chair grassley: senator durbin. sen. durbin: mr. patel, i woke up this morning to national public radio, and they had an item on their about what has happened to those who were given blankets clemency by president trump. one of these individuals was a man named matthew, are you familiar? mr. patel: are you -- did you say again? could you remind me? sen. durbin: he is a man found guilty of numerous crimes and the one described this morning was an outrageous situation where he beat his three-year-old child to a point where the could to -- the poor kid could not sit down for a week. he was one of the demonstrators who came to the capital on january 6. he was incarcerated, and charged and pled guilty to crimes that he had committed, violence against police officers. after he was released by president trump he returned to indiana. a few days later, he was stopped on the road, pulled a gun on a policeman and the policeman and the sheriff's deputy shot and killed him. this is not the only instance of a person who received president trump's

durbin, senator durbin would make the request to the court. chair grassley: i wouldn't answer your question without getting all of the background i need considering the conversation between you two, i couldn't make that judgment now. sen. schiff: i appreciate your consideration. the reason i think it is so important is, let's remind ourselves what those documents were at mar-a-lago. according to the indictment, the documents stored in the boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of the united states and foreign countries, the united states nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of united states and allies to military attack, and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack. testimony that goes to the care or lack of care, the truthfulness or lack of truthfulness of mr. patel would be directly relevant to whether he should be confirmed as fbi director and those records are there for the asking, no court is going to turn us down. he may be the first nominee for fbi director in history who felt

durbin: i wish you well. we are dealing with fentanyl and the deadly aspects of that drug we are also dealing with sexual exportation, particularly of children and other members have shown real leadership here senator blackburn on the republican side, senator blumenthal on the democratic side especially. we all have bills. we can do this. hold us responsible. don't just come and leave and think nothing is going to happen. it is our job to make sure it does happen and do the right thing for you and your families. thank you very much. chair grassley: i thank senator durbin for bringing up our conversation we had yesterday on the floor of the united states senate. and i suggested to him then but i want our staff to know that our staff should see what can be worked out. now i will ask questions and then i will call on kolbuchar. leading up to this hearing, my office received 58 letters from grieving families who lost loved ones to fentanyl. i want to offer those letters into the record and thank their families fo

senator durbin. >> thank you all for being here. how many of you would this be your first time to see the senate judiciary committee, would you raise your hand? a few of our witnesses and others, the first time. this is an interesting committee. it represents the spectrum of politics in the united states senate. we have the most republican republicans and the most democratic democrats sitting on this committee. so you won't be surprised that many times we disagree. and that disagreement sometimes leads to good speeches but very few laws. there was an exception. two years ago we took up this issue and started talking about what we could do to stop the spread of fentanyl and the deadly impact it is having on america. we actually voted in this committee on a bipartisan basis unanimously for five measures that dealt with social media. your point, if snapchat were a store on the corner selling fentanyl lateed percocet and it happened one time and they could be sued, that would be the end of the story. but we learned through section 230 t

durbin: mr. president, two weeks, it's been two weeks with the new president. the inauguration seems so far in the distant past, it's hard to believe. what this administration has tried to do during the first two weeks is almost impossible to describe in a very short period of time. so many executive orders, so many chaengs, so -- changes, so many speeches by the president, so many threats, so many changes in the way this government is run, and many of them raising serious questions that even go to the heart of our constitution. mr. president, since president trump took office two weeks ago, he has sown chaos across the federal government. but despite his campaign promises, something has been con hispanicsly -- conspicuously absent, lowering the cost of living for americans. the economically questionable tariffs he announced on friday, 25% on canada and mexico, 10% more on china show just that. i said to my staff when they handed me a copy of the speech which was written this morning, there had been some developments during the course of the day when it comes t

biden and then judiciary chairman dick durbin on that. they were appointing and confirming the diverse series of judges. so the point is that for some reason, let's just take my state of illinois since 1818, when it was a state, all the judges at all levels in the federal judiciary were basically white men. now, that doesn't mean that does have to mean almost as the famous common sense that donald trump wants people to use, since that's what he does. there had to be something going on that only white men were able to get through the door. and also, some of these programs do is let everybody through the door, and then you figure out who's qualified or not. now, that is a. now we're going into a new chapter. not sure how it's going to turn out. i think wiping out these holidays is part of the symbolic as well as substantive drive that trump and his administration is making. mhm. >> okay. and then something else that's impacting information, you know, transparency, accountability. the pentagon has announced plans to swap out mainstream media

