mr. kaine: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: mr. president, i rise today in support of the affordable care act and to discuss the devastating impact its potential elimination would have on rural families and rural communities. my state, virginia, has so many rural communities, and in that, i am with every other member of this body, and i want to talk specifically about them. the trump administration has sought for years to end the affordable care act using every tool available. they've worked on their front -- on that task here in congress to repeal it, sabotage it and even dismantle it in the court system, and today marks another milestone in that deeply troubling effort. the fifth u.s. circuit court of appeals will hear oral arguments in a case that could strike down the affordable care act in its entirety. if the a.c.a. were struck down, families in communities around the country would bear life-altering consequences and the health care system would be thrown into chaos. tens of millions of americans would lose health care covera

mr. chair. >> thank you, senator kaine. whether you call it that or not, i call it an excellent introduction. dr. esper, you are recognized for any comments you want to make. your entire statement will be made part of the record. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i wish senator kaine can stay here for a couple of hours. reidman, ranking member and distinguished member of the , committee, it is an honor and privilege to appear before u.s. the president's nominee for secretary of defense. i would like to especially thank the senator kaine for that very kind, gracias, humbling introduction. sir i will not let you down. , you have been a leader in the senate, a leader because you are the father of a marine. you have taken care of our servicemen and women. as you mentioned, i really enjoyed working closely with you these past couple of years. our experience assured me there is bipartisanship in this building on capitol hill, and there are leaders who will do the right thing. i know you will continue to demonstrate that leadership for

kaine: thank you, mr. .hair dr. esper, are you familiar with the steven coffey phrase, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing? sec. esper: i've not heard that before, but that's clever. sen. kaine: it's something that i like to remind myself to not focus on smaller order problems and leave bigger ones to get worse. that's one of the reasons why i was very happy to hear you testify earlier with respect to iran that diplomacy should be our preferred position. i am deeply worried about the escalating tensions with iran for a number of reasons, including, i believe an objective view would place the beginning of these escalations with the u.s. backing out of a diplomatic deal. i don't want to be in a position where we'd ever have to look our troops in the face and say we had a diplomatic deal, tore it up and now we'll have to send you into a war. i think that would be very difficult. reasons i the other am worried about escalating tensions in the middle east is i think the main thing right now, and genera

mr. chair, ranking member. >> thank you, senator kaine. whether you call it that or not, i call it an excellent introduction. dr. esper, you are recognized for comments you might want to make and your entire statement will be made a part of the record. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i just which senator kaine could stay here for the next couple hours next to me. chairman inhofe, ranking member reed and distinguished members of the committee, it is an honor and a privilege to appear before you as the president's nominee for secretary of defense. i'd like to especially thank senator kaine for that very kind, gracious, humbling introduction. sir, i will not let you down. you have been a leader here in the senate, you've been a leader because you are a father of a marine, you have always taken care of our servicemen and women and as you mentioned, i've really enjoyed working closely with you these past couple years and our experience at ft. belvoir, again, assured me that there is bipartisanship in this -- in this building, on capitol hill, and t

mr. chairman, for holding this hearing. i look forward to the hearing. and hearing from our nominee. >> thank you, senator reed. senator kaine, you are recognized to introduce our guest today. >> mr. chair, ranking member reed and my colleagues on the committee, i actually will not introduce dr. esper because you all know him, but i will present him to you and recommend his nomination. you know him because of his work as secretary of the army and interaction with each of you. barbara tuckman wrote in her 1962 pulitzer prize winning book about the first world war "the guns of august" that, quote, character begets power, especially in hours of price is. that is a quote that is about both individuals and also about nations. over the past two years my interactions with dr. esper have convinced me -- have led me to the conclusion that he is a person of sound character and moral courage, which i believe are the most important traits of a secretary of defense charged with the lives of the women and men who serve the department of defense. he was born in uniontown, pennsylvania, the same town that produced general george c. marshall

mr. chairman for holding the hearing. i look forward to the hearing and hearing from our nominee. thank you. >> thank you. senator kaine, you are recognized to introduce our guest.

senator kaine, you're on. >> thank you, mr. chair. general, congratulations on the nomination and i'll just give you a shout out. i was at the passage of command service earlier today at the marine barracks as a general neller was passing the commandant of the marine position to general and in the comments he singled you out the service chiefs he served with as people he really admired. i will pass that on to you. he looked at me and said aren't you supposed to be in a hearing asking general milley tough questions now? now that they're tough. i want to talk to you about china. we talked when you and i were in the office together about the national defense strategy but the comment you made in response earlier you think it's at the end of the century when the history of the century is written, a lot of it is going to be about the u.s./china relationship. could you elaborate on that a little bit? >> i will. and i do want to -- i obviously missed the passing there with the marine commandant but the general is a great marine, great persona

mr. epstein and his enabler. >> reporter: many, he says. now looking forward to their day in y,urt. jay grabc news. >> virginia senator tim kaine is one of the lawmakers calling for labor secretarial xandos acc to resign for cutting that 2007 plea deal with epstein. he was u.s. attorney at the time. >>> only on news 4, two brothers finding strength in each other. >> they were shot months apart near their d.c. home. the attack left one of them nd paralyzed reliant on his younger brother just to get up these steps. >> tonight, how they are dealing withy adversitnd what t >>> two local brothers wounded in separate shootings this year are not giving up hope. >> one of the boys has been left paralyzed. >> both a now trying to comprehend what happened as their mother helps them lift their spirits. >> the boys are now speaking for the first time only with news 4's meagan fitzgerald. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: there's nothing average about ranal and his brother any more. he was once a teenager like his iends, with big dreams. >> i smile through the day. >>> famous as a writer or rapper, a famous rapper. >> reporter: but on may 4th,is

mr. kaine: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. brown: madam president, yesterday in the banking committee, we heard from one of facebook's executives about how that company -- if we can believe this, it doesn't even seem possible, how facebook wants to create its own monopoly money. after scandal after scandal we have seen with facebook when we saw the damage they have done to journalism and the compromise and betrayal of people's privacy even as the united nations said, again, believe it or not, what facebook did to contribute to the humanitarian disaster in what we know as burma where hundreds of people died, the united nations said that facebook contributed to the genocide, it almost doesn't sound believable, but to the genocide in that part of the world. but now after scandal after scandal, mr. president, facebook expects americans to trust them -- to trust them with their hard-earned paychecks.

mr. brown: thank you, madam president. i both concur and applaud -- concur in and applaud the senior senator from washington state for her comments, and we saw senator manchin here. i know senator kaine was here, senator murphy was here, senator blumenthal was here. i know there are probably a dozen others, all of whom know people, have talked to people, get out and, as lincoln said, get -- listen to people and get their public opinion baths, and they meet people like the lady from columbus that i will talk about in a few minutes, susan helper. they talk to hem, they meet them. they see that what we do here actually matters in people's lives. they can play games with the affordable care act. they've been doing that madam president, for a decade now, literally almost a decade, putting people's health care at risk, scaring people, alarming people, trying to take their health care away, and, you know, these are real people, as thee picture -- as these pictures show and as these stories show. back up a minute. a federal judges hearing arguments in a case that will literally yank health care away from millions of americans. i know what that means in my state. madam president, 900,000 peop