we will not be stopped. we are going to stand with all immigrants, no matter where they came from africa, you name the country. they should be treated with dignity and respect and for me priority will always be making sure dreamers get the pathway to citizenship they deserve and they do it as quickly as possible. the president has said he will treat dreamers differently and that is the question of the day. we know how he's going to treat

our citizens, how will treat people with amnesty. probably about six of the over 50 side so far some aspect of immigration where the trade my birthright citizenship, a lot of focus but we will put as much focus on that and more because we know we are present millions of americans across this country so we will not be deterred. i want to say something about birthright citizenship. to sit down the constitution. ...

that major born in the united states or naturalized in the united united states, who are citizens of the united states. anyone of you have a question about that? pretty simple, right? it's easier that than any s example government exam or hell, it's probably easier than a citizenship exam that's administered to thousands of immigrants. i don't how this is even being questioned. the second they want to say is remember, its it's a piece of paper signed by the president. it doesn't beat the constitution.

the constitution is the core principles. it is where all other laws emanate from. the constitution is there and all law emanate from there. this is one that really should be protected, that will continue to make sure that his challenge and i suspect in the end it will be held unconstitutional. we need to make sure we can keep an eye on this. they're so many of the topics we could talk about and were probably be even more executive orders issued in the days go on. but rest assured the congressional hispanic caucus will keep their eyes on the ball and will always look to making sure that all immigrants are treated with dignity and respect, and that a process, due process is followed. thank you, and i yield back. >> we will now hear from the

vice chair of diversity and inclusion. >> good afternoon, everyone. i'm proud representative rizo downtown san antonio, texas, here in the house of representatives. i would like to remind donald trump that the united states became the most powerful most prosperous nation on earth but in spite of immigrants but because of them. we stand you in working to protect the dreamers, farm workers and families while republicans tear down what makes us stronger. were fighting for equity, opportunity and an economy that works for everyone. donald trump and republican politicians have balked on a campaign to radically alter american society. by stripping away constitutional, legal and civil rights. ending birthright citizenship and pushing people into the shadows. on the campaign trail in the

first days in office president trump claimed his administration is launching mass deportation campaigns to get criminals off the street. the vast majority of undocumented immigrants are hard-working people who have paid taxes and contributed to american society, some for decades. president trump doesn't care about keeping americans safe from crime. we know this because if he did he wouldn't have released nearly 1600 violent criminals who are involved in a january 6th attack. vicious, dangerous uncontrollable attacks, some of them against police officers with flagpoles, some who smashed their way into the capital. president trump says he shutting down our border to stop the flow fentanyl. but he just signed a full and unconditional pardon for a mate who created the largest online drug marketplace in the world. we can't be distracted by what

he says. look at what he does. he says he's targeting criminals but he just removed the restrictions the that stop m conducting raids on schools, on hospitals and in churches. who are the criminals he's going after in the catholic church? in the presbyterian church, in the nondenominational churches? who are those criminals? in the 20th century mass immigration raids led to the deportation of more than a million u.s. citizens, people who got wrapped up in immigration enforcement because of the color of their skin, their last name or the language that they primarily spoke. to be specific, during these two mass deportation campaigns the kind he wants them on his policy after, there were between one and 2 million latinos who had

every right to be in the united states of america who ended up in mexico. that is what donald trump seeks to repeat. we are going to stand up for families in this country the matter where they are, whether they're in san antonio, florida, nebraska, california, chicago, wherever they are. thank you. i yield back. >> thank you. again, we stand together. this is a caucus that has members of the congressional congressional caucus, , members that are part of the congressional black caucus, new dogs, do democrats, problem solvers. we get everybody. this is a big tent caucus but we stand together. our testing we will continue to stand give and take a stronger stand on this issue. with that i give you the vice chair of communications, representative norman taurus.

-- norma. >> thank you, chairman and good morning, everyone for being here. i stand here today not only as the representative of california's 35th district but also as an advocate for an issue that defines our country, our values and also shapes our future. i, too, am an immigrant from guatemala. we are here to defend dreamers, farm workers and families. and while republicans undermine what strengthens us, we are fighting for fairness, opportunity, and an economy that works for everyone. the u.s. is one of the most prosperous nations in the world. thank you, immigrants.

because we are the backbone of our economy. working tirelessly, starting businesses, paying taxes, and strengthening communities across our country. yes, recent executive orders calling for mass deportation are nothing more than a political ploy. these policies do nothing, nothing to advance our economic growth. they do nothing to strengthen our nation or uphold our american value. instead, they risk tearing apart families, destabilizing our workforce, and undermining industries that are critical to our economy. let's talk about the numbers. immigrants make, make up 13.9%

of the u.s. population. but their economic contribution, contributions are extraordinary. in 2019 of the immigrants that households paid over 492 quintillion in federal, state and local taxes. and wielded a 1.3 trillion in spending power. that is a muscle that the american economy cannot afford to lose. these dollars they support our schools, infrastructure, small businesses in every corner of our country. mass deportations would devastate key industries. 73% of farm workers are foreign-born. immigrants make up over 30% of

the construction force. policies like these would not lead, will lead to labor shortages. they will cost economy hundreds and billions of dollars in lost productivity over the next decade. not just four years. decades. this is not the america we aspire to be. what we need is comprehensive immigration reform, reform that creates a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants so they can fully contribute to our american dream. at the same time we must prioritize investment in smart, effective security measures to protect our nation and ensure our laws are respected. these are the priorities. they are not exclusive to anyone. these are essential for a balanced and forward thinking

immigration system. these are the foundation of a balanced and humane and forward-looking immigration system. immigrants are not just part of our past. they are the key to our economic stability. it's time for all of us, others and grandmothers, to reject, to reject going back to children and mothers and families being held in an i.c.e. cold freezer separator at the border or in our community. i yield back to the chairman. >> yes, we will now hear from our vice chair of policy, representative rob menendez from new jersey.

>> thank you, chairman. it's great to be with all of my colleagues and appreciate everyone coming out. what i think is important as we absorbed with this administration is doing, it is remembering that they are not just policies and executive orders that are targeting is unknown population. they are targeting communities that we represent. these are parents, children, uncles and aunts who are going to be targeted and impacted by what this administration chooses to do and why it's important we stand together unified against these horrible policies. when they're coming into our communities for our neighbors, our friends, our family they say no place is off-limits. think about that in your church, in your parish, in your community health center, in your children's school you could have an i.c.e. raid. it's not just this group of people. the faces commingle spirit is people we interact with everyday and the coming directly into our

him into the places that are supposed be sacred and see for all of us. ites is no limit to their cruely to what they seek to do to us. when we think about these stories we're talking about people who on average have been here for over 15 years. i represent districts were over 40% are born outside the country. country. ifad interactions already before trump's first day in office for persons been your most of five whose two adult children were born and raised here and who are american citizens won't leave his house. person is contributed so much to our committee won't leave his house without one of his children because he is afraid of could happen if he were to be approached, seeds, held in detention by i.c.e. and other federal authorities. so we have a lot of work to do. this group knows the threat that is at our doorstep. we are not can be silent.

we're going to fight for our committed to come fight for the people who recall neighbors and we're going to fight for a future for this country that is reflective of who we really are we stand alongside each other, when we believe in each other because a sketch has always believed in us. now is the time for us to pay back to pay for to make sure we move this country in the right direction. so look forward to all the work ahead. thanks, chair. [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish]

[speaking spanish] with that, i give you representative lidia velazquez from the state of new york. >> good morning, everyone. thanks to the chairman and thank you to all our colleagues. i think this is a great picture for the american people to see, all of us, representing people in our communities are here. because we care deeply. i always say that immigrants make america america here think about that. immigrants are the foundation of this country. we are going to be here to fight back and to make sure that they

do not, that our constituents, our immigrants community will not become a political fight. this is about everyone coming together in doing right for this country. many of our members have stated, the economy is going to suffer. you want to talk about inflationary forces? go out and look at farmers that are fighting to find workers. or the construction industry, or the retail industry. i am the ranking member of the small business committee. farmers are already reaching out to us. the construction industry is already reaching out to all. and in our communities our school system, the public school system, school superintendents

turning off that absenteeism is on the rise. think about that, that nothing is off limits, that raids could happen in our public schools. you know, that is the point. cruelty. cruelty. you have got to be heartless to say publicly that we are going to send i.c.e. to our schools. heartless. and then to say that crime is on the rise because of immigrants, that we want to make our communities safer. well, while republicans claim that this distracted deportations are in the name of law in order, they also just

released hundreds of violent criminals, like in rico title, stuart rose, and hundreds who were convicted of assaulting police officers on january 6th. those people were criminally convicted, and donald trump didn't care about savory communities when he released those who were convicted of beating the shit at a police officers. so don't come to us and talk about security and safer communities when you do that. well, mr. president, convicted release 1600 people, criminals. so let me -- [speaking spanish]

[speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish]

[speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] >> prosody, neediest. again, i know the narrative has been -- that is not the case. we have full discussions, democratic discussions,, internally just like any other group. but we stand together. and without idq linda sanchez, representative linda sanchez from california. >> thank you, mr. chairman and to all my colleagues who are here to stand up for our

constituents and for our communities and ultimately for our country. i'm linda sanchez from southern california and i am the daughter of immigrants and a represent many working-class immigrant communities in los angeles county. people that are just like my family. back home we understand the value of immigrants and the concretions they make to our society, particularly in the workforce and our economy. something billionaires president trump and elon musk seemed understand when you get immigrants to their companies, and just as a reluctant immigrant labor, so to average americans whether they know it or not whether they want to acknowledge it or not. because we have a real acknowledgment problem in this country. from construction to agriculture, to healthcare to hospitality. immigrants are the backbone ofro many industries that keep our economy humming. in fact, immigrants contribute

more than $1.6 trillion to our economy, and they pay nearly 600 billion, billion with a b, and taxes. nearly one in every six tax dollars that is collected. yet despite their contribution our communities are under attack from president trump because he sees him as an easy target. instead of following through on his promise to lower cost for american families, he's reinstating incredibly unpopular policies like family separation, terminating birthright citizenship, and other extreme executive orders. by spouting hateful rhetoric many immigrants are now living in fear regardless of their legal status. they are worried it will be deported from the only country that they have ever called home. families are worried they're going to be torn apart. children who go to school are afraid they may come home to an

empty house. they are afraid to go to church or even to seek medically necessary care in hospitals where they could be detained and deported thanks to president trump. it's out of pure malice and a cruelty. workers are afraid to show up to their jobs and you know what? they are not showing up to the job are going to be a huge, huge anchor on our economy because again whether you want to re it or not, we depend on their labor. from the farm workers who grow and harvest our crops, if they're not in the fields what do we think that's going to do to the price of groceries in this country? president trump rant on a promise that he is going to lower costs, and these policies that he is pursuing are actually going to make costs go up for the average american family. how does deporting hospital and nursing home workers reduce

healthcare costs? there is a premier medical research facility that provides care in the l.a. region, and they depend on dreamers. they have over 500 dreamers that that work in their facilities whether their radiologist, doctors, nurses, maintenance people or even people who clean those hotel rooms, sorry, hospital rooms. they told me if the streams are deported that in their health system will collapse. who is going to pay the cost, who's going to suffer? the people that they treat. this country and particularly los angeles was built by immigrants and we've had no relief to show our community for more than 35 years. i've been been in congress for 23 years and i see us through money at enforcement. i see us increase all kinds of resources at the border and we

have seen zero released for these immigrant communities. we need this community is now more than ever. after the recent wildfires in los angeles, we are basing facing daunting task. who's going to rebuild los angeles if we're deporting a huge pool of our workforce who are construction workers? what happens when they are deported? what do we think will happen to the cost of housing, which is already expensive enough? without their skilled labor, the recovery will be much slower and more expensive and take much longer. in california we value the contributions that the nomination is confirmed. i recognize the majority leader. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that with respect to the ratcliffe nomination, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table anxiety president be immediately notified of the senate's action.

the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president. mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: mr. president, if there was one word, one word that should never ever describe a secretary of defense, it is erratic, but that is the one word that describes mr. hegseth best. advancing a secretary of defense is one of the most important votes senators are going to take all year. this man has lives in his hand, lives of citizens, lives of people of the world, and lives of the brave men and women in our armed forces. so i want my colleagues to think carefully of all the people we could have as secretary of defense is pete hegseth? really the best one we've got? come on, you know he isn't. you know he's not even close. is the best man we have to lead the greatest military in the

world? is this man, with a known history of excessive drinking, the guy you want at the other end of the phone at 2 a.m. in a crisis, in control of the nuclear codes? who are we kidding? who are we kidding? is this the man with a mile-long list of allegations of abusing, degrading and harassing women, who you want to be leading our men and women in battle? is this the man with a track record of erratic behavior, the best you think the members of our military deserve as a leader? is this the man, with a truly horrific and devastating lack of judgment, the best you think our country, our fighting men and women deserve? pete hegseth has proven to lack

the necessity, the necessary morality, sense, judgment. so i plead, i plead with some of my republican colleagues, just to answer me this -- do you think this is the best person for the job? do you think this is the best person we have to lead the best military in the world? i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of peter hegseth of tennessee to be secretary of defense, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: pursuant to rule 22, the chair now directs the clerk to call the roll to ascertain the presence of a quorum. the clerk: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin.

mr. banks. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper.

ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mr. husted. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. justice. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim. the presiding officer: mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. the clerk: mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. mccormick. mr. merkley. mrs. moody. mr. moran. mr. moreno. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. ms. rosen.

mr. rounds. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schiff. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. mr. sheehy. ms. slotkin. ms. smith. mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden.

mr. young. the clerk: mr. young. the presiding officer: a quorum is present. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of pete peter hegseth of tennessee to be secretary of defense shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will now call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin. mr. banks. mr. barrasso.

mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. the clerk: mr. blumenthal.

the clerk: ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. the clerk: mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell.

the clerk: mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. mr. daines. ms. duckworth.

mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mr. husted. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. justice. mr. kaine.

mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. mccormick. mr. merkley. mrs. moody. mr. moran. mr. moreno. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla.

mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. that phrases misnomer. any members of this committee have served in combat and last 25 years can include men and women. i'm sure all those men served servicewomen whether they were military police officers or they were pilots or whether they were medics i would have you. you served with women, you wonderful lines as well. where those women anything other than skilled, brave and honorable? >> they were some of the best soldiers i work with. >> women have been serving for long time. women have been serving in

combat units like infantry battalions for a long time in roles like medics were mechanics. what were talking about specifically is women in ground combat roles. in jobs like infantry mentor artillerymen or special forces. about ten you goers that continues that wasn't the case under secretary panetta those roles were opened up to women to serve in. has present trump indicated he plans to rescind or alter that guidance? >> you are correct to point out these these of the decisions the commander-in-chief will have the prerogative to make. he's not indicated me, timmy has plans to change whether or not women would have access to these roles however, i would point out ensuring standards are equal and high is of importance to him and great importance to me. in those ground combat roles what is true is that the weight of the rock on your back doesn't change. the weight of the rancho to kerry doesn't change.

the weight of the 240 machine gun yet to kerry doesn't change. whether it's a man or a woman they have to meet the same high standards. anyplace where those things have been eroded or in courses criteria have been changed, in order to meet quotas, racial quotas or gender quotas, that is putting the focus on something other than readiness standards, meritocracy and locality. that's the review on talk about, not whether women have access to ground combat. >> you expect no change to the guidance but as you point out in the specific jobs they are irreducible physical demands. we expect our intelligence analysts and mechanics to be physically fit in the military but it's different when you're in the poetry or are terrific letbl me point out, and artilley shell weighs almost 100 pounds and abrams tank rounds ways rent

50p. the machine gun with its tripod weighs almost 50 pounds. the average weight of a full kit, ammo, water, body armor for a soldier is over 100 pounds. nothing you can do can change any of those things. that is physical reality. >> yes, and i would say the requirements to handle those things in the ground combat unit as for standards can look different than those of a medic or a drone pilot. it's not that has to be the same standard throughout. standard to maximize efficacy of that particular position. >> let me read a quote from one army officer. while it may be difficult for a 120-pound woman to lift or dragged to my to 50 pounds, the army cannot artificially absolve women of that responsibility that may still exist. the entire purpose of creating a gender neutral test direct knowledge that each job has an

objective physical standard to which all soldiers should be held regardless of gender. the intent was not to ensure women and men will have an equal likelihood of meeting the standards. i assume you agree with that army officer? >> absolutely. the standards need to be sane and high. they need to be set by the people closest to the problem set your closest to the understanding of what is required by that job. commanders can officers and elsewhere who understand the reality, that's a feedback we should get. that's what should be enshrined and enforced and know the set of political progress when i talk about removing politics ideological or political prerogatives should contribute to those. nothing other than the execution of the nation. >> thank you. for the record that army officer was captain kristin creased, army's first single infantry officer in one of its first single ranger school graduates. one final point.

you said you need to be objective because of the demands are, in fact, very high. the current physical fitness test for the army has a minimum two-mile run of 22 miles. run. i want the reporters to know i'm putting run in eric was because 22 miles at two miles is not going to get it may be jogging. it's probably walking fast. let's move on. 22 minutes. we have a big audience here. many of them seem to be patriotic supporters of you, mr. hegseth are some of them seem to be critics of you. it's only the liberal critics that have disrupted this hearing as was my custom during the biden administration i want to give you a chance to respond to what they said about you. the first one accused you of being a christian scientist. i'm not sure what that is.

i'm a christian, i'm a scientist. the zionist is of the jewish people deserve a homeland in the ancient holy land where they lived since the dawn of history. you consider yourself a christian scientist? >> i am a christian and i rebuff to support the state of israel and its existential defense and the way america comes alongside them. >> another protester, a member of code pink by the way which is a chinese commies front group these days, said you support israel's war in gaza. i support israel's existential war in gaza. i assume by me and president trump you support that were as well? >> i do. i support israel destroying and killing every last member of hamas. >> a third protester said something about 20 years of genocide assume words and i ran and afghanistan. to think our troops are

committing genocide? >> i do not. i think our troops as you assume in this committee note that the best they could with what they had. were not the outcomes and tragically the outcome we saw in afghanistan put a state of that but it does up with a stain on what those men and women did in uniform as you know full well. >> at this point i ask unanimous consent to offer to the record a letter submitted by omar a bossi, son of former city council president of samara, iraq, who worked with mr. hegseth in iraq. without objection that will be entered. senator gillibrand. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. hegseth. i do want to thank you for your service and want to thank you for your willingness to serve in this capacity. i have many concerns about your record and particularly your public statements. because they are so hurtful to

the men and women who are currently serving in the u.s. military. harmful to morale, harmful to good order and discipline. if you are saying women should be serving in the military, i'm going to read you your quotes because the quotes themselves are terrible. you will have to change how you see women to do this job well and i don't know if you're capable of that someone to press on these issues that my colleague jeanne shaheen brought up because she said it so well. so first of all you answered your questionnaire, do you believe in the american wants to serve their country in the military and to meet objective standards set by the military should be allowed to serve without limitation? you said yes to that question but in all of these other circumstances you have denigrated active-duty servicemembers. we have hundreds, hunf women herculean infantry. lethal members of a military serving in infantry. you degrade them. you say we need moms but not in

the military. especially in combat units. so specific to senator cotton because senator cotton was giving you layups to differentiate between different types of combat. specifically, as secretary would you take any action to reinstitute the combat arms exclusion for female service members knowing full well give hundreds of women doing that job right now. the standards, your two-mile run is about the army combat fitness test or it is not the requirements to have an mos 11 bravo which is infantry. these other requirements today. for people serving in industry,, many women, gender-neutral and they are very difficult to me. i have not been reduced in any way, and are combat units, are infantry is lethal. so please explain specifically because you will be in charge of

3 million personnel. it is a big job and when you make these public statements, and i get junot secretary of defense then, i get a tv. i get you helping that a strike if there's a different job but most recently you said this in november of 2024 knowing full well you might evening as secretary of defense pixel please explain these statements because they are brutal and they are mean and they disrespect men or women who are willing to die for this country. >> senator, i appreciate your comments and i would point out i have never disparaged women serving in the military. i respect every single female service member that is put on uniform past and present. my critiques recently and in the past and from personal experience have been instances where i have seen standards lowered, and you mentioned 11 alpha, 11 bravo, places and

units, and if the book has been referenced multiple times or the war on warriors, i spent months talking to active-duty servicemembers, men and women, low rank, , high rank, combat as and not combat arms. what each and everyone of them told me and with personal instances have shown me is that the ways direct, indirect, overt and subtle, standards have been change inside infantry training units, ranger school come infantry battalions to ensure that speed is give me one example. i get you're making speedy quotas to have a certain number of female infantry officers or enlisted. that disparages those women speedy commanders do not have to meet quotas for women and infantry. that does not exist. it does not exist. your statements are creating the impression that these exist because they do not. they are not quotas. we want the most lethal force. but i'm telling you haven't been

here for 15 years listening to testimony about men and women in combat and a type of operations that were successful in afghanistan and iraq. women were essential for many of these units. when major units went in to find where the terrorist deciding in afghanistan or in iraq, if they had a woman in unit they could go in, talk to the women in a village. say where are the terrorist? or other weapons? and get crucial information to make sure we can win that battle. you cannot denigrate women in general and your statements do that. we do what women in the military. especially in combat. what a terrible statement. please did not deny he's made the statements. you have. we take the responsibility very seriously and we will work with you. i'm equally distressed you would not meet with me before this hearing. we could have covered all of this before you came here so i could get to the 15 other questions i want want to get to.

so women your denigrated to give also denigrated members of the lgbtq community. did you know when "don't ask, don't tell" was in place we lost so many crucial personal, over 1000 mission-critical areas? we lost 10% of all our foreign language speakers because of a political policy. you said in your statement you don't want politics in the dod. everything you said in his public statement is politics. i do what women, i do want monster what's wrong with imam by the way? what you have babies you are therefore no longer able to be lethal? you are saying women after their children can ever serve in the military and a combat role. it's a silly thing to say. it's a silly thing to say. beneath the position you are aspiring to. to denigrate lgbtq servicemembers is a mistake. if you are a sharpshooter, you are is lethal regards of what your gender identity is come, regardless of you love. so please know this to be a true statement. you say it was a political

thing, you say it undermined social engineering. i don't know why someone having to publicly say or not publicly say who they love is social engineering. having that policy in the first place is highly problematic. as you sit in your statement, do you agree anybody should be able to serve in the military if they meet the standard? >> senator, as the president has stated, i don't disagree with the overturn of "don't ask, don't tell." >> great. because i don't want you thinking can't serve if you're a mom, can't surface of the dbq. and then last, cuts or if you're a leftist. the statement about people who have views fully than you that we are the enemy. are you saying 50% of that unity if they hold a liberal views were or leftist views for our democrats are not welcome in the military? are you saying that? >> senator, i volunteered to

deploy to afghanistan under democrat president barack obama. i also volunteered to guard the inauguration of joe biden but was denied the opportunity to serve because i was identified as an extremist my own unit for a christian tattoo. >> thank you very much. senator gillibrand, you held up a document and refer to it. would you like that entered into the record? [inaudible] >> we will submit speedy without objection, that will be submitted at the point of your question. i would like to enter into the record a letter of support from retired air force colonel melissa cunningham, colonel cunningham supports mr. hegseth and mentioned his warrior ethos combat effectiveness and maintaining military training standard. so without objection both of those will be admitted at a now recognize senator rounds. >> thank you, mr. chairman.

first of all good morning. i'd like to thank you for your service to our nation in uniform and also your work on behalf of your fellow veterans and for your willingness to enter into this maelstrom of public service. the present so many veterans who have showed up to support you speaks volumes. also to recognize your family service and sacrifice you know as well as anyone that is not just a man enters the arena but it's the entire family who also works the way through this process as well. i appreciated our meeting with you and with your wife jennifer at this last month. i thought we had an excellent conversation and i appreciate your statement and your answers to the advanced policy questions especially your desire to bring our renewed focus on war fighting lethality back to the pentagon. i also respect and appreciate my friend and colleague senator gillibrand in some of her questions i know she had a

number of them in there. you had an opportunity to respond very briefly. was there any other responses you'd like to make or clarification should like to make before i move on to my question? >> thank you bring much for the opportunity to meet and for the question. i would acknowledge you mentioned female engagement teams which have shown a great deal of success on the battlefield. universally acknowledged as such. i've been in iraq he homes where the language and gender barrier was real and the ability to have someone there to help in the process would be a massive 600 and mission success. i recognize that reality to also recognize fina engagement teams teams assigned to a seal team or green beret team meet different standards also which is okay because the duty positions involved in that job. as far as politics, it's been the joy of my life to lead men

and women in military outfits. when you're in combat or in training, there's a lot of conversations that happen and you start to realize a lot of people you're serving with show your political ideas for the don't. you find out the republicans, democrats, libertarians, independence, there's vegetation everything in between. that matters. it never mattered in how i lead men and women, how i interacted with them come what missions we undertook. politics has nothing to do with the battlefield. which is why president trump has asked me to say let's make sure all of that comes out. this is about war fighting capability, setting standards high in making sure we give our boys, our men and women everything they need to be successful on the battlefield. politics can play no part in that and i look forward to infusing that as we always have inside our unit. >> i appreciate you making that very clear.

one of the areas we want to do our best is to provide for the equipment at the technical capability so that no young man or woman enters into a battle has a fair fight and he alwae the advantage. those of the types of questions i'd like to get into now. i would you stop a type of something the sometimes gets into the weeds but if it is critical. mr. hegseth, from what i've heard from 24 senior dod officials in hearings over the last two years, including the secretary of defense, every service chief and eight combatant commanders has been sharing the portion of the spectrum, this is an weeds i pa. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: department of defense, peter hegseth of tennessee to be secretary.

the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee is recognized. a senator: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to urge my colleagues to support the confirmation of my constituents and friend, pete hegseth. mr. hagerty: last week during his four and a half hour confirmation hearing, america saw exactly why president trump nominated pete hegseth to be our next secretary of defense. pete is patriotic, smart. he's an energetic leader. his priorities are war fighters and having their backs. by focusing the department of defense on le that willty and -- lethality and competence rather than extraneous, political and social issues. he's the type of leader that can

inspire, recruit, and retain the absolute best talent america has to offer. despite pete's qualifications, the mainstream media desperate to derail president trump and his nominees has gone after pete's character by airing false and unsubstantiated claims. take, for example, the article published tuesday, just this week, by "the new york times." despite the salacious and misleading headline in this paper, buried beneath 13 paragraphs of slanderous allegations, the times actually disclaims the entire story from a direct quote from the supposed victim herself denying the allegations against pete saying, quote, there was no physical abuse in my marm. yet look at this headline. an ex-in-law claims he was abusive even though in the same article the second wife

disclaims all of this. this isn't journalism. take a moment to think about this. this is a hit job. "the new york times" intentionally ran with the salacious and debunked account, buried the truth, and distorted the lead simply to undermine president trump and his nominee. "the new york times" is not alone. unfortunately, nbc news, the hill, "politico" and even the associated press all chose to run this same salacious, false headline instead of the facts. unfortunately, i'm not surprised. this is the type of misleading and often unequivocally false reporting that we've learned to expect from the left-leaning media. the american people remember that "the new york times" is the same publication that denied and

suppressed the hunter biden laptop story leading up to the 2020 election. it's the same paper that endorsed joe biden in 20, the same paper that endorsed kamala harris in 2024. the american people are sick and tired of the deception stemming from this alliance between the democrat party and the so-called mainstream media. this is yet another example after story published with an aim to do harm, and despite evidence to the contrary, it's why media has lost much of its credibility with the american people who see this article for what it is -- a desperate, last-minute attempt to generate controversy where none exists. pete hegseth is someone who's going to fix the pentagon and deliver on president trump's vision of peace through strength.

