the federal government and the federal member states signed an agreement that would not be a one person one vote but a an in direct election system close to the one we had in an assistant but that indirect election was supposed to take place on february 8th feel lection no not taken place and i've looked at the constitution of somalia article 91 the president of the federal republic shall hold office for a term of 4 years starting from the day he takes office takes the oath as the president well after that time after that 4 years he is no longer the to no he the president cannot be a fact him the federal parliament in both chambers have signed voted for by a majority of 215 in the lower house and 40 senators to have. a law that would allow for the parliament with its full authority to continue with its mandate and for all of the institutions of the federal government to continue so we have a law and that low allows for the both the federal parliament and the federal government to continue until and the election is organized now you cannot have it both ways you cannot have a situation wh

we have a process of federalization. which has not being all agreed on which is in the process our constitutional review and finalization process is well underway and these things take time and in that process somalia and somalis have to figure out what is the best way to go of federalizing somalia it's not the best time to be debating the future of the country in terms of its federalism and all of these important questions in an election cycle and in the midst of what's supposed to be an election period as we look tensions in the federal system in somalia it's worth reminding our viewers there's one piece of territory very large piece of territory that's normally under the control of mogadishu but it is a defacto state in itself somaliland has its own army police currency politicians it has its own elections as well it has all the trappings of a state is it not time now for a last thing settlement between somalia and somaliland this government the federal government of somalia so continue to have a dialogue with. the sm

agreements on or let's say agreements in principle on federal architecture were discarded by the federal government especially as far as security natural resources and revenues were concerned so the federal member states have really felt as though . this show president from a jumper to kill or have been trying to dismantle the essence of federalism establish a monopoly on power and resources and sideline them and i should just add that the federal government aggressively interfered in elections in 3 federal member states to have its own loyalists appointed so there's a great deal of mistrust and suspicion from the way the federal government has behaved and now this argument that parliament has extended its own term of office the president has extended until an indefinite period in the future when elections may be held i think just deepens the divide even even further and and makes it harder to mooring all of these take hold. back to the table but then the u.n. and african union have warned against any attempts at holding partial elections or any process that does not have broad consensus

you sued the federal government because the federal government said the nuns didn't have to buy contraceptive insurance. you can put 17 layers of you're following the law to administer the program or doing x or y that made it difficult for california to administer the program. but it was just about nuns buying contraceptive coverage. was there something else the federal government did that you were suing them for in the case called california versus little sisters of the poor? >> senator, the case was not -- again, that was not the name of the case. and what i will tell you is that our actions were based on trying to follow the law that when the federal government took action, which we believe did not comport with the law, at that point we took action. and our action was based on the law. so, as i've said, we may disagree on how we see this, and i respect the differences that we may have. but my action was to follow the law. >> what about the law, as the federal government's conscience exceptions applied in the case you sued the federal government. what about the law applied to anyone except

i should just add, the federal government aggressively interfered in elections in three federal members to have its own loyalists appointed. so there's a great deal of mistrust and suspicion from the way the federal government has behaved. and now, this argument that parliament has extended its own term of office, the president has extended until an indefinite period in the future, when elections may be held. i think it just deepens the divide even further. and makes it harder to bring all the stakeholders back to the table. mohammed: the u.n. and african union have warned against any attempt of holding partial elections for any process that -- or any process that does not have broad consensus and somalia. -- in somalia. is there a risk that could happen going forward, and what would be ramifications be? hodan: i think we have to look at the recent history of somalia, right? so we have had a pretty successful transfer -- a pretty peaceful transfer of power for the last couple election cycles. somalia really hails within africa as a model for footprints of democracy. and i think in term

yes we could absolutely use more federal help. we are seeing the same the local public health agency to put their staff on aspects leaders or contact tracers still lacking the resources am pulling all the staff they have off of all the other duties it speaks to more sustainable funding with emergency funding we do get funds from the cdc and the eeoc grant and other funding and putting it to good use but we anticipate and then we will need s sustain dollars. >> thank you chairwoman. >> recognize and the ranking member of the subcommittee for five minutes. >> if i remember your comments earlier you did not go at the federal plan that created your own. is that correct? >> yes that is correct. >> i appreciate that because sometimes it's nice to have a federal template for sunday the ability to do what you did in west virginia. the distribution of covid-19 vaccines that the started in december there has been confusion as to why there is such a discrepancy with a number of doses distributed compared to administered by the state. the cdc

