chair butler. >> present. >> vice chair dufty? >> present. >> evans. >> present. >> commissioner lguana. >> present. >> city attorney, commissioners we have a quorum. the ringing and use of cell phones and similar sound producer electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. please be advised that the chair may remove anybody for use of cell phone or any similar electronic devices. thank you for your cooperation. this places you on item 4, announcements by the chair. >> first of all good morning again to every one and commissioners good morning to you as well. i wanted to set the scene and provide the context. we're in a terrible time in the world. as we know the unrest happening in middle east and ukraine and israel and haiti and nigel. there are a lot of challenge that we face in our city. in the spirit that is happening that it will be about justice and peace and that we focus at the task at hand. in the world things are divided by political perspective and persuasions. not all the politics at play. we want to take this tim

butler. former rnc chair, michael steel. there was a lot more we heard in the interview. i know that you were at a rally in florida talking to voters down there. talk me through more of what we learned. >> i'll let paul get into the mi if donald trump was president, how he would arrest his political opponents. we have heard donald trump say he would call up his attorney general and order them to go after his political enemies. he was upset with the likes of jeff sessions and bill barr at the end of the term, and he would put in office an attorney general who would all but do his bidding and allow political influence to rain over through his white house. i want to let you hear to somebody i talked to at his rally wednesday night. when you talk to supporters at each of his events, you consistently hear a defense of donald trump in what would amount to greater authority and executive power and use of it to go after folks who they believe took away the white house from him for a second term. take a listen to one man who i talked to. >> reporter: when you say go after them, wh

butler. >> thank you chair blumenthal and ranking member. as a mom, this is a topic that i could not not show up to engage in. i want to appreciate your leadership for fighting for and leading on behalf of not just my daughter that america's children. and i know not just your own. i appreciate it very much also your comments to my colleague here specifically when you're talking about taking anna all children approach. i want to direct my comments to engage in a space that may be all children, the all children approach hasn't necessarily been taken. i'd love to get your thoughts on some gaps that we could try to feel. now, you know, and we know the internet can be a hateful place. we talked about that today. i understand that among your research in the user experience, you looked into instances of identity based hostilities on the platform and found that over a quarter of users under the age of 16 said they witnessed hostility against someone based on their race, religion or identity within the last week. one study published in the journal of

butler. >> thank you, chair durbin, ranking member for being in the kennedy on such an incredibly importanteciate the witnesses for joining us today. i would like to appreciate in helping us to protect members of our community and also for your dedication in helping our country combat this important crisis. i agree with of the words that you offered this is a conversation that is about our children and that in my opinion is very much about the future of our democracy. i would like to direct my first question to you. for decades, congress has refused to allow the cdc to use federal dollars to research gun violence prevention. finally in december, 2019, congress passed the gun violence prevention research act which granted a $25 million per year to the cdc and the national institute on a study and gun violence prevention from 20222022. for those who feel they know everything and we keep having the same conversation, doctor, can you tell us what this money has done to help us learn and what do we still have to understand relative to gun violence prevention? >> so the money is currently being u

butler. >> thank you so much, chair klobuchar. i was going to note that i've not been any other committee where the chair yielded their time. going to spend more time in the rules committee. >> don't get used to it around here. [laughing] >> i do want to start by thanking chair klobuchar for her tireless efforts to shine a spotlight on the importance of preserving election integrity without efforts to protect this process. it is not an overstatement to worry about the future of democracy in our country. and a note our chair is committed to that. i want to appreciate our witnesses. thinking deputy secretary bena, administrator farley produced the important work of safeguarding our elections every single day. secretary fontes,, secretary schmidt you both of personally faced harassment and threats because a public service. thank you for being with us here to talk about what we can do to make sure that what you experienced never happens again. attorney howard. i appreciate the opportunity to learn from subjecty matter experts and want

chair. i yield back. >> thank you, senator butler. >> thank you, mr. chairman and to the witnesses.under biden's leadership, family unit housing centers were shut down, illegal immigrants were not detained. the children became tools for criminals to avoid detention. congress has demanded answers and we've been met with silence, delay or worse yet, a flat-out refusal to take responsibility. and i want you to know that i have the same sort of outrage you heard from kennedy and blackburn. this isn't just a situation that affects the federal government and a few states at the border. this, the failures that i've talked about at the federal level have created problems for us even in iowa at the state and local level, worse yet federal government has failed these kids. so in august i wrote to iowa's law enforcement people primarily the 99 county sheriff's. they told me that the cartels didn't just traffic humans and drugs at the border but cartels have a presence in communities across the united states and are particularly active along the major highways. in iowa we have the cj mj cartels

butler: thank you. thank you, mr. chair. chair durbin: thank you. senator blackburn? sen.ckburn: i want to say thank you to each of you. for being here today. for your thoughtful answers. i think mr. chairman, we can all say we want to make certain that children are safe when they go to school. i want to start with that. ms. swearer, let me come to you. i am a mom, i am a grandmom. i have spent so much of my work on making certain that we protect children. and that they have an environment where they can learn. whether it is they are at school, or in community activities. i think we all know that there are violent criminals that are in error communities, and we know our schools need training. and they need security tools to keep children safe. and that is why i introduced the safe school act. this is a concept i have worked on for years. it would be a $900 million grant program that would allow schools to have the technology that they need to keep children safe, into increase their physical security. it would also allow schools to work with local law enforcement, and train

so we welcome you senator butler and please proceed. >> thank you so much chair durbin and as noted thesenator from the state former labor organizer mom, to a nine -year-old. not only am i eager to continue the leadership of senator feinstein on this issue, i find it imperative that we have this conversation i want to appreciate the chair for bringing f up altogether and too that. contrary to what we may have heard, the struggle to protect the migrant children is not new. but we see another democratic and republican controlled administrations and i hope today that we can agree on the fact that no matter what party power, that her job is to do our part, to protect these migrant children and listening to the experts and giving the agency resource they need and holy companies accountable. for violating our labor laws and working with my colleagues to find bipartisan solutions, had i appreciate all of you for your testimony as i have read all of your prepared remarks and i look forward to discussion i would love to turn a my attention miss marcos to the topic that you were just making on po

rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable laphonza butler, a senator from the state of california, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patty murray, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten to speak therein for up to ten >> guest: yes. today it will be voting on two parts here. . separates the continued resolution and the two separate parts. the first part of corporation bills sent to jail in 19th, that milcon, p.a., energy and water, and so we are going have those four separate elsewhere. the rest will go to figure a second. basically people, what would happen is you work until june 19 to pass those bills. today the ability to pass that cr. they will do it under the will because what usually happens is it would go to rules committee and then while in rules committee it would then put out a roll. the rule would go to the floor and the role would have to pass in order to then vote on the bill which would require the majority. but usually it happens historically democrats don

butler and ask questions when the time arrives. >> thank you so much. i was going to note that i have not been in any other committee where the chair yielded their time. >> don't get used to it. >> i do want to start by thanking chair klobuchar for her tireless efforts to shine a spotlight on the importance of preserving election integrity without efforts to protect this process, it is not an overstatement to worry about the future of democracy in our country and i know our chair is committed to that. i want to appreciate our witnesses. thinking:ability secretary bennett and administrator polly for safeguarding our elections every single day. secretary sanchez and schmidt, you both have personally experienced threats and harassments because of your public service. thank you for being here with us to talk about what we can do to make sure that what you experienced never happens again. attorney howard, i appreciate the opportunity to learn from subject matter experts and i want to really pick up my questions with where you left off in your testimony in reference to what you have provided to the community in your written material. during the 2020 election,