mr. grassley: the senate will recognize this month of may as national foster care month. for over 20 years national foster care month has been recognized as a time to raise awareness about the challenge of young people in foster care experience, and also to celebrate their resilience in the face of these obstacles. there are over 438,000 children in foster care nationwide. in iowa alone over 4,000 kids entered foster care in 2016 due to the opioid crisis there are more children entering foster care than many child welfare agencies are equipped to handle. in 2016 over 92,000 kids entered foster care due to parental drug abuse. i salute all those who dedicate their time and their resources to helping these young people. this induces social workers, advocates and alumni of the foster care system who inform lawmakers and the public and fight to secure better outcomes nor these young people in care. of course, this also includes foster parents who open their homes and also their hearts to children in need. without foster parents, children unable to remain with their biological

mr. grassley: yeah. mr. hatch: next to speak will be ms. connie martin. she'll be introduced by our friend and colleague, senator bennett. senator bennett. mr. bennet: thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you so much for holding this hearing. rural communities have long been struggling with the scarcity of health care providers and facilities. this is exacerbated the challenge of responding to the opioid epidemic which has hit rural americans particularly hard. i'm pleased to introduce my fellow coloradan, connie martin, the chief executive officer of san luis valley health, an independent nonprofit health system in colorado. ms. martin has been working to serve the health care needs of rural coloradans in the valley for more than 30 years. prior to being named c.e.o. in 2013, ms. martin served the chief operating officer. she completed advanced leadership training at the regional institute for health and environmental leadership at the university of colorado. also the health care executive program at the ucla anderson school of business. ms. martin also pl

mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: before i speak, i ask unanimous consent that bob menchin and bob rodriguez two law clerks with my judiciary staff be granted floor privileges for today, may 15, 2018. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: there is no more noble sacrifice than laying down your life in the service of others. every year more than a million law enforcement officers work to keep our country safe and to serve the needs of our communities. our law enforcement officers put their lives on the line as they fight crime. and each year law enforcement officers die in the line of duty. many of these deaths occur while these officers are investigating crimes and enforcing our laws. some are even the result of targeted violence against police officers. others' deaths involve tragic accidents, like sheriff deputy julie bridges and sergeant joseph ossman, two police officers who were killed in a traffic accident while working to help their communities weather the onslaught of hurricane irma.

mr. grassley, praised in 2015. mr. brennan did not receive the requisite support from wisconsin's bipartisan judicial nominating commission which has been used in some form for nearly four decades to identify candidates for federal judgeships in my home state. senator johnson and i worked to continue this long-standing process during my tenure in the senate, and it has actually produced consensus nominees who have been confirmed to two vacancies in our district courts and two u.s. attorney positions. more troubling still is a fact made clear in mr. brennan's answers to the judiciary committee's questionnaire, namely that president trump never intended to respect that commission's work for this vacancy. the white house interviewed michael brennan for the job on the very day that our bipartisan nominating commission began to solicit candidates for its consideration. chairman grassley has made an argument that the white house engaged in meaningful consultation regarding this vacancy. it is true that white house counsel do

mr. wylie: i have never worked for the trump campaign. sen. grassley: and you were not there with the company made its certification to facebook? mr. wylie: i was not in the company or engaged at the company when they had that dealing with facebook, no. sen. grassley: thank you. dr. hirsch, there has been a lot of media attention around allegations that cambridge analytica helped president trump improperly influence the 2016 election by utilizing data received from facebook. him cambridge claims the facebook data was ineffective, was deleted upon request, and was not used in the work for the trump campaign. if cambridge had utilized the data, what impact do you think the organization impacted and strategies with mr. wylie described as military style information warfare can have on influencing the outcome of an election given the kind of data it receives from facebook? >> as i said in my testimony, it is hard to move people. it is easier to mobilize or potentially demobilized people and persuade people, but there has not been evidence presented from fac