a reminder of how we got here on the federal minimum wage. here are the most recent increases to the federal minimum wage over the years. in 1988 was $3.10. the minimum wage arose in 1990 to $3.80 per hour. three increases back in the late -- in 2007 it was $5.95 an hour. $6.55 in 2008, in 2009 it became $7.25 an hour. that's where it has been since then and the idea from the biden administration, more than double that, $15 an hour. according to the wall street journal, eight wrap up of the states around the country, the federal minimum wage enforced in states that don't have a minimum wage or below the $7.25 an hour. those states include texas and virginia and many states would follow the federal wage late if it increases to $15 an hour. most states have a minimum wage higher including $13.69 per hour in washington state. other states had higher rates based on the size of employer or location in the state. eight states including florida have adopted an eventual $15 an hour minimum wage. we want to hear your thoughts on raising the minimum wa

couple of questions related to federal spending on elections. the cares act, if my numbers are correct . $400 million allocated to the states for the 2020 election cycle. related to covid-19. s the speaker speakers heroes at which was not enacted but did pass in the house. twice. it would've provided a traditional additional $3.6 trillion for this purpose . based on initial data, reported by the states, my understanding of the states only used about 270 million for about 60 percent of the 400 million provided in the cares package . so banks this question mr. chairman, was a 400 million provided in cares, was it more than what the states actually needed. if in fact only about 68 percent of what was provided was actually used. >> thank you, you are right on those numbers. 270 million that we had those based on a report that the cares act language required. on february 28, that will give the big picture. that number in the low number on that will be about 70 percent of that was being used which was an important dorsum is using as you know, 20 perce

the federal i.t. infrastructure is wefully out of date.t only opens federal systems up to cyberattacks but also fails to provide the level of customer service that the american people expect in the 21st century. of particular concern is the fact that the federal government spends more taxpayer dollars on maintaining old legacy i.t. systems than investing in new agile and secure systems. what are your top priorities when it comes to modernizing the federal i.t. infrastructure? >> thank you, senator. thank you for your leadership and the leadership of this committee on the issue of technology. obviously, we have multiple challenges in technology. one is cyber security and, you know, the recent solar winds incident tells us that we have, we have a lot of work to do. and i would say if i'm privileged to serve as omb director one of my top priorities is to work on the issue of cyber security and with this committee. make our consumer more friendly. between the united states and other countries is the fact that our government can be woefully ine

this executive order essentially bans our federal agencies, federal contractors and federally funded and's recipients from conducting training that can help people better understand and help us better understand what racism is, what sexism is. this is a baffling executive order. it's one of the longest we've seen issued under the trump era and it's caused a lot of confusion among schools that receive federal funding. they are trying to understand whether it means they are banned from teaching their students about our history of racism in our country. banned from teaching about what sexism is and what they can do to overcome. would we can do to overcome collectively select -- sexism in society. attorney general jeff sessions put in place -- when he was in place, put in place a number of decisions, he charged federal prosecutors with pursuing the most aggressive sentencing for federal offenders regardless of whether the crime is low-level or nonviolent, and this essentially has led to the incarceration -- high rates of incarceration in our federal prisons. we have seen the death penalt

the federal judge in this case said no. they said the justice department had no business intervening on president trump's behalf in this case. the trump justice department appealed that. that appeal is still ongoing and the judge has not ruled in the appeal, which means now the u.s. justice department's push to intervene in this case is still a live issue, except now this case belongs to the biden era justice department. what are they going to do with it? joining us now, i'm very pleased to say, is roberta kaplan, the legendary litigator who represented edy windsor in the supreme court case. her victory in the case helped pave the way for legalizing gay marriage. now she's taking on donald trump in three different suits, including e. jean carroll's case, as well as mary trump's suit accusing her uncle of fraud. really nice of you to be here tonight. thank you so much. >> good to see you, rachel. >> as you know, i am not a lawyer, and i am bad at playing one on television. i imagine that i did not get every aspect of this ri

the federal government less -- federal government must work to raise the baseline across the government and private sector. this will be talent and resources to focus on sophisticated problems. we must also treat cybersecurity as a national security priority. the issue today is the first of several hearings the committee will hold on cyber security threats facing the nation. how the government and private sector should face it. i would like to thank witnesses for our testimony and to continue to vote on this critical issue. with that, i recognize the ranking member, the gentle men from new york. >> thank you mr. chairman, thank you everyone for being here today including the witnesses. as you know, cybersecurity remains an area of great bipartisan cooperation in congress. for that, we should be thankful. because of that, it is the threat of our time. we have heard about the importance of cybersecurity more than ever before. it depends on almost every aspect of our way of life. it impacts resilience of every infrastructure sector. general awareness of cyber threats has become commonplace

