ambitious legislative agendas in decades. working with president biden, we created nearly 17 million new jobs, the most in a single term. we passed historic legislation like chips and science. that was a baby that i nurtured. the bipartisan infrastructure law, and the inflation reduction a act. we lowered the cost of prescription drugs for tens of millions of americans. we passed the first gun safety law in 30 years. we enshrined marriage equality into law. we confirmed 235 well-qualified and historic judges to lifetime
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appointments, more judges than any majority has confirmed in decades, and so much more. president biden also left america with a somber warning in his address, one that every american should listen to. he cautioned that, quote, an oligarchy is taking shape in america of extreme wealth, power, and influence that will threaten all the progress our country has made in the last four years. president biden is right. an oligarchy is beginning to take shape in america, and you can see it by looking at the incoming trump administration. donald trump has not even taken office yet, but many of his top advisors and cabinet picks are extremely wealthy people with deep ties to corporate special interests. many of these cabinet picks seem to see the world through the eyes of a very rich and privileged individual, a very limited vision indeed. and the agenda they are pushing, tax cuts from the ultra wealthy and draconian cuts -- tax cuts
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for the ultra wealthy and draconian cuts to the working class is narrow and only furthers inequality in america. donald trump's agenda would benefit the oligarchy class. the progress we've made under president biden's leadership, lower taxes for families, more affordable health care should not be undone only to assuage the desires of a limited few. we democrats will continue the legacy that president biden created, continue fighting for working families and make sure that everyone in america, not just the uber wealthy, has a fair shot. now on tiktok -- the 170 million americans who use tiktok are rightfully asking the same question -- what will happen to the app after the ban enters into effect next week? today i want to say a few words
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about protecting tiktok's future while also protecting america's national security at the same time. we aren't against tiktok. we want tiktok to keep going. but we are against a chinese company that is in cahoots with the chinese communist party owning tiktok. unfortunately, tiktok as it exists today has too many security risks that cannot be ignored. the law pass last year was intended to sever tiktok from the influence of the ccp while keeping the app available for americans. it's clear that more time is needed to find an american buyer and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of americans of so many influencers who have built up a good network of followers. that's why last night senate democrats tried to pass a bill that would extend the deadline to give everyone more time to come up with a workable solution. but senate republicans blocked our bill, which is stunning
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because time is running short. we will continue to work to find a responsible solution to keeping tiktok going, protect american livelihoods, and protect against communist -- chinese communist party surveillance. we must and can do all three. i have made my views clear to the current administration, and i will work with the trump administration and with both parties to keep tiktok alive while protecting our national security. we can all agree that we must protect americans' privacy from the prying eyes of the chinese communist party but we also must agree to it should be done in the right way without risking content creators' livelihoods by rushing this process in a premature way. tiktok should survive but under new ownership. on nominations -- this week the american people have gotten their real first look of what's in store for them under a second trump administration.
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and it's very bad news for the working and middle class. senate republicans, of course, are in the majority. they control to a large extent the final outcome of each nominee in this chamber if they stick together. and donald trump's hold on senate republicans, as we've seen throughout the nominations process, is very, very strong. even so, there are two reasons why holding these hearings is extremely important regardless of outcome. first, they create a contrast between the parties. people will see what we stand for and our republican colleagues stand for as they support trump's nominees. and, second, the hearings create a record to hold these nominees accountable should they fail on the job down the line. which, unfortunately, i think many will. -- given their meager qualifications. the contrast between who democrats will fight for and who
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republicans will fight for is becoming exceedingly obvious, thanks to these hearings. on the democratic side, we want answers to the things americans are worried most about. what is donald trump's agenda mean for jobs, inflation? what are trump's tariffs going to do to people's bottom lines? will it send prices shooting up? and are -- people are going to ask, are my prescription drugs going to get more expensive? they're going to ask, will our broken tax system become even more unfair under president trump in a way that rigs the system for the ultra wealthy. these are the things democrats want answers to from president trump's nominees and in many cases the answers are very, very troubling. second, even if these nominees are confirmed in the end, given donald trump's hold on senate republicans that is so absolute, the american people deserve to have a record they can reference down the line.
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candidly, many of president trump's nominees are not fit for the job. look at pete hegseth. confirming some of these people would be a reckl reckless roll dice. but republicans seem willing to press ahead nonetheless. the hearings we're holding right now will come back to haunture republican colleagues because the warnings will have been there from the start. by asking tough questions, by getting nominees on the record, by establishing that many of these individuals are unfit, these hearings will have been the canary in the coal mine that some of these nominees are too great a risk. so democrats will continue to uphold our responsibility to scrutinize each nominee on the issues that americans care about. we'll continue asking the tough questions because working people deserve to know whose side donald trump is truly on. is it working people, like
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it deferred over 6000 acres from leasing and wyoming that were previously cleared for oil and gas production. when he worked to issue those leases and offer additional acreages. >> was absolute. as i stated before north dakota's faced the same what i view as absolutely if there's a case in federal court, the
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current administration by administration did not follow the law went out to do holding required lease sale. >> sage grasp your wyoming is home of large population of greater sage grouse and its habitat. for 15 years wyoming has been at the forefront of adopting new management approaches to protect the species. our state has led efforts to balance conservation with economic development. the biden administration propose to designate over 600,000 acres in wyoming as quote areas of critical environmental concern. that's going to lock up thousands of acres in wyoming halting production and development. would you be willing to reopen the department greater sage grouse management? >> i've been advised the ruling decision came up this morning. i do want to put myself in making a for statement that would recuse but i would have to recuse but i would just say from my time as chairman of western governors i familiar with the use of designations to try to
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restrict energy development, even when you might have a species like a sage grouse that's need on the endangered nor the threat and a list. >> one final question. you've done quite a bit on the grizzly bear some of the talk the federal grazing. interior is critical and troll for managing federal lands across the west are almost half the land in wyoming owned by the federal government land managed under multiple use is required by law to be managed without impairment of the productivity of the land. these are public places people from wyoming depend on accessing for their livelihoods. agriculture, ranching, recreation, mineral development. congress directed grazing timber harvesting recreation energy and mineral production to take place on federal lands. will you support the multiple use mandate the law mandates for federalist? >> absolutely ideal. since we talked about wildfires today, grazing reduces fuel load. timber management reduces fuel
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load. surface developing can create roads paid for by the private sector that support our firefighters. all of the multiple uses part of the component of the comprehensive rethinking how we think about fire management on federal lands. >> thank you, governor. thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator cotton. >> welcome and congratulations. we reached the regrettable point that we often do in the city. we're almost there with he has been said but not everyone has said it. i will refrain from saying about of the stuff that came before me but i want to associate myself with the comments of my republican colleagues about the need for significantly increasing energy production while also being responsible stewards of our public lands and waters. there is one issue i don't think that is been discussed yet under the endangered species act and i think it's a scandal of the first order. i'm surprised it hasn't got more attention. january 3 the "new york times" published a story about the so-called snail darter.
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it was a species that was designated as endangered by fish and wildlife back in the 1970s. the entire thrust of the story is a zoologist basically made up this species of snail darter, all with the point of halting construction of a dam on the tennessee river. after many years until it took an act of congress to build that damn. an academic side of the article said this is not uncommon practice, creating new species program for no difference between other non-endangered species for what he called the downstream conservative conservation implications which is to say activists creating species calling them endangered to stop the construction of a dam or power generation plant or housing development. this is something admitted publicly in the "new york
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times." as i say i think the scandal of the first order. i get your commitment in light of these admissions to go back and re-examine endangered species act listings and identify any of the potential host designations? >> senator cotton, he raised a very important issue which is the weaponization of federal rules meant to protect wildlife but to do it in a way where it is being used not to protect wildlife but it is being used to stop legal activities like the multiple use scenario we just talked about with senator barrasso. again it's a legal weapon and it is used for fundraising, it is used for groups that are just trying to block our nation's progress. i agree. you mentioned in your times. if that article someplace else but the fact that your times wrote that article i found also be remarkable admission of at
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least one case where the was the abuse of the endangered species act relative to its intended use. so yes, you can count -- >> i appreciate that. not in light of his public admission but also the west virginia case in the loper bright case they could be legal infirmity and a lot of our federal bureaucracies past decisions. appreciate your willingness to take a look at that lunch on the job. thank you very much. >> that concludes round one. we will do a quick round two with some follow-ups a few members of asked. want to talk to you briefly about the fact that public lands represent a massive public asset, lack of an accurate valuation is something that we don't have and that undermines decision-making in management. what steps would you take if confirmed as secretary to improve the transparency in this
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area and ensure federal land valuations reflect the value? >> i would say on this idea what i will call america's balance sheet is something that the trump administration has quite a bit of enthusiasm and discussions with treasury nominee scott be set, howard lutnick and even speaker mike johnson called me a few weeks ago and said hey, what's this american balance sheet idea? for our standing in the world for us to talk nonstop about what our liabilities are we should also be fluid and just as in business would be to be able to talk up what our assets and essence of this country i think outpace any place in a row because the care we have given in particular to the public lands, surface, subsurface and offshore. we proven time and time again we can do it better cleaner and safer than anyone else.
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if i am a timber company and i've got, i own timberland and has not been harvested, i put that on my balance sheet. if i have timberland and i plan to plant u-visa put on my balance sheet with different valuation. when we protect u.s. lands and don't cut a tree and the burden we not only produce enormous amounts of emissions and enormous amounts of carbon but we also effectively wasted the public asset. it's part of our duty in the role if i'm privileged to be nominee to put all of us elected official to make sure were getting every turn on the nation's balance sheet for the benefit of the use of the american people. so understand that number is key. key. i would say one less thing it's really hard to develop it. we did this in north dakota. when i took office they said we have no way of knowing what are undeveloped minerals are. we found a young software company those able to figure precisely what the future value
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of every one of the wells in north dakota public land would be worth. it's been used for estate planning, if grandma and she's only got 10% of one well, they can to get the value. if we can to get there, we can figure it out for the whole country. just as i said the speaker johnson we required as nation to conduct a census within every can use, not every ten years but within ten years to a census. that's hard work but we figure out a way to do it. i would think if congress did up and said hey, every agency every bureau every department of the united states government needs to figure what the asset value is, then we get after it and we get after it and we come up with the number and that we can make these trade-offs. when you do by executive order and take hundreds of millions of offshore subsurface out of leasing and then, that's viewed as a costless event, please we could have a trait of us i guess it was some people thought it was important to take that off of the table. what did you mean for the
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american people did we take trillions of dollars the future revenue out of the pockets of our future generations? again creating a financial understanding where we can have an honest discussion about some of these executive actions happening at the end of this term, for example, would be useful for all americans to understand. >> thank you. i appreciate that. i've got another question is when asked regarding but an intercept that i will forgo that. federal -- to help offset the burden states kerry states with a lot of public land because they don't see any property tax revenue so it is supposed to offset that. in some parts of the country where there's a lot of public land this works out okay, and other parts it's pennies on the dollar compared to what they would get if they could tax the land even at its lowest valuation and rate. i would love to talk about reforms and make it a priority
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because a lot of these communities rely on it for fire, search and rescue, school safety and so forth. >> senator heinrich. >> governor, senator daines mention a very specific challenge with the endangered species act but as governor you know one of the best ways to head off those conflicts is to prevent species from everything listed by recovering them through proactive, voluntary conservation at the state level. senator tillis and nine at his republican colleagues and i had a highly bipartisan bill called the recovering america's wildlife act that helps states do exactly that. and, in fact, north dakota's former game and fishing director was one of the architects of that legislation. it got strong support from the association efficient while at agencies, for many of the conservation groups you mention in your exchange with senator
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justice. doesn't sound like the kind of approach -- doesn't sound like that kind of approach you could work with us on? >> absolutely. i think i can super sound principle which is to do the work to keep it off of any kind of federal designation, working collaboratively with the states. i had the pleasure of working with our game and fish commissioner for six of my eight years as governor. he hadn't almost 4040 year career and wildlife management. it's people like that that i know and respect across all the states. i know you've got them in new mexico. we got them in utah. the people that work in game and fish at the state level that are working on these, i have met somebody from the federal level that cares more about the soil, the era, the fish come one that the web at the objection. mr. mcconnell: earlier this
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week, president biden went to the state department and offered a final assessment of his record on foreign policy. he insisted that his leadership had, quote, increased america's power in every dimension. that we were, quote, stronger at home, stronger in the world, more capable than we have been in a long time. i suspect the only people who buy that assessment were right there in the room with the president. no doubt those watching from further afield found those remarks unconvincing. what most of us saw was a final rear-guard action to cover for
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an administration that's been in retreat for four straight years. the president's soft talk about putin, undone by his chronic and well documented fear of esca escalation. the hesitation and half measures that kept critical tools out of ukrainian hands when they could have made a difference. even his most senior aides inadvertently acknowledged the truth. in a legacy shocking column in "the new york times," senator blinken, secretary austin said it was, quote, steadfast american leadership that rallied the world to, quote, keep
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ukraine -- help ukraine survive the kremlin's imperial onslaught. to help ukraine survive, mr. president? not to help defeat aggression, not to help restore sovereignty, not to help degrade the power of a major adversary. just to let ukraine's resistance languish on a slow drip of critical capabilities moving far slower than the speed of relevance. or take this administration's approach to the middle east. on monday the president was optimistic about the prospects of defeating iran's terror proxies and restoring credible deterrence under which israel and its neighbors could live in
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peace. but absent entirely was any recognition that it was israel, not the united states, that has created this geopolitical opportunity. and no recognition that israel has done so in spite of the administration's best efforts to restrain a sovereign ally's self-defense. in the 468 days since the horrors of october 7, the president's public scolding of a close ally under attack and refusal to check the growing anti anti-israel poisoning his party have exposed his ironclad commitment to israel is something of a hallow gesture.
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this after a disastrous withdrawal from afghanistan had given allies and partners enough reason to doubt the strength of america's word. and his administration's competence. and behind president biden's bluster about winning the worldwide competition with china is a record of paltry investment in the hard power america needs to meet aggression and to reassure our allies. for four straight years he submitted defense budget requests that failed to even keep pace with inflation let alone the facing threat of the prc. while america's primary long-term strategic competitor extended its lead in developing
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and producing lethal capabilities, the biden administration focused on climate diplomacy. and its signature climate protectionism peaked avoidable trade fights with allies and partners we need to deter or defeat chinese aggression. in light of the prc's headway and closer alignment with other adversaries, america's war fighters are no better equipped today to deter and defeat aggression than when we were four years ago. and no more certain that the institution designed to support them actually have their backs. and from europe to the middle east to taiwan straits, the fo forces that wish harm to america, to our people, to our
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values, to our interests and to our allies have seized an opportunity. on monday president biden's foreign policy will end. comman will have to contend with his staggering failures. a new administration will have to clean up the mess their predecessors made of american power and american credibility. it's no secret that the incoming national security team will take a distinctly different approach. the president-elect has expressed repeatedly his intention to reorient american national security decision-making around a simple grading principle -- guiding principle, peace through strength. and he'd be right to do so. his administration's work must
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begin with restoring american hard power, and bolstering our deterrent. the world they will inherit is more dangerous and more hostile to u.s. security interests than the one he left to president biden four years ago. the free world is less likely to trust our commitments and the author authoritarians convening against us are more likely to scoff at our threats. russia, iran, north korea, and the prc are finding more and more that the desired weak:ing of the united states and undermining the order we lead is a shared objective and one toward which they are now w working in coordination, working
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together in coordination to weaken the united states. as i've counselled the president elect already, we cannot afford to discount this coordination no matter how loudly others press him to embrace, retreat, and retrenchment, america cannot address grave threats to our interests a la carte and as i've said repeatedly, there's no language these adversaries understand more clearly than strength. there's no shurer way to restore -- shurer way to restore meaningful deterrence against them than by investing in our capacity and proving our willingness to impose devastating costs. it's common to refer to today's challenges as the gravest america has faced since world
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war ii, but we certainly don't invest like we believe that's the case. so here's a good way of looking at it. beating the axis world war ii meant spending 37% of our gdp on defense and the korean war it took nearly 14%. the height at vietnam, 9%. the reagan buildup at 6%. today we're spending 3% of gdp on the arsenal of democracy.pea more than a pithy phrase, vaguely tough sounding but functionally benign, it must instead stand for a clear and measurable commitment to rebuild
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the arsenal of democracy and the most lethal fighting forces in the world. as chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, i take the president-elect's commitments very seriously, and i know he knows that deterring a war is cheaper than fighting one. and i stand ready to work closely with this administration in the current urgent work ahead, rebuilding the capabilities and capacity we need in order to credibly pursue peace through strength. that work, of course, begins with assembling an experienced and well-qualified team. the incoming administration is right to expect swift consideration of their cabinet nominations and broad dev rens
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on the -- deaf rens on the confirmation of those worthy of the highest public trusts and whose policy views align with the administration's goals. nominees whose professional experience is commensurate with the responsibilities of the office, and who demonstrated in detail their command of relevant policy will certainly have my vote. i intend to support a large slate of nominees who satisfy these conditions. in particular, i will vote to confirm nominees to senior national security roles whose record and experience will make them immediate assets, not liabilities, in the pursuit of peace through strength. our chance to turn the page on the damage of the biden administration's record simply cannot come soon enough.
