senator merkley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to start mr. james by asking you about the tribal villages along the columbia river that we have had a chance to talk about before. these their villages that were flooded by building dams on the columbia river. we rebuilt the city that served the caucasian population but didn't fulfill our commitment to the native american tribes to rebuild their villages. i think you have indicated some interest in this and some support for this. just want to check in and see if you are prepared to help champion getting this long overdue commitment done. >> yes, sir. i do think that is the right thing for this country to do. the tribes that were moved out of their homeland areas have been promised housing in other places and we should do that as a nation. there's no question about that. i look forward to working with you in the future, and we'll help with your efforts in doing that. >> thank you very much. sure appreciate that. secretary chao, i want to ask you about the basic question of buy american and buy ame

senator jeff merkely of oregon says that's a bad idea.jeff merkley / oregon (d)there's a couple hundreds they're referred to, policy things that are competing to be put into the bill.alexandra limon / @alexlimonnewsimmigration was a contentious issue during previous spending negotiations democrats even shut down the government over daca. now republicans who want to include money for the president's border wall and other immigration measures. nancy pelosi / california (d) should we give a border wall for nothing? no. i don't think so.house minority leader nancy pelosi says without daca, democrats will not support additional spending on othe possible riders on the budgert bill cover everything from healthcare to gun reform even collecting taxes from online sales.kristi noem / south dakota (r)the problem we have today is that when people buy things online there is no sales tax collected and remitted.congresswoman kristi noem says her bill would benefit businesses and american workers. house speaker paul ryan seems content to let the drama play out. at this point, a vote on the spending bil

senator jeff merkely of oregon says that's a bad idea.jeff merkley / oregon (d)there's a couple hundredls they're referred to, policy things that are competing to be put into the bill.alexandra limon / @alexlimonnewsimmigration was a contentious issue during previous spending negotiations democrats even shut down the government over daca. now republicans who want to include money for the president's border wall and other immigration measures. nancy pelosi / california (d) should we give a border wall for nothing? no. i don't think so.house minority leader nancy pelosi says without daca, democrats will not support additional spending on the border. othe possible riders on the budgert bill cover everything from healthcare to gun reform even collecting taxes from online sales.kristi noem / south dakota (r)the problem we have today is that when people buy things online there is no sales tax collected and remitted. congresswoman kristi noem says her bill would benefit businesses and american workers. house speaker paul ryan seems content to let the drama play out. at this point, a vote on th

merkley: thank you very much. mr. president, the first three words of our constitution, we the people, this is the mission statement of the united states of america. our government was set up not to create government by and for the powerful and the privileged, but by and for the people of the united states. as jefferson put it, that the government would reflect the will of the people. quite a different concept from many of the european governments which operated directly for the benefit of the best off, for the wealthy and the well connected. but we have seen a corruption of the american constitution. we've seen it turned on its head with government implemented by and for the rich and powerful time after time over this last year. what did we see in 2017? to destroy health care for 22 million to 30 million americans, increase the cost of health care for everyone else. certainly not reflecting the will of the people. then we saw a tax bill taking $1.5 trillion from our children and our grandchildren and giving it to the

senator jeff merkely of oregon says that's a bad idea.jeff merkley / oregon (d)there's a couple hundredre referred to, policy things that are competing to be put into the bill.alexandra limon / @alexlimonnewsimmigration was a contentious issue during previous spending negotiations democrats even shut down the government over daca. now republicans who want to include money for the president's border wall and other immigration measures. nancy pelosi / california (d) should we give a border wall for nothing? no. i don't think so.house minority leader nancy pelosi says without daca, democrats will not support additional spending on the border. othe possible riders on the budgert bill cover everything from healthcare to gun reform even collecting taxes from online sales.kristi noem / south dakota (r)the problem we have today is that when people buy things online there is no sales tax collected and remitted. congresswoman kristi noem says her bill would benefit businesses and american workers. house speaker paul ryan seems content to let the drama play out. at this point, a vote on the spendi

