all declined or did not respond. >> first of all, it's interesting that senator inhofe argued only godould change the climate and not long after the pope issued a statement saying the human impacts on climate is a great test for humanity. >> why is this issue political in this country? >> the fundamental reason is the misperception that being in favour of addressing the climate change challenge is against jobs in the economy. >> i'm not afraid to stand up to big oil. it does us no good to punish manufacturing in missouri, when india and china put up a coal fired plant every 10 minutes, it's the same atmosphere. >> there's a lot of people in the political sphere that think if you admit the reality of climate change, you are inviting a degree of government regulation that will be too pervasive, too intrusive, and against the general inclinations, particularly of political parties and factions anti-regulation. >> do you think substantial contributions from the fossil fuel industry is a factor in the politics of climate change? >> i think that obviously has to be recognised as a factor >>>

inhofe: "the hill" magazine had something about that. it was seven days ago today that we had a classified presidential briefing. most of the people at this table were there. and now it's a this -- and i would say this, but was not addressed at all? secretary kerry: it was. the question came up about it. and the answer was given that of course congress will be briefed with respect to the contents. and of course you need to be briefed. mr. inhofe: my point is, mr. secretary, is that that was a classified session. we weren't briefed. secretary kerry: i don't think we have the full material to breathe. i didn't have it, anyway. but we are prepared and i think wendy sherman is going to be briefing very shortly on that, senator. but what we can provide is the actual roadmap that the iaea put out. and they have issued a full roadmap of what their expectations -- mr. inhofe: i understand that, but i'm talking about the deal, the secret document. secretary kerry: it is a confidential agreement. it is being postured as -- mr. inhofe: it is a -- s

inhofe: thank you. general, thank you for your service. characterized, if you would come on the solution that follows assad. in order to get there, how could in theract with russia u.n. context in order to bring about a political solution? gen. petraeus: i think it's important to him knowledge that there are various -- to acknowledge there are various potential options for syria. one could be you could put the entire country back together again and have a multiethnic democracy. i find that probably remote in terms of possibilities. although later love knowledge and we cannot put humpty dumpty back together again and there will be a number of states .arved out of the old syria perhaps more than one. is going tothis happen. --will not have negotiations you will not have negotiations unless the individual most responsible for the civil war feel they are threatened and their survival is in question. if you can get a that point, you might have the leverage to conduct negotiations in which case we would expect russia would be on the side of keep

inhofe: i ask unanimous consent the roll call in progress be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: madam president, i want to take advantage of an opportunity to bring up a subject that no one is talking about now. right now, everyone has been in the middle of the -- of course the pope's visit and other things, and of course what's happening with the iran bill and the votes that we have, but i want to mention there is another very significant thing that's going on right now that we're in the middle of, and that's called the pilot's bill of rights two. just to kind of put it in perspective, we had the pilot's brits one two years ago last month. it's one that people were not aware of. there are only 617,000 pilots in america, so it's not one of these things that really gets an awful lot of attention, but the mere fact that those 617,000 people are -- many of them are single-issue people, and a lot of people are not aware of prior to the passage of the pilot's bill of rights three years ago, that there is just one area left within

senator inhofe. but this is amazing.n his very next sentence after this the pope said, this which itself is remarkable. it's something we never hear in this country. it is something incredibly foreign to our ears as americans. and it was something very nice. >> i'm convinced that we can make a difference. i'm sure. [ applause ] and i have no doubt that the united states and this congress have an important role to play. >> i am convinced that we can make a difference. i am convinced that we can make a difference. i'm sure. i have no doubt. he has no doubt that this congress is going to play an important role in addressing climate change. he officially is the only person on earth who has no doubt that this congress will play a role in addressing climate change. i mean, i guess if you do want one person on earth to be on the side of hope on an important issue like that, perhaps the person you want on the side of hope is the pope. but pope francis showed today that he thinks our congress is worth something. which maybe is a

inhofe: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. inhofe: okay. mr. president, first of all, before i'm going to make a reference to a sonogram that is a 20-week sonogram. i will introduce, however, donna harden. i'm sorry, donnell harden. i am a little biased, but i think she is the best communications director in the united states senate. you can see that she is 31 weeks pregnant. i want to conclude my remarks -- at the conclusion of my remarks, i want to demonstrate clearly what a 20-week sonogram looks like, what a baby does look like. 20 weeks, by that time, a woman has reached the halfway point of the pregnancy, and has the opportunity to learn the gender of her child. by 20 weeks, there is conclusive scientific evidence that a baby can feel pain, they can hear sounds and they can react to sounds. they twist -- is that correct, they twist and they kick? they twist and they kick, they yawn and stretch. some even open their eyes and suck their thumbs. but most importantly, they feel pain. the united states is just one of seven countries with popul

the transit bill, transportation bill that i worked so closely with leader mcconnell on and senator inhofe and senator durbin and others, it's stuck in the house of representatives. and i don't know what to think over there, what they're doing, but they need to get going and get that transportation bill into conference so we can do this. this is a bipartisan bill. but instead of pushing and working on that, we're revoting on an issue we already voted on. now, the ex-im bank has real consequences. g.e., general electric, announced it will ship 500 jobs overseas because of the bank's closure. so anyone who tells you it doesn't have an impact, they're wrong, it has an impact. 500 families are suffering because the ex-im bank, which we did the right thing on here in the senate, it's stuck on the transportation bill over in the house and they have yet to mark their bill and i hope they will. then we have the debt ceiling, something ronald reagan warned us about over and over again -- don't play politics with the debt ceiling. i want to remind everybody, when bill clinton was president, we balan