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mr. barrasso: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floored today having been in a number of hearings involving president trump's nominees overseeing american energy dominance. president trump's energy nominees show that this administration that's coming in, the trump-vance administration, is serious about unleashing affordable, available, reliable american energy. doug burgum is president trump's nominee to be secretary of the
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department of interior. he's still testifying right now in the energy committee. he is a son of north dakota, and his roots run deep in the west. chris wright, who had his hearing yesterday, is president trump's nominee to be the secretary of energy. his data-driven leadership and creativity lay the foundation for the fracking boom we've experienced in this nation that has fueled american energy independence. lee zelleden, who i had the privilege of introducing earlier this morning at the epw committee, he's the nominee to be administrator of the environmental protection agency. he's a lawyer, he's a veteran, and he's a former star member of the house of representatives. he's going to cut red tape. he's going to balance environmental stewardship with sensible energy production. ought three of these nominees are excellent choices to carry out president trump's all-of-the-above energy strategy. they all have my vote. like most americans, president
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trump and his nominees understand that energy policy is the foundation of our nation's future, and our success. it is linked directly to the prices that we pay, to the technology that we create, and to the world in which we live. unleashing american energy means lower prices. it means more innovation at home. it means more safety and security for our citizens. well, we've seen it before, affordable, reliable energy was the rocket fuel for american security and prosperity, and we saw it during the first trump administration. but over the last four years, democrats restricted and regulated and tried to reduce american energy production, instead of unlocking its full potential. their american last energy strategy policies led to painfully high prices and a more vulnerable nation. i think energy was on the ballot
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this year, and energy won. fortunately, president trump is placing a premium on energy prod production. he's already laying the groundwork to take the handcuffs off of american energy prod production. on day one, i expect the president is going to sign a blizzard of executive orders to bring back american energy dominance. first-day priorities include ending the democrats' electric vehicle mandate, more drilling on federal lands, and resuming exports of u.s. liquefied natural gas. this is certainly good news for my home state of wyoming. wyoming is america's energy breadbasket. oil and gas is our bread and butter. we have world class reserves of coal. we have world class wind. we have ben fifthed from american -- ben fifthed -- benefitted from american energy dominance and wyoming workers made it all possible. wyoming energy workers stand ready to unleash american energy once again.
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i hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle preach doom and gloom about energy independence. the democrat leader is here on the floor, said yesterday chris wright, the president's nominee for the secretary ever energy -- secretary of energy, he called this nominee an energy extremist. why? because chris wright believes, and i quote, oil and gas makes the world go round. well, it does. this is the depth of democrats' climate delusion. oil and gas drive our economy, produce great jobs, and produce our prosperity. because of american oil and gas, we do it cleaner, we do it safer, and we do it more reliably than anyplace else on planet earth. the facts could not be clearer. since 2005, america has been responsible for 66% of emission reduction among developed countries. we do it better than anyone else
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in the world. we have reduced more emissions than the next six countries combined. that's the reason why, it's not because joe biden bribed americans to buy solar panels or electric cars. no, it's american energy production, american energy dominance. it's because we unleashed affordable, available, reliable american energy. for the record, we can thank chris wright and the fracking boom for unleashing a lot of that energy. in 2019, america became energy independent for the first time in 50 years. why? how did it happen? president trump did it. with doug burgum, chris wright, and lead zeldin on america's team, we're going to do it again. mr. president, i want to turn to a separate matter, and i think all of us are heartbroken by what we see happening in los angeles with the devastating fires. there's been a horrific loss of
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life, homes, businesses, due to this -- these california fires and the loss is just staggering. as we speak, firefighters, first responders, including the wyoming national guard, are working around the clock to keep residents safe. i'm grateful for the heroic efforts. as they do their job, we here in the senate need to do ours, and there's a lot of questions that need to be answered. one of my biggest questions is how do we prevent that next wildfire from happening? well, when it comes to the environment, liberal politicians want to control what kind of car we drive, what kind of stove we cook on, how long we can take in the shower. yet, they neglect our forests. they put up roadblocks to forest management, tools that work. they've done that legislatively. they've done it with regulations as well. what is especially crazy is that these restrictions are made in
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the name of protecting the envir environment. an environment that they're hurting. nothing could be worse for the environment than massive wildfires. as a result, our public lands have turned into tinderboxes. it's because of policies we've seen come out of this body, this administration, democrat administrations prior to that. wyoming is no stranger to wildfires. this past five season was especially devastating in northern wyoming. i was on the front lines thanking the firefighters in wyoming this summer. we had the house draw fire in johnson county, the elk fire in johnson and sheridan counties. in southern california we saw about 40,000 acres burn in just over a week. 40,000 acres. in wyoming it was over 275,000 acres. now you might not have heard about this since wyoming is one of the smallest populations -- it is the smallest population state in the country, our
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population clearly is just a fraction of los angeles, but these were big fires. to learn lessons from each other on how to prevent the next fire. in the senate i've been working to promote effective forest management practices at every level. today i've introduced a bill called the wildfire prevention act. my bill allows agencies to treat more acres and remove more red tape to better protect our forests and fellow americans. it sets clear standards and clear expectations for forest motorcycle that we -- forest management we currently lack in this country. it provides the tools for the agent sis for prevention -- agencies for prevention and preparation for next time. and provides openness for the limits and challenges we face on these important issues. this is about protection, not punishment. it's about protecting the people, protecting our clean air. as long as america lacks proper forest management, then we're going to continue to see terrible, costly tragedies like
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what we're seeing today in california and we saw this past summer in wyoming. with better forest management, we can lessen the damage of forest fires. the federal government can and will help californians rebuild. california needs to rebuild with resilience. they need to rebuild with a commitment of preventing a similar fire in the future. we've seen massive mismanagement. anybody watching the interviews with the governor of california, the fire chief in california, the nayor of l.a. -- the mayor of l.a. will say there's massive mismanagement, gross incompetence by the elected leadership in california. this needs to change to protect the people who live there from the terrible mistakes and judgments of these elected officials. it's not a crisis that we can solve ourselves or that will solve itself. my bill will make us better prepared to fight fires in the
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growing up all the way to the end of the day. texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, it's four days until president trump will be inaugurated for the second time as president of the united states. that means we only have four more days of president biden's absentee leadership. but he seems to be making the most of his final days as he goes out the door, and he certainly isn't letting it kick him on the way out. i think the most egregious example of the abuse of power, really, that prat is engaged in now that the election is over
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and he doesn't have to stand for a vote among the american people, so he pretty much has given them a thumb in the eye. perhaps one of the most egregious examples of this was his pardon of his son hunter on december 1 of last year, despite numerous efforts by the fbi and doj to protect hunter biden for the accountability for his crimes, president biden decided to attack his own department of justice and say his son was selectively and unfairly prosecuted. well, it's hard to imagine someone thinking they were unfairly targeted when entire government agencies did everything they could to protect him from coming to justice. and thanks to a diligent and careful judge who was able to expose a sweetheart deal that
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would have exonerated hunter biden previously, so he was convicted of illegally carrying -- possessing a firearm, and he stood charge with massive tax fraud. president biden said time and time again, i promise i'm not going to pardon him, and then he turned around and he did. but he didn't stop there. he used his last days in office to go on a little pardon spree, granting clemency to 39 individuals as well as commuting the sentences of convicted murderers on death row. these people were convicted of crimes ranging from conspiracy to commit wire fraud to, in a mortgage fraud scheme, to stealing government property, to signing false documents, bank theft, participating in an income tax fraud, and a misuse of a social security number.
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but the truth is, these are not victimless crimes and they're the no the sort of occurrences we want to -- and they're not the sort of occurrences we want to see happening more frequently. there's a reason why our criminal justice system provides for accountability and punishment in appropriate circumstances. that's to set an example for others not to go down that path and to have some measure of accountability, which is an important part of justice. these sentenced criminals were not the only people who got a last-minute gift from president biden. on january 4, president biden announced a list of 19 -- 19 new recipients of the presidential medal of freedom. this included george soros and others. george soros, of course, is a
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billionaire philanthropist who's doled out billions of dollars to left-wing political causes, from fund the police movements to anti-israel organizations to those who promote open borders, such as we've experienced tragically over the last four years. of course, these are the same policies that have caused so much suffering and frustration among the american people, which they voted on, i believe it was a referendum on november 5, voted to change the direction the country was headed in because most americans, according to public opinion polling, felt like america was on the wrong path and needed a change of course. and now a key architect of that failed policy -- those failed policies was awarded the presidential medal of freedom. talk about devaluing an award that's supposed to be given for
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extraordinary service to the country. of course, i support the rights of individuals to be generous with their wealth. america is one of the most generous countries in the world, and i think it's something we should be proud of. i imagine how our colleagues on the other side of the aisle might act if republicans honored a prominent conservative f philanthropist. you think the media or our democratic colleagues would applaud it in the same way? no chance. conservative philanthropists have been not only not given medals of freedom, they've been subjected to endless scrutiny, including politically motivated subpoenas from our democratic colleagues on the judiciary committee just this last year. but now democrats are rewarding their own the presidential medal of freedom. it's like the hearing we had this morning in the finance
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committee. scott bessent, the next secretary of treasury, was there. we had to listen to the ranking member go on a die tribe about why it is so important that american taxpayers be exposeded to a multitrillion-dollar tax increase. now, he said this is about tax cuts for the wealthy, but the fact of the matter is -- and the nominee pointed this out -- that the top 1% in the country pay the vast majority of income taxes. but the facts apparently are not all that important to our democratic colleagues. president biden wasn't finished rewarding his friends with grants of clemency and presidential honors before he left office. he also sent a parting gift to one of his favorite beneficiaries, which are radical climate activists.
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now, i don't doubt that the climate is change. i don't doubt humans have an impact on it. but to say this is the end-all, be all of all of our policies to the detriment of our economy, job creation, and so many other important issues just strikes me as misguided. one of the consequences is that americans have been suffering under high prices for energy under president biden's presidency. electricity prices have risen more than 30%. we know that these high prices are the direct result of president biden's policies, which put climate activists in the front seat while working families are left behind. but the president couldn't help himself from doing more damage on the way out the door. the day after christmas, president biden's energy department finalized new climate
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regulations that would functionally ban almost all natural gas-powered water heaters. now, why would he do something like that? an analysis from the american gas association estimates that 40% of customers will be directly impacted by a rule with a net cost increase, since they'll be required to buy a new gas hereto, a new electric -- a new gas heater, a new electric water heater, excuse me. this will especially affect low-income citizens and elderly. now, of course if people want to buy a more expensive water heater with their own money, i've got no objection to that. i'm all for their freedom to do so. but to impose additional costs on seniors who have fixed
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incomes and other low-income families who are struggling to get by under the high prices and the 40-year high inflation under the biden administration simile adds -- simply adds insult to injury. but protected didn't stop -- but president biden didn't stop there. two weeksal the biden administration gave the state of california zero emission rules for lawn mowers and leaf blowers. it adds up. this rule would prohibit the sale of new equipment under 25 horsepower or 19 kilowatts that fail to achieve zero emissions. is there no home appliance or device that is safe from this radical agenda? the biden administration's targeted gas-powered cars, gas stoves, water heaters and now they want to get after our lawn
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mowers and leaf blowers. as i've said before, i don't have any objection to anyone who wants to improve their carbon footprint, if that's important to them, by purchasing new low-emissions lawn mowers. god bless them if they want to do that. but for working families who are just trying to keep up with inflation, a new lawn mower just might not be in their budget. well, suffice it to say, the biden administration is working hard on their way out the door and wreaking havoc in the process. well, mr. president, republicans are taking note. we know that with president trump being sworn into office next monday, with new majorities in the house and the senate, that things are going to change. the american people voted for change, and they're going to see
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a change, a change away from these radical policies and special-interest pieces of legislation or regulation that hurt the vast majority of americans for the benefit of an ideological agenda. one of the tools we're going to be using is something called the congressional review act. as the presiding officer knows, this is a powerful tool which allows a vote of congress and a presidential signature to essentially veto an administrative agency rule. there is a time frame -- i believe it's 60 legislative days -- during which we can look back and essentially impose a legislative veto of that rule. during -- using this mechanism, congress can review and rescind regulations that it disapproves
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of because, of course, many of these regulations, of course, are promulgated by administrative agencies that never have to stand for election. they never have to appeal to the voters. they never have to explain themselves to the voters. they just do what they do, which is create more and more red tape and regulation. so i'm glad we're going to be able to focus soon after we confirm president trump's cabinet on congressional review act regulatory dis's a approvals -- disapprovals. i plan on introducing a few of these myself. i know other colleagues plan to do the same thing. so, mr. president, president biden may have been busy over the last four months since the -- the last few months since the november 5 election, but we are gearing up to be even busier
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undoing much of the mischief that he has wrought during these last couple of months on his way out the door. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. ms. duckworth: i ask unanimous consent to display a framed item during my remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. duckworth: mr. president, in these serious times, we need a serious candidate to lead our military. we need someone with merit to lead our meritocracy, someone with moral strength. for all these reasons and quite a few more, i will not be voting to confirm the supremely unqualified pete hegseth as secretary of defense. our troops deserve better than a guy who was seemingly only nominated because he used to host trump's favorite tv show on fox news. i have plenty to say about mr. hegseth and the many, many ways in which he would degrade
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our military readiness. it is no secret that i disagreed with trump on nearly everything during his first term yet i still voted to confirm james mattis and mark esper when he nominated them for this same role. pete hegseth never ran an entire army like esper did. no, the only thing hegseth has ever run, he's run into the ground. the only major organizations he's ever led, he's led into debt. hegseth is unqualified. he is unprepared, he is unethical. and most of all, he is unfit. mr. hegseth may talk about how having had dust on his boots make his worthy of becoming secretary of defense, well, as someone who left her boots in a dusty field in iraq, let me tell you exactly why he is unif i think to lead our leer -- unfit to lead our leer rose. he likes to say that our military is a great mayor to --
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meritocracy. the secretary of defense oversees the federal government's largest agency. they manage a $900 billion budget along with the 3 million servicemembers and civilians who fall under its umbrella. during his time in uniform, pete hegseth never commanded a unit with more than 200 people. 0 meanwhile, on the civilian side, both organizations that he led went into debt. in fact, he so badly mismanaged one of them that they had to bring in a forensic accountant to clean up the mess that he had made. that's it. those are his only supposed qualifications to head up one of the most complex, important organizations in the world. listen, there are plenty of republicans whose policies i may disagree with but who i would vote to confirm because i know they too spent their lives working to keep our country strong and could demonstrate why
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they are qualified for this role. mr. hegseth is not one of those people. who knows why donald trump picked this guy. maybe hegseth's business p failures makes trump feel better about his six intrups brupz bankruptcies. maybe it's just that all of the bone spurs draft dodging left him with no clue about what kind of leader our military needs. look, at his confirmation hearing on tuesday, i gave mr. hegseth every opportunity to show me that i was wrong, to prove that he could do this job, that he does know the first thing or anything about what it takes to take on this massive responsibility of being the secretary of defense. i asked him basic questions that even the most junior folks working in the pentagon would know, like naming one of the main international agreements he'd be responsible for leading. he couldn't name one.
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i asked him to tell me just a l single country in the association of southeast asian nations. he couldn't give me one and one of those is our longest treaty ally of 190 years. this was shocking, and yet noft spriefsing from a man -- surprising from a man whose main form of policy education has come from reading the fox news tlel prompter. this was pitiful yet predictable from a guy who said women do not belong in combat, who dared to claim the military is lowering its standards so god forbid us moms can serve. the only standards being lowered today are the ones for secretary of defense. our female servicemembers have earned the jobs that they're in, unlike mr. hegseth who won't even say whether he refused an unlawful order. i have next to me today a framed copy of the soldiers creed, a
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poefrt that hangs -- poster that hangs over my desk in the senate. it's the same copy that- over my bed at walter reed medical center recovering from my chute down, the same poster whose lines i read before i was wheeled into my surgeries, the saim ones repeated to myself when i was in so much pain that i couldn't breathe yet was determined to fite -- fight my way back to health. these worded helped me find the words i needed when i needed them the most because they reminded me of who i was and a proud member of the greatest fighting force on the face of the earth whose duty it was to live up to the sacrifices of my fellow soldiers. i'd like to quote a couple of lines of the creed. i will always place the mission first. i am disciplined physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks. our troops follow these words
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every day as we ask them to do the hardest thing imaginable. we ask them to leave their families, to potentially never hold their spouses' hand again, to never see their babies take their first steps. we ask them to do all of that and then walk into enemy fire and be good enough, competent enough, qualified enough that regardless of the threat they face, they will still be able to do their jobs. we ask them to be so ready for the mission at hand that they can still fly that helicopter, still man that ship, still fight that fire until their very last breath. tell me, how can we ask these warriors to train and perform to the absolute highest standards if we're going to confirm a guy who doesn't seem to care enough to prepare to lead them in any way? listen, these are dangerous times on the geopolitical stage p. our adversaries are watching, waiting to see if we really will put in power someone so obviously unqualified.
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and mr. hegseth made a point of saying at tuesday's hearings that every single war fighter should be hired based on performance, readiness and merit. and i agree with him. however, he fails to meet he every single one of those metrics. he is asking to be handed a job he's not prepared for because of his relationship with donald trump. but this role is too important. our troops' lives too precious to let personal ambition get in the way of the mission at hand. let me close with this, part of being a leader is knowing when you're not competent enough to do the job. well, mr. hegseth, you are not technically proficient. you are not tactically proficient. and your nomination is an insult those brave enough to be serving our nation. so you, sir, are a no go at this station. i am voting no on pete hegseth's nomination to be secretary of defense. and if my colleagues cared more about keeping our nation strong
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because local leaders were heard it was ignored. when you visit utah, the voices were ignored work to try to fix that and how to proceed and the designated monuments don't exceed restrictions. >> the antiquities act by president roosevelt himself and his states clearly that is the smallest possible area and the areas like indiana jones these
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it is all intermingled. quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: thank you, madam president. i rise today in support of the laken riley act. nearly a year ago, laken riley, a college girl more than a thousand miles from our southern bo border, was jogging on her university's intramural fields. ms. lummis: also more than a thousand miles from our southern border an illegal criminal in our country brutally attacked and murdered her in broad daylight. for 18 minutes laken riley, that young woman in the prime of her
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life, with boundless potential, fought for her life against an assailant who never should have been in this country to begin with. the biden administration's open border policies served the criminal's depravity more than laken and her family, in fact. they served the criminal every bit as much as it failed laken and her family. laken's killer easily crossed our southern border with millions of others. and when he committed several crimes and was arrested, a biden administration-led i.c.e. made no effort to deport him. had he been appropriately prosecuted for his previous crimes, the riley family would have celebrated riley's birthday
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instead of mourning an empty chair. p and on february 22, 2024, would have been an ordinary day for their family instead of the worst day of their lives. no family should face the nightmare laken's family endured, and it is our responsibility as lawmakers to correct the glaring failures in our system that led to her tragic and preventable death. the laken riley act won't bring laken back, but it is a vehicle for turning the riley family's pain into purpose. and partnering together to protect the american families. this legislation's sole goal is to hold known criminal illegal aliens accountable for their actions and enable states to
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bring civil charges against federal officials who fail to uphold our federal immigration laws. like everyone serving in in body, i came to the u.s. senate because i wanted to make a positive difference for the american people. these is one of those opportunities. we have the ability to do that right now by getting this bill to the president's desk. let's honor laken's legacy by passing this bipartisan legislation to protect millions of americans across our country.