he's exactly the type of leader that the pentagon needs in the face of an increasingly complex and escalating security situation that's occurring around the world. so while i'm disappointed, i'm not surprised at this 11th hour attempt by the media to raise debunked and completely discredited falsehoods simply with an aim to derail a confirmation. i urge my colleagues to see through this noise, evaluate pete's nomination based on the merits, which is why i plan to vote for mr. hegseth. i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. oh, i'm sorry. the presiding officer: will the senator withhold his request. mr. hagerty: yes, i move to vitiate the quorum request. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama is recognized. mr. tuberville: thank you, mr. president. i want to reiterate what my colleague from tennessee just

talked about the importance of the vote that we just took just a few minutes ago. our nominee for new secretary of defense, pete hegseth. now, the procedure is is, as we just voted, to close a vote and now we wait 30 hours from just a few minutes ago and have a final vote on his nomination. which it looks like that he has the votes of a majority to be appointed or sent to the white house to be confirmed as the next secretary of defense. i'm on the armed services committee, and i've watched four years of the destruction of the best military in the world, the united states of america. it is a shame what has happened, the dei, the woke agenda that's being pushed on the troops in our country, to me, is embarrassing.

i am a military brat. my dad died on active duty in the military, awarded five bronze stars and a purple heart at the age of 17, driving a tank across europe after landing on the first day in normandy. we have to change course in our military. we can talk about inflation and pumping gas and crime and all the things that we're having a lot of problems with, but if you don't have a strong military to protect our borders and the citizens in our country from adversaries all around the world, we've got problems. and it's got to start there. pete hegseth is the choice, the right choice. i like his age, i like his demeanor, i like the things he brings to our military. he's exciting, and he will energize this military into the next decade. and i'm -- and i'll excited about that. so hopefully in about 30 hours we'll vote tomorrow night around

9:00 and we'll vote to confirm pete hegseth as our new secretary of defense. now, i'd like to turn to national security threats in our nation's agriculture sector and food supply chains. i'm on the ag committee. over the past few years the united states has experienced a rapid increase in foreign investment in the agriculture sector, particularly from china. we have to open our eyes. bad things are happening around us. growing foreign investment in agriculture and other essential industries like health care and energy is a direct threat to our country's national security. you know, for years now i've been sounding the alarm about foreign ownership of american farmland and other elements of our food chain. according to the usda data from december 2023, foreign investors

own approximately 45 million acres of u.s. agriculture land. now, let me say that again. 45 million acres of our forest and agriculture land in this country has been sold to foreign entities. does that not scare us? what did we just see during covid about our drug supply? we looked around, we looked for health care and help after covid hit our borders, and what happened? we found out that it was all being made in china. so 45 million acres, this represents over 1.5 million acres in one calendar year. foreign ownership of u.s. agriculture land increased modestly from 2012 to 2017, an average increase of 0.6 million

acres per year. that's 2012 to 2017. but since 2017, the number has skyrocketed to an average of 2.6 million acres a year that we're selling, our farmland, to our adversaries. and it's just not china. it's russia. it's other entities that don't wish us well at the end of the day. so additionally between 2010 sand 2021, entities or individuals from china increased their ownership of u.s. agriculture land more than 20-fold, from about 14,000 acres to 400,000 acres. this is an unbelievable and unsustainable pace for the united states of america. now, alabama is experiencing -- my state -- this firsthand. we have the fourth-largest amount of foreign-owned agriculture land in the united

states, most of which is forestland. it's not really agriculture in terms of growing row crops. it's basically our forests. you know, i represent over 62,000 farmers in the state of alabama. i hear from them time and time again about foreign activity in our agriculture community. threats like these are something our states can't handle all on their own. which is why preyed ford established -- which is why president ford established the committee on foreign investments in the united states, also known in short terms, cfius. this was in 19 75. in other words, this committee is supposed to keep an eye on foreign investments in our country. this is the governmental body that oversees the vetting process of foreign investments and acquisition of american companies in the interest of national security. cfius is composed of nine

members of the president's cabinet, including the secretary of state, treasurer, defense, homeland security, and energy. the attorney general, the u.s. trade representative, and the director of office of science and technology policy also sit on this vetting board of industry and land in our country. nowhere on that list did you hear me say the secretary of agriculture. now, why is that? chinese investors and companies own 277,000 acres of agriculture land in the united states. considering the massive increase in foreign investment in our country, we need additional oversight for what's going on in our country. we got our eyes closed. which is why yesterday i introduced the foreign adversary risk management act, called the farm act, here on the floor that will accomplish three thaings. it would add the secretary of agriculture as a permanent

member of cfius. in other words, somebody that's going to help our agriculture people vet land that's being bought by foreign entities. second, it would protect the u.s. agriculture industry from foreign control through transaction mergers and acquisitions and greements or it would also designate agriculture supply chains as critical infrastructure and critical technologies. third, it would require a report to congress on current and potential foreign investments in the u.s. agriculture industry. this legislation, folks, is as long overdue. these foreign investments now overreach into every aspect of agriculture industry, from farming and processing to packaging and shipping. we cannot -- i repeat, we cannot allow our adversaries to have a foot in the door to our critical supply chains. food security is national security. we must prioritize increased

oversight of foreign investment in our food supply chains, especially those coming from china, russia, iran, and north korea. this starts with giving the agriculture community a permanent seat at the table of cfius. the farm act does just narcs and there's no -- the farm act does just that, and there's no better person than my good friend who we had a hearing today as the new nominee for secretary of agriculture, brook rollins. i have known brook for 30 years. i met her while i was coaching at texas a&m. she was the student body president. they saw then what we see today -- her strong conviction of u.s. agriculture. it will be no different when she becomes the secretary of agriculture for the united states of america. brook was brought up in a small agriculture community of glennrose, texas. she comes from several

generations of american farmers, participated in levels of 4h and faa, she raised livestock throughout her life. now she is a mother. she is involved in the show steer industry with her four children. she received her bachelor of science degree from a&m and later earned a law degree from the university of texas. later at the texas policy foundation, she was engaged with ruler and agriculture community -- with rural and agriculture communities throughout texas. she led efforts that focused on the defense of texas landowners and farmers against federal interference and regulations. next brook went on to serve in several roles in president trump's white house. she served as the director of domestic policy council, assistant to the president for strategic initiatives and director of the office of american innovation. in these roles, she helped roll back terrible rules like wotus

that targeted farmers and ranchers. she joined the america's first policy institute where she focused on protecting u.s. farmland and foreign entities seeking to gain control, especially from the chinese. the afpi, she strove to improve american food security, independence, as well as support measures that defund our -- or defend u.s. agriculture trade. brook understands these many challenges. in short, brook is a conservative warrior and will be an excellent ag secretary. i look forward to working with her to secure our farmland from foreign entities and working with her on passion a farm bill that -- on passing a farm bill that puts american farmers first again. i will continue fighting to secure our agriculture supply chain so our agriculture community can continue to foot -- put food on the table. that starts with someone like brook rollins as our secretary of agriculture. she is a terrific nominee, and i look forward to working with her on the committee.

i expect to move her -- to move easily through the committee vote and here on this floor. so once she's out of committee, the senate must vote on her for confirmation. she'll do great. she's perfect for the job. i ask that the senate take up both efforts quickly. i yield the floor. mrs. blackburn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. i concur with the remarks of my colleague from alabama. we're looking forward to covering pete hegseth. we're looking forward to working every single day until we get this cabinet completed, and brook rollins over at agriculture, we know that she is going do a stellar job, and i do commend the senator for his farm act. i've joined him in cosponsorship

on that bill to protect our nation's farmers and our farmland owners and producers. this has been an exciting week. on monday, we started with the inaugural of president trump. and i will tell you, for so many of us in tennessee and indeed across the country this has been a reason to absolutely rejoice. people -- it's so interesting to me, mr. president. so many people say they survived the biden-harris administration. isn't that an interesting way to think about it? the inflation, the border, all the issues? it was like survival, to get through those four years. and because of this, the american people have really given the trump administration and those of us in congress a

mandate. i refer to it as a to-do list. because at the blackburn hous hous household, when there's something that has to be addressed, chuck and i put it on a to-do list, meaning you don't stop until you get it done. well, the good things is one of the top things is the southern border and securing that, and indeed we know president trump has taken executive action to address this. he cut off that cbp one app and ended these migrant flights from other countries. he's ended catch and release. he restored the successful remain in mexico program. and importantly, he is designating the cart the as foreign -- the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. now, there are other things that

he is doing. we all know ice is conducting raids and doing deportations. and we know that congress is going to have to work with the trump administration to make certain that these executive actions that he's taking, that we pass laws so that this is in federal statute. now, one of those is the clear act, which is legislation i've had for years, and it ensures that state and local law enforcement officials can help the federal government with deporting these criminal illegal aliens. and by the way, that legislation requires ice to reimburse those local law enforcement agencies. of course, my container act, which again has been here for a while. it would empower the border communities, those communities that are right there on that border, farmers, ranchers,

communities that those crossing illegally are running through their property. it would allow them to place barriers on federal land in order to protect their communities. and my preventing violence against women by illegal aliens act. it would require illegals convicted of sexual offenses or domestic violence to be deported. these are individuals that have absolutely no business being in this country. and of course, we're going to have to do more than secure our border, and that means doing mass deportations. and here is the reason why -- under former president biden, more than ten million illegal aliens came into this country. now, those are the ones we know about. on top of this, you have a

classification that is called the got-aways. the got-aways are those that the border patrol could see on the ca camera, but they could not get to them to apprehend them. we know that in this number you've got tens of thousands of criminal illegal aliens. these are not people that are coming for a better way of life. these are people that have committed crimes in their home countries, and are looking to come here. now, we know this open border has caused far too many tragedies to begin to count, and this is the reason that this body voted in a bipartisan manner for the laken riley act, and that is going to be one of the very first bills that president trump signs into law.

and because of the american public's overwhelming support for a secure border, for an end to illegal immigration, we are on our way to making this country, making our communities safe again. now, we all know that border security is a critical part of national security. indeed, that southern border is where national security and foreign, our foreign affairs actually meet, because that border is being overrun by people from about 150 different countries every single year. now, we also know that when it comes to national security and how the world views us that president trump is showing that

strong leadership that is needed, and he was able to secure the release of two americans that were held by the taliban within hours of taking office. i think that the american people are realizing that president trump means business when it comes to our foreign policy and putting the interests of the american people in front of everything else. another issue that we're focused on for the american people is getting the cost of living back under control. we all know that for the four years of the biden administration we saw record inflation, we saw reckless spending, and tennesseans and, indeed, our citizens all across the country are still reeling from inflation. you know, mr. president, to me

it is just so interesting, when people talk about the rate of inflation they know it's not 2.9%, which the biden administration was touting as they left office. if you go back and look at where prices were in january of 2021, when joe biden took office and inflation was at 1.4%, and then you look at what has happened month by month, the true rate of inflation and price escalation, that true rate of inflation is north of 20%. indeed, i look up what it is costing tennessee families. and mr. president, the numbers were astounding, because if you look at a basket of goods and services that a tennessee family would buy in january 2021, so if

they took that basket of goods and services, bought that same basket of goods and services to today, their cost would be $1060 more for the same, exact same basket of goods and services. think about that. $1,060 per month. now, maybe that's a house payment or the equivalent of a car payment. that is a lot of money. and this is why americans are saying we want life to be affordable again, and it is why president trump has already signed executive orders to roll back regulations, and it's why he is moving forward with doge, the department of government effi efficiency, which will bring

forward ideas of how we root out waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government, and it's why he has frozen federal hiring, and done that hiring freeze which is so essential to being able to cap what the federal employment rolls are and get going on doging all of these agencies. well, to support these efforts, i found a series of bills called the doge acts. you know, mr. president, these are not things that are new. these are bills that i have been pushing for a long time, because it is important that we hold government accountable for how they're spending the taxpayer money. and president trump is pushing forward with these concepts. another area where we are going

to see attention in order to get the cost of living down is extending president trump's tax cuts to ensure that the american people are going to have more money in their pocket at the end of the month. you know, mr. president, there's a gentleman in tennessee that i ran into one day earlier in the biden administration, and i asked how he was doing, and he said, well, he had been fussing a little bit. what he was fussing about was the high price at the pump and the high price at the grocery store. he said, you know, under president trump i had some money left at the end of the month, and under joe biden i've got too much month left at the end of my money. people are tired of being broke. they are tired of it.

