we are encouraged with how that is been going. we owe that to our colleagues who have been willing to step up and are committed to getting them across the finish line despite a lot of democratic resistance. they have tried to make it hard, but as we continue to grow into the process we have been successful in getting 18 done, and tomorrow we will do kash patel and have a couple more that we take up for next week. with regard to legislation, senator graham and the budget committee reported out a budget resolution, and thank him for

doing that. that these have an opportunity for us to move that across the floor, and that unlocks budget reconciliation, which will follow from it, and this particular budget resolution addresses the president's top priority, which is securing the border and implementing his immigration policies, rebuilding our military and creating energy dominance for this country, so it is focused on those three things, the border, national security, and energy. the house is working on a different budget resolution, and we certainly wish them all of the excess s and moving it. more power to them. but they are trying to do is get the tax piece of this done and done quickly, and obviously we want to see the president's tax priorities address, which is making not only the 2017 taxes,

extending them, but making them permanent, and that is the priority for most if not all public and senators in our conference as well. we will continue to work together in a way that ultimately gets us across the finish line and helps with the president's agenda in place, and as i said before, but i think those priorities are very clear as outlined in our budget resolution and coupled with what the house is doing, i think we are on a good track to achieve success, and if we achieve success that will be a good thing not only for the president, but also for this country. questions. >> are you defying the president by going ahead with your own budget plan which he pretty strongly endorsed what the house did? >> she made it clear a long time that he would prefer one big, beautiful bill. we are prepared to work with

them to get that across the finish line, but we believe that the president also likes option l.a., and the legislation that we will be working in voting on tomorrow addresses those three critical priorities, and hopefully in the end we will be able to get all of the things that the president has outlined as objectives across the finish line in a reconciliation bill. the question is a tactical one with strategic objectives all the same, and that is to extend the tax policy, strengthen the economy, rebuild the military, create energy dominance and secure our border. >> [indiscernible chatter] >> you have long supported aid to ukraine. are you at all concerned about the president's rhetoric's and calling for elections in ukraine? >> i think what i am in support of his peaceful outcome to

result in ukraine, and i think right now the administration, the president and his team are working to achieve that, and i think right now you have to give him some space. honestly, this is something -- this war is going on for three years. there have been a lot of costs, a lot of death, a lot of injury associated with it, and it is in everybody's best interest, ukraine, russia, europe, the united states if they can bring about a peaceful solution to the war. most of us went to support efforts to a successful outcome. >> [indiscernible] >> like i said, the president speaks for himself. what i went to see is a peaceful

result, peaceful outcome, and let's see with that ultimately leads. >> agriculture is the lifeblood of south dakota. your farms already struggling or facing additional headwinds including contract freezes [indiscernible] and also the interruption of overseas food that they depend on. how does this make sense when food prices are already at a record levels and where support for [indiscernible] >> look, i think we all know that the administration, the new administration is giving a very careful scrub to the government common to all of the agencies of the government to figure out how

we can do things more efficiently and save money for the american taxpayer. it is important in doing that that you do not undermine important services. in many cases there are some that affect my state and all of my colleagues' estates across the country, and we will work with the administration as they move forward to ensure that important services that have to do with health and safety, for example, are protected and preserved, but i think we all understand that this government, this federal government is long in need of the kind of scrub that is being done to figure out how we can do things better, and i think most of us support that effort, and we will with our individual states respond to the administration if there are things we think need to be addressed that perhaps they are not, that they are not considering as they make some of these decisions, but at the end of the day the american people demanded in the election that we have a smaller, more limited,

more efficient federal government that costs less and delivers the important services that they expect the government to deliver. thank you. [indiscernible chatter] sen. schumer: ok, hello, everybody. i am proud to be joined by senators merkley and mckinney. the northwest 20. this week will mark one month since donald