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in line in the department became part of this, 1849. the oldest agency and it's only fitting before i get to my questions i might middle letter for the record of my tribes apartment. if i just read the letter they wrote in your support, it is incredible to have a close were nominated into someone who has trust and confidence with the most complex difficult issues in years and exactly the leader
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tribes and they close by saying governor bertram has the highest recommendation endorsement to serve in the next secretary of the leader. >> the fish and wildlife services with greater ecosystem and grizzly bears because he's two populations exceeded recovery targets by so much the service no longer believes they are listening we should be celebrating, a great species now across the ecosystems but sadly
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this publishes montana's successful recovery efforts. the and we are now having to sacrifice losses by lifestyle and human safety and sadly many monuments of been killed and multiply grizzly bears and people like him very seriously along the rocky mountain front and our playgrounds have a high fence to take the children from sleepers and the goalposts of state management were slightly done 50800 respectively for the
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ecosystem in the most recent estimate is now 2100. governor bertram, the data shows these two populations and commit to working with me. we met them aware of the data in a note to tenants, it's important and i'm with you. we should be celebrating when they come off the endangered species list as opposed to fighting every way we can to keep them on the list because of the complications. he also mentioned the state, i understand dedicated the state's
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is the chair of western governors i understand how dedicated they are. this belief they are unprotected. that got the closest data so a pleasure to work with you on this. >> the biden administration has been walking coal mines in montana. the rosebud my. they are in desperate need to find permits. they refused to finish. when confirmed montana families lose their jobs.
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>> is part of the larger crisis around electricity. we know we have technology began these efforts over two decades ago we have an opportunity to decriminalize so we absolutely want to work on this issue. without basil, we will to china and if we lose to china, that is a direct impact on our national security. >> i want to highlight the importance of the bill we
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cochair national park subcommittee. no matter which way the devil goes, it's back and forth in the senate. we are always cochairs together on behalf of national parks and working with him to reauthorize public land is critical to address the challenges we face in president trump signed the greatest in years when he signed for great america's outdoor act and think you so much for getting across the finish line. i hope to count on your support. >> you can absolutely. this was a great step forward and i know my personal experience the amount of different maintenance is probably even greater today so
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we continue to invest in our national parks. >> thank you, mr. chairman. welcome. as part of my possibility a legal adult, have you ever made a request for waivers or committed physical harassment? >> i have not have you ever entered into us? >> i have thought. >> cedric testimony yesterday and you noted president trump energy will end wars abroad and trump directed you to expand oil and gas on a massive scale which will lead to increased burning
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of fossil fuel. burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change. in 2017 secretary of defense the armed services committee climate changes impacting stability in the areas of the world -- you. i rise today to honor the service and sacrifice of gr greensboro police officer. he was the first officer to respond to a call of a man with a firearm at a food lion supermarket in greensboro north carolina, as officer horan engaged in a struggle that
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eventually led to officer horan being shot and killed. the suspect fled the scene and led law enforcement on a multiple-county chase and various law. agencies. lawmaker law enforcement was a fall used and respected member of the greensboro police family. he worked for the greensboro police department since 2017 and had a distinguished record of service with the u.s. coast guard. as a u.s. coast guard member, officer horan served as a law enforcement, tactical fast boot instructor for the safety and security of the united states. even when he was offduty he exemplified valor.
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he received a lifesaving award from the greensboro police department from saving a father and son who had been caught in a rip current at a beach in emrald aisle. loving husband, father and son. one of his colleagues noted that one of the main things people would know about officer horan was how much he loffed his -- loved his family. he loved his daughter, if you asked anybody in the department to describe him, one friend said i feel like his daughter would be in every conversation. he loved his family and he included it in virtually every conversation he had with his colleagues. he underheld the oath to protect and serve his community and country.
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he exemplified what it means to be an extraordinary public servant and he made the ultimate sacrifice. my deepest condolences go out to officer horan's family for their tremendous loss, and my condolences go out to the community of greensboro, which lost one of their finest, most decent public servants. and we will never forget his service. mr. president, officer horan actually passed away a year ago last december. we were not in session at the time, so i thought it was appropriate to recognize the anniversary of his death. but i want to talk a little bit more, mr. president. since 2015, when i first took office as a u.s. senator in my home state of north carolina, we have tragically lost far too many law enforcement officers. in fact, we've lost 85 in the
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time that i've been a u.s. senator since 2015. this includes deaths related to law enforcement assaults, gunfire, vehicular pursuits and duty-related illnesses. these officers took an oath to protect and serve our communities. these heroes made the ultimate sacrifice, giving their life to protect their communities. i will not get into all the details about each officer, madam president, but -- or, mr. president. what i would ask is unanimous consent to provide a list of the fallen officers since i've been a member of the u.s. senate to be included in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. tillis: thank you, mr. president. as we start the 119th congress, my colleague from north carolina who is currently providing, presiding, i think we both agree that we want to emphasize that
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congress has a role in supporting and protecting our law enforcement officers across this country. according to the national fraternal order of police, in 2024, 342 officers were shot in the line of duty. of those officers, 50 officers were tragically killed by criminals. unfortunately over the past few years we've shamefully, we've seen shameful behavior from certain, and i hope and i pray that it's a minority of our society, but we have people out there raising money for, fundraising ones called the 13.12 mile run. 1312 translates into acab. on their website they proclaim acab stands for all cops are bastards. let that sink in. it's appalling to hear this kind
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of rhetoric, and it has to stop. these dangerous statements not only create disdistrust and did is tan for our -- did is tan for our brave men and women in blew, the vast majority are good hardworking people that we all know in our communities, but it's made their job to protect and serve more difficult and more deadly. we've got to do better. we've got to protect law enforcement. that's why i plan to reintroduce multiple pieces of legislation in the coming weeks. first among them is going to be the protect and serve act. it makes a federal crime for anyone who knowingly causes or attempts to cause bodily harm or injury to a law enforcement officer. it's amazing it's not a crime already. i hope to do so with strong bipartisan support when i file the bill and get it passed in this congress. we also must act to punish
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criminals who intentionally murder law enforcement. that's why i will also be introducing the justice for fallen officers act. this legislation would create a criminal penalty for the murder of a local, state or federal law enforcement officer punishment with life without parole. contact representatives and kel them you want to protect law enforcement officers and support enhancing penalties for those who would do them harm. the men and women in blue are heroes. they deserve our support. we need everyone in our communities to stand up to these people who would not want them in the community, who would not want them to respond to a 911 call. can you imagine that? can you imagine our communities if the logical conclusion of
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these people who hate law enforcement officers so much that they proudly profess that all cops are bastards, publicly, to raise money. we need to increase awareness and we need to make absolutely certain that every man and woman in blue knows that we have their back. thank you, mr. president. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. ms. warren: mr. president, i rise today to urge my colleagues to reject pete hegseth as the next secretary of defense. pete hegseth is the most unqualified nominee for secretary of defense in our nation's history. at his confirmation hearing, pete hegseth bobbed and weaved to avoid answering just basic questions about his record. but what hegseth failed to account for is that his entire record is damning. i'd like my senate colleagues,
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people who are seriously considering voting to confirm pete hegseth, to think long and hard about this decision. we need a secretary of defense who will be ready at 2 in the morning to give life-or-death national security advice to the president. would you trust pete hegseth, who has allegedly about so drunk at work events that he passed out on a bus and urinated in front of the hotel where his colleagues were staying? would you trust him to answer that call? we need a secretary of defense who will help us root out the problem of sexual assault in the military. would you trust pete hegseth who has been credibly accused of raping a woman and buying her silence to protect victims of sexual assault? we need a secretary of defense who will be able to manage the nation's largest federal agency, one that oversees almost 3.4 million people and a budget of
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nearly $850 billion a year. would you trust pete hegseth, who drove a small veterans nonprofit to the brink of bankruptcy, to manage billions of our tax dollars? the list of glaring disqualifications goes on and on. hegseth supports requiring every senior military officer to pass a political litmus test. this politicization of the military is a slap in the face to leaders who have served their country honorably for decades. but the point is that pete hegseth is not just unqualified for the role, he is a walking national security threat. we need a secretary of defense who will help our country meet its recruiting goals, something we are already struggling with. pete hegseth has said that women in the military, quote,
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shouldn't be in combat at all. 300,000 women have served in iraq and afghanistan since 9/11. pete hegseth has now insulted every one of them. that is not how a leader of the military will inspire people to join our cause. when people are responsible for our national defense, we ask something extraordinary of them. we ask them to put their lives on the line. all three of my brothers served in the military. my oldest brother was career military. and so i know how important that service is and how important it is that we pick the right person to lead our men and women in uniform. pete hegseth claims that our brave women in the military are somehow lowering our standards, but it is his lack of qualifications, his lack of character, and his lack of judgment that lower the
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standards for secretary of defense. we need a secretary of defense who we can rely on to keep all of us safe. frankly, it is hard to imagine a worse choice than pete hegseth. ms. warren: mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. tuberville: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, the last four years have been nothing but short of a national nightmare. the run up to the nightmare began in 2020 after fending off a ridiculous impeachment attempt in the early months of 2020, president trump was riding high, the economy was booming. under president trump, we saw record levels of low
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unemployment for all americans, especially among black and hispanic americans. inflation, which is ultimately a tax on the paychecks of hardworking americans, was also at record lows. we had the most secure border in history. dangerous terrorists, cartel members and human traffickers weren't flooding into our country. americans' jobs were more secure because they didn't have to compete with millions of foreigners who have entered the country the last four years trying to steal their jobs. the cost of buying a home was also cheaper as a result. under president trump, we were energy independent. this made the cost of living more affordable for all americans. we were able to power american homes, cars, and factories with reliable and abundant energy. and that's just a few of the domestic successes that americans were benefiting from under president trump. on the global stage, we finally
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had stability alfa decades of -- after decades of foreign wars. under president trump there were no new wars. we were respected around the world and feared by our adversaries. russia didn't dare invade ukraine when president trump was in office. nato countries were told to pay up. pay your bills. china wasn't imposing its will on the south china sea or across the world. china was contained and its influence was diminishing. under president trump the abram accords were signed, bringing peace to the middle east and we've seen in the last few years achieving peace in the middle east was no easy feat. president trump achieved it and he did it quickly. the united states and the world were in harmony. the left couldn't stand these many successes that president trump's administration was achieving at home and abroad, so they pulled out all stops to take him down.
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that's when the deep state bureaucrats and globalists, organizations worked together to intensify the covid-19 crisis. at the same time the george floyd riots erupted and destroyed cities across our country. liberal d.a.'s and politicians didn't do anything to stop it. it was absolute anarchy. total chaos orchestrated by left-wing politicians, the media, and antifa thugs. meanwhile, the media tried to manufacture a scandal because president trump held up a bible in front of a historic church while the rioters burned the city of d.c. all this was ignored. it was all a ploy to take down president trump and tarnish his legacy. before the plot to take out the president was in full swing, we saw america achieving heights we had never ever seen before.
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and for a moment the left thought they had been bested by trump with the covid sham and the floyd riots and ultimately by rigging the election. but after controlling biden, by hiding him in the basement and then installing him as president, the democrats were like a dog who finally caught the car. once the democrats took the white house, they quickly realized they didn't know how to run the country. it's not quite like running a struggle session in berkeley, in a berkeley classroom or leading an h.r. call for a woke corporation. the democrats had four years to show the country they could govern more effectively than president trump, but what have they done? what's one thing they've done to make our country better? i can't think of one policy, one law or directive that actually
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benefited the american people. from day one, joe biden and kamala harris invited foreigners to illegally enter our country. they weren't shy. joe biden told foreigners to surge the border, and you should all come. while the administration opened the border, they shut down the keystone pipeline, making americans pay more for groceries and gas. the biden administration engaged in a culture war, domestically embracing far-left ideas about assault, general -- about sexuality, gender and race. we've been told repeatedly over the past four years that men can get pregnant. is and the democrats didn't just force woke identify l yolg on dpults -- ideology on adults. pipeline. they are perfectly okay with men sharing locker rooms and showering with girls.
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the biden administration published a rule that would destroy title 9, which was created to protect women and girls all in the name of gender equity. you know, not only did democrats wage war on american culture, they weaponized our justice system going after president trump, conservatives and anyone who dared to oppose their agenda. just look at how they went after the january 6 protesters, pro-lifers with the face act, parents at school boards and the dozens of illegal actions they took against president trump. the biden administration, with the help of congressional democrats, passed a bunch of bills with names that sound good but actually they harmed many americans. take the inflation reduction act, for example. one of their prized bills that they passed in the last few years. it was a legal way to launder
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money to blue states to bail them out, while red states were hung out to dry. it pumped money we don't have into the economy, causing the runaway inflation we're dealing with today. the administration was also weak in the world stage appeasing every interest but the interest of american people. this administration was committed to cozying up to iran by reinstating the joint comprehensive plan of action as if the world wasn't already a dangerous place, why would president biden and the administration agree to help iran, improve their nuclear facilities? it makes no sense. this administration bent over backed -- backwards for nato, handing over billions of hard-earned american taxpayers with no plan on ending the war in ukraine. it executed a disastrous
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withdrawal from afghanistan that left 13 servicemembers dead with many others severely wounded. this administration was basically asleep at the wheel. who was running the country? well, it wasn't joe biden. it was clear from the 2020 campaign that he didn't have the mental capacity to be president. to make matters worst, he spent 570 days, 40% of his presidency on vacation. instead the white house was run by a committee of staffers and special interest that ultimately ran the country into the ground and the media and the democrats were explicit. it's truly shameful what they have done to this country in the last four years. but now we're finally turning the page. we're entering a new golden age in america with president
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trump's return to the white house, and this is our last chance of righting the ship the left has steered so far off course. president trump will return our country to the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. we will return to the judo christian beliefs and the principles of the west that made our country so great. how should the senate help? we need to confirm every single one of president trump's nominees as quickly as possible. we don't have time to drag our feet on any of these nominees. the democrats never once attempted to block president biden's cabinet nominees, zero senate democrats voted against any one of his picks. zero. president trump needs to be able to exercise the full power and authority of his office as soon as he's sworn in and that requires confirming his cabinet picks. it will also require issuing the
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executive orders to undo anything that president biden has done in congressional action to put these policies in place. expect a flurry of executive orders, a new offensive idea to rebuild our broken country. expect executive orders on the border, on unleashing american energy, and getting dei out of our government and out of the lives of the american people. we need to get behind president trump on passing one reconciliation bill that will secure our border, reignite our energy independence and cut taxes so the american economy can boom again. on the global stage, the senate needs to get behind president trump pressuring nato, all the nato countries to pay their fair share. so more military handouts for --
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those countries. it's time to get this war over with. the senate needs to support president trump and exert maximum pressure on iran and other terrorist organizations wrecking havoc on the middle east and we must shrink the federal government through strong congressional action. we will do this by working closely with the department of government efficiency, better known as doge. we need to cut the ridiculous regulations that are curbing american small businesses, finally we need to focus on accountability. we need who hold people accountablor the damage that has been -- accountable for the damage that has been done to ou we need to support the pardon of january 6 protesters who were horribly treated by our justice system. we need to fight for pro-life, pro-life protesters who were
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persecuted by the administration. we need to open investigations into the doa and civil rights divisionings, that starts with confirming kash patel and pam bondi. we need to be aggressive in these pursuits. senate republicans need to demonstrate will and resolve like president trump showed on the campaign trail. are we willing to take a bullet for this country like president trump did? are we willing to take on the fake news media who will try to undermine his every day agenda. the job ahead of us won't be easy. the economy's in bad shape. job numbers are down, inflation is sky high. our enemies are on the move abroad and in the interior of our country. but the american people chose president trump and the republicans for such a time like this. they gave us a mandate to
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deliver them from the past four years of hell that this administration has caused. but now it's a new day in america. the nightmare is almost over, and in a few more days, the sun will rise in america, greatness awaits us if we answer the call of the american people. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. tuberville: mr. president, i notice an absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.
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there's a great mental health teenage and children's private, crisis in our country and the surgeon general is point the finger at social media but never tiktok. that doesn't solve that problem. we need a separate solution to that and that was my bill that got killed four weeks ago on the senate floor in the last week. that's take it on big interest in our country. a tiktok ban would impose serious consequences on millions of americans. who depend upon the avenue for social connections and the economic livelihood. that's why yesterday i requested the senate passed the extent the tiktok deadline packed by unanimous consent. unfortunately too much of my republican colleagues objected using hyperbolic language they argue bytedance uses tiktok to indoctrinate young americans with anti-american and
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pro-chinese ideas. proponents of the tiktok ban often argue the platform is quote brainwashing americans. when i pointed out a senior intelligence official had filed a declaration before the district of columbia court of appeals acknowledging the intelligence community had quote no information that bytedance had manipulated content on tiktok to support china my colleagues didn't even know what i was talking about. so here it is. this is an under oath declaration in the intelligence community of the united states that they have no information that bytedance has manipulated the content. none. so we have time. we have an ability to be able to
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work on this issue. there is no reason why tiktok has to go dark in three days. so it's telling that they're not even aware of this submission by the intelligence community that that information compromise has not happened and is also for the evidence the rush process that was used in congress where there was no specific vote in the senate on this issue. there were no hearings in the senate on this issue. there was no debate on this issue in the senate. there was no expert testimony in the senate on this issue. there was a rush to judgment without having heard all of the facts. that's all were asking for. we are asking for more time. we are asking for an ability to be able to try rationally to resolve this issue so that tiktok does not go dark. that's the place where at right now here we have a do something
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about it. senator booker and i are asking president biden to exercise his authority in order to extend a deadline by 90 days. we are willing to work with president-elect trump and tried to extend that deadline as well. this should be bipartisan. this should not be an issue which we are debating. and even as we are debating, tiktok users are flocking to a chinese app with no reported presence in the united states. that's what's happening in our country right now. so it's time to take a breath, tried to step back, by sometime, try to figure this out rationally. but in no way should we have tiktok go dark on sunday. it would be catastrophic for just so many small businesses, so many creators, so many communities that have no
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alternative available to them. so that's where we are that's what our challenges is going to continue to be, and we are going to continue to build. so let me turn and recognize my great colleague my friend the great theater cory booker from new jersey. >> i want to thank senator markey for leadership and so many issues. i've been very lucky my time in the senate to partner with them on many important things. let me reiterate what he said. here's the real problem with social media in our society, culture, nation that we need to address. there should be more leadership talking about how to stop its harms to americans particularly young americans. my real concerns with tiktok whether it's proliferation, hate and anti-semitism or somebody credible concerns about national security issues. that's not what is at issue right now.