so, they're ready to move forward. another area where they're w wanting to see some action and they're so pleased with the steps president trump has taken, and that is protecting young women in sports. it's amazing to me how the left has abandoned our high school and college female athletes. you know, we have over three million young women who participate in sports every single day. they're competing. mr. president, you've got two beautiful daughters. they are competitive athletes. these girls work hard, and they deserve to be able to compete and win, but it is as if the biden-harris administration waged a war on these incredible young female athletes by

destroying fair play and forcing them to compete against biological men. and the results are tragic. young women who often dedicate their entire lives to becoming so proficient and skilled at a sport, they're missing out on scholarships, on career opportunities, and on hard-earned records that they deserve to hold. this harm, abuse, and unfairness is coming to an end, and on monday president trump signed an executive order that requires the federal government to recognize the biological reality of two sexes, male and female. and last week i reintroduced legislation that helps to stand up for women and girls in sports. now, there are two resolutions. one is calling on the ncaa to

protect women in sports. they need to rescind their rule that allows biological men to compete against women in ncaa sports. and in the other is to take october 10 of each and every year and designate this as american girls in sports day, and celebrate the accomplishments of our female athletes. i also have the fair play for girls act. it will require the u.s. attorney general to submit an analysis of violence against women in athletics, to submit that to congress as well as for policy recommendations to support these young women. well, as you can see, the to-do list is long, and i've barely

scratched the surface. the american people are looking forward to republicans deliver on the mandate that they have issued, and they certainly are looking forward to what will be the golden age of america. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. whitehouse: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island is recognized. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i rise now for the 296th time to direct our attention to what is coming at us through fossil fuel emissions causing our natural systems to be significantly disturbed. we are not yet all the way through the first week of the

second trump administration, and already trump has made his priorities clear. looters and polluters reign, and their feeding frenzy comes at the expense of the american people. i expect the looting and po poll polluting -- looting and polluting has only just begun. so we've made a new chart that will surely see the senate floor again. when president trump needed cash for his campaign, he knew just who to ask. he convened bill oil ceo's at mar-a-lago. he requested that they pony up $1 billion for his campaign, and he promised them he'd immediately reverse dozens of

president biden's environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted. giving him $1 billion, he said, would be a deal because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid, thanks to him. well, he's right about that being a super deal for polluters. the industry benefits from more than $700 billion a year in subsidy in the united states alone. $1 billion to trump to protect $700 billion to the industry, pretty good return on investment for fossil fuel. well, trump won, and the billionaires who funded president trump's campaign want their payback. payback began this week with a

big score for the looters and polluters. on his first day, president trump signed executive orders to lay the groundwork for weakening vehicle emission standards, raising costs for families. raising costs for families an average of $6,000 to $8,000, while also harming public health from the added emissions and weakening our american automobile industry's global competitiveness, a major gift to big oil at the expense of regular americans and consumers. to review epa's 2009 finding that the greenhouse gases are a danger, even though that finding has been upheld by the supreme court, the winners, the polluters driving climate change. dramatically release or eliminate the social cost of carbon to protect the fossil

f fuel-free-to-pollute business model. make subsidized fossil fuel winners over domestic clean energy losers. you remember when republicans used to say government shouldn't pick winners and losers? until it's the fossil fuel industry. withdrew from the paris climate agreement, helping fossil fuel undermine global efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas pollution. stopping offshore wind development. clean energy competition to his fossil fuel funders at the expense of american consumers, workers, and our own domestic manufacturing base. rhode island, by the way, is home to the nation's first offshore wind farm and a growing number of good union jobs in the industry. would president trump say to the country that on his first day in

office it was time to repay his big oil donors? well, that wouldn't have gone over well. so he had to pretend that all these donor handouts would benefit the public. his first day, executive order on energy begins by stating america's blessed with an abundance of energy and natural resources that have historically powered our nation's prosperity in recent years regulations impeded the development of resources, limited the reliability of electricity and inmrikt high energy costs on citizens, driving up the cost of transportation and the heating, utilities, farming and manufacturing while weakening our national security. virtually none of that is true. so let's look at the claims one by one. first, he got this right, america is indeed blessed with energy abundance.

where it's particularly abundant is in wind power. we have the third greatest offshore wind power potential of any country in the world. we have the fourth-greatest onshore wind potential anywhere in the world. indeed, wind resources in the great plains states alone could supply the u.s. with 16 times our electricity demand. that's energy abundance. then, as this map from our national labs shows, we have amazing solar energy resource potential, particularly in the southwest and through the southeast. now, trump defines energy as --

and i'm quoting here -- crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids, refined petroleum products, uranium, coal, geothermal heat, kinetic movement of thermal water and critical minerals. notice anything missing? that is literally every possible iteration of fossil fuel, plus nuclear, geothermal and hydro. everything except wind and solar which produced more energy than coal last year and could power the entire country. trump next claims regulations have impeded the development of energy resources, and by that, as we've just heard, he means fossil fuels. well, as he would say, wrong. under president biden, and

actually regrettably from a climate point of view, the u.s. produced more oil than ever before in the biden years. indeed, setting monthly records for oil production. so that wasn't true either. well, it is foolish to abandon those enormous wind and solar assets. not good for our country or our economy. good only for their fossil fuel competition. and there is an additional big economic danger if we stick with oil, because the u.s. is a high-cost oil producer. the average cost to produce a barrel of u.s. crude ranges from $50 to $70. in saudi arabia, the marginal

cost of production is around $10 a barrel. $50 to $70 for us. $10 for the saudis. that means our industry will always be vulnerable to cheaper foreign producers. and, by the way, it has happened before. in 2015, the saudis decided they didn't like america producing so much, so they turned on their spigots causing a big hit to american oil and gas companies. once they had tanked american production, they reduced their own back to normal levels, and the price of gasoline spiked for our consumers. they can do that again any time they want. it is basic business and economic sense not to put all

your eggs in an industry where you're the high-cost producer. we have competitive advantage in wind and solar with those massive resources and continent straddling range that spans multiple time zones, allowing wind and solar energy to be sent wherever the wind isn't then blowing or wherever the sun isn't then shining. we have massive clean energy opportunities. trump claims that existing energy policies have reduced job creation. again, wrong. oil patch jobs have been reduced not by regulations, but by automation, where the country has seen a job boom is in the low-carbon energy sectors, with more than 400,000 jobs created

since the passage of the inflation reduction act. low-carbon energy now employs more people than fossil energy. it's where the jobs are. not that big oil cares about that for one minute. trump claims that renewable energy is driving up energy costs for americans. wrong again. solar and wind have for some time been the least expensive forms of energy that there are. wind is the bottom blue line. solar panels is the bottom yellow line. they have been the cheapest since 2015. or if you go back further, 2013. we've had a solid decade of wind and solar being the least expensive forms of energy for the american public, but big oil

doesn't care. they just want to sell their dirty product. what is actually drive up energy costs for americans? the greed of big oil. after the russian invasion of ukraine, opec, the international cartel, jacked up prices, and u.s. oil producers rode along to epic profits off of those events. you just have to look at their sworn financial statements filed with the securities and exchange commission about what profits they earned. they earned the biggest profits in the history of the world. in a nutshell, they gouged. electricity bills also rose when the price of natural gas spiked after that russian invasion. climate change means americans are spending more to cool their homes because it's hotter than it's ever been. if you're living in phoenix or

houston or tampa, you're likely running your air conditioner nonstop for months on end, and that's on your electricity bill. and that's just going to get worse as trump's looters and polluters have their way. climate change fueled wildfires are forcing utilities in the west to spend billions burying transmission and distribution lines to avoid sparking more fires. that increases electric bills, another climate cost to consumers. and obviously trump's decision to let his big lng donors export more lng will drive up natural gas prices here at home. when there's less at home because more is going overseas, prices go up. that's supply and demand 101. and here again, under trump,

fossil fuel wins, american families lose, and big oil doesn't care. the wind and sun and flowing water and the earth's heat are all free fuels. fossil fuels put us at the mercy of foreign petro dictators and predatory cartels. just from a national security perspective, why not choose the free fuels that no outside actor controls? and then of course come the costs of climate change itself, burdening american families with climate-flation from grocery staples to insurance prices to shipping costs, all rising as the result of climate change disrupting agriculture, weather,

and transit. even gas price gouging by the industry thrown in. that's just the climateflation. then comes the danger to our entire economy. for a look into coming attra attractions, check out what's happening out in los angeles, where raging santa ana winds turbo charged wildfires, tearing through american families' homes, much because of climate change. climate change is perhaps the biggest systemic financial risk to our economy, and, thus, to families' personal finances. and where is this coming true first? in the insurance markets. insurance markets are the leading edge of our time of consequences.

the l.a. fires with insured losses in the tens of billions of dollars, on top of last fall's hurricanes which resulted in hundreds of billions in economic losses in florida, georgia, south carolina, north carolina, and virginia, are a dangerous blow to tottering insurance markets. in recent years millions of americans had insurance policies canceled due to rising climate risk. millions more saw skyrocketing premiums, particularly in florida, that forced families in some cases to drop coverage, leaving their families' most important financial asset -- their home -- exposed. inshiers are pulling out of -- insurers are pulling out of some markets all together, insurers are flooding mailbox with price

hikes and nonrenewals and that hits property values. the concern here is cascading failures. cascading failures from the insurance market to the mortgage market to a properties value collapse and that ends in economy-wide catastrophe. along the way, homeownership will move further out of reach for the middle class as homes are burdened with more risks and expense. property owners will have homes that they aren't able to sell because they can't be insured so a buyer can't get a mortgage to afford the house. there's a lot of pain before the collapse. we've been through a long period of climate lies, and now, unfortunately, we're entering

the period of climate consequences. to stave off the worst consequences we must eliminate the carbon pollution that is the root of it all. president trump's executive orders do exactly the opposite, exposing us to grave economic dangers, and for the worst of reasons, to reward wealthy interests who donated to his campaign. the american people need to watch their wallets. when president trump says he's fighting for you, think twice. he's actually fighting for the big oil donors, the fossil fuel billionaires who got him elected. the looters and the polluters are looking to get every richer, and they will loot working families, pollute mother nature

and damage our families' futures to do it. so we fight on. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina is recognized. mr. tillis: thank you, mr. president. i come today -- this weekend i was thinking about all the criticism president trump is receiving right now for some of what the liberal media, some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle kind of looking down their neck. i'm smarter than you, you're all wrong, you silly person, these sorts of narratives are going on all over the place. and as i heard it this weekend, it reminded me of a book that i read back in the 1990's about president reagan. it was pa bi-0ing -- it was a biography, how an ordinary man

became an extraordinary leader. if you remember back then, i was relatively young, but i remember people saying, ronald reagan, he's got this idea of the star wars -- they call it star wars because he thought he had an obligation to protect the american people by having some sort of shield against missiles, now we call it himars, and it is effectively a realization of that. but he was a silly actor from california who didn't know anything. what he did know was vision and what he did know were adversaries, and what he did know was other countries failing to do their part in defending and protecting democracy. how does that relate to president trump? president trump, over the past couple of weeks, has said things, and you have to admit when the president talks, he talks in big, beautiful words. but he said something about

canada being the 51st state, he said something about greenland maybe being a territory of the united states, he said he wants to rename the gulf of mexico to the gulf of americas which he did through an executive order because of his frustrations with mexico. and he wants to rename the panama canal. if you're somebody who lived through those criticisms of ronald reagan, i have a different take on it, mr. president. let's start with canada. why is president trump frustrated with canada? you -- if you were to total up the shortfall of the canadian's government contribution to nato over the last 24 years, they have fallen short by a third of a trillion dollars, almost $300 billion for our mutual defense, they've decided to not

pay into because why? because they happen to have the strongest greatest enduring democracy right to their south. they know the united states would prevent anybody from invading canada and they're taking it for granted. president trump is tired of being taken for granted. i don't care if he uses language like trudeau is the next governor. whatever gets the canadians' people attention to make them understand that we have a problem with our defense and they need to pay attention, canada needs to end their unfair trading practices when it comes to beef, milk and value-added transfers in the automobile industry. all of those are criticisms by president trump and i'm glad he had the insight to call them. let's go to greenland. i take this personally because i'm the republican leader of the

senate nato republican group. i spend a lot of time with our allies and i believe the nato alliance is the most important treaty that's ever existed and it's why we have free democracies today in the western world. when he's talking about greenland, he's trying to say, folks, wake up. russia and china for the first time in history had joint military exercises in the arctic. many people may not know that, we do. china is flexing their muscles, russia is flexing their mulls, they will in -- muscles, they are in our space. they are saying -- he is saying check up against what we've already seen over the last year between china and russia. so, yeah, if he wants to use the language that he uses, he's communicating a very important point. we need to project power in the arctic in a way we haven't before. those are the crazy comments

about canada and greenland. now let's go to mexico. mexico currently has right now an additional coequal branch of government. they call them the cartels. if you go to the southern border, you will see the cartels in action. they have these things called plazas, they decided to break up the geography on the border and charge people a premium to come across the border illegally, $5,000 to $10,000, they let china have precursors, and and take them and carry fentanyl across the border and kill over $100,000 people a year here. the vast majority of that comes from mexico. so of course the president should threaten tariffs and of course the president should say you should get organized crime out of the decision-making process in mexico, and if takes

the united states referring to the gulf of mexico as the gulf of america to get the mexican government and the mexican people's attention, i'm fine with that. they need to work with us on sealing the border, they need to focus on their southern border. they need to wake up because we have a new administration that's going to treat them like adults and not like what arguably could be sometimes petulant children. they have safety and security because of where they are on the globe and their close proximity to the united states. we expect both canada and mexico to be good partners, and i thank president trump for taking them to task. lastly, the panama canal, when president carter agreed to transfer ownership of the panama canal, with we made pa mistake -- made a mistake. and rest president carter's soul. we made the mistake of having the panama canal control could

never come under a communist nation, now china has contracts on either end of the ports. they control the ingress and ee guess. he -- ee guess. he of some people say that they don't control that. they have contracts either end of the panama canal. we've got to wake up. the president gets it. it's the most strategically important waterway in the world. mr. president, i'm going to wind up my remarks so the gentleman from florida can come. but i believe that president trump -- you can criticize him for his rhetoric, but you can't criticize him for the truth when you tease through that rhetoric. canada, europe, mexico, panama all own -- owe, in large part, their independence and their

ability to be a democratic nation on the united states. i think it is fair to suggest that they act like partners and treat the united states with respect, and i for one appreciate, although i wouldn't necessarily always use the words that president trump does, i don't disagree with his objective and i hope he keeps his foot on the accelerator. thank you, mr. president. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from florida is recognized. mr. scott: i thank my colleague's comments on canada, mexico, and the panama canal. we have to support the president. on november 5, the american public elected president trump with a clear mandate. democrats here in washington don't have to like it. but it's not up to them. that's what the american people decided. let's remember, we work for the american people. we don't work for democrats' special interest or radical

ideologies. democrats need to get over the fact that donald trump won to make government work for the american people. president trump put together a great team with the qualifications to deliver on that clear mandate. his nominees are fully qualified and have the votes to get them confirmed many think about this. when barak obama was elected in 2009, he had seven nominees confirmed on the first day, seven. how many do we have? one? by day three, president obama had 12. today's the fourth day of president trump's team and because of the democrats' obstruction we have only two of president trump's cabinet nominees confirmed. that's wrong. in 2021, joe biden's defense nominee lloyd austin was confirmed two days after biden took office. but here we are on january 23, 2025, it's been four days and president trump's nominee to

lead the department of defense has been reported out of committee but still has not gotten a vote. now, that president trump has been sworn in, it's time for democrats to put country before politics, quit obstruction and stall tactics and allow votes to confirm every single donald trump nominee. it's time to get to work for the american people. this starts with voting to confirm pete hegseth as secretary of defense today. not tomorrow, not the next day, today. we should not home for the weekend until he is voted in. i've seen clearly that we need ha leader in the pentagon who puts america's national interests above all else. i've seen how the biden-harris administration pushed the department of defense wokeness over being the most lethal defense in the world, they --

the biden administration put our national security and the safety of our troops at risk and we need someone who understands the mission and is ready to deliver. the status quo in washington, d.c., has gone unchallenged for too long. the pentagon, which failed seven consecutive annual financial audits is the best example of a government office unaccountable to the taxpayer. pete hegseth is a decorated combat veteran, and he understands how to reform the department of defense to make america's military the world's most lethal fighting force, that's what every american expects. he understands the military and their families make because he's been to war, led his fellow men and women into combat and knows individuals who lost their lives or gravely injured defending our nation. pete knows how to hold people

accountable, make sure that we promote based on meritocracy. after his active duty service, pete continues to stand by his fellow servicemembers by leading concerned veterans of american, demonstrating a commitment to our nation's fighters than the status quo, the left-wing media fixated on a smear gain. those who were close to him tell a different story, a positive story. the policies he championed with adopted by congress and the trump administration and will benefit veterans for generations to come. the department of defense is one of the largest bureaucracies. they push for accountability and bring needed reform. under president trump and pete's

strong leadership, the u.s. military will once again because the word's most lethal fighting force that our enemies fear and our allies respect. i'll do everything i can to support their mission. america has elected trump as a mandate for change. he's building a team to deliver. pete is the fighter we need and the right person to get the department of defense back on track. we live in a very dangerous world. and cannot risk safety of this nation any further by not having president trump's national security nominees in office today. i'd like to encourage my democrat colleagues to get over their loss. i'm sure it's hard. and let these nominees come to the floor for a vote. they can vote however they want but allow us to vote on these nominees. thank you, mr. president. thank you, mr. president.

