senator hoeven is chair of the subcommittee, you are recognized. senator hoeven: mr. secretary, thanks for being here and all the work you are doing. in the budget, there is 1.6 billion for 32 miles of wall construction along the southern border. i'm wondering why 32 miles? secretary kelly: it's a start. as we go through the process right now, senator, of deciding what that physical barrier will look like, wall, fencing, whatever and there is a competition, so i don't know how much a mile of the barrier will cost. the fencing -- there are disadvantages to that and disadvantages to that to put a wall in. for the money that we -- it's a start. i'm not being funny. and as we talk to our professionals down there on the board and ask the c.b.p. folks, how much wall would you need. if you could give me 12 miles here, 12 miles there, we don't need a wall. there's not much movement in terms of people. but it's as much as we could afford coming out of the gates. senator hoeven: you have described the wall concept about physical barrier, technology and people. all of that is ne

cheryl: senator john hoeven, busy day of breaking news. thanks for staying with us. david: >> you bet. david: remembering an icon, positional day as we mourn the loss of television pioneer and fox news roger ailes for the personal memories of the life of roger stay tuned. that's next. think your large cap equity fund has exposure to energy infrastructure mlps? think again. it's time to shake up your lineup. the alerian mlp etf can diversify your equity portfolio and add potential income. bring amlp into the game. before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. amlp break through your allergies. try new flonase sensimist allergy relief instead of allergy pills. it delivers a gentle mist experience to help block six key inflammatory substances. most allergy pills only block one. new flonase sensimist changes everything. : : . >> remembering the life of an icon and our founder. roger ailes, former chairman of fox news passing away this morning at the age of 77. tributing pouring in for the man who changed the face of all news.

hoeven: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator north dakota. mr. hoeven: thank you, mr. president. i have a request for the indian affairs committee to meet today at 2:30. first, we have a markup in indian affairs. the and the two bills that we're marking up are democrat-sponsored bills. the first one is a senator tester bill from the state of montana. it actually provides support for native languages. and i guess the summary is that it would support the education of indian children. and i know -- or i believe it relates to native languages in that educational capacity. so that's one of the bills, a senator tester bill. the other bill that we're marking up is a senator tim kaine bill, also a democrat-sponsored bill. and the short narrative i have is to extend federal recognition to the chickahominy indian tribe. the chickahominy indian tribe eastern division. and the upper mattaponi tribe, the rap hon nick tribe, the monican tribe -- indian nation, and the nasamont indian tribe. that's something that both senator kaine and senator warner, both senators from virginia, hav

what happens there, republican another john hoeven of north dakota. senator, there are differences the way the senate tackles stuff like this versus the house, but there is less wiggle room in the senate, isn't there. >> right, there is. that is going to be the challenge, how do we take whatever the house passes which i think is a work in progress and make improvements that can get it through the senate. that is going to be a challenge. but that is something we're already working on. neil: i don't know what the total dollar cost is yet on this measure versus the one that is existing now or whatever you in the senate might come up with, but i am concerned to win overvotes they're throwing a lot of money. 8 billion more with a money to deal with preexisting conditions and high-risk pools and premiums come with that. is that, to your knowledge, senator, significantly less than the dollars being doled out for the affordable care act now? >> well, it is less but remember, the objective is to make sure people have access to nsurance and healthve access to c

senator hoeven. you're recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman and mr. secretary, thanks for being here and for all the work you're doing. in the budget, there's $1.6 billion for 32 miles of wall construction along the southern border. i'm wondering why 32 miles? how did you get that? >> it's a start. as we go through the process right now, senator, of deciding what that physical barrier will look like, wall, wall with fencing, whatever, and there is a competition. so i don't really know how much a mile of the barrier will cost. i mean the fencing, as i understanding, there's advantages to that, there's disadvantages in certain places along the border to put a wall in. but for the money, that's a start. and i'm not being funny, and as we talk to our, the professionals done there on the border and ask the cbp folk, if i could give you a wall, how much would you need and where would you want it, and the answer we get back is if you could give me 12 miles here, 13 miles there. there's places that will tell you, we don't really need a wall here, sir, there's

hoeven: mr. president, i have seven requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and the minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. hoeven: mr. president, now is the time to get back to basics. the federal government does not exist for its own sake. it exists for the people. and the federal regulation serves no useful function for the people and only serves to hold back our nation's prosperity and growth. for so many americans hungry for good-paying jobs now is the time for america to unleash its economic potential by getting government out of the way. it's common sense to eliminate regulations that are duplicative, costly and unworkable. we need to get back to the basics by getting rid of those kinds of regulations, and one of those regulations is the b.l.m. methane rule. the b.l.m. methane rule is one of those midnight regulations that the obama administration put out as they were walking out the door. this new regula

senator hoeven, further evidence that we are strong -- we're committed to securely our northern border, well represented on our committee. you're next. >> thanks, mr. chairman. appreciate you calling a hearing on this important issue. i guess i'd start out by asking each of you, what are we doing? what is customs and border patrol doing at the border, particularly in regard to unaccompanied alien children to make sure that we're trying to prevent the growth of ms-13? in other words, looking at people who may be trying to come across to join ms-13 in this country. and that's the average age for ms-13 gang me believes? >> in suffolk county the median age of active ms-13 based on our arrests is 18. it certainly ranges from the -- the largest age range for active ms-13 gang members is 14 to 29. certainly, there are younger and older ms-13 gang members but that is our biggest bulk. in terms of the what department of homeland security is doing, my understanding is they are transferring responsibility over to department of health and human services at an early stage, and i think -- i'll speak