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what is at issue is the solution is not to end tiktok right now but to make sure we're grieving space for us to come together and say this platform in a way that comports with concerns that have been expressed and reserved a platform that as senator markey is said is so profoundly important in the lives of so many americans. from creators the businesspeople, to folks who feel alone and isolated and found on the platform way to find community and connection. there are tens and tens of millions of users. i myself am one. i'm very frustrated with our congress has gone about doing this. we did not have a debate in the senate. we did not have hearings in the senate. we did not even have a specific vote. it was crammed into it often called in congress must pass bill that had national security support for places like ukraine,
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that had for me the humanitarian aid i have been fighting for for some time to help with the crisis going on in sudan. it was to me a cynical effort to stick it into a bill that many of us would have to vote for because of high stakes of the other things going on. we should've done this differently now is the time we can do it differently. we are asking for time to debate, discuss and find a solution that preserves the platform and addresses some of the legitimate concerns that it been raised. >> any questions? yes. [inaudible question] >> excuse me? [inaudible question] we sent a letter to president biden city. he's incumbent president and you can exercise that authority right now to use the 90 day
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extension that's in the statute. we hope president biden does that. and beyond that we hope that if president biden doesn't exercise of that authority, that president trump after he is sworn in on monday that he would exercise that authority to ensure that tiktok stays alive. because there are right now bidders for purchasing tiktok. they are out there. in the legislation that could potentially trigger a 90 day extension so that negotiations, discussions could continue. that's our goal and we hope president biden does it. that's our goal now but then we would additionally hope because obviously president trump filed a brief before the supreme court last week. i went to the supreme court hearing on this issue, asking
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for an extension, asking for more time. obviously president trump has a great interest in the issue. [inaudible question] >> i talked to the ceo of tiktok. i have talked to people on all sides of the issue. clearly there needs to be an extension and my hope is that president biden and president-elect trump can find a way of doing so. but i think it's probably helpful with the ceo of tiktok is going to be in town because he personifies, he puts a face on what the impacts of going to be on so many americans. [inaudible question]
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>> i think the fact we are seeing growing support legislatively on both sides of the capital is encouraging. we are gaining momentum which gives even more of a chance president biden and his team will look to us as maybe there's a different way to go. i think that given the extraordinary voice of tiktok users, i want to take a lot of, i want to give a lot of credit to store market for leadership but he and i know thank you tiktok users. americans are leading your voices be heard and that is affecting the people that are representing, seeing more and more people getting on. let's continue the momentum. let's get more congresspeople, or senators, more voices lifting up in america and i'm hoping that create the momentum to get the right thing done. >> senator schumer just only half an hour ago how much he appreciated my making the effort
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to this legislation passed by unanimous consent. he's clearly behind us all the way. we're going to build the momentum. [inaudible question] >> i talk to a very high ranking whiteheads and had white house official last week. today once again extended my personal medication to the white house not to the president but to those who would be sent to making the decision as to whether or not there should be an extension so they are very well aware of what senator booker and i are attempting to do. >> i want to say thank you to all members of the audience. i very much appreciate that. [inaudible question]
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>> i got 9+ million constituents in new jersey, hundreds of thousands of them are getting the majority of information and news about current events from that platform. i want to meet the voters whether our weather is going to the barbershop, yes, i go to one, or whether it's going to town halls. this is a virtual town hall. i have been doing tiktok the last couple days specifically about this issue and you all know the functions, the presiding officer: we are. mr. padilla: i ask that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. padilla: thank you. thank you, mr. president. as you and everybody here knows, a little bit over a week ago fires broke out in los angeles county. and some of you have reached out in the time since to offer support, offer your assistance
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and even offer condolences for those who have perished in this disaster. i want to thank you for your initial outreach. my colleague, senator schiff and i have come to the floor today to provide you all a little bit of an update and to lay a foundation on some of the key issues we're going to need to work together on as we move forward. and let me begin by just taking a step back for a second and acknowledging that even before the winds increased last week, we knew that the risk of a potential large fire was high. in the midst of a historically dry season in southern california, forecasters predicted hurricane-force winds
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along with little to no humidity. essentially a dry hurricane condition. if you can imagine that. californians know that when there's a red flag warning, conditions are ripe for large-scale fires. but what came next would actually material ize would become the worst natural disaster in the history of los angeles. 100 mile per hour winds carrying burning embers from home to home, multiple simultaneous fires burning more than 12,000 structures and more than 40,000 acres. and to give you a sense of the area i'm talking about, talk about nearly three times the size of manhattan. at least two dozen people have
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lost their lives with more expected as search and rescue crews continue to comb through the devastation. and over the course of the last week i've had the opportunity to visit command posts and meet with firefighters, had the opportunity to distribute meals to many of the victims and to s see, to tour, to visit the destruction firsthand. yes, there are survivors, people impacted from communities like the pacific palisades, some with names and faces you'll recognize from television and the entertainment industry. but i assure you there's also a lot of other faces and families that you won't recognize. from the working class and diverse communities throughout los angeles county. its people like a woman in alta
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dina who was nine months pregnant when the eaton fire burned down not just her home but the new nursery that she had and a 66-year-old man who stayed to try to protect the home that had been in his family for five decades. but whose -- but who was found dead with a garden hose in his hand. you can imagine his last moments. it's one of the reasons why i've been saying over and over that every house you see is really a home and every home represents a family. a family who now mourns maybe the loss of a relative, maybe the loss of their home or a loss of irreplaceable items like family photo albums or a wedding
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dress or baby pictures of a loved ones red, white, and blue military burial flag. but through the destruction, we've also seen some signs of hope, like the firefighter and the pacific palisades who offered to go back and save two dogs trapped while the neighborhood was still burning. or a 14-year-old -- who saw the devastation that hit her community and created a charity. altadena girls to provide beauty products and clothes to her friends so they could feel like themselves again while coping with this disaster. every day we hear stories like theirs, even in the midst of a disaster, people coming to each other's aid. but even as i stand here today, as we stand here today, the fires are still burning and the
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fight continues. our hearts go out to all the impacted families and they also go out to the heroic firefighters and other first responders working tirelessly through multiday shifts to put out these fires. not only the brave state and local firefighters but i want to acknowledge the federal firefighters, too. to the state and local officials working day and night to protect our state and our communities, thank you. i also want to acknowledge governor newsom for his steady hand during this time. and we are so grateful to our neighboring states who continue to send resources and no, not just states that are considered blue states like oregon and washington, but states that many people refer to as red states
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like south dakota and wyoming and montana and florida who continue to send resources with no strings attached, no conditions. this is what we do for each other. there's a reason it's called mutual aid. and i also want to thank every one of my colleagues who in 2023 helping to secure seven c-130 air tankers for california. there were surplus military aircraft that california received that paid to retrofit, the first of which is already on the scene fighting these fires as we speak. but soon there will come a time when we need to more than just support our response to these disasters. we'll need support for our rec recovery. and we expect congress to support california just as congress has been there for
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states across the country in their times of crisis with no conditions and no strings attached. because a recovery isn't just a california fight. we're truly in this together as americans. whether it's wildfires across the western united states or tornados in the midwest, ice storms in texas, or hurricanes in the southeast, mother nature does not distinguish between red states and blue states and neither should our disaster response efforts or our recovery efforts. that's why when tragedy struck just a few months ago from hurricane's milton and helene, democrats didn't demand aid be attached to some democratic wish list of pray quarts. -- of priorities. not for a second did we trifrpg
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of attaching -- we think of attaching strings. so when i hear about political jabs and insults on social media while my home state is burning, it's not distracting. it's certainly not entertaining. it's offensive. and it is dangerous. because let's be clear. in times of crisis, california has always been there for the rest of our country. and now we expect our country to be here for california. if speaker johnson or any member of congress for that matter is worried about the federal debt, let me assure you california has already paid the bill. california, as you may know, is the largest economy of any state in the nation. we're the single largest contributor of tax revenue to the federal treasury by far. in 2020, california paid
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$83 billion more to the federal government than it received. so, be from additional disaste funding to a serious conversation about disaster insurance, that i'm eager to continue, we're going to need everyone on board. to my republican colleagues who may be wondering whether the policy should change about no strings attached, let me remind you this is also a fundamental matter of decency as americans. it's the same decency that my colleague, senator scott from florida, and my colleague, senator tillis, from north carolina, have shown in their public comments this past week. or that several of my california house republican colleagues have shown by supporting our state's major disaster declaration request. they know, as we should all remember, that this is about our
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unity as a nation. so, yes, california will need you for the long haul. and to president-elect trump, i too invite you to tour altadena and the pacific palisades, which by the way is just about 30 miles from your golf course in ra rancho palais verdes. come meet the families and first responders affected by these fires. finally, i want to speak to the people of california, because it is indeed a long road ahead, and there will be more challenges to overcome as we continue the search and rescue phase of this, as we go into the environmental remediation and the debris removal and eventually the rebuilding of homes and
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businesses. it's a long road, and there will be challenges to overcome indeed. you i -- but i promise you this, there will be a day when the fires are putt out, when the homes and entire communities are rebuilt, better and more resilient than they've been before, and the sun will shine, and the kids will smile. tog together, together we're going to get through this. thank you, mr. president. mr. schiff: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mr. schiff: i rise today to address the senate on behalf of the people of california, and i thank my colleague, senator padilla, for his leadership during this time of incredible
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difficulty and strain for our fellow constituents. the unimaginable has happened, and our hearts are broken. a city encircled in a blaze in a perfect storm of fire and wind, and with a system stretched beyond its breaking point. a natural disaster so immense in size and scale it will dwarf any recovery and rebuilding effort since the 1906 san francisco earthquake and fire. it is that immense and impending recovery effort that i'm asking, i'm pleading for your help with today. already the support that you and the president have given california have helped firefighters battle the flames, helped saved lives, and helped those who have lost everything find shelter, and i want to express my particular appreciation for president biden and what the administration has done. the almost immediate declaration of a disaster, which unlocked
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important fema and other funding, the commitment to match -- to provide, really, 100% of federal funding for the first six months of these fire mitigation efforts. have grateful for what -- we're very grateful for what the congress and president have done. this recovery is going to be measured in years, not months. even so, we must bring a sense of urgency to the recovery and not let it linger. when the flames are finally out, the clean-up begins in ernest and the rebuilding moves forward with all haste. after the attention of the world has turned away from the raging in infeno -- inferno and aftermath, ours in this body must not. because the lost is immeasurable, lives lost, homes lost, businesses lost, neighborhoods lost, pets lost, memories lost, neighborhoods simply gone in an hour, entire communities burned to ash,
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families brought together in grief, churches and synagogues have burned down, but their members still gather as one. because amidst the darkness and destruction, we have seen rays of hope, for when one part of our state is hurting, literally on fire, we all come together. first responders from all across our great state, and so many others, rushed to southern california. a woman i met at a red cross pacoima evacuation site, so grateful for the assistance she was receiving, the dignity with which she was treated by these red cross workers. she told me she plans to set up a $10 a month donation from her monthly social security disability check. people dropping off clothes and supplies by the thousands. so much that some of these centers are overwhelmed with people bringing material by. that's the california way.
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this is deeply personal for senator padilla and myself. we know so many families impacted by these fires, because they're our neighbors and friends. i represented altadena in the house of representatives for decades. it is a vibrant, diverse community, a city of families, of places to worship, of deep culture and history. when i drove through altadena just a few days ago, the destruction was complete, entire city blocks razed, homes, small businesses, schools, gone in just a few minutes, like some po post-apocalyptic scene. driving around that area at night and with small fires still dotting the landscape amidst the rubble, it was hard to recognize what i was seeing. the place where my wife and i got married burned to the ground. so many other community institutions vanished.
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the altadena community church gone, the jewish temple gone, still smoldering, that touchily, when i saw it -- that temple, when i saw it, burning inside, like an eternal flame, the symbol of god's presence amidst the unimaginable the mountains above, once the scene of so much beautiful greenery and nature charred beyond recognition. much of the palisades are just gone, fire ripped through this community, leveling entire neighborhoods. one breakry owner described -- bakery owner described the fires that tore through her community simply as armageddon. charred cars, burned-out furniture, block after block. these were generational homes and neighborhoods, neighborhoods people are proud to be part of, raised their children in, now forever changed. in altadena victor shaw was found in his householding -- in his house holding a garden hose.
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one man, zaire was separated from his sister who lived next door. he was able to evacuate his baby and mother, but the next day he found his sister's car outside, her home, and found her remains in the rubble. evelyn, why didn't you leave, he asked? why didn't you leave? one father, who refused to leave the side of his son who had cerebral palsy, fighting to his last breath, last words he said were to his daughter, baby, i'm getting ready to evacuate. i love you. baby, i got to go. the fire's made it to my yard. anthony mitchell, a hero. edgar mcgregor is well-known in pasadena for his daily trash pickups in the foothills. to the community he will be known for something more. in a facebook group he alerted residents two days before the
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fires to pack go bags. when it mattered most, he typed two words -- get out. get out. his simple post may have saved lives. people are surviving now, but only barrel hanging on. i spoke with patricia, at one of the shelters on the weps side. she stayed -- on the west side. she stayed in a hotel but could no longer afford it and her asthma made it hard to breathe. one firefighter, jonathan, was battling the blaze since the first night. i remember talking to this l.a. fire department firefighter, and he had told me he wasn't sure he was going to make it out when he was there during the early hours of the fire. i asked what that was like. he said well, there were flames in front of me, behind me, the water was running low, my communications were going out, and he said it was the closest
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thing to hell that i can imagine. one family in altadena who all lived on the same street lost three homes. of what was once a dream to live so close to each other had turned into a nightmare. over the past week, we've seen firefighters exhausted and yet unyielding, waging war to save communities and lives and property. and in the last few days, we've seen some hopeful signs as the level of containment, particularly the eaton fire, has increased, more slowly the containment of the palisades fire, but we are not out of the woods. we've seen neighbors helping neighbors, angelinos opening doors to strangers with limb more than clothes on their back. these angels remind us through the darkest hours, smoky skies and uncertain times, we do not stand alone. what thanks this city of los angeles so extraordinary,
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what makes california extraordinary, is that we are not defined by our tragedies. we are defined by our response to them. in los angeles, resilience is a way of life. it's allowed the city to rise from the devastation of earthquakes and floods and riots and fires, time and again. stronger, more resilient, more united, more compassionate. this is a moment when we can and must call ourselves to the better angels of our nature, is the angels all around us, the paramedics who rescued and evacuated seniors from a nursing home. the volunteers i met who showed up at a shelter ready to help before anyone asked, the father who stayed behind to try desperately to keep his son alive. in the coming weeks, after the fires are extinguished, we will seek answers. we must not do so for partisan gain or seeking fault.
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in fact, just the opposite. only with the truth about what went right and what went wrong can we arrive at solutions. i remember talking to one woman who lost her trailer in the palisades. she wants answers about the lack of water to fight the fires. i want to know that too. i want to know if the federal and state resources we are fig fighting to procure will stop the next potential megafire. i want to know what we can do to rebuild and rebuild with speed, so the neighborhoods we lost can be reclaimed by the neighbors who have been displaced. and communities can come together once more. i'm grateful for the governor's efforts to streamline the permitting process so people can begin to rebuild, and rebuild quickly. and i want to know if there was anything, anything more we can do or could have done to save more lives and more homes. we should all want that. we should all want to rebuild, because los angeles is one of
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our nation's great cities. and to rebuild, we will need your help, without fanfare or partisan rancor. we need your help. just like we worked together to help rebuild new orleans and louisiana after hurricane katrina, we must do so here, just like after countless hurricanes struck florida in the south, we rushed in aid. just this year, after hurricane helene, fema is still on the ground in north carolina, helping those in its destructive path. we don't leave, we can't, until the job is finished. that's what we must do here. during my time in congress i've seen a lot of disaster aid bills. never in my time have i ever considered whether an area votes red or blue. when people need help, we get them help. when people are fighting to rebuild, we help them rebuild. period. that cannot and should not change, no matter who is president, no matter who is in charge of congress, no matter mo -- who the governor is or
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their senators are. that is my urgent plea today. we need your help desperately. southern california, we will rebuild. we will. but whether we can do so quickly will depend on the actions we take in the next few months. this big, beautiful, diverse city is not just made of steel and stone, but of people. people who stand together when the skies turn dark and rise together when the smoke clears. we are going to rise again, because it's who we are. when we do, we'll show the world what it truly means to be the city of angels. thank you, mr. president. i yield back. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mr. padilla: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the clerk will call the roll.
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and a tendency to choke up when speaking about his reference with his place to his people. all that seriousness, the demand for new level awful on. he has musical talent banging on a cowbell support of the criminal division scope demand. friendship bracelets to prove it and you i witnessed positively
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giddy. i share these insights not to expose insider secrets but to fill out the picture for the one who is led the department for the past four years. for the past four years we've discussed the work and we've done so under the watchful gaze and no, it's not a new surveillance program. the attorney general chooses fast ag in the current. in my experience, those choices
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are a lot about attorney general. for portraits heating up today with choices that are deliberate and rooted in the principles that guide the justice department and tell you a lot about this attorney general and attorney general who literally wrote the book as elizabeth wrote it. elliot richardson immense pressure to uphold the rule of law and holding its value. a portrait nearest his own office.
