brander. dr. brander: thank you, chairman merkley and padilla and ranking members, senator lummis and mullen, for the opportunity to testify today on the potential for microplastics and drinking and wastewater to have repercussions for environmental and human health. i'm an associate professor at oregon state university and have been conducting research on microplastics and plastic pollution for nearly a decade, and on endocrine disrupting chemicals for over a decade. the issue of plastic pollution is a great environmental challenge, as has been mentioned. it is also an expensive problem. estimated at about 13 billion annually. fragmentation of plastic products and waste into microplastics is of substantial concern to the nation's water treatment sector, where contamination is widely documented. microplastics are now broadly defined by california as a solid polymeric material to which chemical additives or other substances may have been added. these are particles having at least three dimensions,

brander? dr. brander: sure. sen. sullivan: have you guys heard of the new marine debris foundation in juneau, alaska? you've got to come out and visit it. we will wait for it to get a little bigger. it is exciting. dr. brander: really exciting that that foundation has been created, and i agree that private-sector solutions are needed, but i think that needs to happen under an umbrella of some regulation. sen. sullivan: sure. dr. brander: that allows for things to happen at an equitable level that at a similar speed nationwide, rather than having happening state by state or region by region. and in terms of the development of a plastic bottle that could fully degrade -- sen. sullivan: or any other technological innovation that if you had a magic wand you think could be really important. because that is one idea i've been pushing, but we want other ideas. right? what are the other ideas? this foundation is going to encourage all of this thinking. so three of the top minds on this, what is your magic wand moment in term

it made him a good tv programmer before, a good brander. >> is that why the notification on tiktok right says, "donald trump brought this app back for you"? sorry, i didn't mean to interrupt you. >> that'll fit in, yeah. but if he will focus on the things that broadens his coalition, not what narrows his coalition, it'll work for him. joe biden didn't do that. you know, on joe biden's first day, he did a slew of executive orders that would lead to his downfall. raised energy ces, made a change on transgender legislation, and did immigration executive orders. he did 11 of them in the first three months that loosened the border. joe biden's policy led to his downfall. donald trump's key is policy to keep his popular. >> i was going to say, there is an inherent tension between what trump's messaging is today, which they said will be a unifying message. a lot of the executive orders trump going to do today are not the unifying message, you know. i don't know if people were really, you know, looking forward to january 6th pardons, or the fact they were going to strip security clearances away,