cosponsors of this resolution -- senators lee, murphy, warren, booker, leahy, markey, feinste feinstein, merkley, gillibrand, schatz and balanced written -- that is what we are doing with senate joint resolution 54. what we are saying is if congress wants to go to war in yemen or anyplace else, vote to go to war. that is your constitutional responsibility. stop abdicating that responsibility to a president, whether it is a republican president or, in the president, democratic presidents. mr. president, i expect that congress today will be arguing about what the word "hostilities" means within the context of the 1973 war powers resolution. what does the word "hostilities" mean? and some will argue that american troops are not out there shooting and getting shot at, not exchanging fire -- gunfire with their enemies. and that we are not really engaged in the horrifically destructive saudi-led war in yemen. that's what some will argue on the floor today, that we're really not engaged in hostilities, we're not exchanging fire. well, please tell that to the people of yemen, whose homes and lives are b

democratic senator jeff merkley objective. >> i cannot in good faith support a nominee who has a lengthy tweets attacking prominent democratic and prominent republican women. >> grenell has apologized for tweets and comments he said were intended to be funny and he regrets it. >> in october his nomination was cleared. >> the environment up there were the people who profess to care the most about diplomacy often democrats, are holding up the most qualified would-be diplomats. >> republicans point out the growing importance of the relationship with germany. the united states is negotiating with the germans and other your opinions -- other your opinions president trump says he is withdrawing from the iran nuclear deal. >> germany as it at an important crossroads. angela merkel in her final term. a coalition that involves left-wing elements where we want to be pushing them away from their worst instincts. >> grenell would be the highest profile openly official in the trump administration. though even as democrats slow the confirmation, they point out the administration still has no nominees

merkley: mr. president, america is very involved in a war in yemen, and it's time that we have the debate as envisioned under our constitution. our constitution did not lay out the power of deciding when to go to war with the executive branch. it places it very clearly here with article 1, congress to act. but we have participated very directly in partnership with saudi arabia and the assault on yemen, on the houthis, and the result is a dramatic, dramatic humanitarian crisis. and so we should absolutely hold that debate on this floor as envisioned in our constitution. article 1, section 8 states unequivocally that congress shall have power to declare war. it's only congress that is given this power under our constitution. if anyone has any doubts, then let's pay attention to the other words of our founders. james madison himself. in -- i quote if him. in no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war and peace to the legislature and no

i have worked with senator merkley and others on the committee on legislative work pertaining to the ethnic cleansing by the burmese government of the rohingya population. i like your assessment with respect, if you a sense of the path forward, kindly share that with us and what broader lessons that we take away from a horrible situation. >> i was pride to be the british prime minister who went to burma in a long time. things were beginning to open up anything we all have to admit, those of us who have been huge supporters of hers and the democracy processing berm about what's happened with respect there is appalling and it's still very disappointing the response of people who aspire to be democrats and believe in democratic societies who have allowed this to happen. it would take it back to the bigger question, we have all want to burma to move to democracy. we all wanted them to have a chance to stand and leave that country and that is happening. there is a bigger question which is how are you going to resolve the tensions in this country and the ethnic differences. how will you ha

we are expecting a couple showers as well heading into saturday out there near the merkley area, it wille near the marina. coming back out here live to levi stadium, i know we are not supposed to take sides but i have to keep it real right here. mexico. we're going to take this one and one more quick note, we've also got the official telemundo as your official channel to tune into all of the games. so don't forget that is correct it's our sister station exclusively on telemundtelemund. i will send it back to you. >> the excitement in the newsroom is palatable. coming up next on "today in the bay," staying safe on the roadways, a spike in accidents along a busy south bay freeway. >>> and there are all kinds of things going on in washington this morning. a long list. we will get right to it. >>> and much of that affecting the stock market right now, but surprise to some people maybe that stock is actually up right now, up 100 points at opening right now sitting up 35 points. this as wall street weighs china's response to u.s. tariffs. the time now is 6:41. ♪ ♪ get high speed internet from