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another brilliant lawyer calls in the wake of watergate when norms and traditions and rule of law itself was almost breaking. little did he know the department would need a detail oriented chicagoan to enforce the law at a time when the nature of law is called into question. the attorney general and i were nominated, it's no surprise because we both grow up and that
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albeit a fort few years apart. we both went on in a job with both described necessary because the job description is the right thing. the hardest job in the department. the first person i sought out for advice he may not remember this and i will never forget. lamenting coming under fire from all sides and back calmly and wisely said now, everyone feels
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that way when you're in it. it's never as bad as it actually feels. would you care to revise those remarks. [laughter] i first learned what it means to be a lawyer in public service for the past four years, i've had a front row seat to a master class from this attorney general. i've seen attorney general's had a clear mission from day one to uphold the rule of law the country safe and protect all rights. starts and ends everyday making sure we are asking the right questions. the law, was the right thing to do what's right for the people? i've seen attorney general love something more than digging in
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agents and prosecutors focused this institution from standing up for prosecutors who have come under stretch simply for doing their job. seen attorney general and justice for victims of war christ's office as a prosecutor but as someone who feels the profound responsibility to give back to this country that seem attorney general make clear from the very first days is to get this justice department would proceed accountability attack our democracy no matter where or to whom it led and i've seen the attorney general who too often families of the fallen.
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the attorney general and i worked and she also hung these portraits. she did so, i believe to remind us we are all custodians of this place for however long we have the privilege to serve. you are my just four years ago from then-president grant to hold accountable those who sought to undermine democracy and reminded us every generation has a responsibility to reaffirm the commitment of the night. this department will face tests thanks to your stewardship.
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i first stepped foot more than four decades. grandson of immigrants looking for work give you a chance. i found a company of dedicated men and women which are everyday committed to doing nothing more or less than what is right. not what is lyrically expedient for easiest or most comfortable but what is right. to return to this department again and again and again. have the opportunity to see it at every level in the supervisor
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and the principal associate so when i came back to the department of attorney general, i really did not think it possible and admiration for the people who work here to could be any greater. i am in all across the country in the world what they've done over the past four years our country safe and uphold the rule of law. i'm grateful beyond words so i will say thanks. keep the communities you made safer and the consumers and workers who have protected.
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integrity, skill and compassion. thank you for ensuring the justice department adheres to rule of law and everything you do. each of us begin with help connecticut many times my career and also have administered many times. support and defend the constitution of the united states my true place in the allegiance to the constitution is not the obligation, it is just the beginning. this very hall 85 years ago
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pursue justice and the potential for grave injustice. they grant law enforcement discretion in determining when, home and how the violations criminal law. we must for this and ensure we exercise our authority. we must understand there's a difference when what can and should do. that is where our norms come in.
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almost half a century, those norms are overcommitment so agents begin investigations only with proper predication and so executors will bring charges only when they conclude the jury will convict on reasonable doubt in the conviction will be upheld on appeal that will make the decision only on the facts and laws one goal for friends and another proposed promise to ensure that there are clear agents and staff in the historical memory.
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journalists and law enforcement and essential to our democracy. those norms include our commitment to guarantee independence from the white house and congress law enforcement investigation is. we make that amendment is what is required but because it's the only way to ensure law enforcement are free partisan we know only independent justice department has the safety and civil rights of everyone in our country and we know only an independent justice department
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can ensure the facts and law determine whether a person is investigating and prosecuting. career and noncareer alike. here not only to the letter of the law the rule of law. it is the obligation for each of us to follow the norms not only when it's easy but also it's hard, especially when it's hard. it is the obligation to adhere to our norms especially when the circumstances we face are not normal. it is the obligation of the attorney general on those norms
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on which the department operates. it is the obligation to make clear the only way for the justice department is to do it the right way. the attorney general must sure this department justice only with justice. understand the attorney general is only a temporary steward. much as lead this workforce but respected and when necessary, defendant.
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it is the responsibility to do what is right and obligation to have their back when needed and that's what you done. mr. durbin: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent it be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: thanks, mr. president. mr. president, some people in the chamber who serve in the senate may remember my predecessor, senator simon of illinois. he was aware of so many issues including clean drinking water and sanitation for so many people in the world. he wrote a book called "tapped out" autographed this copy and gave it to me in 1988, many years ago. it certainly was not a "new york times" bestseller, but paul
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wrote about what he said was the coming world crisis in are water and what we can do about it. i read this book and reflected on it over the years. some 30 years have passed. how many times people talk about clean drinking water and sanitation, is so critical to public health and so critical to development. sometimes we're looking for a big solution, a complex solution when a simple solution is the first thing that's needed. paul simon realized that in focussing on providing clean drinking water in some of the poorest places in the world can be transformative. he understood that to avoid conflict between nations, to keep girls in school and reduce infant mortality, to improve health and economic opportunity you have to provide people with access to clean water. data supports this. each dollar spent on clean water
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and sanitation returns between $4 and $8 in economic health and other benefits, which is why i decided to do something about it as a member of the united states senate. i knew his family and i knew paul, and i newt last thing in the world -- and i knew the last thing in the world he wanted was for someone to build a statue of his image in future generations but he would have been happy with a bill i introduced entitled the p paul simon water for the world act, legislation built on an earlier law to improve access to clean water and sanitation around the world. former representative earl blumenaur and paul corker, a republican from tennessee were my partners on this effort. ten years ago this legislation passed the senate unanimously, something that's almost unimaginable today with the politics we live with. but that underscored the true
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urgency and importance of this issue. not only was this legislation the right thing to do, but it made access to clean water and sanitation for the world's poor a development priority for the united states. as a result of the bills i introduced with my colleagues and sustained bipartisan funding over the last 13 years, american leadership has provided first-time sustainable access to clean water for more than 76 million people and access to sanitation to 58 million. i can remember a visit i made years and years ago to port-au-prince in haiti, one of the poorest places online earth and of course -- on earth and in our hemisphere. an administrator of a clinic wanted to show me something. they had been having trouble with water p borne illness and a lot of people were sick and some children were dying. she said they decided to build a
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cistern of pure water and to protect it and make sure the village could draw from that water when they needed it. she said it changed everything. kids aren't dying, people aren't sick, things have improved. she walked out to show me a sewer with a pump on it seined to me we got in from the united states. it had something to do with a man named paul simon. i laughed out loud thinking goodness sake, i said how much did you have to invest in this? she said $15,000. $15,000, that had saved lives and made a difference, and it was in paul's name i was happy to report. this is incredible work and i want to salute my staffer chris holman who traveled around africa and parts of asia to see these investments. they do make a dramatic difference in the lifestyle of people. give them p dignity, give them life, give them a future.
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here's one story from the area 6g -- from the area of ghana. we can see when we visit this project, that the investment, small investment by the united states made affordable and sus sustainable infrastructure that families can use for sanitation options and safe drinking water. the two have to go hand in hand. this investment made this project where a disabled woman, a place where she could find dignity as the name suggests, as she no longer has to crawl through snake-filled water to gept to the river. as the climate crisis worsens and industrial needs increase, ensuring global access to water supply is as important as ever. the book might not have been a bestseller but the idea was. i hope we can continue this
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modest investment in villages around the world that literally saves and transforms lives. around 2 billion people on this planet earth still lack access to safe drinking water, so i hope this historically important bipartisan investment will continue into the long future ahead of us. lives depend on it. mr. president, i yield the floor.
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mrs. murray: mr. president. thank you. mr. president, if you believe we should be able to detain and deport undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes and you took republicans at their word, that the laken riley act was necessary for us to do that, you need to know that is already federal law. we can and do already detain and deport immigrants who commit serious crimes, and we are not about to change that. but republicans have been
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ignoring the policies we already have on the books to push for a bill that in its current form is more extreme, expensive, and broader than it first appears. i am very concerned without serious amendments this bill is rife with unintended consequences and powers that could be abused. as written, it will drastically undermine civil liberties in this country and throw our immigration system into absolute chaos by undermining any president's authority to shape policy, it will cost tens of billions of dollars. and here is the kicker, it will end up punishing legal immigrants and diverting resources with threats to public safety. let's talk about how broad the language of this bill is. under this bill, you don't have to be found guilty of a felony
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to be detained and deported. that is a huge attack on due process. all you need is to be arrested or charged whether it is as small as shoplifting a canaday bar, regardless of whether it becomes clear you are innocent, regardless of whether it happened years or decades ago and even regardless of whether you are a child. let me underscore that because it's important. this bill has no exemption for kids, no cutoff age, no process to keep it in line with our general child welfare laws. as written, this bill appears so broad that a child could be locked up and put on a plane without their parents. with such sweeping language, i'm deeply concerned that the trump administration could abuse this law to deport dreamers or our farm workers or other essential
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workers who may never be convicted of a crime. it is not just trump i'm worried about because this bill is an open invitation for republican state officials to dictate individual case outcomes regardless of ice, derail national immigration policy and even disrupt international relations. under this bill, as written, any state attorney general could wreck major humanitarian relief pathways by temporary protected status for venezuela or ukrainian nationals or seek court orders from individuals without signoff from ice and they could sue to halt visas from entire countries. that is a policy that by its design will end up punishing the people who are following the law to enter the u.s. legally. it could punish refugees who are
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fleeing violence, it could punish people who could come here to engage in trade and commerce that helps our economy grow, it could even punish american citizens if they're hoping to get a visa for their spouse. with a federal immigration system that is already too chaotic and complicated, just wait until any state a.g. with overrule skoois, undermine the president and throw thousands of legal visa applications into limbo. the bill also promises these lawsuits priority which could be a huge burden on our courts. if that weren't counterproductive enough, not only would this bill as written punish legal immigrants, it will also divert resources. we need to detain genuine threats to our public safety. if ice is required, as this bill says, to spend resources detaining nonviolent, not even
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convicted shoplifting cases and the like, they will have their hands tied as resources are stretched thinner and thinner by an overwhelming number of minor cases leaving them with fewer resources to tackle the most serious cases. that is especially concerning because dhs already does not have anywhere near the resources for this bill. ice would need three times the current number of detention beds, a 265% increase for this bill, it would need to execute 80 removal flights a week, almost double its current capacity and it would need to double ground transportation, ice would need to double its staff, hiring over 18,000 additional people and to give you a sense of how unrealistic that is, historically dhs hasn't been able to onboard more than a thousand people a year.
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and to give you a sense of how expensive this is, ice estimates it will need more than triple its budget in year with one -- year one, four times more than their current funding level, we are talking about $330 billion to implement it. that is more than the annual budget for the entire department of homeland security. that is a lot of money to spend on a bill that will cause chaos, punish legal immigrants and undermine due process in america all while drawing resources away from true threats. mr. president, make no mistake, there are serious challenges that we have at aur border. there is a serious need for sensible immigration reform, but being tough on immigration does not mean he we need to sidestep
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our moral obligation or to ignore our common sense or waste crucial resources. so while i hope to work with my colleagues to improve this bill, as i try to improve every bill that i can, i have to say that we have a long road ahead to address my deep concerns with the way this bill threatens due process and the potential for it to be abused. so i strongly urge my colleagues to demand a far more serious amendment process on this bill, but more than that, i urge them to demand a serious bipartisan approach to tackling immigration in an effective humane way, one that protects our country and upholds or values. mr. president, on a very different topic, i wanted a chance to talk today about one of the nominees that's coming before because, mr. president, when i was a very young girl, the polo vaccine was approved.
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to this very day i remember my mom saying, thank goodness woe can send our kids to school, not worry they will get sick, paralyzed or live in an iron lung or worse. the relief was overwhelming. and that is why the fear is so overwhelming now that donald trump wants r.f.k. jr., an outright anti-vaccine to serve. i will make my concerns plain to the american people. that is part of the senate's role to advice and consent to the president's nominees. it is our job to vet these nominees and put them through a vigorous process to determine if they are qualified to serve. that's why i met with r.f.k. jr. yesterday so i could be direct with him about my concerns about his anti-vaccine record and
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discuss the other challenges our nation faces where hhs has a crucial role. i appreciate his time and i appreciate the opportunity to look for common ground. as i said already, i oppose his nomination because regardless of any other views he holds, his long history of explicitly anti-vaccine activism is -- is utterly disqualifying, i'm not the only one worried, even scott gottlieb said that r.f.k. jr.'s agenda will cost lives in this country. just imagine if r.f.k. was secretary when covid struck, we still might not have vaccines, he called the covid vaccine the deadliest ever made. this is not where we can look for agreements, hope for the best, we're talking about a conspiracy theorist who is
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antagonistic to public health and it will have tremendous risk to americans lives. we need a secretary of health who believes in healthy foods and vaccines, especially when we are back sliding on vaccines and seeing real and deadly consequences. we eliminated measles in 2000, but last year we had 16 outbreaks, whooping cough has spiked in the country and in my home state of washington, polo, even polio is making a comeback. these are dangerous diseases and r.f.k. jr. had let it spread through our communities and schools like wildfire. when a bug goes around the school it doesn't stop there, it goes through the family who could be at risk. i will talk some truth to the american people about the stakes here and lay out the facts for
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anyone who might not appreciate the steerus threat -- serious threat posed by r.f.k. jr. you might think he is not talking about polio or other vaccines, he had a nonprofit on attacking vaccines. his nonprofit has made videos promoting vaccines about autism and sewing distrust in vaccines especially among the wlak community -- black community. they sued against measles vaccine requirements, even among measles outbreaks, it is not just r.f.k.'s nonprofit that should raise alarm here, he says he doesn't know if the polio vaccines caused more deaths than prevented. the hvp vaccine has led to a
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huge drop in cancer, r.f.k. suggested that it leads to cancer risk. when he says we need to know vaccines are safe, he is ignoring the centuries of research we have already done on these vaccines. we do know they are safe. and what's more, he has not just been asking questions, these are statements, i'm going to give you that r.f.k. jr. has made. these are in his own words. he said, and i quote, i do believe that autism does come from vaccines. he said, quote, they get the shot, that night they have a fever of is 03, three -- 103, months later their brains are gone. he said the covid vaccine is the deadliest ever made. these quotes are disqualifying. given his track record, we cannot just hope that r.f.k. jr.
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gives vaccines a cause he has dedicated considerable time and money and effort to, he will give that up, that is not believable, especially when we know the lawyer helping him put together a team has tried to have 14 different vaccines pulled from the market himself including the polio vaccine. if you are thinking he can't do anything about vaccines, you need to think again. if confirmed, r.f.k. jr. would have tremendous power to undermine vaccines. he could influence fda's approval of medicine and drugs. he could directly appoint people to cdc vaccine board which influences vaccine coverage and costs. he said he will fire top researchers by the hundreds and pause infectious disease research for years, a threat far beyond vaccines, i would say. let's not downplay the fact as secretary he would have one of the biggest megaphones in the
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world to spread anti-vaccine misinformation. maybe you are someone who thinks, so what if we have more whopping cough or a lot of people had meeseles -- measles, they lived. many of them very never seen the reality of these terrible diseases because vaccines have been so effective. a nurse shared on line what whooping cough can do to a baby, what she watched families go through themselves. it was soul crushing. first the baby can't stop coughing, not even to eat or breathe. then comes seizures and strokes. then a breathing tube and ventilator and a machine to take over failing heart and lung function and then they die. that is horrific. that's whopping cough.
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we don't want this to happen around our country or around the globe. let's talk about measles. it's one of the world's most contagious diseases, easily spread by coughing and sneezing. it lingers in the air for hours. and you are contagious four days before you develop a rash and four days after. now, before the vaccine, millions of people caught measles annually meaning thousands were hospitalized. hundreds died. most of them young children. but this is just not history. you want to know what rfk jr. would do as secretary of health? i want you to look at samoa. before samoa had a measles outbreak, he was there. he was there propping up vaccine deniers and falsely blaming deaths on the measles vaccine. after samoa had a tremendous middle eastles outbreak with over a hundred hospitalized and at least 83 dead, mostly kids, no apology from him.
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no admitting he was wrong. instead he doubled down and wrote to the prime minister suggesting vaccines were part of the problem. that is who we want to put in charge of our nation's health care? what do we think is going to happen? how many outright lies are we going to tolerate? how many deaths before we realize this nonsense is dangerous? and look, the vaccine lies just scratch the surface here. this is someone who won't accept that hiv causes aids. this is someone who thinks chemicals in the water might turn people gay. he said that. this is someone who thinks 5g wireless is being used to, quote, control our behavior. this is not someone that we in the united states senate should be telling the american people to trust on health care. he's not someone that should be hand lipping the lever -- handling the levers of power. for that matter the same goes for trump's other health care nominees who have ignored science and promoted false
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conspiracy theories. his nominee to lead the crc is an antiabortion extremist with zero public health experience unless you count ped lipping the conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism or promoting junk health care plans. you have dr. oz who has been named to lead cms, someone who is known for pushing quack treatments and debunked junk science, who will be shaping health care coverage for millions despite clear conflicts of interest. i cannot drive home enough to the united states senate. this is not a game. these are not political roles without consequence. they have real power over whether americans can get basic information and health care. mr. president, i want to end on this note, and it is important. vaccines save lives. that is not a question. it is not a slogan. it is a fact. and if you cannot accept that
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fact, if you cannot be honest with the american people about it, if when parents look to you worried about their newborn wanting to do what's best for their baby, trusting your advice as a public health leader, if you cannot tell them the same truth that centuries of science and experience tells us, which is that vaccines are safe and effective and lifesaving, then you have absolutely no business leading the department of health and human services. none. that should not be up for debate. a vaccine denier should not be our highest ranking health care official. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:
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a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. mr. johnson: wlpt, i have -- mr. president, i have six requests -- the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. johnson: i request we dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. johnson: mr. president, i have six requests for committees
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to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. johnson: mr. president, i think by now we've seen all kinds of different versions of this depressing chart. the total u.s. debt. back in 1998, we'll be talking about that year when bill clinton was president and we had our first budget surplus since 19699. the -- 1969. the debt level was about $5.5 trillion. when i arrived here my first year in the senate in 2011, that was about $14 trillion. i ran, quite honestly, because we were mortgaging our children's future. i'll talk a little bit about 2014 when president obama had a certain spending level that was up to $17.5 trillion.