can you tell us how congress and the federal government can facilitate better collaboration between federal and state experts and how that would help vaccination efforts for your state? >> certainly, as the other experts testified, having more vaccine is very important for us, we get about 23,600 doses a week. without expanding infrastructure the we could handle 125,000 doses a week. we believe with a small increase in infrastructure could go over 200,000 doses a week. also there is a terrific opportunity for us to make sure we are sharing our best practices and learnings. right now i don't think there is an integrated portal or pathway to allow each of the leaders of the states along with the leaders of the federal government response, perhaps of the coronavirus task force experts, to come together to freely exchange information so we can undergo this rapid cycle of learning opportunity and also learn the things that don't work. it is just as important to learn the things that don't work as well as adopt the things that do. >> my time expired. the ranking member of the committee is going t

here is the federal piece. state and locals are primarily responsible for funding elections, you come up with the rest. that is what the sector's plan envisions and its funding section when it talks about the whole of government approach to funding elections. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. rep. quigley: thank you. >> to who? >> hello, everyone. i would like to thank our electors across the country. i have a question for you, mr. hovland. in october, two right wing individuals were charged in connection to racist robo calls attempting to dissuade and discourage 12,000 black people in detroit and other cities from voting in november, telling them that voting by mail would subject them to arrest, debt collection, and a forced vaccine. what do we need to do to fight this and fight disinformation campaigns from our citizens, particularly in underserved communities and the black and brown communities? what public engagement campaigns is the eac employing to combat this misinformation? we know that election

at the federal level bipartisan leadership must support and elevate our nation federal scientific guidelines.s. allowing sciencece to guide the critical decisions and response to the covid-19 crisis. leaders must emphasize the importance of science and effectively communicate the scientific basis upon which public guidelines are issued, particularly those that require economic or personal sacrifice of the american people. restoring trust in our nation's health institutions, our leading health experts will demand transparency at all levels with a focus on safety, efficacy and equitable distribution of treatment and vaccines. rship lead by example, and adhere to the scientific guidelines by wearing masks, physically distancing and obtaining the vaccine. trust in science, our health agencies and world-class scientists, is imperative for reducing transmission successfully defeating the , coronavirus. third, national -- third, national leaders must communicate and adhere to clear, consistent and customize public health and safety messages and serve as role models. transparent communication with the

the federal i.t. as a structure is woefully out of date. this not only open federal systems up to cyberattacks but also fails to provide the level of customer service that the american people expect in the 21st century. of particular concern is the fact that the federal government spends more taxpayer dollars on maintaining new implets t. systems than acquiring new systems. what are your priorities when it comes to modernizing the federal i.t. infrastructure in ms. ten dan: thank you, senator, for your lineup -- and the leadership of the committee on this issue. the recent incident tells us that we have a lot of work to do and i would say, if i'm privileged to serve as m.b. director, one of my top priorities will be to work with the dwig. it's also important that we make our government more consumer friendly and one of the big differences between the united states and other countries is the fact that our country can be woefully inefficient and ineffective because we don't really use technology effectively. it's an irony that in the united s

district court so that the federal government has it.ut more broadly, and i think this is the critical point, nationwide injunctions are not a majority and they are not even a significant plurality of the source of the shadow docket rulings. and so insofar as there is concern about district junlgts running amok, i'm not here to defend those district judges. i'm here to suggest that the problem is not district judge. keep in mind the only way that the cases get to the supreme court is not just that the district court has ruled in a particular way but this the court of appeals has refused to upset that ruling. so we're not talking about just a hand picked district judge, we're talking about an entire court of appeals not disturbing that decision before it gets to the supreme court. >> professor morely, i only have about 20 seconds remaining. do you have any response to that general line of questioning? i'd like to get your thoughts. >> sure, i mean i would just add one of the reasons why i think that it is better to focus on defendant orie

the federal minimum wage.ere are the most recent increases to the federal minimum wage. in 1988 was $3.10. the minimum wage arose in 1990 to $3.80 per hour. three increases back in the late oughts, and 2007 595 an hour. $6.55 in 2008, in 2009 it became $7.25 an hour. that's where it has been since then and the idea from the biden administration, more than double that, $15 an hour. according to the wall street journal, a rep of the states around the country, the federal minimum wage enforced in states that don't have a minimum wage or below the $725 an hour. those states include texas and virginia and many states would follow the federal wage late if it increases to $15 an hour. most states have a minimum wage higher including $13 and $.69 per hour in washington state. other states had higher rates based on the size of employer or location in the state. eight states including florida have adopted an eventual $15 an hour minimum wage. we want to hear your thoughts on raising the minimum wage nationwide to $15 an

