thank you senator inhofe. >> thank you. i'm glad you brought up this thing about the clean air act. the amendments from 1990, 90, i was one of the cosponsors. it's been incredibly successful. we reduce the bulletins by 63% of what you didn't add is in spite of the problem we had 153% increase in our economic activity. that is a major thing. in my introduction, i mentioned this thing you did that nobody could figure out how you did it involving a 100 year dispute between the state of oklahoma and the city of oklahoma city and others, do you want to share with us how you did that. >> they tried for a hundred years. you came in and did it less than 100 days days. >> less than eight months into my administration we were sued as a state by the chicks saw nation in selfies oklahoma. many of you, if you know about water litigation, it generally takes decades to resolve water litigation. we went from august 2011 until 2016 and came up with historic agreement between those two groups. the state has maintained its position as arbiter of how those permits are allocated. it was a partnership. i

>> scott pruett in washington today, he's going to be meeting with senator inhofe of oklahoma, and inhofe, as we know, is one of the most hard-line critics of climate change, and environmental regulations, and so you have in pruett someone who comes from the conservative side of the aisle, and who has the ties to -- the real climate change skeptics. and to the oil and gas industry, comes from oklahoma, himself, pruett is someone who has been welcomed by the trump people and the trump voters because he's seen as someone who will tear apart regulations. but in the same way that price is being kind of zeroed in on by democrats because he'll go after a signature obama law, pruett is also seen as someone who is going to damage and almost cripple the regulations president obama has put forward on the environment, and democrats want to make sure they mack make a fuss about that before it all goes away. >> trade, he ran heavily on that issue. and doing something about nafta and potentially ripping up this transpacific partnership deal that is pending. today, we hear that the trump administration

inhofe. >> i by proxy. >> sessions. >> i by proxy. >> mr. wicker. >> eye. >> mrs. fisher. >> ai. >> mr. rounz. >> ai. >> mrs. erns. >> ai. >> mr. sullivan, ai. >> mr. pursue. >> i by proxy. >> mr. graham. >> i be proxy. >> mr. sass. >> eye. >> mr. read. >> eye. >> mr. nelson. >>shaheen. >> eye by proxy. >> bloomen thol. >> no. >> mr. donnelly, ai. >> mrs. arow narowno. >> ai. >> mr. cain. >> ai by proxy. >> mr. hien rick. >> ai. >> warn. >> no. >> mr. peterers. >> no. >> mr. chairman. >> ai, 24 ais, 23 knows the motion is agreed to. >> thank you. hopefully we can get this done before 3:00 to people that have plans can fulfill those and i want to thank every member for their cooperation and if there's no further business this hearing is adjourned.

senator inhofe? >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i say to you and the ranking member that i'm just delighted to be on this committee. and i'm looking forward to it. you know, i think -- keep thinking, last night, i was with you and your family, your daddy, how much -- how popular, how excited your daddy is right now. thinking about the things that are -- >> thank you. >> the things that are going on, and that he is responsible for you, and your performing. and your cute little nieces -- >> yes, miranda and jessica. >> yeah, they're great. well, anyway, but -- i say that, because as you well know, i've got 20 kids and grandkids. you got some more work to do, but that's all right. let me share a couple of things with you that perhaps even you didn't know -- i think you probably did know this, i think a lot of the members of this committee did not know this, that i've been on a committee that is like this, the environment of public works has a lot of jurisdiction here also in transportation, for 21 years. prior to that, eight years

inhofe. thank you. >> i figure if chairman rische can call yu lin da, i will, too, thank you for taking the time you did. if you spent as much time with everyone as you did with me you have been very business and taking this very seriously. i particularly enjoyed our visit because i've been there. we have very similar backgrounds. you were a lot bigger than i was, i didn't get up to the numbers you did, 800 employees but i remember spending 20 years getting beat up by the bureaucracy so i understand a little bit about it. the office that you have has the opportunity to do so much more than it's done in the past. we have a guy named tom buchanan who's the head of the oakland farm bureau. when i talk to him about the problems the farmers are having not just in farming but the farm states throughout america, he said nothing in the agricultural bill, the overregulation of the epa. those are his words and my words, too. we watched this happen. we said of all the problems we had and one that scared

thank you, senator inhofe. >> thank you. i'm glad you brought up this thing about the clean air act. the amendments from 1990, i was one of the co-sponsors. it's been incredibly successful. you mentioned that we have reduced those pollutants by 53% but what you -- 63%, but what you didn't add was that is in spite of the fact we had 153% increase in our economic activity. that's a major thing. in my introduction, i mentioned this thing that you did that no one can figure out how you did it, involved a 100-year dispute between not just state of oklahoma and the city of oklahoma city and the chickasaws. you want to share with us how you did that? >> well -- >> they tried for 100 years. you came in and did it in less than 100 days. >> less than eight months into my administration as attorney general, we were sued as a state by the chickasaw nation with respect to water in 17 counties in southeast oklahoma. many of you, if you know anything about water litigation, it generally takes decades to resolve water litigation. we were ab

i want to say thank you to senators inhofe and lankford for their opening comments. senator inhofe has been a mentor to me for many years and spent a lot of time in the process introducing the guidance and health. senator lankford was a friend before he entered congress and he's always serving in the country with great distinction. as you indicated, i am blessed to have my family in attendance with me. my wife of 2 27 years is in attendance along with my children. there is a change going on in their life as well. mckenna is graduating from oklahoma university this spring and heading to the all modern university virginia law school and my son will be graduating at having to oklahoma university following his sister's footsteps so there is a lot of change going on in their lives and in my families life and a lot of change going on in the country and the people in this country are hungry for change. with change comes an opportunity for growth and to assume not only can we prioritize as a nation. i get excited about the great work to be done on behalf of the nation and pr