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as recently as 2019 before the pandemic, our debt was somewhere around $22.5 trillion. today our debt exceeds $36 trillion on a path toward much higher heights. if you look at president biden's final budget here, he's predicting our total debt will be $52 trillion at the end of ten years. this is clearly unsustainable. as i said, it's a depressing reality. the result of all that debt, one of the many results, the devaluation of the dollar. a dollar you held in 1998 is only worth 51 cents today. we basically cut the value of a dollar in half since 1998. 2014 when president obama was
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president, now the value of that dollar is only worth 74 crepts. the value -- 74 cents. the value of the dollar 2019 was 80 cents. it's why people can't afford things. this massive inflation, massive spending, this is the stealth tax on every american. it's a very regressive tax. it primarily hurts people at the bottom part of the income spectrum. wealthy individuals have stocks. they have other assets that inflate as the dollar devalues. so again, this harm primarily affects lower-income americans, the men and women who work are harmed by this. this can't go on. this is an outrage. this is a tragedy. mr. president, i just want to ask a little bit of a hypothetical here before we talk
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about this chart. let's say you're an american family of four. and you're doing pretty good. you make and you spend about $100,000 a year. let's say the next year you have a serious illness in your family and all of a sudden you have major medical bills totaling $50,000. the next year you spend $150,000. say you get some good news. that medical condition is now solved. your family member is healed. what would most american families do? if their income level stayed the same around $100,000, i don't think they'd keep spending at $1150,000 -- $150,000 left. they certainly wouldn't borrow $50,000 to retain that spending level. they would reduce the spending level back to before the illness. they would maybe around $-100,000, a little more based on inflation. that's not what the federal government did. this, i know it's shocking to
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most americans, 2019, prior to the pandemic, total federal government spending was $4.4 trillion. then we had covid, and i think we very unwisely shut down a lot of our economy. it destroyed people's businesses. it destroyed people's lives, our miserable, failed response to covid. it cost a lot of money. so, washington went on an amsive spending -- on a massive spending spree. the year of the pandemic, we spent closer to $6.6 trillion. now, again, if it would have been like a normal family, once the pandemic passed, we would have returned to some reasonable spending level, but we didn't do that. the last five years now, we've spent on average $6.5 trillion. that's $2.1 trillion more than we spent in 2019. there's no justification for that. this last year we spent a total of 6.9 trillions.
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$2.5 trillion higher than the $4.4 trillion. again, no justification for that. the question i've been asking is how do we return to a reasonable pre-pandemic spending level? i will guarantee you the people who voted for president trump do not expect the federal government's going to continue spending at president biden and the democrats who have been in charge, their spending levels. this is unacceptable. it's unsustainable. wh laid out a couple of different options. we have to use the other analogy. let's save the same family of four i was talking about with an income of $100,000 let's say they have the baby. now their family size is increased 24%. i think most people recognize that family of four could increase their income $0.25
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from 100,100 25,000 and tacked on for inflation up to 128,750. i think most people recognize they have been able to maintain their standard of living. i think the same thing is true for the federal government. for americans living within america looking at different benefits and the federal government does on americans as it extracts our hard earned tax dollars. so i went back to a number of different years prior to the end of it and went back to the 1998 that was the first year we had a budget surplus since 1969 that's how irresponsible the government has already been always been. bill clinton we spent $1.7
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trillion that's obviously too low obecause we've had inflati we have population growth. so what i've done in each one of the scenarios are taken basic spending levels increase them based on population growth and inflation plus i exempt social security medicare and interest add plugged in president by 2025 budget amounts for social security medicare and interest. so the analysis for 1998 i don't think anybody would argue that bill clinton spent too little in 1998. if you did that inflate increase based on population inflection plus use today's 2025 social security medicare interest expense you end up with $5.5 trillion. the reason i chose 1998 i looked at all the years doing
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that with 1998 spending levels compare the president fired in budgeted revenue for this year which is not decreased revenue has an consistently increased $5.5 billion we would have a balanced budget. but whatever he says is impossible to achieve going back to bill clinton spending levels increasing by population inflation is today social security medicaid and denounce the budget. we would have to increase the debt ceiling. we wouldn't be experiencing or threatened by more inflation. if that's too reasonable for washington dc, let's look at another scenario. let's look at president obama's spending levels in 2014.
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i don't think he aswas spending too little in 2014 i was here to spending too much but if you take the 2014 levels inflate them by population growth since then and pot and inflation using today social security medicare and interest were spending $6.2 billion this year. not a balanced budget but a whole lot better than the 6.9 or $7.43 trillion president biden budgeted for this year. far more reasonable spending level. if you don't like that if that's too aggressive go back to 2019. only spent $4.4 trillion. increase by population growth inflation using president biden social security medicare and
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interest.5. i think that's completely unacceptable that's an average of the increase.$2.1 trillion above the 4.4 children so a lot better than president biden .3 trillion or plaster spending $6.9 billion. how can anybody justify spending at this model? here's what i'm suggesting, those set those other scenarios aside president trump was i don't think anybody certainly not me i voted for president trump i was not expecting president trump and i do not expect him to come in the office and accept and spend president biden levels.
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i would encourage president trump to go back and take a look at the final budget he proposed back in fy2021 and look at nghis estimate for spending 2025. so yes we can look at individual expense items somewhere within the range of 5.5 which would literally balance our budget up to $6.2 trillion that's a reasonable base we ought to include in the budget we would be passing this
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year. to drive future spending. again let me reemphasize. whether we use bill clinton 1998 spending level which results in $5.5 trillion baseline barack obama 2014 spending levels which result in a baseline budget $6.2 trillion or president trump final budget which resulted $6 trillion spending level that's a reasonable approach. that's what businesses in america were forced to do don't just say spend whatever you want. put 70% of our spending budget on automatic pilot. we just spend whatever you want. that's how you bankrupt the family that's how you bankrupt
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business. that how we are mortgaging our children's future it has to stop. so i'm putting everybody on notice i'm on the finance committee stop going to insist that the budget we pass now republicans are controlling the senate returns to some reasonable baseline. unreasonable. shall negotiate. i'm not saying this is gospel etched in stone president trump majority leader house leadership they have to justify to me how you justify spending more than is reasonable baseline i remember doing
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parades tomorrow it has to stop. this is not the vision of our founding fathers. sovereign space government is primarily at the state level at the local level where it's close to the people it's more efficient effective and accountable washington is gobbling up all of our resources borrowing the vast amounts of money devaluing is currently not solving problems they're not reducing poverty. they're not making lives better. there putting american lives at risk. and as government grows our freedoms received.
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of all the things that made this country great the men and women who have worked and built this model of the nation the one essential ingredient they've always used is the freedom. freedom that allow them to dream and aspire and build and create this country. it's freedom that allows young people sitting in front of me here to do the same thing. as long as government continues to grow, those will necessarily recede as a direct relationship. we allow government to grow way too large influences far too much of our lives negatively influences that. we need to jealously guard our freedom and reclaim our freedom and the best way to do that is to strengthen size scope and
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cost of government and influence over our lives the only way you do that is you have to reduce total spending by the federal government this is the metric we talk about all kinds of things about the metrics. were not to be able to tax our way out of this we don't have a taxation problem we have a spending problem. i will make my final comment, the refuting of the false narrative that we here at osmium at nausea from the other side the tax cuts and jobs act did not cause our deficits. the cbo then after passage i think april 2018 projected out
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revenue for 10 years if you take a look at that 2018 2024 we have athe actual results. they projected about $27 trillion worth of revenue in the seven the actual amount of revenue we raise from 2018 2024 with $28.7 trillion. we beat the cbo estimate by $1.7 trillion. if the original score was 1.5 trillion outlined seven years we actually beat their estimate by 1.7 we paid the tax cut. and seven years plus $200 billion. and we have these severe cold recession in the middle of that. so don't believe anybody that tells you is that the tax cut and jobs act caused it they didn't they pay for themselves
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in less than seven years and then some we have a spending problem in this country. there is no justification going from $4.4 trillion to $6.5 trillion and now we are at 6.9 with no end in sight. we've got to get this under control and this is about as good as rationale a go to justification for setting some dollar limit and using the budget process and like we've ever used it before. not just for to pass the reconciliation package with the mere majority vote. but actually use the budget the way american families and american businesses do to set the spending limits and asked
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the chair of our committees to take the budget caps seriously and figure out how they can structure spending how they can structure the programs to actually live in the budget caps if they actually use bill clinton 1998 spending level and the way i'm done here actually balance the budget. that's of the people who came out in november voting for president trump that their goal that their expectation i suggest we live up to their expectations that yield the
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>> for the past eight years i benefited from the service hard work to get my communications director and deputy chief of staff tom brand. tom is working three congressional offices is well known and respected in the senate by reporter staffers and my colleagues. his career as a staffer on capitol hill has said about that. yielded changes serve the american people as he pursues one of his other passions and that's a passion for space exploration and nassau.
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he comes from a long line of kansans. he embodies hard work determination and i know he learned these traits from his role models his parents carl and nancy brandt. his career on capitol hill began in roy blunt's office first in the house then in the united states senate he earned his trust early on as a driver that's how we often meet some of our best members of our staff and he too remained handy relationship during his tenure here in the united states evident i asked him to tell me something about some and he said tom brandt came to work for me in the house and was such an asset i asked him to join our senate press team he always understood how to take advantage of the moment and the value of a clear message. i know his office will miss tom
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when he leaves as much as we did. his career took him to work on various campaigns and eventually back to capitol hill where he worked for kansas congresswoman lynn jenkins during her time as a house gop conference and vice chair it was in her office he was able to first pursue his passion for an asset. tom all time favorite coworkers. when i asked her whether i should hire him she said he is the best i ever hired. he is hard-working honest intelligent kind and funny. tom has a deep appreciation for his home state of kansas and served it extremely well in his time in my office. in many ways it was his penance, he is perhaps the worst kind of kansan is a
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traitor because he chose to attend college at the university of missouri. it became tom's interest in nasa and space policy years ago when he worked as my communication director he requested it handle my officelegislative portfolio given i represented a district with no nasa presence and didn't serve on a committee of jurisdiction no one in our office actually handled that topic fonts my chief of staff told him, though never comes up he did take it and immediately reached out to nasa staff and soon thereafter he set up my offices first of many interactions with masi. that's the end of her quote. after working in the house and the private sector he began working in our office in 2017 he became evident to me early on that one of his greatest
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strengths is his ability to quickly build friendships and collaborations. he takes the time to talk with frustrated constituents to ensure they been heard and he will do his best to help. tom always follow outhrough on his prretionship he formed over the years expands from everyone house numbers united states senators staff and both in these relationships have aided him in his work. he maintained the relationships in the taiwanese government after returning home and during covid-19 pandemic taiwan generously offered to santa fe snacks and hpersonal protectio
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agreement to the united states and he reached out to his individual friends he had made any asked them if any of the equipment could be sent to kansas to help the hospitals that were in desperate need. his request resulted in taiwan sending 100,000 surgical masks to kansas. his role as communications director expected a lot of press to be sitting in the gallery but i see none in his role he has been studying hand helping me untangle my thoughts and express my way that's more clear. when i've had to speak after taking an unpopular stand or something that caused me to be misunderstood either on policy or legislation, tom always had to stop advocating for me in my positions even when he had to face the anger of those who disagree. clear the way for tough and
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important legislation i highlight the empowering olympic and amateur athlete act born out of our investigation into the abuses of gymnasts and other american athletes. he has shown compassion toward veterans suffering from illness as a result of their service and we wwork together to pass help those who encounter agent orange. and burn pit victims. and he's always shown grit and determination working through the night on many occasions helping me find exactly the right words to say to express my position to my constituents in the world. is an eagle scout who lives by the eagle scout model be prepared. he's always prepared with the right answer and for the tough questions from reporters like the time a reporter reached out to senator jerry moran playing
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golf tom and all his wisdom responded. as a gift to communicate. while i congratulate him on his new job at nasa 's absence will be felt not isonly by me and ou team by his many friends and colleagues on capitol hill. tom, we will miss your communications and policy expertise your humerus quips and one-liners your loyalty to the kansas city chiefs and read friday. and above all, your friendship and passion for making the world a better place for kansans and americans. i will miss our nearly daily walks as i've come over here to vote. it's a difficult job to become director for a senator who almost always shies away about visiting with. thanks for helping me explain my errors and celebrating our
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floor. >> good morning. this is a hearing rolling today is an honor and a privilege to be determined during such a pivotal pivotal moment during our nation and issues surrounding energy needs and land management policies. i want to extend a warm welcome governor and his wife you want the chance to introduce anyone else in the audience here with you that you would like to. your nomination comes at an urgent time as americans under
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the policies of the biden administration are suffering from skyrocketing energy prices that drive up the cost of everything from gas groceries housing healthcare to restricted land use policies that tend to stifle growth generate. the challenges facing american families are mounting and staggering the best november voters decided to send a clear message they demanded full leaders willing to break from the status quo and take a fresh approach one less likely to result in this awful pattern of inflation which we found ourselves of the last four years your nomination has garnered remarkable support from tribes from organizations businesses and people of all stripes and backgrounds. particularly those amused uniquely indirect about the same echo department of interior and its policy
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reflects pretty widespread confidence in your vision and readiness to lead this organization. department of the interior of course plays a central role in addressing many of the challenges particularly in states like utah my state were federal land management shapes nearly every aspect of our day-to-day life because the federal government owns two thirds of the land about 67 percent sent in my state.
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this is influences everything from energy devoted to public land access tribal relations wildlife management. in utah with the federal government controls more than two thirds of the land the impact of the policies are profoundly sent the decisions made in washington rippled through our economy. and our communities unfortunately the policies have taken a troubling turn during the biden administration banning national monuments like grand staircase without meaningful input from local communities. as jeopardize access and harmed locals who call these places on. the public lands rule and restricted management plans have placed unnecessary and often insurmountable barriers in the way of responsible resource development and land access. on its first day in office president issued a normal tutorial on oil and gas leasing.
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severely damaging our energy security locking away sources that we needed to power our homes and economy. over time these decisions have revealed a pattern of his regard to the multiple use mandate that federal land management is supposed to uphold its clear that mismanagement of public lands as consequences that often reach far beyond rural areas. federal agencies must reevaluate their approach to welfare prevention prioritizing forest management strategies that mitigate the risk of catastrophic placements.utah and other western states know too well the devastation that the fighters cars and addressing the crisis must be a very key priority for the department. reversing course will require
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bold leadership and a willingness to embrace innovative solutions carrier must take a hard look at the restrictions the last two years which have steer development toward low potential areas of access to high-value like critical minerals. leaving the building blocks for economy. and our national defense and we can't afford to let bureaucratic delays jeopardize our future. housing shortages across the west present another daunting challenge we have to face by working with state and local governments to identify underutilized federal lands the remic at family meeting alleviate the housing crisis in places like utah where the demand for affordable homes far exceeds supply bills like my houses act will provide a long-term strategy and strong framework for such partnerships
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showing that federal land policy can drive solutions rather than creating obstacles. colorado river lifeline for millions across the west faces growing threats effective communication support from the department of interior states negotiate the rivers future and critical to safeguarding the vital resource. department must work to balance the disability conservation ensuring visitors can enjoy the treasures without compromising the future. this will require stronger partnerships with local stakeholders and address infrastructure needs and manage visitor impacts.
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all the esa an essential tool for protecting endangered species it must be applied judiciously and in coordination with local governments to avoid unnecessary conflict. governor brown, your track record uniquely positioned in particular to leave the department of the interior during this challenging time. your vision and leadership will be instrumental to restoring balance to the federal policies and ensuring public lands are managed with accountability and care stands ready to work with you in tackling these challenges and charting a new course that reflects the principles of federalism and respectful local communities. utah stands ready to work with you in tackling the challenges and charting a new course and i invite you to visit utah as soon as you have a chance to
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see firsthand the opportunities and challenges. hearing we are having today marks thanks for your willingness to serve and i look forward to our discussions today. i will turn the time over to our ranking member from new mexico. quickly had a great conversation last week i'm very much looking forward to hearing your answers to questions today. i too want to begin by acknowledging the horrific wildfires in california over the last couple weeks. and having spoken to many of my numbers on the dais i know you're going to get some questions about that and in particular about firefighters and how we make sure they are
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supported. the department of interior has responsibility for an incredibly broad array of issues stop from conserving the places americans love to spend time with their families to protecting and recovering our most iconic wildlife species to delivering water to cities and farms across the west and refilling our nation's trust and responsibility to tribal nations. pretty much any job that involves responsibilities that range from elementary school students and healthcare to bison is a pretty big job. public lands are where we go to camp and hike and hunt and time with families. box where our veterans go to seek the peace and solitude service to our country cannot always provide an while there are some who argue the very existence public lands places like yosemite or the national forests are unconstitutional,
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most americans know that the idea of lands that belong to everyone no matter where they live the interior department is also the leader in meeting our nation's trust responsibility to tribal nations and upholding the treaty commitments that we as a nation made to tribes and their members. as the nation as we discussed in my office we routinely fall short of meeting those commitments. we can and we must do better. as relentless taste of climate change brings bigger floods hotter summers higher wins as we've seen in california and diminished snowpack which we are experiencing in new mexico it's also driving the long-term
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ratification of the western united states. over the next 50 years is expected that new mexico will have 25% less water than we have had historically. we are not alone and that. the colorado river which provides drinking water for 40 million people irrigates billions of dollars worth of crops provides essential habitat for fish and wildlife through the bureau of reclamation department of the interior must play an active role in helping the west transition to that new water reality. the interior department is also an energy department as we make the transition to cleaner energy economy of the land and water managed by the department will play an indispensable role in producing the energy we need as well as facilitating the ability to move that energy
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around the country from geothermal and hydrogen solar wind the departments work is at the center of our energy future. >> thank you. we are now going to hear introductions from the north dakota delegation. first we will hear from senator hogan and senator kramer. >> thank you. i appreciate thank you for holding hearing today. welcome. and catherine, welcome. it's great to see you guys, thank you for your incredible service on behalf of north dakota. it really is an honor today to introduce you to our natural resources maybe stop i'm not sure where to start i've known doug for more than 30 years.