mr. israelite. >> thank you. chairman grassley, ranking member feinstein, members of the committee, my name is david israelite, and i'm the president and ceo of the national music publishers association, which represents all music publishers and their songwriting partners in the united states. songwriters are the most essential members of the music industry, yet they're often the least visible and the least compensated. they are also the most regulated small businesses in america. 75% of their property rights are regulated through compulsory licenses and federal government rate setting. this is true because of a world war i era law designed to regulate player piano roles and world war ii era consent decrees imposed by the justice department that never end. the result of this stifling government regulation is the value of songwriting has been diminished and songwriters are not paid anything that remotely resembles the economic benefit that they provide to the commercial interests who use their songs. i'm proud to be joined on this

mr. chairman, for holding these hearings. -- this hearing. sen. grassley: i will now introduce witnesses. after i do that, i ask you to stand and be sworn in. it was also our intention to come down and shake hands with you and welcome you. i'm sorry that everything was caught up here so we did not mess everything up, but both of us want to thank you for participating, in particular, you, mr. wylie, coming as far as you have to help us with proper testimony. our first witness is dr. adan hirsch, and associate professor at tufts university focusing on american politics. he spent seven years as an assistant professor at yale university. he's a nationally published author and earned a masters in politics, and a bachelors degree from tufts. next person. besides thanking you, we welcome you to this hearing and hopefully you feel comfortable. i know you have testified elsewhere. christopher wylie is a former director of research at cambridge analytica. mr. wylie worked with president obama's campaign for the canadian liberal party and the united kingdom's liberal

mr. chairman. >> senator grassley. >> thank you for your work, director hall. sorry that there's such a bleak picture painted. having the public debt go from 78% to 96% of gross national product isn't very good news. i hope congress thinks about the impact on our children and grandchildren, but with that debt and deficit -- my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to make this all about revenue and the historic tax cuts that we enacted. i think that that completely disregards the positive economic effects of these reforms that i think you pointed out in your exchange with the chairman. so my first question is kind of carrying on where the chairman left off, is it not accurate based on your analysis that the tax reforms enacted last year will increase economic growth, lead to lower unemployment, increase hours worked, increase capital investment and increase wages? >> yes, those are all true. >> yeah. so then i have to conclude that when democrats say that they want to repeal tax reforms that they're really telling the american people that they want few

mr. wylie: i have never worked for the trump campaign. sen. grassley: and you were not there with the company made its certification to facebook? mr. wylie: i was not in the company or engaged at the company would they had that dealing with facebook, no. sen. grassley: thank you. dr. hirsch, there has been a lot of media attention around allegations that cambridge analytica helped president trump improperly influence the 2016 election by utilizing data received from facebook. claims the facebook data was ineffective, was deleted upon request, and was not used in the work for the trump campaign. had cambridge utilize the data, what impact do you think the organization impacted and wyliegies with mr. described as military style information warfare can have on influencing the outcome of an election given the kind of data it receives from facebook? >> as i said in my testimony, it is hard to move people. mobilize or to potentially demobilized people and persuade people, but there has not been evidence presented from facebook or cambridge analytica, data th

mr. chairman. >> senator grassley. >> i will let you understand that ethanol is pretty important in iowa and i'm probably -- every member has probably asked this, but you've been very helpful to us on the reed vapor pressure thing and e-15 and i just wondered if you had any insight into when the program might be put in place so that we would be able to sell e-15 every month out of the air? >> i wish i did, senator. you heard the same thing that i did and i feel like the president was prepared to move probably some other voices have spoken in his ear since that time, but i want to encourage him and we all could encourage him to move forward on that. i believe that's ultimately the answer over building demand, as well as lowering rent prices here that could have an effect. we've talked about the waivers that have been issued as well. we think that's really the answer to ren prices. they have already seen them come down and there's been some demand destruction there that we want to see restored back up to 15 billion gallons. >> i wanted to visit about trade and it involves china and what sort of a

