mr. sullivan: absolutely yes. and i will say that in my conversations with my successor, one of the things he's asked a lot of questions about are the investments in infrastructure, physical, digital, energy infrastructure, in africa. the high standard investments we tried to stimulate. and that have gotten bipartisan support from the congress. he's asked a lot of questions about how to carry that forward. so my hope is that in fact just given the sheer significance and stakes at play with respect to the african continent over the coming years, that that is a priority for the incoming administration. i'll take one more. the speaker pro tempore: they are reporting that a hostage deal is imminent and president trump may get the american hostages on his plane. do you believe the threat by him of -- would push hamas and the israeli government to deliver this? and second what's your reaction to the election of liberal new 3r50eu78 minister, he's a judge on the i.c.g. that opened a case against israel for crimes against

mr. sullivan, aye. the clerk: ms. slotkin, aye. the clerk: mr. coons, no. ms. cantwell, no. the clerk: mr. cramer, aye. the clerk: mr. hoeven, aye. the clerk: mr. hagerty, aye. the clerk: mr. cassidy, aye. mr. young, aye. the presiding officer: the yeas are 59, the nays are 34. the nomination is confirmed. mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that with respect to the nome nomination, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table that the mandatory quorum call with respect to the bessent nomination be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby bring to a close debate on the nomination of scott bessent, of south carolina, to be secretary the treasury, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senat

mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. the clerk: mr. young. the vice president: a quorum is present. the vice president: a quorum is present. under the previous order, the leadership is reserved. the senate will be in a period offed morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the majority leader will then begin calling up -- the majority leader. mr. thune: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to consideration of s. res. 1, which was submitted earlier today. the vice president: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: s. res. 1, establishing a committee to inform the president of the united states that a quorum of each house is assembled. the vice president: is there an objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. thune: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, that the motion to reconsider

but clearly mr. sullivan was told to be encouraged by by these, like i see a lot of typing on his and by the shoulder about how great the by the mission has been in the past 40 years and why it's leaving america stronger and better than it . then he took it 40 years ago. the only problem is that he left a lot of the things on the table. he shared with us a lot of half tools and mrs. thoughts about what has gone on the past 4 years, including about the withdrawal from up against on something that by the way, trump had done most of it in 2020. but it came down to from 152-2500. but even that by then could not muster, by the way, the middle east to spend in the bio straits guys us them so far as the day dozens of people were killed in gaza. but we are expecting to cease fire. there is little doubt that this point in time to cease fire is coming and that is 10. in part, not just for bargain and people. so to trump and here's my lease invoice. according to one paper in his read with coff has in fact i thought nothing. yeah. over the last few days he really wanted the deal and he was speaki

mr. sullivan? >> larry, i don't think we're there yet, i think you the reports by aishah hasnie was accurate, we had a good debate, a good discussion with president. when we came out said we're unified and focused on same issues, which is border security, unleashing american energy, peace through strength, rebuilding our military, and extending tax cuts we're unified, i would say with regard to budget reconciliation bill it is on going discussion. it was a good one last night, we want speed, and we want success, those are two issues, they are a little bit intention we'll get there it will be president who decides which way in which we go, we'll be working on a back up plan in terms of two bills, i think there is a well the of unity on two bill approach, but president will make the call, a good discussion last night, we unified to get mandate that president trump got in his overwhelming election that is the big goal. larry: senator hagerty, we have not talked about this you and i am i am for one big

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. senators voting in the affirmative -- banks, barasso, blackburn, budd, daines, ernst, fischer, graham, hagerty, hyde-smith, johnson, justice, kennedy, lee, lummis, marshall, mccormick, moreno, mullin, ricketts, rounds, scott of florida, sullivan, thune, tuberville, wicker, and young. ms. hassan, no. mr. blumenthal -- ms. slotkin. senators voting in the negative -- mr. husted, aye. senators voting in the negative -- baldwin, blumenthal, collins, coons, cortez masto, duckworth, durbin, hassan, kaine, kelly, kim, lujan, merkley, murray, padilla, reed, schatz, schiff, slotkin, and wyden. mr. crapo, aye. mr. cotton, aye. mrs. mr. coburn and mr. cornyn, aye. ms. murkowski, no. mr. warner, no. miss also. the clerk: ms. alsobrooks, no. the clerk: mrs. capito, aye. the clerk: mr. ossoff, no. hegseth. the fox news weekend morning. co-host to be secretary of defense. we're watching this live along with you joining us now from t

mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. warner. mr. warnock.des activating the department of defense in the effort. and that is the strongest military in the world. on trump's very first day in office, he signed a handful of executive orders, launching his promised crackdown on immigration, and he declared a national emergency at the border to empower the military to support border control. on friday, the first wave of active duty u.s. troops arrived in el paso, texas. military officials tell nbc news that over the next few days, they expect to receive 1500 active duty troops in el paso to help support the 2500 who are already on the ground on the southern border. mission. the trump administration is also using military planes to deport migrants who are already in detention in the united states. the u.s. according to guatemalan officials, the country received three planes full of guatemalan nationals who had been deported from the u.s. this week. trump intended to send at least some of the deportees to mexico, but mexico mexico has refused to a

mr. sullivan, is carter worth, the founder and ceo of worth charting.the worst performing, single worst performing sector in the s&p 500 over the last 12 months. so is it due for a bounce? >> yes. thank you. good to see you both. the question here, of course, is it right to play this laggard? times also weaknesses to tay away from and weakness to take advantage of. my hunch is the latter. start with the first chart, over the past ten years basically you're talking about an aggregate, one of the parts, that am composes the hole, up 100%, orange line, health care, where the market is up 200. so it's not only been a real problem over the past 12 months, but over a long period now. which is to say the relative performance of the sector peaked to the market in 2015. the question is, what to do? it's the fourth largest sector in the s&p. i think there are individual names that. >>> take advantage of. we have two here to focus on. so the first to look at would be isrg. this is a steady orderly up trend. it's bounced off the trend line to the penny, to the penn

mr. sullivan. >> at the top of the program, it was cassioppi separate there was a good debate and discussion with the president and he came out and said we're unified and focused on the same issue with border security and unleashing american energy and peace through strength and rebuilding our military and extending the tax cuts. we're completely unified on that and with regard to the reconciliation bills, it's an ongoing discussion that was a good one last night and, look, the key is we want speed, and we want success, and those are the two issues that are a bit intention and we'll get there ultimately it's the president that decides which way and which way we go and the president mentioned we're working on a backup plan and there's a lot of unity? the senate on the two bill approach and the president will make the ultimate call and it was a goodies cushion last night and we're unified to get the mandate that president trump got in his overwhelming election and that's the big goal. larry: senator hagerty, we haven't talked about this you and i personally. i'm for one big beautiful bill and

mr. sullivan, -- let me announce that mr. silvan, national security adviser, agreed to testify before this committee on december 17 at noon. and i insisted on behalf of the members that all members be able to participate in that -- in that briefing. the chair recognizes the gentleman from south carolina, mr. wilson. rep. wilson: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for your leadership on this committee. we all know that the chair-select will do an excellent job continuing the tradition of serving the american people, and what an exciting time in history that, as we face such positive changes with the removal of dictator assad from damascus, what can and needs to occur. but sadly, the assad departure and anything that's been positive was despite the biden administration, because hey, until last week, there was an effort to try to some level of normalization with assad, which is -- but that's not what we're here today. but it's a continuation, and that is the biden administration's surrender in afghanistan has actually set the st

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mr. sullivan, our national security adviser, and has been apprized of where we are. we do believe that we're going to be able to close those remaining gaps. this is not an issue that is going to derail the whole implementation of the deal. and as secretary blinken rightly said, we fully expect and we're confident that we're going to be able to get this deal in place by, by sunday. >> and in that case, you're confident that the deal will be in place and that the first hostages, hostages, which we are told will be three badly, badly injured israeli women, women who are not in good shape, those three would be coming out on sunday. >> and that's right, at least two americans in the coming days after that. that's right, that's right. i can't give you a date certain when the americans will come out, but we know that there's a couple of americans in this first tranche and this first tranche for phase one of the six weeks of phase one is really comprises the elderly, the sick and wounded and women, of course. and so there are a couple of americans who qualify under those cri

mr. hegseth. thank you senator hirono. senator sullivan. >> mr. hegseth congratulations on your nomination and thank you for your service and sacrifice. now for the most important question you will receive all day. in 1935 before the congress the father of the united states air force general billy mitchell was testifying about a certain place in the world. he said, "i believe that in the future whoever holds this place will control the world. this location is the most strategic place in the world." what place was billy mitchell talking about and let me give you a hint, it was not greenland. mr. hegseth: i believe he was talking about alaska. >> great answer. if confirmed, will you commit to come with me to the great state of alaska and meet our warriors on the front lines every day? mr. hegseth: senator, i have and as i mentioned in the past i did a brief training exercise at fort rain white -- fort wainwright and i look forward to returning. we are on the front lines with this new era of authoritarian integration -- aggression. in the last two ye