he didn't set up a federal vaccine centers where eligible people could go and get their shots.when i became president three weeks ago, american had no plan to vaccinate most of the country. it was a big mess. it's going to take time to fix, to be blunt with you. i promised when i did my inaugural address that i would always be straight with you, giving it to you straight from the shoulder. i will not walk away when we make a mistake. i'll acknowledge it and tell you the truth. we started on day one. we won't have everything fixed for a while. but we're going to fix it. first, the vaccine. i know people want confidence that it's safe. well, listen to dr. fauci. i did. i got my shots. my wife jill did. kamala did and her husband doug did. so dr. fauci and dr. collins got it also. it's safe. we need more people to get vaccinated to beat this pandemic. that's why in the first three weeks that i have been in office, you increased the supply of vaccine shipments to the states by only 30%. that means millions of more americans will get vaccinated in february than the previous administ

that's the beauty of federalism. it allows more americans to have access to more of the kind of government they want and less of the kind of government they don't want. that is the goal of the budget resolution amendments that i will be introducing this week. i will be introducing a number of amendments and i will cite a few examples here. first i'm going to propose an amendment to ensure that congress' voice and the voices of our state governments are heard in the designation of national monuments. utah has been home to two significant massive national monument designations over the last 25 years. one thing they both had in common, they were made contrary to the express will of local and statewide elected officials and utah's congressional delegation at the time they were made. these two monument designations in and of themselves are larger than two delawares. yet they were made without any input from congress and without any input from the host state's legislature. the an particular yities -- antiquities act allowe

i'm just wondering about equity in terms of the federal pharmacy program. and the sign-ups you are seeing at pharmacies. how do you think it can be assured that the pharmacies receiving these vaccines are supplying and serving the communities where they are rather than having folks from other places coming in and making appointments? >> thank you for that question. one of the first things we have to recognize, the challenge for many peoples connecting with vaccinations. location of vaccination is critical. the cdc is working closely with those participating to make sure we see a substantial number of pharmacies in socially vulnerable areas moving forward. >> next we will go to dan at buzzfeed. >> i am wondering if you can just say more broadly -- is there going to be a avidly trade-offs in terms of efficiency? is the country just going to have to accept that if we are going to reach people who have not been treated well in the past we are going to have to lose the little efficiency for sake of equity? >> i do not accept that premise at all. i think we can d

the federal government contributes to the disposal of chemical weapons through the federal ministry of finance as to the clearance of contaminated ground here at the regional governments and not the federal government are responsible this is currently not on the federal agenda. many contaminated sites belong to the german government like the former look at mit's media plant in northeast germany where chemical weapons were manufactured up until 945. geologist yohannes price for the 1st time he's interested in the site because it was laid out in a similar way to form a war munitions factory in various he studied. properties such as this one a managed by the institute for federal real estate beata and lisa command are in charge of administration safety here. this is the only bunker not to be blown up by the soviet army after the war. where you lost does come or sneeze was used for mustard gas which was transported here from the indoor factory near holland and stored in one of 7 bunkers go on 6 bunkers were used to store mustard gas and one bunker or rather assistant was used to store clar

when i got into office, there was no federal plan to ship vaccine into local pharmacies. folks who are allowed to get vaccinations are allowed to get one, can schedule an appointment now and get covid-19 vaccine shots like they would a flu shot from their pharmacy and it will start today. for folks who cannot get to a pharmacy, we are deploying mobile units and sending vaccines to community health centers to take care of the poorest of the poor. that reach the hardest hit and underserved areas of the country. black, latino, native american and rural communities. this is an important piece to ensure racial equity. it remains at the center of our covid-19 response, which is something i know dr. collins and dr. fauci are focused on. another point of progress is we are deploying more vaccinators. we are allowing retired doctors and nurses to administer shots. where deploying federal vaccinators and over the last three weeks, we have put hundreds of new vaccinators in the field and we are lining up thousands more. these include medical personnel from our commission quarter at