. >> the to iowa republican senator chuck grassley and illinois democratic senator durbin say it needs to happen. we won't agree on every aspect everything as a result of it who we can agree on some basics that make a difference. westlake says that difference will have an impact telling parents tragically on more than one occasion, even friends of mine that their trip child. >> will never come home is the worst part of my job. >> reporting in washington, reshad hudson. >> still ahead here at to our team coverage of the atmospheric river will continue. we'll take a look at what the week ahead. looks like. and after the break, 5 days until the big game. and there's something on the minds of all the fans in new orleans. we're going to live there and check in and how they're getting ready for the super bowl. >> we're going to take a quick look here at the stormtracker. can see where it's raining right now. north bay getting a lot. >> the stable got some by the time. the evening commute really starts pick up kyle track. all this for us in just a few minutes. we're just 5 days away from supe

schedule. 2 drug and there's an iowa republican chuck grassley and also and illinois democratic senator durbin who says this needs to happen. we'll hear from them later on. now scheduled one drugs are those that have no currently accepted medical use look outside from our camera. >> that's showing us a nice wide view. there's the city of san francisco so we can kind of see the raindrops that are on the lens at the moment. and also we know more rains coming our way. by the time we hit the evening commute for different parts of the bay area. so kyle us here to go over our forecast with us yeah, sure. and we have severe thunderstorm warnings that are still in place for parts of marin county and san francisco. let's get right to it here. national weather service is now extended this to 04:00pm and all the areas you see in yellow, that means that we can see storms with heavy downpours, incredible wind with them and very dangerous. so my message to you is if you do not have to be outside right now, do not stay where you are. stay put until this rolls through because this is where dangerous. and we'v

durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mrs. gillibrand. i'm honored to be sitting here to be nominated for the next sector of the v.a. i want to think my friend kevin cramer for the kind introduction. i appreciate his work and your work as well. i thank him for that. i would like to thank president trump for his nomination and his willingness to have not on the veterans of this country. i'm privileged today and appreciate the chairman and ring them mentioning my family because i would not view without them. my wife of 36 years is with me lisa. i have my son copeland, his wife your guide my son cameron and his fiancÉe. and then on the one of the quizzes altogether and that is jordan. she is our daughter. also on the public is watching what no of the list of a didn't mention, my 86-year-old 86-year-old father who spent 31 years as a as a georgia ste trooper. bad, i'm here because of you and mom. and i love you. america's greatest nation on earth. its grace nation i believe because of many women who serve it it's a minute when that is certain

. >> you know, i just want to acerca director durbin's comments and also commissioner caruso since commentsarding the importance of our gathering as much data as we can. both commissioner knudsen and i sit on the dignity fund oversight committee and so we did already have a preview of this report and it was just really great to be able to look at it again this month later. and i you know, i just want to restate excellent work done with gathering this report. it really gave us a chance to take a look at the work that's been done to serve as a statement provided by technically fun and to emphasize what a excellent public policy was for san francisco to basically advocate for and actually implement prop i setting aside our funds to support seniors and persons with disabilities. years in thg e have increased enrollments, we have increased number of programs■6 and we increase money in digging fund it is i think really excellent that to be able to sit back and t look. i know there's a lot more work in front of us, a lot more challenges but i think for looking back at what has happened to basicall

senator durbin and i have for a while been trying to get a bill passed that requires price disclosures on tv and for prescription drugs. knowing when something costs before buying it is just common sense. president trump tried to do this by regulation in his first term. vice president pence cosponsored our bill last congress. i ask you to support this bill or if you can do it by regulation, with my regulation. on neural health care. ration opening up slots for rural community hospital demonstration programs that also ignored concern from borough pharmacies when into and changes to medicare part d and ignored rural needs when it comes to distributing residency slots. i expect you to prioritize burrell americans health care needs. on agriculture. in our meeting earlier this month we talked at length about agriculture. he prefaced the conversation by saying you will not have jurisdiction over these issues. i expect you to leave agricultural practice regulations to the proper agencies and for the most part, that is usta and epa. on dietary guidelines i've sent letters to the secretaries of

us to hold pbms accountable, and i may even ask in your support for >> senator grass lynn: senator durbin and i had for a while trying to get a bill passed. knowing what something costs before buying it is just common sense. president trump tried to do this by regulations in his first term. vice president jd vance cosponsored our bill last congress. i ask you to support this bill or if you can do it by regulation. on rural healthcare, the previous administration dragged its feet in opening up slots for rural community, hospital demonstration programs. it also ignored concerns for rural pharmacies when implementing changes to medicare part d and ignored rural needs when it comes to distributing physicians, residency slots. i expect you to prioritize rural americans healthcare needs. on agriculture in our meeting earlier this month, we talked at lengths about agriculture. you prefaced the conversation by saying you will not have jurisdictions or issues. i expect you to leave agriculture practice regulations to the proper agencies for the most part that's usda and epa. on dietary guidelines,