mr. sullivan, the national security adviser, come before this committee and give his testimony about what the hell was going on during this disastrous evacuation. with that, i now recognize the ranking member. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you know, i do recall a meeting here in the capitol, bipartisan, downstairs. and we were meeting with president ghani of afghanistan. and we had talked to some folks and president ghani was very vehement that he was not going to leave afghanistan. he was vehement that the afghan troops were there and he would stay there to all these members of congress. and to everyone that i talked to, from almost anywhere, was clear that that was his position. no one knew that one week later, not one month, one week later, he would get on a plane and get out and all the troops were gone. everybody at that moment in time was surprised. that's a fact. let me ask some yes or no questions real quick. because i believe that you're going to look at this whole thing you talk about. so, mr. secretary, president trump's doha deal explicitly committed to the united states to with

mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms.arren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. senators voting in the affirmative -- banks, barasso, blackburn, budd, daines, ernst, fischer, graham, hagerty, hyde-smith, johnson, justice, kennedy, lee, lummis, marshall, mccormick, moreno, mullin, ricketts, rounds, scott of florida, sullivan, thune, tuberville, wicker, and young. ms. hassan, no. mr. blumenthal -- ms. slotkin. senators voting in the negative -- mr. husted, aye. senators voting in the negative -- baldwin, blumenthal, collins, coons, cortez masto, duckworth, durbin, hassan, kaine, kelly, kim, lujan, merkley, murray, padilla, reed, schatz, schiff, slotkin, and wyden. mr. crapo, aye. mr. cotton, aye. mrs. moody, aye. mr. cornyn, aye. ms. murkowski, no. mr. warner, no. the clerk: ms. alsobrooks, no. the clerk: mrs. capito, aye. the clerk: mr. ossoff, no. the clerk: mr. sanders, no. mr. risch, aye. the clerk: mr. curtis, aye. mr. sheehy, aye. mr. cramer, aye. ms. warren, no. ms. hirono, no. the clerk: ms.

mr. jake sullivan, national security adviser. it was 24 times since this ordeal happened. you know, i think it's extraordinary the amount of effort that he has put in. we, the us families, you know, have been on constant. journey through the white house and the senate congress. i think it's also important to mention the bipartisan support that we have gotten from congress and senate and urging the 118th congress, as well, to do even more to put pressure on the parties to make sure that they're doing whatever is needed to get all the hostages out. there are different levers that have not been used yet. and i urge our friends in congress to also make sure that there's no daylight between the house and the trump administration. and we, the families, have become, you know, a very intimate group of people that have been able to share, you know, our tragedy one with the other. and it is bittersweet, like, you know, we're very happy for those that are coming out, many families will be reunited and women, children, elderly, but still, you know, it's still a feeling that there's mo

mr. sullivan. as you said in 2016 or are you going to fan the flames. >> senator of the fossil fuel industry that you now refuse to actually hold responsible for the rapidly warming country that were living in. >> senator there is a few things, first off as far as the supreme court case goes. it was not a decision on the supreme court if there was a fire in 2025 in california that if the buyer creates a danger to people having their homes burned down at the epa triggers the epa to regulate carbon dioxide. there's more to it. >> is pretty simple. this is the epa is supposed to be the environmental watchdog and the apostle fuel laptop. >> it is supposed to have families be able to sleep at night knowing the air is clean and the water is safe in their future is protected. it should not lead people up at night wondering if they're going to have danger that comes into the family's existence because the polluters. that is the job. between 2016 and today, something has happened that they're not willing to

mr. hegseth. thank you, senator hirono. >> senator sullivan, thank you, mr. chairman. and mr. hegseth, congratulations on your nomination. and thank you and your family for your service and sacrifice. thank you, senator. now for the most important question. you will receive all day. in 1935, before the congress, the father of the united states air force, general billy mitchell, was testifying about a certain place in the world. he said, quote, i believe that in the future, whoever holds this place will control the world. this location is the most strategic place in the world. what place was billy mitchell talking about? and let me give you a hint. it wasn't greenland. >> i believe he was talking about the great state of alaska. >> he was talking about the great state of alaska. great answer. if confirmed, will you commit to come with me to the great state of alaska? meet our warriors who are on the front lines every day. >> senator, i have, and as i mentioned to you in the past, i did a brief training exercise up at fort wainwright at a previous part of my military life. i loo