mr. brennan, a seat that was vacant for six years in response to the blue slip. by the way, senator grassley signed a letter to then-majority leader reid to not sign the blue slip, which he listened to. if you want to talk about tit for at it, this one doesn't belong. reid honored the blue slip. mcconnell is getting rid of it for circuit court judges and it's a move away from impartial judiciary. every senator, if he or she was facing what senator baldwin is facing today, would want this body to defend their rights. i would urge at least one or two of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, for the sake of the senate and for the sake of the country, to voac on -- vote no on brennan whether you agree with his views or not as a protest to the way this has happened. now, one final topic, net new neutrality. later today democrats will take the senate another step towards the consideration of a bill to restore net neutrality. when the republican f.c.c. voted to repeal net neutrality, they handed the internet providers all the cards many they said do what you will with the internet, charge c

mr. president, have been happening for some time now. remember when clapper and sally yates were confronted by senator chuck grassley about the unmasking of trump officials? they were surveilled, remember, at trump tower. >> mr. clapper, did either of you request the unmasking of mr. trump, his associates or any member of congress? >> yes. in one case i did. i can specifically recall but i can't discuss it further than that. >> did either of you ever review classified documents in which mr. trump, his associates or members of congress had been unmasked? >> oh, yes. >> you have? can you give us details here? >> no, i can't. >> miss yates, have you? >> yes, i have. no, i can't give you details. >> laura: there is little doubt in my mind that we have witnessed an outrageous abuse of our intel and law enforcement agencies. not because brennan or comey or clapper were convinced that russia was rigging the election. but because they wanted to hobble a much bigger threat. donald trump. the obama crowd was so brazen and so confident that they were doing the right thing i think in the end they were really sloppy. at least serve trump associate --

mr. roberts. >> thank you senator grassley and ranking member feinstein thank you so much. and all the members of the committee here today. i want to say to you those hundreds of millions of dollars i acclaimed fine today. but it's really an honor to be here and i'm very happy to come and represent this proposal. i'm going to focus my remarks on title ii of the music modernization act the so-called trafficks act. as a member of the recording academy it's simple musicians who record for every 15, 1972 deserve to be compensated in the same way that those are recorded after that day. i will add to that as i'm saying this the fact that i know a lot of musicians and producers and writers who have fallen on hard times and who could really use that money. it's a livelihood thing. it's not just -- music is about lives. they could really use that money and i'd like everybody to keep that in mind. the act is designed to fix the law that created this payback in 1972 congress decided to protect sound recordings under federal law going forward. state law protected sound recordings befor

they push through legislation on bills and senator grassley, cornyn, portman, blumenthal, mr. smith, representatives wagoner, walters, bass and many others that have worked on this. step back for a moment, i joined the american hotel and lodging association just over four years ago after working on capitol hill. in a couple of weeks into my job i got a phone call from the senate office. as in whatever industry was doing on human trafficking. and i was honestly taken back and confused. i do not know why they were calling us. why they were asking even though i had worked in human trafficking on capitol hill, i hadn't come across the connection to hotels. i told them i would look into it and get back to them. i do not know what i was going to find. i started asking around the office and asking our members. it was incredibly, i was pleased to find out we had been very engaged in this issue. i found it very quickly, perhaps the most significant thing was most significant single action we took was in 2013. the air before joined the association we work with carol and her team at ecpa

senator grassley sent a letter asking questions about this. i'm letting mr. do his job but i want to make sure the fbi and the department of justice did not try to in their own way change the outcome of the election. did they use techniques and tactics approved by the court or did they just make this up themselves? >> chris: i've got less than a minute left. the president's lead lawyer rudy giuliani was back at it again this week attacking the special counsel investigation. here he is. >> if you're going to write an unfair report, rated, and we will combat it. we are ready to rip it apart. and we are ready to rip them apart if that's what they want. >> chris: do you think rudy giuliani is helping or hurting the president? >> senator graham: i think is showing a determination to push back and aggressively defend his client. with rudy it's a little bit of both but i would like to have him on my team if i were the president because he's pretty good at talking to the american people. a reputation as a solid prosecutor. let mr. mueller to his job and then see what