just look at them.

let say just bipartisan solutions. the money and or and influence and repeals a $35 insulin cap. eliminates head start. paves the way for national abortion ban. you name it. this man is being put in charge. the believers of power to implement these dangerous, dangerous proposals. as you know, the omb director holds one of the most critical positions in the federal government. it affects every federal agency, every local economy, every town, every city, every family. someone in this position has to understand what working families in america need. all the things that donald trump said such a high percentage of

the things he said on the campaign trail and promised would be undone by project 2025. american people, each american knew what was in it, they would be aghast that the man in charge is now being put at the leaders of power. project 2025 did so many bad things. it is hard to/social security medicare and medicaid, eliminate head start. cut snap. make drug prices go up because it won't do anything against big pharma. his vision is not just reckless, it is catastrophic. catastrophic. this man, i believe, i met with him yesterday and asked him to tell me one thing and project 2025 that you reject. he could not name a single thing a single thing in this parade of horrible spirit and, so, he will do all of that and then of course he is one of the masters.

he has been leading the charge of impounding the funds. this unelected man from the heart right extreme, far away from what most republicans a spouse, would decide what funds that we allocate could go forward, could be used, so, as dangerous as what he said and project 2025 is and as dangerous as giving him the ability to have a say in what the administration does and all those things, the danger is equally as bad. he could just say i do not like this program, i am not spending the money on it and then there would be years for the court case to decide. this man is a horrible nominee. i hope our republicans on the other side will just see what this guy is all about and decide that they can do better. i wish president trump would look at what the guy proposed so opposite of what many of the things trump tried to say in his

campaign. our northstar is to ease the burden on american family. to make them pay less for things , to have more dollars in their pockets, to have better lives. nothing could be farther from that goal then picking mr. vote as head. senator murray. >> thank you. making very clear that s trumps a budget director, he will put everything, as you can see, on the chopping block. programs that people rely on to the checks and balances that our democracy is actually founded on in the same row last time vote tried to break the law to give president trump unilateral authority he does not possess to override the spending decisions of congress. it defies all common sense and judgment to put them back in the same role. chief project 2025, he has doubled down on lawlessness,

charted a blatantly unconstitutional plan for the president to ignore the will of congress. not to mention his long history of antiabortion extremism. this is someone who does not even believe in exceptions for rape or incest or the life of the mother. given his extremism and his clear disdain for the rule of law, we should not handle power that he has made clear he will abuse to help billionaires get ahead at working people's expense. yesterday i asked him directly, will you follow the law because even if you disagree with the law, you cannot ignore them. maybe you do not like the 25- mile per our speed limit, but it less it is changed or struck down, you do not have to follow it. this is something every single american understands except for apparently russ vote. the common control act remains the law of the land and the

constitution gives congress, not the president, the power of the purse. and yes russ vote will not say that he will follow the law. if you are not willing to follow our laws, then you cannot be trusted to implement our laws. if you will not commit to respecting constitutional checks and balances, then why on earth should congress or the american people and trust you with power. seriously, no senator that believes congress holds the power of the purse should vote for a director that will not respect the laws that we pass or disburse the investments we lawmakers have secured for hours day. i'm not talking about whether or not our constituents have their voices, we are actually talking about whether they have their vote in voices heard. we are talking about the most basic ability of congress to negotiate deals and do our jobs. how are we ever supposed to reach a bipartisan compromise

here if vote and president trump are just going to a nor any bargain we strike as the president has already taken sweeping action to do just that the that is not rhetorical, i want an answer. if the president can just decide he will not fund infrastructure project programs that congress funded on a bipartisan basis, how will we ever get anything done around here? what are the communities that we represent? when we talk about russ vote talking about sweeping cuts to programs that people rely on every single day. he has made all too clear as omb director he will not just draw blood, he will cut programs families rely on. families that are hungry that they rely on. a wall of paperwork cap people from their healthcare. thousands of public-service force that serving the american people matter. may i be recognized.

the presiding officer: you're recognized. mr. booker: i appreciate it, the senator from florida with a hair cut almost as good as mine. every year the pages come through in cycles. i shouldn't say every year. there's multiple classes of pages. this is an extraordinary class of pains. i have issues with them which i will air later but one of the issues we've resurrected in this congress is the page poetry contest. and this time we had just a very small -- a paucity of pages participated. and we have a number of them. katie britt and her eminent brilliance and eye have picked our top ones. katie has picked one that i will mention but we want to give these four of the six -- i feel bad for the two we left out. we want to give them our highest honors. about you first the runner-up in the third position is kia.

there you are. you are the number three. i would read your poem but we don't have time. you are articulate. you are eloquent. i teared up when i read your poem it was so powerful. and potent. and then the number two, before i read the two winners, the one selected by me and the one by katie britt, holden. where is holden? every here as well, holden. holden, your poem too brought me to depths, depths and heights. it took me to the zenith. it was very poetic. you have talent as well. and then the two winners. katie britt has chosen jake. jake, why are those pages signature down?

stand up. be accounted for yourself. jake, you are now going to forever go into the senate record. are you prepared for this, jake? your works shall live forever. here goes -- five months i've walked these halls of history, where wisdom lingers, woven in the air. to serve the nation, humble though it be, i've witnessed duty's weight and leaders' care. the echos of debate in chambers vast where laws are forged and futures shaped with might have shown me how the present shapes the past and kindled faith in governments alike. i watched as leaders certified the will, a testament to voices heard though times are tense a

steadfast march to write what once was wrong, the service marks the start of dreams anew. to shape the world with honors hue. i'm going to pause. this might be the first time the presiding officer has ever cried. are you okay, presiding officer? he's going to make it. congratulations. you are one of the two poet champions of the united states page class, fall page class. [applause] mr. booker: yes! yes! don't get an ego. don't let it go to your head. don't be like a senator. the other one -- the final champion, miss pollen. yes. yes. okay, here's your poem. we stand on blue carpeted

floors. from a.m. to p.m. we open senate doors. 18 heels and curved backs. we feel our composure starting to craft but in walks a senator and posture is correct. pages come together, all hands on deck. excitement overtakes persistent exhaustion, as we wait to hear debates on legislation. people of power laugh and joke, as we watch and realize, they're just common folk. against the walls we silently hear colleagues and officials, but most of all friends dear. within this room, there stands a central divide, but there exists no aisles in our hearts and our minds. that was fantastic.

[applause] mr. booker: i am grateful for the poetic effort. i'm grateful for our promotetory champions who will -- for our poetry champions who will forever live in the annals of poetry. i will proceed to demonstrate in a these page writings are good but now i will show them by reciting my own original poem. before i do, let me make at these pages an angry poke. dear god, you've all been here for five months and you couldn't tell me one good joke? come on. you are the worst joke tellers, heaven knows. but pip he'll done. i -- but i'm done. i got my poem to read. so here goes.

pages, with your suits so navy, understanding what you signed up, some people might think you're crazy. you clearly are the opposite of lazy. up at 5:00 a.m., your teenage brains must be hazy. taking a full load of classes -- history, calculus with its parabulus so wavy. but that ain't the end of your days. you work full-time with your job on the flurox serving republican senators like rich and democrats like mazie. you man phones and open doors. you tirelessly do the senate's unglamorous chores in this job away from your fam hock only see you if they -- who can only see if you they join the other americans who regularly watch c-span. but yet you are vital to this

place. i hope you all see. in our federal democracy, some might call you the foot soldiers of the senate slowly making history. and in this place of sometimes too many partisan wars, you are this powerful, gentle nudge to all of us old dinosaurs. that we are here for you, the future of our nation, you are a constant reminder of our sacred obligation, to put country first, you are suddenly telling us in this sacred space that we are not individual athletes but actually running a relay race, soon the baton we will place in your hands, the next generation to lead with honor, determination, and, i pray, grace.

so, pages, with your suits so blue, serving the senate tried and true, doing everything we ask you to do, walking around barely awake some day, but you still made it through. here are three pieces of advice i have for you -- first, leap into the unknown even if it seems scary. just give it a try, like you found out here into the senate experience that had to petrify. leap. i know that to some of your friends that it must stupefy. don't play it safe hunkering down just to fortify. jump at tough challenges because life is simple. if you don't take great risks at falls, you'll never see how high

you can fly. second, make friends with people who think different and with whom you don't agree. this is the very idea of democracy. you've witnessed it here on the senate floor, the tv often tells us that we should hate those who are different, but clearly you now know more. we are so much more than a partisan tribal war. compromise is essential. our founders foreswore. i talk to be unifiers, common ground builders, defining yourself not by who you are against but by who you are for. take our national ideal of e-e pluribus unum and reclaim its p splendor. be a men storks not just to our democracy but you are tasked with making it soar.

and, finally, pages, with your suits so clean, my last piece of advice is to dream bolder dreams. i believe it, that for you there is no lymphation. -- limitation. god, you are already living way behind your ancestors' greatest imagination. past general rapingses did great things. they took humanity to flight. took on the most awful wrongs and incredibly made them right. it's your turn with grits, guts, and gumption to dream america anew, challenge my generation's limited assumptions. dream america anew, don't wait for permission. dream america anew. this is your mission. dream america anew, beyond what even your parents can now see. dream america anew, and bring us

to new heights of freedom, justice, and prosperity. pages, dream america anew, dream america anew, dream america anew. this is my advice but also my prayer for you. oh, and for all of history, i hereby put into the official senate record this truth, not a rumor -- the senate class, my friends, was incredible, kind, dedicated, but you lacked a sense of humor. mr. president, i see the extraordinary colleague here. we read her collected poem already, but i will tell you there are 99 colleagues but nobody is more the surrogate senate page parent than katie

britt, the senator from alabama. i hope that i have learned from her the power of simple everyday kindnesses. mr. president, i defer to my friend/colleague, the senator from alabama. mrs. britt: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mrs. britt: mr. president, i walked out of a meeting and got to see my dear friend and distinguished colleague from new jersey addressing these incredible individuals behind me, in front of me, and all around the room. and so in typical fashion, i literally ran out the door to come and be a part of this. first, i think you know that my distinguished colleague from new jersey and i, one of our favorites things that we get to do each and every semester that you're here is host you, host you for lunch and conversation

in a way that i think america needs to see. we do it across the aisle. we have laughs, thanks to this one. and we have a good time, and we get to dive into who you are and what your questions are and what this body is about. getting to be a part of this distinguished poetry contest that you have -- that's a new one for me, and it's one that i hope i get to continue to do because, guys, y'all are incredible. what i was reading through these, it reminded me not only how special it is that we get to walk in these doors every day, how incredible this body is and the gravity of the jobs that we do, but it showed me how phenomenal each and every one of you are for giving up your time, your energy, and your talent to make sure that this institution

and our nation are better. so thank you -- thank you, thank you, for what you have given to this country through your service here the last couple of months. and my distinguished colleague from new jersey has said it best, but just to add a couple of pieces of advice on your way out the door, be unafraid to pavement -- to fail. folks or, i am not going to lie to you. it is not fun to fail. without your willingness to do it, you will never achieve what's possible for you and what god has in front of you. and, look, when you do fail, learn from it. take a step back. figure out what role you played in that, what you can do better, how you can be better, and how you can grow as a result. because i have found that everybody knows your peaks in

life. but it is your valleys that actually truly define you and that they prepare you to climb the next hill. also -- and i hope you have seen this on the senate floor -- you do not have to agree with someone to show them respect. and in fact we are counting on you to be respectful for those that you agree with and disagree with. that's what this nation was founded on, the ability to have these conversations, challenging conversations, with people that you respect, with people you've built a respect with, that you may not agree with. we need your generation to help us continue to bring that back. i've seen that from each and every one of you and am inspired by the way that you've conducted yourself. and then last but not least, get in the arena. right? now, everyone's arena is

different. everyone's lane is unique, and that's not just okay; it's necessary. but we need you to be unafraid to jump in and to move this nation forward because at the end of the day, we need you. -- we need you to cleave for the -- to achieve for the american people, not only in your community and state but truly across the country. you've all been given a special gift, but it's up to you to utilize that to effect as many people as you possibly can in a positive way and make the world around you better as a result of who you are and the way that you conduct yourself. and so, all of that to say it has been an honor and a privilege to get to know you, from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of all of our colleagues we are grateful for you. i am grateful for my friendship with the senator from new jersey, and i hope that our

friendship has served as an example for you of what is possible when you maybe put differences aside, you get to know each other as people. you can have tough conversations, find common ground, and move good things forward. thank you. mr. president, i yield the floor back to my distinguished colleague from new jersey. mr. booker: thank you to katie britt, the tough as nails senator who will never quit. before i quit -- i can't stop myself. i thought it right, and thanks to elizabeth, we should have all the poems into the senate record. with that, i'd like to ask unanimous consent that all six participants, including the two i didn't name, gabriel -- where is gabriel? gabriel, solid, solid piece of work. i was splitting hairs. the only thing that dissed you was the capital subway is my home, it rides underneath the great dome? i thought it was a lie that the

capitol subway is your home. i see you rarely on the subway. your poetic genius is there. i dinged you because it was not truthful. then the other name i want to give is xavier. where is xavier? where is xavier? xavier's not here? that's why xavier did not get -- i knew he would not be here. it is terrible. it is terrible. that's what we pages are meant to observe and to learn from others the pride to serve. i see no pride in his not being here right now. but i will say that they deserve to be in the senate record. again, all six poems, all six participants will be there. katie britt, thank you for your kind words. and mr. president, we turn the senate back over to its usual programming. although i do not think anything that will happen on this floor will be as fun as the fun that katie and i just had. thank you very much. the presiding officer: without

obje objection.