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we been working in various capacities for the duration. as well as just being a good friend both doug and catherine and myself and my wife nike. so greetings. thank you for your willingness to serve. group in either north dakota and then went to school and dsu state university, the bison. the mighty bison. and then went to a lesser-known school stanford for mba. after that went to work for mackenzie consulting. my staff wrote up this beautiful introduction but i think i'm just going to talk a little bit about our shared time together and friendship. there was this software company, great plains software
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and along with some of the relatives they started hiring these kids from young people from across to develop this software company. i went to his office and, over 30 years ago and he was in there putting these eight by eight floppy disks into sleeves and then putting in the boxes in larger boxes and they were shipping. i said what is this where you doing? i then learned all about, if you know doug you know i mean all about pc software. he built that company up went public in 1997 with it sold to microsoft in 2001 and that became microsoft business solutions. so microsoft business solutions today had its genesis in great
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plains software. he ran the microsoft business solutions for number of years kept it there in fargo it was the largest location for microsoft outside bellevue washington it had 2000 or more about the photos working. >> thank you. i come to the floors talk about the impact of the lincoln riley bill. upon children here in the united states of america. and to suggest that we have a debate over several amendments designed to more appropriately treat our children that reside here in the united states do not end up doing significant injury to them. which i very much believe is going to be the result we proceed without some changes. let me start by noting my thoughts as i think every
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senator with the family. whenever there is a tragedy whether perpetuated by citizen or perpetuated by an immigrant, americans should be safe communities and it's absolutely clear comprehensive common sense immigration reform. here in the nsenate democrats and republicans work together back in 2013 to just pass the bill enormous investment in border security 12 years ago approved in this body by democrats and together. that bill never that a hearing of the house of representatives so i hope we will in fact try to resurrect the spirit that inspired us 12 years ago and just coming in for comprehensive reform. this particular bill is very
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troubling and how it impacts children. troubled that a bill of such consequence and legal complexity was brought to the floor without going through committee. right here in the senate the way to do responsible work on complicated consequential bills is to have them go before committee so a committee can bring in all the experts necessary to resolve disputes and understandings about how the bill might work. the common understanding needed reforms can be implemented. here on the floor in the senate we can bring experts to the floor to resolve issues.
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and my colleague from alabama stop is here today anticipations an object although i will try to persuade her otherwise with the logic of my presentation i would say the tour point stands the bill is consequential with complicated and the potential impact on children is dramatic. let's work to prevent something really awful from happening here in our country because i know it's not the intent of my colleague. this bill as written requires i.c.e. officers to detained individuals who have either been charged or convicted of a crime. neither charged nor haconvicted. children in prison without being charged or convicted of a
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crime. that's what this bill does. the current system children can be in fact detained but if the discretion on the ofront and a discretion of the backend to understand the hall of the circumstances is the individual flight risk? does the individual pose a risk to the community? are we talking about an assault with a deadly weapon or are we talking about grabbing and eating an apple while walking down the aisle of the grocery store connected that discretion is obliterated in this bill.
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[inaudible] if a five-year-old girl gets hungry and grabbed the apple the lincoln riley act says that young girl was arrested must be put into an i.c.e. prison without discussion. and there is no provision of the bill to get that girl out. there is no required review. this is an obliteration of everything we understand about due process stop a child arrested but never charged because there was in fact in the end no evidence no conviction because no evidence no trial still sitting in prison without recourse in an i.c.e. prison. this is not the america i know and i don't believe it's the america my colleagues across the aisle want.
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so let's work together to fix this bill. that's what we are looking to do today. i have three amendments and i will explain each of the amendments before i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendments of the amendment could affect what were voting on. the first amendment excludes children from this bill of the idea is that mandatory detention should apply to adults then let's exclude children. children would still be subject to potential the tension that exists under the current law at the discretion and current law they can be detained with discretion even just for arrest before they been charged or convicted but there is discretion involved stop i know
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of no case in which there has been permanent mandatory imprisonment of a child who has never been arrested never charged and convicted. in the entire history of the united states of tamerica and are about to change that. and that's wrong. i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment so i can offer my amendment number 73 that there be up to 15 minutes for debate uon the amendment that a bond be used yielding back in time the senate vote on the amendment without further intervening action or debate. >> reserving the right to object. with all due respect to my colleague from oregon. he voted against even proceeding to this bill.
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now he is attempting to force amendments onto the bill outside of the bipartisan amendment process that we are working through. i get it i understand the frustration when your caucus is working in your bill doesn't get called up to get voted on but the truth is, we are working diligently to make sure all voices are heard. i also find it really interesting because for the past four years under the failed isbiden/harris administration open border policy i have not seen one bill brought to the floor from this side of the aisle to focus on what's happening to children as a result of the policies. if you look at the wide open border dewe've had over 468,000 unaccompanied children come across our border in the last
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four years. when you look at the numbers that have been put out, they admit to losing at least 85,000 children were has the outreach pain? even holding our own version of how holding because we can get democratic colleagues to shine light on this. how dire they step out of line with biden and harris and their open border policy and agenda how dare they they should have. we did and we will continue to make sure we speak up for these kids. when you look at what's happening to migrant children being trafficked in many cases from drug trafficking to sex trafficking to stories that are absolutely gut wrenching and heartbreaking. something has to be done and it
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begins with making sure we are about accountability and taking criminals off the street. it's not just migrant children who have paid the price for the failed policies of the last administration. it's american children as well. the 12-year-old jocelyn younger re-in texas who was brutally raped and murdered. by two men who never should have been here. had this bill been enacted lincoln riley would still be alive. this bill is a lifesaving bill. this bill protects children. we are going to continue to fight to expose the detrimental
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impact of the biden/harris open border policies and we on this side of the aisle look forward to joining with those on the other side of the aisle that are willing to make common sense targeted reforms to keep americans safe. mr. president, because of that, i object. >> objection is heard. >> mr. president. >> my colleague laid out quite a set of factors they are. but let's not blur the picture. the picture is this, the child came here two months old they came here for 12 years 14 they walked out of the store with a group of children the police officer thinks they saw something put into their pocket arrest them turns out they didn't put anything in their pocket but they been arrested
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now i.c.e. is fired to indefinitely imprison that child. that child in calabama who is going to be a great outstanding member of their school and community sentencing that child with no charge no conviction no crime to prison and we know exactly what time that type of imprisonment does. that's what this amendment is about. i can't take on all the other issues but i will say last year we had a bipartisan group develop a comprehensive bill in my colleagues across the aisle blocked it from coming to the floor. but that was last year's debate. this is a bill that has a purpose. but i don't think the purpose is to wrongly and definitely mandatorily in prison and the sick children.
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i would ask my colleague while you are objecting now, let's continue the conversation. because it's that important to fairness in america. and there is a legal difference of opinion currently so i'm just going to describe that it was sold on the house side by saying there's a settlement called the florida sediment which will continue to protect children and prevent this from happening. an innocent child and definitely detained in prison with no review process. let's turn to for counsel for flores. the council is put up a detailed pstatement i have a
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copy i understand that other lawyers might have other opinions but these are the experts and they say the florida sediment does not apply to undocumented children in the community it applies only to children detained in federal immigration custody by dhs under customs and border protection. goes on to note and explain its consent decree and federal law trumps consent decrees. goes on to say that children including toddlers are not a
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exempted and 24 states have no minimum age for prosecuting children meeting you can be arrested at any age even a toddler. i will ask my colleague not again to consider granting consent for the amendment that i would ask that you will work with me to explore this topic and see if you can fix this problem through mutual satisfaction so we don't do harm to children. second amendment that i have creates some of the flexibility that exists in current law that doesn't exist under the spell. and requires dhs to employ
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what's referred to as the best interest standard for the child. this is a standard used in virtually every single state in the foster care and child service industry. .... have short amendments -- it requires dhs to only detain children in a manner consistent with the best interest of the child that does not advocate, modify, replace protections for children in federal law, regulation, court orders, and decrees. in other words, preserving the flexibility that exists in current law which means could be detained but a judge can consider the totality of the circumstances, the level of the crime, whether or not there is a flight risk, whether or not there's potential harm to the community. the best interest standard seems like an appropriate thing to
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apply when we are in fact collectively striving for the best interests of the children. so i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment so i may offer up amendment number 72, that there be up to 15 minutes for debate on the amendment, and that upon the use or yielding back of time the senate vote on the amendment without further intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mrs. britt: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mrs. britt: reserving my right to object. we have repeatedly confirmed with ice that all existing consent decrees would continue to apply. this amendment addresses something the bill doesn't do. and as i've said, the laken riley act would protect kids. it's bipartisan. it's targeted, and it's common sense. that's why we must keep it that way. i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mr. merkley: thank you, mr.
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president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i do disagree with my colleague because this bill eliminates the flexibility in the current system to consider the totality of the circumstances and restoring the best interest standard that every state is intimately familiar with is remediying the lack of flexibility in the bill as it is written. again, we will continue this conversation. i view coming to the floor and having this dialogue as kind of a way for us to do something that's too rare, way too rare in the senate. we rarely have these type of conversations in front of the american people, and i think it's important we have them, especially when there's some value that maybe we share the same value but have different interpretations on how that value will be impacted. i'm sure we share the same value on trying not to do kids wrong.
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and that's why i value this dialogue with my colleague and hope it will lead to the opportunity to resolve these issues. i have a third amendment, and the third amendment is related to another aspect of the way children are affected, including american citizen children. imagine the parent who goes to work, who is accused -- i don't know -- stealing a piece -- a tool out of the factory. and so he's arrested. or she's arrested. and now under this bill, that adult has to be locked up, no flexibility on the front end even though it turns out they did not steal the tool. they had nothing in their bag they had with them. the officer thought they did. they didn't. they never get charged. they never get convicted because there's no trial because they're not charlesed. but that -- charged.
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but that child who has maybe one, two, three, four american citizen children at home waiting for them, they come home from school, no parent comes home. they have to be locked up under this bill. so we're not just talking about an impact in this bill on immigrant children. we're talking about an impact on citizen children. now, i care about both. but i just want to note that there's been a conversation about this bill as if it only affects immigrants. no, it affects american citizens too it affects spouses who might be american citizens. it certainly affects the children who are likely american citizens. so this amendment says that if an adult with children under 17 is subject to the mandatory detention that currently has no back end to it, has no ability to appeal, it's permanent
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detention, permanent imprisonment, that if they had children at home, after 30 days there would be a court proceeding to consider whether or not the condition should exist for release after the normal set of issues are considered, such as is this person a danger to the community, is this person a flight risk, can they be released with bail? the same things we have now because back at that home are a bunch of children, maybe noncitizen children, maybe citizen children, but a bunch of children who are going, my parent never came home. i'm not just a latchkey kid with a parent coming home at 10:00 p.m. because that's when their shift ends. i'm a kid who doesn't know what the hell to do now. and my life has been shattered. so this would create the opportunity for that flexibility that exists if current law after 30 days of mandatory detention.
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i think it's an appropriate way to address the potential for impact that i'm sure no one intended in writing this bill which was to leave a bunch of children back in a home with no parent and no support. i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment so that i can offer amendment number 71, that there be up to 15 minutes for debate on the amendment, and that upon the use or yielding back of time, the senate vote on the amendment without intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mrs. britt: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mrs. britt: reserving the right to object. mr. president, we have heard a lot of things that are untruthful about this bill today. first off, no one's due process is taken with regards to their immigration proceeding that may be moving and the ability to see the criminal proceeding through to the end. at the end of the day, we have to make a decision, and that's
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the decision that is in front of my colleagues right now. are we going to protect open border policies or are we going to protect kids? we are seeing -- even in this conversation about carve-outs and what not, you've got teen migrant gangs running rampant in new york city, allegedly running theft rippings -- theft rings with children as young as 11. think about what you do when you think about each one of these things we've discussed today. if you were to carve out a certain kid, a certain age, you don't make that kid safer. you make them a greater target for the drug cartels, for the people looking to move crime. we have to make sure that we are taking a commonsense approach to this. and at the end of the day, if
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you don't commit a crime, you're going to be good. and so i am here today to say it is time to pass the laken riley act. it is past time to do that. having a commonsense targeted approach that no, does not fix everything. i hear my colleague's frustration with regards to regular order of last year. i would like to echo that. you think about what we're dealing with right now, mr. president, we've had over 11 million people come across the border under the biden-harris administration. some people say that number is much higher. there's at least two million that came across the border that we don't know who they are, where they're going, or what their intentions are. you look at the nondetained docket we have here in our country. 7.8 million. lieu at those who have been --
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you look at those who have been given their due process. 1.4 million have been issued their final orders of removal, meaning they've been given their due process and we have said you have no legal right to be here. we've got to do better at tackling every bit of that. and doing better starts today. we're not only going to do right by laken riley and her legacy. we're going to do right by the children of this country, making it safer and more secure. it's exactly what this bill does. it's a bipartisan piece of legislation. and we must keep it strong and keep it that way. so on that, mr. president, i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i was hoping the last two words were i object but this is an important issue that's been raised, and we need to look carefully because there's no intention to leave a house full of children home
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alone when the parent poses no flight risk, has committed no crime, poses no risk to the community, and those children are being harmed. in fact, i do take factual dispute with a few of my colleague's points. she noted no due process has been taken. when you eliminate the discretion on the front end, you change due process. a judge can no longer say this person has no flight risk, no risk to the community, has children at home, will put a high bond. they'll show up. we know where all the relatives are. that will be best because -- if the person is subsequently charmed, they will -- charged, they'll be there for trial. that is stripped away on the front end. there is no due process on the back end where a person can challenge their detention and
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whether or not they should be there. in fact, during the previous trump administration, there were children who were released with such challenges. but that's taken away. so, yes, due process is dramatically changed with a huge impact on children. my colleague mentioned that we don't want children to be target for gangs. amen to that. who is more of a target for gappings than -- for gangs than children left alone in the home because their parent has been unjustly imprisoned? that does exactly the opposite of what my colleague wants to achieve. so i know this conversation will continue. i hope it will. we are now under a filed cloture motion which means the majority intends to close debate probably
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on monday. and yet one democratic amendment has been heard, one. the majority leader has said he wants to do things differently, that he wants there to be an amendment process. the amendment process i saw when i first came to the senate consisted of standing up and saying i have a relevant, germane amendment. i'm asking for the existing amendment to be set aside so that mine can be brought up which puts it in a queue for consideration. then people can study it and then you go to a whole series of votes on all those things that are in that queue. we did this on dodd-frank, on obamacare. i think we should do it here because the consequences are high. but if that can't be done, then i would ask my colleague who has worked so hard on this particular bill to take a look
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at whether the republican side will agree to hear these amendments and vote on them. they may be voted down, but i think they're important. i think it's extremely important that kids not be wrapped up in this. they can currently be detained but it's with discretion of the circumstances. i think it's particularly important that we have a standard for children in terms of their best interests. i think it's particularly important that we have a way after a few weeks to have some look at whether children have been left home alone and if the circumstances are appropriate and there's no flight risk, the circumstances are appropriate, there's no community risk to help address that situation, or we are harming children. this was never meant to harm. so i ask for my republican
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colleagues to consider providing an opportunity because it takes a hundred percent. every single senator has to agree on amendment. we used to have a senate code. i'm going -- i don't object to your amendment, you don't object to mine. these are on the topic before us. this is not some crazy thing. these are addressing core, due process issues that affect children. so i would ask that at least they get some discussion for the possibility of consideration. thank you to my colleague from alabama for coming and charging me out as well as -- i'm not really thanking you for objecting but i am thank you in the spirit of which i think you want to do the right thing and i'll keep striving to convince you that the right thing here is we should debate these amendments and vote on them. thank you, mr. president.
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. mr. sullivan: mr. president, thank you. and you know, it's nearing the end of the week, and normally that's web i come down -- that's when i come down to the senate floor to do my weekly, try to make it weekly, alaskan of the week speech. now, i know for the pages this is their favorite speech of the week. you get to hear about alaska. you get to hear about some great alaskan doing some great stuff. i usually try to give a little update what's going on in our great state, because it's always something interesting. and then i encourage people watching on tv, come up to alaska. you're going to have the trip of a lifetime if you do it. so, mr. president, today the alaskan of the week is someone very special to me and my wife.
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i'm going to talk in detail about all she's done for our state. her name is kathleen rowell. she has worked for me in alaska, going on 15 years, mr. president. you understand that, as a former governor, where you have great staff that do amazing things, not just for you and your team, but for the whole state. her title in the office has been deputy state director, but she has been so much more than that. she has literally been the glue that has kept my whole team tog together, not just since i've been in the senate but even before i became a senator. i'm going to talk about kathleen real quick here in a minute, as the alaskan of the week. she's so much -- she so much deserves it. i wanted to mention a few things. we're all, of course, praying for the people impacted by the fires in california. we're all ready to stand by to
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help. states are coming together. my state is certainly a state that understands natural disasters. and you know, even in alaska right now anchorage this last week didn't make any news down here, was hit with hurricane force winds on sunday, up to 130 miles an hour. a lot of people, hundreds, were without power. a lot of property damage. so, we're thinking about our alaskan colleagues who were hit by that hurricane. there's no other word. typhoon. of course, praying for everybody in los angeles. you know, with the state and population that big, we all know people, i have a good college roommate, buddy of mine, tom mcmillan, my two sisters in law, they're all negatively impacted. we're all thinking about them,
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mr. president. in alaska, i like to give an update. the sun is coming back. we hit the winter solstice. in anchorage we gain about four minutes a day of sun, in fairbanks about five minutes a day. in about a week, january 22, the sun will rise again in utaviak, alaska, that will be the first time the sun comes up over the horizon in two months. they get a dark winter, and it's cold up there. the iditarod, the lat grace race -- last great race, march 2. if you're thinking of coming to alaska, don't think just the summer. in the winter too, it's great. that's a little update what's going on. now, back to kathleen rowell, the rock in our office, whose last day, oh, it breaks my heart, breaks my wife julie's
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heart, her last day was yesterday. so, a little bit about -- background about kathleen, she moved with her family to alaska from chicago when she was 3 years old. her father worked in the oil fields and had been commuting to alaska, illinois, chicago, back and forth. he thought it was time for the family to come together. so they settled in beautiful eagle river, alaska, a gorgeous, i mean gorgeous, patriotic community, mountainous community, right outside of anchorage. kathleen went to chutiak high, go mustangs. she was an excellent, driven student. anyone who knows kathleen knows excellence is her motto. everything she does is excellent. we got confirmation from her good friend robin on my staff, my deputy chief of staff in d.c., who went to school with
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kathlene and remains very close. yes, kathlene was a straight a student. we knew that. she showed horses. she worked at the coffee shop in eagle river, called jitters, a mainstay in that great community. she excelled academically. went to college in colorado, then washington state, did a semester with the national outdoor leadership, which she loved, then came back to alaska, finished up and graduated from alaska pacific university, which very importantly she did well there, but really, really importantly she met her husband, ben, who is a great guy, great guy. they're a great couple. so, that's kathlene's early background. she then worked in the parks division, division of parks and rec, at the department of natural resources. that's when i first met her. i was the new commissioner at
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dnr. we call it dnr in alaska. that covers everything in alaska. we worked in the same building. i was a brand-new commissioner and i was looking for a special assistant, a young, smart, talented special assistant as the commissioner of the department of natural resources. now, mr. president, this is a big job. if alaska were its own country it would be the envy of the world in terms of resources, strategic location, critical minerals, our military, you name it. dnr has a lot of responsibility over all these things. as a matter of fact, mr. president, not to go on a tangent here, but i had an op-ed in "the wall street journal" today, entitled "greenland is nice, but alaska is better." goes into all this stuff about how great alaska.