. >> senator grassley sent a letter asking questions about this. our intent on letting mr. mueller doing his job but i want to make sure the fbi and department of justice did not try to in their own way, change the outcome of the election. >> is a part of a string of meritless allegations from the very beginning that i was wiretapped at trump tower, a conspiracy, the investigation began with a christopher steele dossier. all of which was untrue. >> we reach out to the white house to try and get more information on what an official demand might possibly look like. and exactly when it could come. tomorrow, so far we have not heard back. >> thank you very much. >> for more on this now we turn to steve nelson. what has reported for the washington examiner. what do you predict could happen this week? >> this demands for the justice department to look into the alleged informant is really off of the twitter feed. the white house and justice department have not responded to the request for comments from what i'm sure is about 200 porters wanted to know what this is about. -- report

grassley: senator cornyn and senator klobuchar. i'll step out for a few minutes. at the end of his five minutes you take over. mr. cornyn: what sort of data mining you have been describing and the targeting of messages has multiple applications, correct? it could be commercial, for example, buy something on amazon or movie on netflix, they can send me information about something else i might like. it can be used to persuade people in a political campaign, for or against a candidate or a particular issue. it's -- it also can be used for covert information operations by governments, correct? mr. wylie: all that have is correct. data is like any kind of tool. you can use it for various means. some very beneficial and legal, others not. senator cornyn: did s.c.l. or came ridge analytica serve all comers? were you open for business to whoever wanted to purchase the services? was that -- mr. wylie: that was the impression that i got. alexander was quite keen on selling contracts. however, after robert mercer took his money into cambridge, i know the only restriction we had was not work with democrats. senator cornyn: f

grassley questioned the accuracy of the testimony by the cofounder behind the dossier. cofounder glenn simpson told senate investigators such as firms work on the trump dossier ended in september 2016. contrary to mr. simpson's denial in the staff interview, according to the fbi and others, fusion did continue dossier work for a new client after the election. that client was daniel jones. according to grassley, jones and his firm hired simpson to conte research so it could be shared with capitol hill, the fbi and the media after the election. grassley said their statements are covered by the federal statute that makes it a crime to lie to federal investigators. >> bret: a president trump and his mexican counterpart are once again going at each other over the border wall. and who is paying for it? this was the president last night in nashville. >> president trump: in the end, mexico is going to pay for the wall. i'm just telling you. all right? i don't want to cause any problems, but in the end, mexico is paying for the wall. >> bret: and this is the response from the mexican president. no, mexico will never pay for a wall, not now, not ever. sincerely, mexico. all of us. the effort to bring down t

worked with that have pushed through legislation on the hills and senator grassley and portman blumenthal and a house in addition to mr, representatives wagner, walters, bass, and many others who have worked on this. so to step back for a moment i joined american hotel lodging association just over four years ago after working on capitol hill. and i think a couple of weeks into my job i got a phone call from a senate office asking what our industry wases doing on human trafficking. and a i was honestly taken aback and confused i didn't know why they were calling us why they were asking even though i had worked on huge trafficking on capitol hill i hadn't come across to connection to hotels so, you know, i told them i would look into it and get back to them and i dtack to them and i didn't know what i would find but first i was asking our members and in the office and it was incredibly pleased to find out that we indeed have been engaged in this issue i found out -- very quickly perhaps the most significant thing or most significant single action we've taken it was in 2013, the year before i join ared the association w

judiciary committee senator chuck grassley says the public can read through the documents and come to their own conclusions. committee democrats say they need more from mr. trump. >> dana: then i was watching you trying to figure out, trying to piece all of this together. do you know if his comments provided through hope hicks were incorporated into the final statement? because this is all done on air force one as the president's flying home from the first meeting in europe. >> right. that was sort of one of the big questions, one of the big concerns is there was an exchange where president trump, the initial statement that came out on july 8. there were questions about whether or not he had dictated it. "washington post" reported he dictated it on air force one heading back if are from germany. initially trump jr.'s response was he wasn't sure and as they asked him specifically -- his answer sort of changed and wavered a little bit. he said at first i don't know, i didn't speak to him about it and then he talked at one point talking about how he thought perhaps some of the president's opinion statements, what have you may have come in the statement thr