i left the hearing last week with the number of unanswered

questions and some real concerns about his qualifications and ability to serve in the role as secretary of defense. every single nominee for secretary of defense from both democrats and republican administrations have met with me and other members on both sides of the aisle on the committee before their confirmation hearings. i voted for every one of those nominees. both democrats and republican administrations. i did not always agree with their views or their policies, but i thought that they all had the qualifications and the temperament to be the secretary of defense so i said or did their nominations. but, mr. hegseth chose not to meet with the or any other senate democrats except for the ranking member zach reed and t

broke long-standing traditions to make sure that our work on national security remains free from partisanship. i think that that is the important point. we are stronger as senators, as congress, as a nation, if we are acting together. the committee, unfortunately, was not afforded the opportunity to ask a number of rounds of questions so there are number of questions about his views, particularly regarding foreign policy and military possible -- policy that we did not get an answer to. i become the ranking member on the foreign relations committee so i very concerned about the role of the united states and the world. i think the american people expect transparency regarding mr. hegseth's ability to stand by our allies and partners to uphold international agreements, to abide by rules of engagement

and the bottom line, support the men and women in a way that not only keeps us safe but protects them as well. the almost 3 million men and women that serve our nation deserve a secretary of defense who does not need this in harm's way but seek to divide them with partisan politics. i would like to address a few issues now. it is what we are able to get to at the hearing because we are not able to ask for the one round of questions. i want to start with the role with our alliances and allies and our partners play in our own national security. from the start of the nation that we are stronger and safer will be lead together with our allies. we are fortunate because we have strong allies and partners.

we do not see that coming from vladimir putin, from she and china. but the united states that can stand with us. the most important security agreement we have had i think any time in our nations history is nato. it is a critical indispensable part of our national security and yet the president's nominee wrote in his book american crusade that nato is a relic and that it should be scrapped. now, since this nomination, mr. hegseth has tried to walk back his opposition to one of our key international alliances to nato, and advanced policy questions for the committee he calls nato a "vital u.s.

interest" in defending from russia and vladimir putin. the sudden reversal is welcome because i think it is very important that our secretary of defense understands how critical nato is and that it is stronger now any time in the last since it was formed probably. mr. hegseth 11 our conversion to understanding importance of our allies and partners is raising questions about what he really believes. we ask on our questions for the record about nato and we did not get much of a response. now, having the opportunity i would've also brought up ukraine and mr. hegseth the

peaceful transfer of power. mr. president, in the united states we believe that the people, not elected politicians, decide who is their president. in both of those principles have served our democracy very well, through thick and thin, through strife and turmoil, for the past 248 years. mr. president, both of those principles were challenged on january 6, 2021. a mob that was incited by then president trump attacked the capitol for the explicit purpose of using violence to overturn the peaceful transfer of power. they were trying to intimidate elected politicians to substitute their judgment, their preferred candidate for president, instead of acknowledging the will of the people that they represented.

but our democracy endured. that is the very good news. and in testament to that, we just witnessed a renewal of america's commitment to the peaceful transfer of power, with the inauguration of donald trump as our 47th president. however, mr. president, i speak to today, sadly, about one of the first actions of president t trump, and that of course is pardoning 1600 people and commuting sentences of 14 very dangerous criminals who were involved in that violent attack on january 6. mr. president, speaking for myself, i condemn that action by president trump. mr. president, i was there that day, many of us were. i was in the gallery of the house of representatives. it's a day i won't forget, but america will never forget. it's had a deep impact on our

country, the citizens, the folks who work here, and that honorable tradition of the peaceful transfer of power. you know, i was very amazed and proud to see officers, men and women, who withstood this assault. more than 150 officers from u.s. capitol police and the d.c. metropolitan police department were injured that day. five officers died in the af aftermath. and there was severe damage to the senate chamber, the house chamber, the office buildings and the capitol rotunda, where we just had another inauguration only a few days ago. blood, feces, debris was everywhere, an at cost of close to $3 million. so mr. president, how is it that one of the first acts of our

president, who wants to be an un fire, was to pardon those people who acted with such violence, such anger, and such contempt? president trump has tried to erase this attack and rewrite the history of what happened on january 6, calling the insurrectionists, including those who fought with the police, patriots and hostages. they were neither. mr. president, i ask, should the president of the united states pardon a person who was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for stealing a police riot shield from an officer, and then using it to assault officers? should a person who is affiliated with a neo-nazi group and serving a sentence for breaking the law in charlottesville in 2017 and who quoted hitler before sexual

assaulting an officer in the u.s. capitol, should that person be pardoned? i say no, mr. president. should a president pardon a person who orchestrated this riot after being convicted by a jury of impartial citizens and being convicted of seditious conspiracy? mr. president, i say no. should a president pardon a person who is sentenced to more than six years for beating the police with a metal whip, assaulting them with bear spray, something that can cause lasting eye damage, should that person be pardoned? i say no. mr. president, should a person who at his own trial said he didn't think he was subject to the laws governing the united states, and who before storming

the capitol bragged that what the british did to d.c. will be nothing compared to what he does? should that person be pardoned? i say no. mr. president, should a person who said many of us should be hanged, should that person be pardoned? i say no. mr. president, i am very proud of the men and women of our law enforcement community. the u.s. capitol police and the d.c. metropolitan police department who stood their positions and defended the capitol and defended the peaceful transfer of power. and i have in mind someone who was standing over me in the capitol when i was in the gallery and the mob was trying to break down the doors, breaking the glass of the house

chamber, and this officer was a young man who commuted to work from about an hour away, an hour away. he had two young children. he had his gun out, and i looked at his face, and i could see the last thing in the world he wanted to do was to have to use that weapon. but i saw that he was going to do his job and whatever was required to protect the people who were in that gallery. and i just thought to myself, how is it that people who are attacking could have such disregard for the reality of this person's life and how much it would change his life if he actually had to use that fi firearm. and i'm proud too of officer brian sicknick, who lost his life. officer howard liebengood, officer jeffrey smith, officer

gunther, officer kyle defratag, all of whom died in the aftermath of january 6. these presidential pardons are disrespectful. they are also dangerous. they are disrespectful to the men and women who served, who suffered the violence and are living with the consequences. and they're dangerous to the men and women of law enforcement who serve us every day. the pardons validate the violence of the mob p and dishonor the service of those who protect us. mr. president, these unconscionable and appalling actions of january 6 should be repudiated by every member of congress. and whatever differences we have, it is vital that those differences be resolved at the

ballot box and that the will of the people always be respected. no citizen, however passionate they may be about their political beliefs, no matter how disappointed they may be at the outcome of an election, is justified in attacking the men and women of the capitol police. their actions should be condemned by each of us and by our president. those actions should not be condoned with pardons. mr. president, i yield back.

lawmakers have been working on president trump's nominees. earlier today a senate confirmed john radcliffe could be the head of the cia backed by a vote of 74-25. lawmakers also voted to advance defense secretary.

joint democrats and building a nominee. a final vote on mr. hegseth could occur tomorrow at about 9:00 p.m. eastern. looking at other nominations for senate intelligence committee announced a confirmation hearing on january 30, 2000. in the meantime several other nominees headed epa chris riper energy secretary and doug program for interior secretary were advanced by their respective committees. further votes have not yet been scheduled by the full senate. [applause]

just four days into your rule mandate we highly appreciate your presence with us today. we wish you all the best as you take on your critical walk ahead challenges that we face today arm monumental. problems of american leadership and your personal leadership is fundamental and paramount. we are here to hear your mission and what is related to

revitalizing the economy in addressing global challenges. as you may expect, mr. president , your return to office and your first coming priorities have been at our discussions this week and discussions among 3000 political and business leaders from over 130 countries. we look forward to hearing first from you and what discussion business leaders related by my colleague. ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states, donald j trump. [applause]

>> thank you very much. hello to everyone and beautiful davo steered this has been a truly historic week in the united states. three days ago i took the oath of office and we began the golden age of america. the recent presidential election was won by millions of votes in all seven, every one of them, all seven swing states was a massive mandate on the american people like has not been seen in many years and some of the political pundits, even some of my so-called enemies, the most consequential election victory in 129 -- 129 years. that is quite nice. what the world has witness is nothing less than a revolution of common sense. our country will soon be stronger, wealthier and more united than ever before in the entire planet will be more peaceful and prosperous as a result of this incredible momentum and what we are doing

and going to deal. my administration is acting with unprecedented speed to fix the disasters we have inherited from a totally in-depth group of people solving every crisis facing our country. this begins with confronting the economic chaos caused by the failed policies of the last administration. over the past four years our government rack update trillion dollars in wasteful deficit spending and inflicted nation wrecking energy restrictions, crippling regulations and hidden taxes like never before. the result is the worst inflation crisis in modern history and sky high interest rates for our citizens and even throughout the world. the price of almost everything known to mankind when through the roof. president biden totally lost control of what was going on in our country. in particular with our high

inflation economy at our border. because of these policies total government spending this year is $1.5 trillion higher than was projected to occur when i left office just four years ago. likewise the cost of servicing the debt is more than 230% higher than was projected in 2020. the inflation rate we are inheriting remains 50% higher than the historic target. the highest inflation probably in the history of our country. that is why from the moment i took office i have taken rapid action to reverse each and every one of these radical left policies that created this calamity. in particular with immigration, crime and inflation. on day one i signed an executive order directing every member of my cabinet to marshal all powers at their disposal to defeat inflation and reduce the cost of daily life. i impose a federal hiring freeze

, a federal regulation freeze, a foreign aid freeze and i created a new department of government efficiency. i terminated the ridiculous and incredibly wasteful green new deal. i call it the green new scam. withdrew from the one-sided climate accord and ended the insane and costly electric vehicle mandate. we will let people buy the car they want to buy. i declare a national energy emergency. that is so important. national energy emergency to unlock liquid gold under our feet and paved the way for rapid approvals of nuclear infrastructure. the united states is the largest amount of oil and gas so any country on earth and we will use it. not only will this reduce virtually all goods and services and make the united states a manufacturing superpower, and the world capital of artificial

intelligence and crypto. my administration has already begun the largest deregulation campaign in history far exceeding even the record heading efforts of my last term. in total, the biden administration opposed $50,000 in additional regulatory costs on the average american household over the last four years. i have promised to eliminate old regulations for every new regulation which will soon put many thousands of dollars back in the pockets of american families. to further unleash our economy our majorities in the house and senate which we also took a long with the presidency are going to pass along the largest tax cut in american history including massive tax cuts for workers and families and a big tax cuts for domestic producers and manufacturers and we are working with the democrats on getting an

extension of the original trumpet tax cuts as you probably know. by just reading any paper. my message to every business in the world is very simple. come make your product in america and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth. we are bringing them down very substantially, even from the original trumpet tax cuts. if you do not make your product in america which is your prerogative, then very simply, you will have to pay a tariff, differing amounts, but a tariff, that will direct hundreds of billions of dollars and even trillions of dollars into our treasury to strengthen our economy and pay down debt. ....

that's the highest ever and there's never been anything like that. some banks announced between 10,200,000,000,000-dollar investment in new s. economy of the election results in just two days ago open ai announced a 500 billion-dollar investment in ai infrastructure. other companies likewise have announced billions and billions adding up to trillions of investment in america and the united states and its also reported today in the papers saudi arabia will be investing at least $600 billion in america. i'll be asking the crown who is a fantastic eye to round it out to around 1 trillion.

i think they will do that because we've been very good to them and i'm going to ask saudi arabia and opec to bring down the cost of oil. we have got to bring it down which frankly i'm surprised they didn't do it before the election. that didn't show a lot of love. i was a little surprised by that. if the price came down the russia ukraine war would end immediately. right now the price is high enough that it will continue. you have to bring down the oil price. they should have done it long ago. they are very responsible actually to a certain extent for what's taking place. millions of lives are being lost. with oil prices going to mount a manned interest rates drop immediately and likewise they should be dropping all over the world. interest rates should follow us. all over the progress you are seeing is happening because of our historic victory in the recent presidential election one that has become quite well-known her of the world.