wyoming ranks number one in federal production of natural gas and number two in the federal oil production. almost 50% of wyoming's surface area and 69% of wyoming's minerals are owned by the federal government. the collective size of the surface area owned by the federal government in wyoming is, mr. chairman, larger than the entire state of west virginia. >> that was -- that was for informational. >> we'll get alaska here in a moment, but go ahead. >> i'm in trouble right now. >> energy production on public land creates good paying jobs. it provides tremendous revenue for our state. in wyoming, energy on department of interior land had a $17.3 billion economic impact in fiscal 2019. for years the state of wyoming has collected over a billion dollars annually in royalties and taxes from oil, gas and coal produced on federal lands within our borders. and wyoming isn't the only state that benefits from energy production on public lands n. representative haaland's home state of new mexico, energy and mineral activity on department of interior lands contributed $21 billion in fiscal year 2019

federal tax dollars to the areas of the greatest nation. i thank the chairman for holding this hearing, i look forward to hearing from our witness and i yield back to donald. that is my time. >> thank you sir, and before we go to our witness, we are honored to be joined by the chairwoman of the appropriations committee. chairwoman and a laura, there she is! >> good morning! good morning! >> good morning! >> how wonderful to be with you. and i thank you and i am obviously -- and i'm gonna try to make as many of the hearings as i possibly can, but it's a pleasure to join with all of you today and i want to recognize chairman mike quigley, ranking member steve will mike, for organizing the hearing and i think the election assistance commissioner who will testify this morning. i think the subject of today's hearing is so critical and that we need to look at the depth -- steps we have taken to secure our democratic systems and i know that's what we are going to hear about this morning. almost 400 years ago, our democracy was founded on the premi

we have deployed over 800 federal personnel as vaccinators and the federal government is now funding 1,200 national guard members to serve as vaccinators. we have also deployed 1,000 federal personnel to support community vaccination sites in operational and support roles. third, we continue creating more places where americans can get vaccinated. we have now expanded financial support to bolster community vaccination centers nationwide, with over $3.6 billion to 44 states, tribes and territories, for vaccinationation efforts. we're bringing them to community centers, high school gyms, churches, stadiums nationwide. and we continue to work with states to set up innovative, high volume, federally run sites that can each give over 30,000 shots a week. these sites are up and running in california and are ramping up in texas, florida and pennsylvania. we have also launched federal programs to get vaccines to pharmacies and local community health centers. as we have always said, we're committed to providing clarity on our progress and that includes when we hit bumps in the road. last week

as the federal fossil fuel program. i know that there are still thousands of leases and permits that are moving forward. >> if confirmed, would you tell the president that it's unwise to continue the pause as a permanent band . haaland: i don't believe it's a permanent man, not more than happy to work with you and of course at the pleasure of the president and along with if i'm confirmed, my colleagues to make sure we're doing everything we can to create jobs for americans >> is present biden has justified his man on new oil and gas leasing on federal and is and wanted. he cited climate change . are you aware of any evidence to suggest that a man in oil gas leasing on federal lands and waters is going to reduce the world's total production of oil and gas. haaland: nesser . >> and are we aware of evidence suggesting a ban on oil and gas is going to reduce the world's total consumption of oil and gas. haaland: i have not actually looked at all of the specifics but i believe it's a situation for everyone should work togeth

welcome to the february 2021 open meeting of the federal communications commission.am secretary, would you please introduce our agenda this

finally a federal judge out of washington dc. i think it was a 2017 issued a ruling that said definitively that the cherokee nation had to in franchise and restore citizenship rights to the freedmen and they did that and the cherokee nation is finally accepted that so for them. this is finally been resolved, but the creek people of oklahoma are still denying full citizenship to african-american's and they're still facing legal consequences and political consequences. because a bill has been introduced. just within this current congressional. time that would essentially strip the creek nation of federal resources, unless and until they grant. both internship to the freedmen and descendants. so it's an ongoing ongoing battle and yet simultaneously when the black lives matter movement erupted the spring and continues a number of native people's joined in as allies. and so when you saw confederate statues coming down here in richmond, and in other parts of the south we also saw columbus statues being torn down as well. and so we have

here is the federal piece. state and locals are primarily responsible for funding elections, you come up with the rest. that is what the sector's plan envisions and its funding section when it talks about the whole of government approach to funding elections. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. rep. quigley: thank you. >> to who? >> hello, everyone. i would like to thank our electors across the country. i have a question for you, mr. hovland. in october, two right wing individuals were charged in connection to racist robo calls attempting to dissuade and discourage 12,000 black people in detroit and other cities from voting in november, telling them that voting by mail would subject them to arrest, debt collection, and a forced vaccine. what do we need to do to fight this and fight disinformation campaigns from our citizens, particularly in underserved communities and the black and brown communities? what public engagement campaigns is the eac employing to combat this misinformation? we know that election