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. hust

mr. sullivan: mr. president, thank you. and you know, it's nearing the end of the week, and normally that's web i come down -- that's when i come down to the senate floor to do my weekly, try to make it weekly, alaskan of the week speech. now, i know for the pages this is their favorite speech of the week. you get to hear about alaska. you get to hear about some great alaskan doing some great stuff. i usually try to give a little update what's going on in our great state, because it's always something interesting. and then i encourage people watching on tv, come up to alaska. you're going to have the trip of a lifetime if you do it. so, mr. president, today the alaskan of the week is someone very special to me and my wife. i'm going to talk in detail about all she's done for our state. her name is kathleen rowell. she has worked for me in alaska, going on 15 years, mr. president. you understand that, as a former governor, where you have great staff that do amazing things, not just for you and your team, but for the whole st

mr. hegseth. um, thank you, senator hirono. >> senator sullivan, thank you, mr. chairman. and mr. hegseth, congratulations on your nomination. and thank you and your family for your service and sacrifice. >> thank you, senator. >> now for the most important question. you will receive all day in 1935, before the congress, the father of the united states air force, general billy mitchell, was testifying about a certain place in the world. he said, quote, i believe that in the future, whoever holds this place will control the world. this location is the most strategic place in the world. what place was billy mitchell talking about? and let me give you a hint. it wasn't greenland. >> i believe he was talking about the great state of alaska. >> he was talking about the great state of alaska. great answer. if confirmed, will you commit to come with me to the great state of alaska? meet our warriors who are on the front lines every day. >> senator, i have and as i mentioned to you in the past, i did a brief training exercise up at fort wainwright at a previous part of my military life. i

sullivan. senator kaine. >> thank you, mr. hegseth. looking forward to this opportunity to talk. i want to return to the incident that you referenced a minute ago that occurred in monterey, california in october of 2017. at that time you were march eft to your second wife, correct? >> i believe so. >> you had just fathered a child by a woman who would later became your third wife, correct? >> i was falsely charged. fully investigated and completely cleared. >> so you think you were completely cleared because you committed no crime. that's your definition of cleared. you had just fathered a child two months before by a woman not your wife. i am shocked that you would stand here and say you are completely cleared. can you so casually cheat on a second wife and cheat on the mother of a child born two months before and you tell us you are completely cleared? >> senator, her child's name is gwen hope hegseth a child of god, seven years old and i'm glad she is here. >> you cheated on the mother of that childless than two months after that daughter was born, didn't you? >> those were fa

sullivan: does that technology exist right now? mr. alspach: to the extent that i've described it, no, but this is where i'm going with my point. when i've had conversations with people in my field they would say we are so far away from that it is not feasible. but we tend to think as a society in very myopic terms about what is possible and what is not. and if you asked someone in 1875 if we would put a man on the moon, they probably would've said there is no way that is ever going to happen and yet we did it. i think we shouldn't limit ourselves based on the knowledge of what is possible today and what might be possible tomorrow , and i feel like one way to accomplish that is to encourage across disciplinary collaboration among researchers in industry because there could be limitations on a method to detect nano plastics that an industry that is not even thinking about nano plastics might have a solution for and i all you need to do is connect those dots, get those people talking to each other, and they might find they have a mutual

sullivan. all of them said that explicitly, the explosions will adjust the hours ago, new the kid image shuttle. i'm crossing it comes to mr. polls 8 people killed them more than 25 wounded in northern and central casa bias. riley strikes earlier as a jerusalem had not yet received the list of hostages by hamas at 8 30 am local time. the idea of preston to resume military operation over now, the local journalists around the i'm a holiday reporting from central gas 10. maybe hundreds of the truck loads are just lining up a waiting for the delivery of age to come into garza and the upcoming hour. so it's might, you know, it's mike to continue and it could the last day, the ceasefire and not being a free trial as the last but the, i was i, i changed it to be sorted out. and people are just so big. i just hoping that address that the site i will hold people are just slow coming because i had a great so that they will be able to return back to their lives before the war broke out. that 3 months ago, over the past few hours, there have been bombardments, 5 days, really. that are me, a shoot out by the is read. i mean, such an ar