but i do want to get back and maybe build on questions that senator inhofe asked and it had to do with the rebalancing where we're going out and we're putting more assets as a percentage of the base into your area of command. but we continue to miss the point that the base is shrinking. so, part of what i'm trying to do is get my head around a number of different variables that really let us measure the gap between china and the united states and our allies. you said when we were out there in the briefing that quantity has a quality of its own. and so that right now we still continue to enjoy an advantage over the chinese in terms of the assets we have in the region. when you start trending out to 2020 and beyond and you take into account that they may have more ships but their survivability doesn't compare to our own and the technology on board doesn't compare to our own. at what point does the gap, if you were projecting, assuming sequestration was going to be place, i hope that's not true, but let's say that we are and the current plans for downsizing. at what point do we really rea

inhofe: mr. president, it's been a long day. we've heard about everything that can be heard from a lot of different people and i'vedom to some conclusions that there are some things that are incontrovertible here, after all the debate all day long, and there are six things that we should be looking at, and i'll just real quickly summarize these quickly. i think it's kind of a good wrap-up. there are six things. first, this deal rewards and legitimizes iran for flouting treaties and international laws and constitutional resolutions. it rewards and legitimizes. the second thing does, it rewards iran with $100 billion, you've heard it today, that could be a floating figure, we're not sure exactly how much it is but we do know what they do with their money is expand their influence with terrorist organizations. the third thing, it places middle east in the ni arms race. the second in in some time, we have some countries coming forward with what their intentions are. the fourth thing, it fails to dismantle iran's enrichment which has

the transit bill, transportation bill that i worked so closely with leader mcconnell on and senator inhofe and senator durbin and others, it's stuck in the house of representatives. and i don't know what to think over there, what they're doing, but they need to get going and get that transportation bill into conference so we can do this. this is a bipartisan bill. but instead of pushing and working on that, we're revoting on an issue we already voted on. now, the ex-im bank has real consequences. g.e., general electric, announced it will ship 500 jobs overseas because of the bank's closure. so anyone who tells you it doesn't have an impact, they're wrong, it has an impact. 500 families are suffering because the ex-im bank, which we did the right thing on here in the senate, it's stuck on the transportation bill over in the house and they have yet to mark their bill and i hope they will. then we have the debt ceiling, something ronald reagan warned us about over and over again -- don't play politics with the debt ceiling. i want to remind everybody, when bill clinton was president, we balan

congressman inhofe says i think it's totally inappropriate that the pope is weighing in on all the realr-left issues. i'm not a catholic but my catholic friends in oklahoma are not real pleased with it. how are these political issues? aren't these biblical values? >> let me give you a quote from the pope. he was preaching his daily homily at st. martha's where he lives. he said a good catholic meddles in politics. he's not talking about partisan politics. he's not talking about the minutia of policy. he's saying how can you divorce yourself from these issues when they're of the gospel, the successes of -- >> he has a phrase, making a mess. he believes in getting involved in controversies and social disorder as a way of finding progre progress. aren't they picking on the global warming stuff, that he's been so heavy-handed, we're causing it, it's a big problem. isn't that what's triggering their sensitivity? >> yes, it is. you're seeing an arizona republican paul boser boycotting this event. other republicans have not gone that far. they've been critical about what the pope is saying. th

kate just said when the holy father was talking about the environment, i had my eyes trained on jim inhofee's the republican chairman of the environment committee here in the is that the. and he is also one of the most critical voices challenging the notion of human involvement in climate change. his hands were clasped in his lap, as others around him were applauding. he had maybe a nod of a head at that moment, kate, referred to where the holy father went off script, not in adpreegreementagn what i would perceive as disagreement. in this chamber, this was so different. brian, you and i have talked about addresses from this place many times. today was notably different. i saw members of congress who had rosaries in their hands. the upper gallery is full of people wearing collars and habits which is, for me, a lifetime of memories. that's unusual for this kind of address, but, of course, expected with the holy father. and the politics was certainly present, but it was not as at a fever pitch as it certainly is in other contexts. there was standing ovations from both parties. there was somet

. >> senator inhofe. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let's talk about assets, current and future. admiral harris, one of the dod lines of effort this our asia-pacific maritime security strategy says by 2020 60% of naval and overseas air assets will be home ported in the pacific region, okay? now, when you say that, right thousand and in terms of our -- right now and in terms of we have a fleet of 270, it should be 305. and you're projecting now saying 60% of what it will be in 2020. what kind of figures are you looking at in calculating that? >> senator, the numbers you cited are correct. we have in the 270 range now, and by 2020 we should have a little over 300 ships, around 310. so we're talking 60%, actually, a larger number -- >> that we would anticipate that would be available by that time, and i hope you're right. now the sources, though, have to come up with other commands, is that correct? if you increase to 60, you'll have to be taking some assets away from ucom, centcom and others, is that correct? >> only the pacific has forces that are assigned to the pacific -- >> but