chuck grassley said the president can read through these documents, there's over 2,000 of them and come to their own conclusions. the democrats say they need more information from mr. trump. >> he needs to come back before the committee, testify in person under oath. i have no confidence that he has told the whole truth. >> the president's son-in-law, jared kushner and paul manafort were at the meeting but declined to be at the meeting in person. they submitted written statements. >> neil: thanks, ellison. parents that lost their kids in that parkland shooting, now you would think it's within their right to wallow in sorrow. that would certainly be their right. i want you to meet the dad of one little girl that decided no, no, no, i owe it to her to do something more, something so unusual it's captured the nation's attention. that dad is here. do ndo not misjudgenity quiet tranquility. with the power of 335 turbo-charged horses the lincoln mkx, more horsepower than the lexus rx350 and a quiet interior from which to admire them. the lincoln spring sales event is here. for a limited time get 0% apr on the lincoln mkx. plus get $1000 bonus cash. ♪ it's your thing ♪ ♪

mr. chairman. >> thank you senator bennett. our fourth witness will be this susan thompson was also from iowa and there will also be introduced by senator grassley. take it away. >> its privilege to introduce you to the committee and she is a senior vice president of integration and optimization for unity. she is also the ceo of unity point accountable care, a nurse by training and she's a first i went to be named to the medicare payment advisory commission and as you said, mr. chairman, no one has medpac for short but she's a professional achievement and expertise will speak for themselves however i'd like to say that a part of her legacy is sitting behind her today. i will talk about her family that is involved in rural healthcare as well. nate thompson is her son and he is the ceo of story county medical center in a beta, iowa and ashley thompson is the daughter-in-law and needs wife, ashley, is government relations specialist for unity point. doctor caitlin thompson is her daughter and doctor thompson is a psychiatrist working with the mental health center in fort dodge, iowa and chad is sue's son-in-law and doctor thompson's husband. chad i

mr. grassley: thank you. this week the senate will vote on the nomination of michael b. brennan to serve on the seventh circuit court of appeals in milwaukee. judge brennan is a highly qualified nominee with broad bipartisan support in his home state of wisconsin. the senate judiciary committee received numerous letters in support of judge brennan's nomination, including from the longtime democratic milwaukee district attorney. i fully support this nomination. i've heard from some of my colleagues, and especially those on the other side of the aisle, that they believe judge brennan shouldn't have received a hearing before the judiciary committee. they say this because one senator from wisconsin didn't return the blue slip. but their opinions are based on an incorrect understanding of the blue slip's history. as i explained last year several times on the senate floor and several times in committee, the blue slip courtesy is just that. a courtesy. it has a history going back to 1970. since then the chairman of the judiciary committee -- chairmen of the judiciary committee

mr. grassley: as i often have to do to come to the floor to clear a few things up, i'm back once again. i've been seeing reports, reports that are wrong, that individuals within our federal law enforcement agencies who want to talk to congress about problems that they've seen on the job, that they have a fear that if they did that, they could be punished. but the reports say that these individuals then want to be subpoenaed by congressional committees rather than coming forward voluntarily. there's a perception that without a subpoena, they have no legal protection against retaliation for cooperating with the congress. that is nonsense and that is a misrepresentation that has been formed by the f.b.i. and the department of leadership -- department of justice leadership for many years under both republican and democratic administrations. i've worked hard to strengthen legal protections, especially for f.b.i. employees. f.b.i. employees have a right to cooperate with congressional inquiries just as they have a right to cooperate with the inspector general. anyone who tells these f.b.i. ag