sullivan and drummond. congratulations riverside on this incredible milestone. i look forward to celebrating all year long. mr. speaker, i rise today to honor the life of juan sales, who passed away in december of 2024. juan was a public servant, educator, attorney, and an advocate for immigrants and indigenous peoples. he served our community with passion and dedication. born in texas to mexican parents, juan's hard work took him to college and later law school in washington state. he moved to chicago in 1978 to join the legal assistance foundation and never stopped working for the rights of immigrants and for immigration reform. my friend juan was the first mexican american elected to the illinois general assembly in 1984. later in 1987 he became the first mexican american to represent chicago's 25th ward as alderman. .. he will be remembered. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from new jersey, mse minutes -- ms. mcgiveer, for five minutes. ms. mciver:the a.r.c. act will save lives and reduce amputations by ensuring high-risk medicare a

and that's why president biden was so adamant with jake sullivan and brett mcgurk and the entire national security team here that we had to bring mr. witkoff in. we had to bring the trump team in so that they had full knowledge of what the implementation details were, because they're going to be responsible for getting us to phase two. >> admiral. good morning, jonathan lemire. we all echo mike's words to you just now. you mentioned iran and how it has been weakened. talk to us about what this new administration coming in just in a few days time, what are the opportunities and also challenges facing the trump team in the middle east, and particularly when it regards to the future of iran? >> well, they are coming in with an iran that's much weaker. in fact, all of our adversaries are weaker because of the foreign policy that joe biden has, has implemented and executed over the last four years. we have kept the pressure up on iran. iran is weaker. i think one of the things that we are talking to the trump team about, one of the things i think they've got to continue to watch is as iran becomes weaker, do they try to lash out in som

sullivan. >> i thank you and the raimann great committee. we get a lot of things, usually bipartisan. we have some differences. mr. zeldin, thanks for your service. not always easy we know. you know, alaska, we love our clean water, clean air. we don't think, we know we have the cleanest water and air in the world. we are proud of that. we don't think the e.p.a. has helped in that regard. more state actions. i want to begin by getting you to commit up to me to come to alaska and bring your family and do some fishing. big mountains, no offense to utah, but real big mountains. [laughter] >> we have a little fun on state size in this committee. can i get your commitment? mr. zeldin: yes and unlike predecessors who attempted to try to negotiate an august trip, i would want to go as cold and dark as possible. >> it's happening right now. we have communities in alaska that are hitting 30, 40 below zero. we would love -- mr. zeldin: senator rick wants to come with me. >> i appreciate the shoutout to me and senator whitehouse on save our seas act which was the most comprehensive cleanup legislation in the history of the c

and that's why president biden was so adamant with jake sullivan and brett mcgurk and the entire national security team here that we had to bring mrthey had full knowledge of what the implementation details were, because they're going to be responsible for getting us to phase two. >> admiral, good morning, jonathan lemire. we all echo mike's words to you just now. you mentioned iran and how it has been weakened. talk to us about what this new administration coming in just in a few days time, what are the opportunities and also challenges facing the trump team in the middle east there, and particularly when it regards to the future of iran? >> well, they are coming in with an iran that's much weaker. in fact, all of our adversaries are weaker because of the foreign policy that joe biden has, has implemented and executed over the last four years. we have kept the pressure up on iran. iran is weaker. i think one of the things that we are talking to the trump team about, one of the things i think they've got to continue to watch is as iran becomes weaker, do they try to lash out in some way? and one of the ways in which and we all hav

mr. biden once again called for an immediate ceasefire in gaza. return of the hostages and increased humanitarian aid to the enclave. here's what u.s. national security adviser jake sullivanold cnn's jake tapper. >> we are very, very close. and yet being very close still means we're far, because until you actually get across the finish line, we're not there. >> we have right now president biden's top middle east advisor, brett mcgurk, in doha. he has been there for a full week, hammering out with the mediators. the final details of a text to be presented to both sides. and we are still determined to use every day we have in office to get this done. can we get it done before the 20th? it is possible, but i certainly can't make any predictions that we will. >> meanwhile, incoming president donald trump has warned, quote, all hell will break out in the middle east if the hostages are not released before his inauguration next week. well, meanwhile, israeli forces are ramping up strikes in gaza. that was the moment an israeli strike hit a house in the refugee camp in central gaza on sunday. at least one person was killed and six others injured, according to hospital authoritie