merkley: reserving the right to object. i cannot in good faith support a nominee who has a lengthy track record of tweets attacking prominent democratic and prominent republican nominations. since his nomination, these tweets have continued showing complete disregard for the process and for the position he is nominated. the importance of the threat that russia poses to u.s.' democracy and we need ambassadors that can work with our european allies and partners now more than ever to reinforce the using to we have -- institution we have build and to defend this country. with that, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. casey: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: thank you, mr. president, i ask consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: mr. president, i rise this afternoon to talk about an issue we've talked about a lot in washington but, frankly, haven't done enough about, and that's gun violence. we're going to b

oregon senator jeff merkley says it's the attorney general who's putting communities at risk sen.gon (d) he's damanging public safety. because when you try to turn your local police and local sheriff's into ice agents they lose cooperation. under president obama, the justice department sued the state of arizona for its immigration laws - in that case the supreme court struck down portions of the arizona immigration falls under the federal jurisdiction.in washington alexandra limon. (steve) governor jerry brown fired back at attorney general sessions and the trump administration shortly after the announcement. brown along with the california attorney general held a press conference today... voicing their disapproval of the federal government lawsuit challenging the state's immigration laws.(gov. jerry brown): "this is completely unprecedented for the chief law enforcement officer of the united states to come out here and engage in a political stunt, make wild accusations, many of (xavier becerra/california attorney general): "the trump administration has failed utterly and failed t

senator merkley? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i wanted to start, mr. james, by asking you about the tribal villages along the columbia river that we've had a chance to talk about before. these were the villages that is right flooding by building dams on the columbian river. we didn't fulfill or commitment to the native northwestern tribes toe rebuild their villages. i think you've indicated some interest and supports in this ill just wanted to check in and see if you're prepared to help champion getting this long overdue commitment done. >> yes, sir, i do think that's the right think for this country to do. the tribes that were moved out of their homeland areas have been promised housing in other places. we should do that as a nation, there's no question about that. i look forward to working with will help future and with your efforts and doing that. >> touch. -- thank you very much. sure appreciate that. and secretary cho, i wanted to ask you about the -- cho, i wanted to ask you about the question of buy american. steel and inputs for what we buy as

merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, i thank my colleague from minnesota for laying out the case so clearly on the challenge. i'd like to call it taking on climate chaos. my wife mary comes from minnesota. i know they value the land of 10,000 lakes. every time i have said that before, i always say the land of a thousand lakes. senator klobuchar corrects me. i just can't quite envision 10,000, but a land with incredible wildlife, a land that certainly has seen the impacts of climate chaos, as is my home state. so thank you so much for your remarks and for being here to help celebrate our colleague, our friend, our senator from rhode island, senator whitehouse who is -- was speaking tonight just a few minutes ago for his 200th time to say wake up, wake up, america. we have a significant challenge, the sort of challenge that you may not notice from one day to the next. we may wake up tomorrow and not realize that the damage being done to our planet is greater than the day before. we may not be able to wake up a w

merkley: mr. president, i've come to the floor tonight to discuss america's role in the crisis in yemen. i have here a picture of the fractured remains of buildings, people fleeing through those buildings, a small child probably in her father's arms. this represents the challenge of the bombing that's going on in that nation. i'm here to discuss america's role in that bombing and the fact that we need to debate here in the chamber how it is we've come to the point to be supporting this bombing when the warp powers act clearly says we should not be. what our founding -- when our founding fathers wrote our constitution, they designated the president, the commander in chief. but they gave congress, the house and the senate the sole power to declare war. article 1, section 8 states unequivocally that the congress shall have the power to declare war. it is only congress that can take our nation from peace to war. if one has any doubt about that, consider the words of jay madison himself, the father of