a lot of things are happening to a lot of countries. they say there is light shining all over the world and even countries who we are particularly friendly with our happy because they understand there's a future and how great the future will be under her leadership. america is back open for business in this week i'm taking swift action to stop being invasion at our southern border. they allow people to come in at levels that nobody's ever seen before were just. i decided and declared to do a very importantly a national emergency on our border immediately halting all entry of illegal border crossings of which there are many in begin promptly returning illegal trespassers back to the place from which they came. that action as you've probably seen has started strongly and active-duty u.s. military and national guard troops at the border to assist in repelling,

it was really an invasion. we will not allow our territory to be violated after four long years the united states is strong and sovereign and the beautiful nation once again and the strong sovereign nation. in addition i'm pleased to report america is a free nation once again from day one i signed an executive order to stop all government censorship and no longer will our government withhold the speech of our own citizens is misinformation or disinformation. they are the favorite words of sensors and those who wish to stop the free exchange of ideas and frankly progress. we have saved free speech in america and we have saved it strongly with another historic executive order this week. i also ended the weaponization of law enforcement against the american people and frankly against politicians. i've restored the fair equal and

impartial rule of law. my administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity equity and inclusion and these are policies that were absolute nonsense. throughout the government and the private-sector derisi get somewhat unexpected great supreme court decision just made america will once again become a merit-based country. to hear that word, merit-based country. i have made it official and official policy of the united states that there only two genders, male and female. we will have no men participating in women's sports and transgender operations which became the rage will occur very rarely. finally as we restore common sense in america we are moving quickly to bring back strength and peace and stability abroad.

i'm also going to ask all nato nations to increase defense >> to 5% of gdp which is what it should have been years ago. it was only at 2% at most donations didn't pay until i came along. insisted that they pay and they did. the united states was paying the difference at that time and it was unfair to united states. many things have been unfair for many years to the united states. before even taking office my team negotiated a cease-fire agreement with the middle east that wouldn't have happened without us as a think most of the people in the room now. earlier this week the hostages began to return to their families. they are returning and it's a a miracle side and they'll be coming in more and more. they will be back on sunday. our efforts to secure peace between russia and ukraine are now hopefully underway and it's so important to get that done. that's an absolute killing

field, and millions of soldiers are being killed. nobody has seen anything like this since world war ii. there'll laying dead all over the fields field and the flat field farmland and there are millions of russian and millions of ukrainians. nobody is seen anything like it since world war ii. it's time to end it and here in america we have big events coming up but but this year they have the 250th anniversary of america's founding. i'm so honored to be president. it's a big event they have been talking about it for 10 years. i understand janice in the world -- is in the room. he was instrumental and he's there with you someplace i think that i want to thank you for that and then we have the olympics coming up which i was instrumental in getting all signed my first term. who would have known that by skipping a turn i would get the

olympics. i was upset. i got the olympics and i didn't become president and it turns out they are a stroke of luck or whatever you call it i'll be president during the olympics and the world cup and the 50th anniversary so that will be a big event. we have accomplished in less than four days we have been working four for days with other administrations to accomplish it in four years and we are just getting started but it's an amazing thing to see in the spirit in the light over our country has been incredible. under the administration or nation has suffered greatly but we are going to bring it back can make it greater, bigger, stronger and better than ever before. but i want to thank everybody for being with you but i would have been there myself except the inauguration was two days ago. i thought it might be quick to make it but we will get there one day. but i do appreciate. i heard the audience is fantastic and many of my friends

are in the audience. i will be taking questions now from some very distinguished people. thank you all very much. [applause] thank you, thank you very much mr. president for that very powerful speech and i thank you could hear the applause all the way to the white house. next year will be even better because you can begin to we welcome you next year and we hope to see you. >> thank you very much. >> mr. president we will open it up for interaction. we have a great panel with some of the most distinguished business people in the world. let me start with someone that you know really well that i think is almost a neighbor of yours in mar-a-lago in florida. mr. steve schwarzman chairman

ceo and co-founder of blackstone group. the floor is yours. >> mr. president i'm sure the crown of saudi arabia will be really glad you gave this speech today. it had the busiest for days that anybody can imagine and congratulations for that. my question is about some of the things i've observed here at davos. it's a terrific forum. i've met lots of people as usual. i think i've been here 30 years and a lot of the european business people have expressed enormous frustration with the

regulatory regime in the eu and they attribute slower growth rates here because of the numerous factors but especially because of regulations. and you have taken a completely different approach in this area. if you could explain the theory of what you are doing and how you are going to do it and what you expect the outcome to be. i would appreciate it. >> we will thank you very much and congratulations to you. you've had an amazing career and it continues and i want to congratulate you for the inspirational to a lot of people. i want to talk about the eu because you mention specifically and i also have a lot of friends and leaders of countries.

i've gotten to know all of them in my first term in a little bit during this. mecca for years and knew them well and like the malott. they are very frustrated because of the time everything seems to take to get approved an environmental impact statements for things we shouldn't even how to do that in many other ways. i'm going to give you quick little example. in the private life my beautiful private life before it had all these things happening. the world is a little different. when i had that simple life i did projects and i had a big project in ireland. it had to get approval on something that would have made it even better, and i got the approval from ireland in the period of the week. it was a very, very efficient and good approval. they informed me the problem is you're going to have together from ee you really think that will take five to six years. i said you have to be kitting.

this was before politics and they said wait a minute it's not that important. i don't want to go five or six years but it would have been a big investment that would have been good for the project. i sent the people to the eu to see if they could speed it up and it was the five or six-year wait just just to get a simple approval. ireland gave me a period of literally not much more than a week and i realized right then it was the first time i was involved with the eu but i realized right then it was a problem and they didn't even bother applying to do it. and if i i did i'd i did a poll that very quickly. i had to be very accurate because i don't want to be criticized. we did apply but i want to be very accurate. it was something you couldn't wait five or six years to get approval so a lot of in the very

big business owns a lot of people are claiming it's a problem. from the standpoint of america payee you treat us very unfairly and very badly. they have a large tax that we know about and a bad tax and it's a very substantial one. they don't take, since we don't take our products and they don't take our cars yet they send cards to us by the millions. they put tariffs on things that we want to do like princeton say think they actually in terms of these are non-economic or nonmonetary tariffs and those are very bad and they make it difficult to bring products and to europe and yet they expect to be selling and they do sell their products in the united states. we have hundreds of millions of dollars in deficits with the eu. nobody is happy with it and we are going to do something about it. nobody's happy with it so i

think the eu has dispelled the welfare process. friends of mine and some of the nations with then, great people, they want to feel the compete better and you can't compete when you can't go through the approval process. there's no reason you can't go faster. i'm trying to be constructive -- constructive because i love europe and i love the countries of europe but the process is a cumbersome one and they do treat the united states of america very unfairly with the text -- taxes and all the other taxes. one other just to finish up and i got a call from the head of a major airline, one of the biggest airlines in the world. he said sir could you help us. landing in europe is brutal. the charges fees for everything and it's so unfair. how does it compare to china and he said it's much worse.

and the other thing is you know they took court cases with apple and they supposedly won a case that most people didn't think was much of the case. they won 15 or $16 billion from apple in millions from google and thereafter face but for billions and billions. these are american companies and where they like them or not they are american companies. they shouldn't be doing that. as far as i'm concerned it's a form of taxation. we have some big complaints with the eu. thank you. thank you -- thank you very much mr. president we will go to one of your friends in the eu. he is the chairman and ceo. i guess you have a --for the president. >> mr. president as my understand energy is at the top

of your agenda and it's an honor for me to represent the energy industry tonight. we are the fourth-largest oil and gas electricity company in the world. it's quite clear what you expect from us. we will move to gas and our company is a larger than the one lng in the u.s. company. we are strong kuchar to it and we invest in energy projects. we secure supply to you. some experts fear if they are too many projects in the u.s. on energy this would have an employee sherry impact on domestic gas price.

i would ask you the question what are your views about such an investment on energy and the u.s. what would happen if he would increase the domestic gas price because of its exports in the final question which is important for europe, would you agree to supply usn energy to europe? >> at the last part of your question yes i would but i would make sure you get it and we make a deal and you'll get it. a lot of people do have that problem. they make a deal making get supplies because of problems that we would absolutely do that. lng is interesting because when i took office for the first time one of the first things i looked at, there were two massive plants in louisiana a state that's been buried good to me

but i wanted by many points and i felt strongly indebted to it actually. they said there were two plans that have been under environmental consideration for more than 10 years. they were costing as you say you know how expensive those plants are but they were costing $12,000,000,000.14 or $15 billion but they couldn't get permits. they were in review for years, many many years like a decade. i said it's so ridiculous. in the construction industry i had to go through to but i got good at it after while. i saw the projects and you talk about total investment of 25 to $30 billion it felt like was going to end. they couldn't get their permits and i got them done in less than a week. it was done and completed and when they called to announce that it was done. the countries japan was involved

in another country and other big investors. they couldn't believe it. they actually couldn't believe it. i said do yourself one favorite don't pay me consultants because the only one that got it done for was me. i got it done for the lesson for the world. the consultants go in and say give us millions of dollars because trump did it. nobody called me about it i just heard it was a problem for years and i got it done because it was the right thing to do for the left and the right thing to do with energy. i disagree with one i think the more you do the lower the price is going to go and what i would like to see its rapid approvals. we will get rapid approvals in states with the ai plants, talking to many people who want to build them. it's going to be a very big thing. we are going to build electric generating facilities. i'm going to give them the

approval under emergency declarations i can get the approvals done myself without having to go through years of waiting. we need double the energy we have in the united states. for ai to be as big as we want to have it. it's very competitive and it will be competitive with china and others. i'm going to give an emergency declaration so they can start building almost immediately and i think it was largely my idea because nobody thought this was possible. it wasn't that they weren't smart because they are the smartest. i told them what i wanted to do is to build your electric generating plant next to the plant a separate building connected and they said you are kitting. i said i'm not kitting. you don't to fit into the grid which is old and can be taken out and gets taken out they wouldn't have anyway to get any electricity. so we are going to allow them to

go to rapid basis to build their plan and build the electric generating plant. they can view it with anything they want. they could have coal as a backup. good clean coal. if there were problems with the pipe coming in and as an example you are going with oil and gas and the pipe gets blown up for for some reason doesn't work. there's some companies in the u.s. that have coal sitting right by the plant so if there's an emergency they can go to that short-term basis and use their very clean coal. that's something a lot of people didn't know about. nothing can destroy cool. not the weather, not a bomb. it might make it a little smaller and a little different shape. coal is strong as a backup. it's a great backup to have that facility. we have more coal than anybody

and we have more oil and gas than anybody. we are going to make it so that the plants will have their own electric generating facilities attached to their plant plant. it had to worry about utility utility and it ought to worry about anything. we are going to get rapid approvals. >> thank you so much mr. president and we will go to another ceo that you know very well, the ceo and chair of banc of america. >> good afternoon mr. president and congratulations to you and your family. five years ago you came here and we walked among 150 ceos from all of the revenue engage with them about your policies and your procedures. this year you are not here and this week was an eventful and i'll literally a wave of orders coming up on immigration and trade and many other matters. as a representative of the united states here we have a lot

of questions about what it all means in how would the president square this with a clear focus on growth prosperity market growth stock market growth the bond market and bringing down prices. how do you think about the impact of all these orders and how fast they come out of how you will balance them with a scorecard of being successful in continued gdp growth bringing down inflation also having stock price appreciation for american businesses. >> i think it will bring down inflation. it's going to bring up jobs and we will have a lot of jobs in companies moving in and brian we are at 21% but it was 40% and i got it down to 21% of corporate tax rate if you look at states and cities in many cases it was higher than 40% but i got it down to 20% and now we will bring you it down from 21 to 15% if you make the product in u.s.. we will have just about the

lowest rate. 21 is on the low side worldwide. 15 is as low as it gets and by far the lowest of the largest country rich and powerful country by far. we are going to bring it down to 15% if you make your product in the usa. that will create a tremendous buzz and we are going back the one-year deduction where we did that originally and that was amazing the impact that had the one-year deduction which built up over period of time and then it expired that we will go back to that when we do the renewal of the trump tax plan. we had to get democrats to approve it. if the democrats didn't approve it i don't know how they can survive with a 45% tax increase because that's what it would be. we have been working with them pretty well. i think it's hard for a political group to say let's

charge people 45% more so i think we are in good shape but we are doing a reduction for business and small businesses where you'll bring it down to 15% which is really something. by the way speaking of view, you've done a fantastic job but i hope you start opening your banks to conserve is because many concerts complained the banks aren't allowing them to do business within the bank and that included a place called bank of america. they don't take conservative business and i don't know if regulators mandated that because the biden or what the u.n. jamie i hope you open your banks to conserve is because what you are doing is wrong. >> mr. president i will say your friend gianni told me to say hello and we look forward to a response from the world cup this summer in for next year and thank you for getting that into the united states. >> thank you very much.