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is i'd like to submit that for the record at the end of my remarks, to give you a sense of our great state there. it's a good read. i needed a special assistant, and i was looking at all these resumes, these lawyers and stuff, and here's, for the young pages, this is the value of what they call an elevator speech. you've heard of an elevator speech, right? you got to make a pitch, you got to make it quick. i'm getting on the elevator, kathlene at the time, she's probably mid, early 20's, she's very young looking, so then she looked a lot younger than her early 20's. she gets on the elevator, and boy oh, boy, it was the elevator pitch. commissioner sullivan, i understand you're looking for a special assistant. the elevator is going up, all these people are listening. i believe i have the qualities, the hard work, the ethic, the commitment to excellence to be your special assistant. i'd like to come by your office and interview. boom! the door opens. dang, that was impressive! the elevator pitch.
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she made that, she came in, interviewed, i'm like, i'm hiring her. none of these gung ho, highfalutin lawyers, i'm putting my trust in this young alaskan. boy, oh, boy, i'm glad i did it. the best elevator pitch i've seen. kathlene rolled up her sleeves and learned everything she could. before you knew it, she was running the department of natural resources, which in alaska is the giant organization, hundreds and hundreds of people, the key to our economy. she was working with my other special assistant, john catchin. she was hugely essential to the things we got done at our department of natural resources. we negotiated against exxonmobil for a giant natural gas deal. you want to talk about a tough thing. exxon brings in like 25 lawyers to negotiate against a group of three of us, right? we took them down.
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she organized summits. she helped us redo our state's oil tax regime, which is creating a big spur of development right now. kathlene was essential in all of this, bringing more producers up to alaska, a great teammate. her heart was in serving our state. fast forward a few years, mr. president. i'm going to run for the u.s. senate, not an easy run, a lot of good republicans in the primary. there was a democrat incumbent here. that's never easy. the first person i said i'm going to hire on my campaign team, first person, was kathlene. now, it was a risk. she had a 1-year-old at home at the time, benjamin, who's now joined by his brother, miles. by the way, kathlene is a great mom. her boys are now 12 and 9. when she first started working for me, she had no kids.
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she's got a beautiful family with her husband, ben, and her two wonderful boys. it was a risk. she had a great state job, and she's going to join this guy throwing his hat in the ring? you know, i'm not sure it was looking like an easy deal. but she left her easy -- not easy, her secure state job. first person i hired on my campaign. organized it, traveled, and mr. president, i'm pretty sure i would not have won without kathlene's great work. that was in 2014. then she stayed in our office in alaska, became the deputy state director. you know how it is, mr. president. she's been with me and my team, my wife, longer than any other staff member, and she's done an incredible job. now, we all know how important staff are, both here in d.c. and
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especially back home. they work hard, let's face it, you know, government jobs aren't always the best. you certainly could probably be making more money in the private sector. the hours can be grueling. but great staff. they're vital to what we do. they're vital to the work that we get done here in the senate, in d.c., and really vital back home where the work they do for our constituents and the places they travel to are essential. they're essential. here's the big thing, mr. president, as you know, the help that our offices back home do to work for the people we're honored to represent is vital, because there are so many giant federal agencies -- social security, the v.a., irs, the department of defense, immigration -- that are giant labyrinths that
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people don't know how to get through. our federal government can be unwieldily and often unforgiving. so when alaskans need help on all those things -- social security checks, v.a. benefits, we're the state with er capita than any state in the country, medicare, the irs comes screwing up something, they come to us, and we work on these cases. this is a rough number, but since i've been in office, our alaska staff has worked on more than 12,000 of these cases, and they're really complicated, and they take hours and hours. we always have at least one person attached to these cases, something they'll always remember, and their lives are impacted by whether they're resolved in a good way or bad way. mr. president, as i'm sure you probably believe, you don't
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always hear about this part of the job, of representing people in our great republic, but in my view it's probably the best part of the job, because you have a direct impact on someone you represent, and you can literally change their lives. we do that. we put our heart and soul into it. but nobody, mr. president, has put their heart and soul into it more than kathlene. she has made all of this happen, the 12,000 cases. now, i also have a fantastic director of constituent services in anchorage, kerry kyle, who has completed more than 3,600 of these cases herself. she's amazing. but here's what kerry said about kathlene -- kathlene is at the helm of the ship. she's the captain of the ship. she makes all of this possible. she's the master communicator.
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her loyalty and integrity to the people of alaska are unmatched. that's what you want with great staff. margaret sharp, she runs our matsu valley regional area, our regional director, margaret, who does a great job, she calls kathlene our hero. quote, she is our conscience. she is the gatekeeper of decorum. she is all about kindness and respect. she keeps all of us kind. isn't that a great compliment? that's from margaret on my team. el elena separatinger -- spraguer, another great member of my team, in kodiak, does a great job, says that she has never worked with anyone with more skills than kathlene.
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elena says kathlene is a rock, and i agree, mr. president. that is so true. you know, mr. president, in our line of work, in elected jobs, whether governors or commissioners or senators, we all know that certain people have an impact that goes way beyond just the work that they do. and kathlene is one of those. she has worked so hard, often at the sacrifice of time with her beautiful boys and family and her husband, but she's set the bar so high on professionalism, in excellence, in everything she does that everybody around her in our anchorage office, in our alaska offices, in our d.c. offices, everybody around here, myself included, gets lifted up
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and made better and has improved by being in kathlene's orbit. those are special people. and, mr. president, that's what atting reeb is. -- that's what kathlene is s she's been a loyal employ, certainly to me and my wife julie. there was a little going-away party for her in anchorage a few days ago. throughout it all, it's not just loyalty to us. it's to the people of alaska, to helping people, to helping our state move forward, and as i said, mr. president, yesterday was kathlene's last day. she's going to bring these same skills to a really great credit union in anchorage. their gain, our loss. but she's always going to be a member of team sullivan. kathlene, we always say staff is like family here, but kathlene truly is like family for me and
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my wife, julie, we definitely would not have gotten this far without her. we're going to miss her terribly. so, kathlene, thank you. thanks for your great work. good luck in your new job. from the bottom of my heart and julie's heart, thanks for all you've done for me and julie, our office, our state, our country, and, of course, i hope you are honored by one of the most prestigious awards anyone can get in america by being our alaskan of the week. congratulations, kathlene. godspeed.
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did morning and welcome to the senate energy and resources management committee. it's an honor and privilege to serve in his capacity this capacity as chairman in such a pivotal moment for our nation and issues surrounding energy needs and land management policies. i want to extend a warm welcome to governor doug burgum and his wife catherine and thank you for being here. thank you both for joining us today and you'll have a chance in the moment to introduce anyone else in the audience who is here today. governor burgum your nomination to lead the department of the interior comes at an urgent time as americans and the policies of
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the administration are suffering from skyrocketing energy prices would that drive up the cost of everything from gas and groceries from housing to health care and restrictive land-use policies that tend to stifle growth generally. the challenges facing american families are mounting and they are staggering. this past november voters decided to send a clear message. they demanded full break from the status quo to take a fresh approach one less likely to result in this pattern of inflation which we found ourselves in over the last four years. your nomination is garnered remarkable support from organizations businesses and people of all stripes and backgrounds particularly those who are most uniquely and directly affected bye bye the as department of the interior and its policies. dozens of letters of support nationwide further underscore your reputation as a leader when
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he is committed to changing committed to fostering relationships and they reflect widespread confidence in your vision and your readiness to lead this organization. the department of the interior plays a central role in addressing many of these challenges particularly in states like utah my state or federal land management shapes nearly every aspect of our day-to-day life because the federal government owns two-thirds of the land about 67% of my state in their members of this committee who represent other public landscapes to understand the relationship between the department you've been called to lead and their day-to-day lives. nearly one fifth of the land in the united states is under the jurisdiction of you as department of the interior in my state is much higher than out of course.
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this influences everything from energy development to public land acts as tribal relations and wildlife management. in utah the federal government controls more than two-thirds of land in the impact of these policies are profound. the decisions made in washington ripple through our economy and our community and not always positive. unfortunately these policies have taken a troubling turn. during the biden administration's standing national monuments like the grand staircase without meaningful input from local communities and is jeopardize access and harms the locals who call these places home. the public lands ruled to restricted management plans have placed unnecessary and often insurmountable barriers in the way of responsible resource development and land access. on his first day in office president biden issued a moratorium on oil and gas leasing severely damaging our energy security and locking away
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resources we needed to power our homes. over time these decisions have revealed a pattern of disregard for the multiple use mandate the federal land management cispa supposed to uphold and for which it's been subject for years. the consequence of these policies extend far beyond utah. as wildfires devastate california's clear mismanagement of public land has consequences out of reach far beyond rowe areas. federal agencies must reevaluate their approach to wildfire prevention prioritizing forest management strategies to mitigate the risk of catastrophic blazes. utah and other western states know too well the devastation that these fires caused and addressing this crisis must be the key priorities for the department. reversing course will require both leadership and a
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willingness to embrace innovative solutions for the department of the interior must take a hard look at restrictions of the last two years which steer development towards low potential areas while blocking access to high-value resources like critical minerals. these are the building blocks for our economy and our national defense and we can't afford to let bureaucratic delays jeopardize our future. housing shortages across the west to present another daunting challenge that we have defaced. by working with state and local governments we identify underutilized federal land that the department could finally meaningfully alleviate the housing crisis in places like utah where the demand for affordable homes far exceeds supply. those bills like like my houses act would provide along term strategy and a strong framework for such partnerships showing the federal land policies drive
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solutions rather than create obstacles. the colorado river lifeline for millions across the west faces growing threats affecting dedication and support from the department the interior and did the states negotiation of critical resources. our national parks require renewed attention to these iconic landscapes are a source of pride and major economic driver for the gateway community surrounding them. according to some polls they are one of a few features of the federal government that people actually like. the department must work to balance accessibility for conservation ensuring visitors can enjoy these treasures without compromising the future. this will require stronger partnerships with local stakeholders to address infrastructure needs and manage severe impacts. on the regulatory front the
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misuse of the endangered species act is cause significant harm by holding development projects and undermining state authority. while the essays in the central pool for protecting imperiled species as the applied judicially and in court nation with local governments to avoid unnecessary conflict. governor burgum your position position jude lead the department during this challenging time. your vision and your leadership will be instrumental for restoring to restoring balance that the federal policies and ensuring public lands are managed with care. utah stands ready to work with you in tackling these challenges and charting a new course that reflects the principals of federalism and respect for local communities. utah stands will work with you in tackling these challenges and tackling a new course and i invite you to utah's uzi out the chance to see first-hand the challenges we face.
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the hearing we are having today marks the beginning of an essential conversation about the future the department of the interior and i look forward to hearing your perspective and exploring ways we can work together to address these frustrations. thanks again for your willingness to serve and i look forward to our discussion today. i will turn it over to ranking member from new mexico. >> thank you chairman and governor burgum welcome to the natural resources committee. we had a great conversation last week and i'm looking forward to hearing your answers to the questions today. i want to begin by acknowledging the wildfires in california over the last couple of weeks and having spoken to many of my members on the dais i want to get to questions about that in particular about firefighters and how we can make sure that they are supported.
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the department of the interior has a responsibility for an incredibly broad array of issues from conserving the places that americans love to spend time with their families to protecting and recovering our most iconic wildlife species and delivering water to cities and farms across the west and fulfilling your nations trust responsibility to tribal nations. pretty much any job involves responsibilities that range from elementary school students in health care to bison is a big job. public lands are where we go to camp and hike and hunt and fish and time with our families. they are where our veteran's go to seek the solitude that our service can't always provide and while there are some who are in places like yosemite or the national forest are unconstitutional. most americans know the idea of
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lands that belonged to everyone no matter where they lived or who their parents are or how thick their wallet is one of the most democratic ideas from our nation. i hope you will join me in keeping public lands in public hands and the interior department is the leader meeting our nation's trust responsibility to tribal nations and upholding the treaty commitment that we as a nation gave to tribes and their members. as a nation as we discussed at my office we routinely fall short of meeting those commitments. we can and we must do better. as the relentless pace of climate change in brings hotter summers, higher rents as we have seen in california and diminished snowpack which we are experiencing in new mexico, it's also driving the long-term
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ratification of the long-term united states but of the next 50 years is expected new mexico will have 25% less water than we have had historically. we aren't alone in that. the colorado river which provides drinking water for 40 million people ear gates billions of dollars where the crops provides essential habitat for fish and wildlife and will likely never return to the early 20th century flows that we used to be able to expect. through the bureau of reclamation's the department of the interior must play an active role in helping the west transition to that new water reality. as you know the interior department is also an energy department. as we make the transition to cleaner energy economy the land and water management the department will play an indispensable role in producing the energy that we need as well as facilitating the ability to move that energy around the
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country. from geothermal hydrogen to solar and wind the department's work is at the center of our energy future to governor i very much look forward to hearing your plans on all of these topics and i think we will have active questions from all of our members today. >> thank you senator heinrich. after hearing introductions from the north dakota delegations we would hear from senator hoeven. >> thank you chairman lee and ranking member heinrich. appreciate that and thanks for holding this hearing today. governor welcome to you and catherine welcome to you and your whole team but it's great to see you guys and thanks for your incredible service on behalf of north dakota and it really is an honor to introduce you to our energy and natural resources committee and good to have you here. i'm not sure where to start. i've known doug for more than 30 years and we have been working in various capacities for the
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duration. as well as being a very good friend. both doug and catherine to myself and my wife. on behalf of her as well greetings and thanks for your willingness to serve. the course grew up up in arthur notes dakota and then went to school at the state university, home of the bison, the mighty bison and then went to a lesser-known school stanford for an nba, right? after that mckenzie consulting my stafford of this beautiful introduction but i think i'm just going to talk a little bit about our shared time together in friendship. you came back and there was this nascent software company great plains software along with
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someone who mortgaged his family farm and bought it and went to work and started hiring these kids, young people from across north dakota to develop the software company and i went to his office over 30 years ago and he was putting these eight by eight disks into sleeves and he put them into boxes and they were shipping. i said doug what is this and what you doing? i learned all about and doug you know what i mean it's true all about pc software and he built that company up and it went public in 1997 with it, sold it to microsoft in 2001 and that became microsoft's loose and so microsoft is a solutions is the
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genesis. microsoft business solutions doug rand and it was the largest location for microsoft outside of washington in 2000 more north dakotans worked there from across the state. could left after while it started more companies went into philanthropy including some good things for our notes dakota state university many other things and revitalized downtown fargo with his real estate development. in 1997 when i was governor i gave him the theater roosevelt rough rider award which is our highest award and every member and looking at me at the time and going jeh john i hope i'm not done accomplishing things and obviously you weren't. ran for governor in 2016 and one and ran again in 20 and won overwhelmingly.
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you won by big majority and did a great job as governor, ran for president and was the first of the presidential candidates when he left the race to end the doors president trump. president trump right from the get-go when we talk to him. doug he was excited about doug for the job. he never had any things to say about doug and catherine. he endorsed president trump and what trump saw was somebody truly understands energy and the trump administration is such a big energy agenda and even this was the guy, it's not just about waiting the department of the interior. leaving the council and that's what president trump was focused on. that being said there a lot of things that the interior touches. this is a guy that loves the outdoors. he is a ranch and he loves to be
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outside riding horses running the cattle and he loves to hunt so he loves the outdoors. he loves the national parks and he's an historian. he can challenge you for trivial history. any detail head-to-head you guys would be fun to listen to for a while. so he loves the outdoors and he loves the park system and talks to folks in indian country. every single tribe, we have five reservations. every single tribe has endorsed him and mr. chairman nye asked that these letters be introduced into the record. >> without objection >> more than 180 different tribes across the country have endorsed him too and that says something about a guy. and this is the guy that fits
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this job. he really does. he covers all the bases. i hope everybody on this committee will take time to visit with him because -- and understand where it's coming from and understand he will take time to understand your issues and work with you. you will find this is the right man in the right fit for this job. thank you mr. chairman. >> senator kramer. >> thank you chairman lien representative heinrich and congratulations to both of you on your leadership. it was great to listen to john and by the way let me start out by doing what i always do is agree with john hoeven. it works well for me in my career but what struck me right away as he starts talking like a governor and then he brings up angus. i'm in the former governors club.
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you will have a lot of great things to talk about. there's so much to be said and john has done it very very well so i'm just going to highlight a couple of things and to john's point about president trump's confidence, he called me a lot and he called me when doug was his opponent and he said i like that guy. he's so smart and he's so good and he's understanding everything and he does and he will be very valuable. and i think as a consumer as governor burgum the first lady catherine are consumers of all these current federal assets great rich properties as rare creators understanding the value that it brings the agriculture and it can bring to responsible extraction of minerals. one of the things that oftentimes maybe doesn't get talked about with governor
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burgum is he's not just an oilman from an oil and gas state he's first and foremost a conservationist and he's from the land of roosevelt. he absolutely relentlessly carries the ball to ensure theater roosevelt -- gets built at the gateway to theater roosevelt national parks so it can become the symbol of responsible extraction of minerals and responsible production to federal assets to exercise great care for the land in the air as well as great economic opportunity. that's a remarkable balance that he brings to this. it's such a great honor for me to be here with him to talk about the multiple uses of our federal assets and the ways we
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recognize our value in so many ways. i will wrap up with this because john did such a great job. the p objection. the p mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that the filing deadline with respect to second degree amendments to calendar number 1, s. 5 be at 9:45 a.m. on friday, january 17. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 9:30 a.m. on friday, january 17. 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. further, that at 10:00 a.m., the senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on calendar number 1, s. 5. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: if this is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.
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