>> thank you mr. president. we will go to the executive chairman of one of the big european banks and in u.s.. >> mr. president congratulations on your victory. i believe you don't know me as well as my fellow panelist. it's one of the largest banks in the world by members of customers 170 million. that's more than my friend ryan and my friend jamie have. [applause] >> we are a big investor in the united states and we have many customers 12,000 plays one of the largest auto lenders and we recently launched banks. we strongly believe banks have a pivotal role in the economy and

we can accelerate growth and that's what we are doing in the united states. as brian pointed out we welcome focus on regulation. my question is what are your priorities in this regard and how fast is this going to happen? thank you very much. >> thank you and congratulations. i know very much about your bank and you've done a fantastic job. congratulations. we are going to move very quickly and we have moved very quickly. we have done things in the last three days that nobody thought were possible to do in years. it has taken effect and will have a huge impact on the economy and huge positive impact. money was being wasted on things. the green new deal with such a total disgrace. how that was perpetrated and it was conceived by people who were

average students less than average students i might add and never even took a course in energy or the environment through world is going to end in 12 years remember that? the 12 years was coming down was going to end and fall into the earth but the time is come these people really scared the democrats. republicans could have fought harder to stop it but it's been a tremendous a tremendous waste of money. during my four years we had the cleanest air and water and we had the most productive economy in the history of our country and the most productive economy until colin came we had the most productive in the history of the country by far. you can look worldwide and we were beating everybody from china to everybody else.

we think now with what we have learned and all of the other things that have taken place we think we can far surpass it and actually far, far surpass it. one thing we will be demanding is we will be demanding respect from other nations canada. we have a tremendous deficit with canada and we won't have that and more. i don't know if it's good for them and as you probably know you can ice become a state and if you are a state we won't have a deficit and we won't have the tariff you etc. etc.. canada has been tough to deal with over the years. it's not fair that we should have a 250 billion-dollar deficit. we don't need them to make our cars and they make a lot of them. we don't need their lumber because we have our own etc. etc.. we don't need their oil and gas. we have more than anybody. just as an example with mexico

we are dealing with mexico very well and you know we just want to be treated fairly with other nations. there is hardly a nation in the world and i blame it on us and i blame it on politicians that for some reason probably mostly it's but you could also also say there other reasons. mostly. they have allowed other nations to take advantage of the u.s.. we can allow that to happen. it's a very small debt when you compare the value of the assets that we have. we don't want to do that. we want to just have it the debt be obliterated and we will do that fairly rapidly. a lot of good things are going to happen. honestly good things are going to happen for the world and good things are going to happen for the people that are dealing with us. our allies and beyond allies. one important thing a delight to be able to meet with president putin sent to get that war

ended. that's not from the standpoint of the economy or anything else but from the standpoint of millions of lives that are being wasted, beautiful young people are being shot in the battlefield. it's a very flat land and there is no hiding. the only thing that will stop the bullet is the human body. i've seen pictures of what is taking place and at the carnage. we really help to stop that war but that war is. i'm not talking economics and i'm not talking about natural resources, and just talking about so many young people being killed in this war. that's not including the people that amang killed as the cities are being knocked down building by building. we should get that stopped and likewise in the middle east we have made a lot of progress in the middle east and that's going to come along pretty well.

>> thank you mr. president. we know the most consequential relationship in the world is with the u.s. in china. 20% of the global economy and china holds 20 knots out of the global gdp. we know you called president xi jinping last friday. we heard you had a good discussion could how do you see the relationship between the usa and china in the next four years under your leadership? >> he called me. i see it very good. i think we are going to have a very good relationship. all we want is we just want a level playing field. we have been having massive debt with china and biden allowed it to get out of hand. $1.1 trillion deficit and it's ridiculous. it's just an unfair relationship. we have two make it fair.

we don't have to make it phenomenal. we had to make it a fair relationship and right now it's not a fair relationship. the deficit at is not -- massive. as it is with other countries. we have deficits that are very big and we can't keep doing that. i like president she very much and we have always had a good relationship. it was strained with covid coming out of wuhan and that caused strain with a lot of people but that strained our relationship. we had a great relationship i would say and we look forward to doing well with china and getting along with china. hopefully china can help the stop the war in particular with russia and ukraine. they have a great deal of power over that situation and we will work with them. i mentioned during our phone conversation with president xi and hopefully we can work together to and get that stopped. we'd like to see

denuclearization. when president putin prior to the election results which were frankly we were talking about denuclearization of our two countries and china would have come along. china has a much smaller nuclear armament than us but they will be catching up. some point during the next four or five years. i will tell you president putin liked the idea of cutting way back on nuclear and i think the rest of the world would have gotten them to follow when chided -- china also liked it. tremendous amounts of money are being on nuclear and the destructive capability is something we don't even want to talk about today. it's too depressing so we want to see if we can denuclearize and what i think that's quite possible. i can tell you president putin wanted to do it.

he and i wanted to do it. we had a good conversation and china would have involved and that would have been an unbelievable thing for the planet. mr. president next year will there be a repeat agreement with ukraine and russia by then? >> he will have to ask russia. ukraine is ready to make a deal. this is a war that should have never started. if i were president he would have never started but but thisa war that should have never ever been started. and it wasn't started, wasn't even talked about. i knew i was the apple of president putin's eye and i knew there was no way he was going in and he wasn't going to go and invent bad things happened that bad things were said. a lot of all around and you end up with what you have a night

have all these bombed out cities that look like demolition sites with many people killed. the thing you will see about ukraine is far more people have died than is being reported. i have seen not that far more people have died. when you look at a city that has become a demolition site for big buildings that have been collapsed by missiles and everything else and they say one person was slightly injured, no, no many people were killed. those are big buildings and i was surprised. that was my business. the buildings that are two and three blocks long and 20 stories high. they are big hollow -- powerful buildings. they were knocked down and two people were injured. that's not true. i think you will find there were many more people killed in the ukraine war than anyone has any idea. if you look now so many people being killed our soldiers.

using guns rifles and drones the new form of warfare drums drones and it's a sad thing to see. when you see pictures of the fields that i see nobody wants to see it. you will never be the same. >> thank you very much mr. president on behalf of the 3000 participants at dulles. we really underlined joining us the third day in your presidency and taking questions here is so appreciate it and we are already receiving you next year so thank you very much and all the best from davos. >> thank you, thank you very much. [applause]

morning and thank you for coming. we know good number of donald trump's nominees are very -- bup of the list in terms of how dangerous he is too working people into america. the godfather of filter right. he's the chief cook and bottle washer for project 2025. remember this chart from last year tax cut like to use it again.

[inaudible] and repealed the $35 insulin abolishes the department education eliminates head start paved the way for national abortion and you name it the parade of than this man is put in charge. he's at the levers of power to implement these dangerous dangerous proposals. as you know the omb director holds one of the most critical positions in the federal government every federal agency every local economy every town and city in every american family so someone in this position have to understand what working families in america needs. of all the things donald trump

the things donald trump has said on such a high percentage of the things he said on the campaign trail would be undone on project 2025. the american people, each american knew what was in it they'd be a gasp -- aghast that the man in charge is in the levers of power. project 2025 did so many bad things that it's hard to slash so security medicare and medicaid eliminates head start cut snap that drug prices go up. his vision isn't just reckless it's catastrophic. it's catastrophic. this man i believe and i met with him yesterday and i said tell me one thing and project 2025 that you reject any couldn't name a single thing, not a single thing in this parade. so he will do all of that and then of course he's one of the

masters and a leading the charge on it the impoundment of funds for this unelected man from the hard right extreme far away from most republicans and what they espouse could decide what funds we allocate to go forward. so as dangerous as what he said and project 2025 is and the dangers of giving him the ability to have a say in what the administration does in all of those things, the danger of impoundment is equally bad. he could just say i don't like this program and i'm not sending the money. that would take years for a court case to decide. i hope i republicans on the other side will see what this guy is all about and decide they can do better. i wish president trump would look at what the guy proposed, so opposite of many the things

he said in his campaign. our northstar is easing the burden on american families. to make them pay less for things and have more dollars in their pockets and to have better lives. nothing could be further from that goal than choosing mr. bogus head of our dmv. >> we have made it very clear he will put everything on the chopping block from programs that people rely on to checks and balances that are democracy is founded on. in the same role last time he tried to break the law to give president trump unilateral authority he does not possess to override the >> decisions of congress. it defies all common sense and judgment to put him back in the same role. especially when the chief architect of tragic 2025 ps

doubled down on lawlessness charted up unconstitutional plans for the president to ignore the will of congress not to mention his long history of antiabortion extremism. this does -- this is someone who doesn't believe an exception for rape or the life of the mother. given his extremism in his clear disdain for the rule of law we should not hand over power that he has made clear he will abuse to help billionaires ahead and working people -- yesterday i asked him directly will you follow the law because even if you disagree with the law you can't ignore it. maybe you don't like the 25-mile an hour speed limit. unless it's changed or struck down as to how to follow it. this is something every single american understands except apparently him because the empowerment control act remains

a lava lamp and the constitution gives congress not the president the power of the purse and yes and yet he will not say he will follow the law. if you aren't willing to follow our laws you cannot be trusted to implement our laws. if you will not commit to respecting constitutional checks and balances and why on earth should congress for the american people and trust you with power? know senator who believes congress will to power the purse should vote for an old bee director that will not respect the laws that we found were dispersed the investments we as lawmakers have said is preserved. were not talking about whether or not our constituents have their voices we are talking about whether or not our constituents have their votes and voices heard. we are talking about the most basic ability of congress to negotiate deals and do our jobs. how are we ever supposed to

reach a bipartisan compromise here if they are just going to ignore any park in as the president has taken sweeping action to do just that. that's not rhetorical. i want an answer. if the president can just decide they won't fund infrastructure programs that congress funded on a bipartisan basis how will they ever get anything done around here quick what are the communities we represent going to do and when we talk about that we are talking about sweeping cuts to people rely on every single day. as omb director he will cut programs families who rely on the families that are hungry or lie on. a wall of paperwork to cut people off from their health care thousands of public service for several serving the american

people. all while he works trump to dole out more tax breaks to billionaires and the biggest corporations. it's all out there in public statements and project 2025. he hasn't been or subtle he wants to ignore the law. he wants to ignore the will of congress and he wants to ignore the needs of our constituents and we should not give them that opportunity. i want to make it clear to everyone of my colleagues especially my fellow appropriators we need to make paying congress's power the purse as are most basic checks and balances. lincolnshire that our communities republicans and democratic are protected and we need to reject russ vought's nomination. just as chairman and ranking member for budget committee new ranking member in every member is on the budget and want to complement the mall. i hope you watch the hearings

yesterday. ranking member murphy. >> thank you very much. leadership marked and chair murray have absolutely laid out the challenge and it was so confirmed in the budget hearing yesterday. let's understand this. the position of director of the office of the management and budget doesn't get the same attention as the secretary of defense, they were the intelligence nominee, the health nominee but that individual is the chief engineer of the trump train. the chief engineer is the head of omb. a different way of thinking about it is they are both the person who plans the flights in and out of airports to make sure the planes don't hit each other and they are absolutely critical in driving the agenda. that is why this nominee

mr. vought is the most dangerous nominee put forward by his trump. he has a three-part plan. the first part of the plan is to cut the programs for families across the country health care, housing, education, programs for children. that's the first part of the package in the second part of the plan is to draw a massive amount multiple trillions to run up the deficit. the third part of the plan is to take the money saved by cutting programs for families and the money borrowed from the treasury to give tax breaks to the wealthiest americans. that plan has been re-emphasized three times. first of all he served in this very role as chief engineer and director phone be at the end of the last trump administration he it but for the last budget for president trump and it had those three elements.

then he proceeded to run a think tank where he created his own think tank in that think tank put forward the same three points and then he became the chief architect of project 2025. borrow massively run up the deficit cut programs for workers and give tax breaks to the wealthiest americans. in the process he has shown complete disregard for the law. let's explain it this way. if congress decided, to spend on each program. mr.'s vought is very frank. i believe the president gets to decide. we had this argument in 1974 when we had the budget empowerment control act. we had this argument in 1996 when we had a single line veto

and it was struck down by the supreme court. this law is not in question but today he says he will continue to violate the law when he's in this position. and in fact it was when he helped direct on ukraine that led to trump's first impeachment and he holds no qualms about having played such a critical role in such a political position and he exudes for federal workers. my colleagues will say more about that. let's understand are you going to be doing your work as a civil servant in a nonpartisan according to the law or in accordance with things that are against the law because of loyalty replacing our nonpartisan capable federal workers is a big mistake. he has been part of the big lie

on elections and continues with that big lie today in his chair murray pointed out he has extraordinarily extreme views about the reproductive rights of women in america. in some he is all about the golden age that trump talked about in his inauguration. that golden age, that golden age is for big pharma and big oil. that golden ages for wall street hedge funds. that golden ages for big tech but do you know what it is for the rest of ordinary families across america? that's not the golden age it's the dark ages and that's why we must reject this opportunity. >> morning everybody. i have 140,000 federal employees and they all have families all over the commonwealth from va nurses to active duty troops to people doing food inspections

and these are hard-working virginians that i represent. russ voght has an unusual degree of lethal for the federal workforce. he gave a speech that i asked him about yesterday reid said i want bureaucrats to be traumatized when they come in to work because increasingly they know that they are the villain. he wants the federal workforce traumatized because they should know that they are the villain. he talks like this? who talks like this? you have been in many speeches we have heard people say we need to cut federal >> or we need to deal with the deficit. we hear the speeches all the time often from republicans who don't take any actions to do it but that's the standard way of talking about the issue of government i don't know of anybody much less anybody be considered for position of this magnitude who has a lethal desire to

traumatize people who were working for the federal government. when i asked him about that, like folks are as air traffic controllers quite well now we want to his people go in the. well no traumatize those interdicting fentanyl at the border. well, no. why did you say it then? i know that mr. vought claims to be a viable person so i used from the fullness of the heart the way you capture a -- reveals something of import about the war is a person this lethal of the federal workforce will lead to nothing good for but the second thing i want to emphasize what the leader talked about with regard to project 2025 and senator merkel mentioned this project 2025 had an origin story

in another document that mr. vought was the key architect of. he said that the think tank and the think tank proposed the docket about the project for the title of this budget document was an end to woke and weaponized government. okay well i'm interested. 104 pages. what are you going to do to end woke and weaponized government in your budget mr. vought to explain. if you look at the document/pell grants,/low income heating and energy programs/rental assistance. i asked him about all of those tell me wait these are woke and weaponized programs and again and again what he said is i'm not here to defend that document. he wrote it and he named it in

the tipped us off about what is going to do and nobody will be surprised when he comes over and it has the thumbprints of russ voght project 2025 all over it slashing the programs of every day people who count on it. he's a nominee who is told with all is going to do things that will be very harmful to the american public that we need to reject them. thanks so much. >> good morning everyone. they carry off about my colleagues are sharing this morning and i don't know how many they had a chance to take it in, i'm going to carry forward a little bit what senator cain was talking about. while mr. vought responded to senator cain saying he wasn't there to talk about this report.

he's the coach and he wrote it. i asked him to clarify why this this group and the steichen was founded to put together he owned it. he said it right they are his words to the committee and to the american people to make no mistake about what's coming. mr. vought is the person, the proof that this document exists project 2025 and the documents that got put into it. this notion that all of these programs that make a difference, positive difference to people, to help in those utility bills get a little high. ride everyone's wearing jackets and their wording about -- worrying about getting cold. we had a storm to hit a big part of america. did you see the photos of florida? the