. >> elizabeth warren and dick durbin, james inhofe and bob menendez. unless you have the senate almanaced in your head, you'd never know. >> i thought it was interesting to see inhofe even close to bernie sanders. talk about 180s. you know, right behind that, when i worked on the hill, right behind those steps is the actual crypt where washington was going to be buried. it's really kind of a strange setting way down in the capitol. the washington claimed the family to mount vernon but it's there if you ever want to visit. >> trying to compare today's crowds to that day when barack obama took office and we had a modern record set for crowds period in washington. this is not that. that day, while incredibly cold, was blessed with bright, sunny weather. we've had sporadic precipitation. we're going to keep checking on the weather for you and we're going to look at the radar, especially when the day really shifts to outdoors. it's been light precip of the temperature expected to top out just south of 50 degrees. greta van susteren is along the parade route

mccain: senator inhofe. senator inhofe: thank you, mr. chairman. i am not going to use all of my time here, because every question i was going to ask the chairman has already asked, and i liked the answers. also, i've been honored to have known you for 30 years. that's not normally the case. so i'm excited that you're willing to do this. the two things that we're concerned with are readiness and what's happening -- what i'm concerned with is readiness and the u.s. influence. a year ago, you said that you stated our influence in the middle east is at its lowest point in four decades. i agree with that. we had also confirmation , testimony last november by general goldstein who said continuous combat operations in reduced overall budgets have driven readiness to historically low levels. and i look and i see senator cohen and senator dunn, i spent time with both of them and admire them so much, but this isn't like it used to be. i mean right now, we have , one-third of the army brigade combat teams are ready to fight in all types of warfare. the curre

"that's just right," inhofe said. but they weren't counting on the level of public scrutiny and outcry over its strategy and although mitch mcconnell rejected the possibility of any delay, guess what? his caucus ultimately agreed to reschedule several hearings for nominees with incomplete paperwork. trump's picks for education and commerce were both pushed back an entire week while his pick for labor secretary won't get a hearing until february. and several of trump's nominees are looking a lot less like a sure thing. andy puzder's charles jr. had $50,000 in wage theft and his wife once appeared on the oprah winfrey show in disguise to talk about her experience. puzd may be havingond thoughts about taking the job. chuck schumer just told me about his grave objections to health and human services nominee tom price who faces multiple allegations of untoward financial dealings and thanks to his ties to russia, secretary of state nominee rex tillerson is just one vote away from failing to make it out of committee though,

senator inhofe asked a question early on about china. china hacked, allegedly, maybe you can confirm that, 22 million files. a lot of the sf-86 files that you use for background clearances. they have mine, i was informed by the government. very sensitive information, as you know, that they can use against intelligence operatives and military members. and senator inhofe asked the question, did we retaliate, what did we do. the answer that i heard from all of you was, well, we tried to protect people like me and i'm sure others whose sensitive intel information and background information was compromised. but i didn't hear any claim of a retaliation on a huge hack, huge, 22 million american, federal, military, intel workers got hacked by the chinese. so the president signed this statement with president xi jinping, the u.s./china security agreement. but obviously, general clapper, from your testimony, the chinese have not abided by that, have they? >> they have. >> i thought you indicated -- >> i indicated in my testimony -- i'm sorry. >> i

. >> senator inhofe? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i won't take all my time because every question i was going to ask, the chairman was going to ask, and i like the answers. i also am honored to have known you for 30 years. that's not normally the case. i'm so excited that you're willing to do this. the two things that we're concerned with are readiness and what's happened -- that i'm concerned with, is readiness and u.s. influence. a year ago you stated that our influence in the middle east is at its lowest point in four decades. and i agree with that. we also had confirmation testimony last november by a general who said continuous combat operations and reduced overall budgets have driven readiness to historically low levels. i look and i see senator cohen and senator nunn, i spent time with both of them, i admire them so much. but this isn't like it used to be. right now we have 1/3 of the army brigade combat teams ready to fight in all types warfare. the current air force is the smallest and oldest in air force history yet only ha

inhofe: we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record. asked the chair, "you know what this is? it is a snowball." thomas friedman: partisanship is part of democratic politics, want contending parties, but there is such a thing as too much. interest groups are a vital part of democracies and lobbying, lobbying is in our constitution, and there is such a thing as too much. we entered the land of too much in the last decade where it became partisanship for its own sake. and in that sense, we are also responsible. we elected these knuckleheads. and so if that is who we elected, and then we reelected them, then shame on us. terre: if we do not do something about climate change, what will it cost us? what is the consequence? michael bloomberg: well, the ultimate consequence is we are all dead. a more short-term consequence is higher medical costs, much more costs for companies and building owners and that sort of thing. so, you will see much more severe consequences of our impact on the environment -- not good ones, bad ones. but that will giv

i think i might be the last one, oh no, i forgot senator inhofe. i look forward to working with you. >> thank you. >> i enjoyed the visit we had in my office and i will make mine a lot quicker than most of them. i do apologize, the reason for all of us being late is in my case, we have our oklahoma attorney general who has been nominated to be director of the epa and i have more than just a casual interest in that. in fact, the last four members here are late because they were at that hearing. it's the best that we can do. let me mention one thing, way back when nafta was passed, in our delegation of seven members from oklahoma, i was, i was the only one who voted against it. i would just like to be drawn into the loop as you make progress on changes you may like to make so we will be aware of that. perhaps we can participate as well. >> i believe there is a consultative process provided in the tpa regulations and therefore there will be at least that level of consultation. >> good. i talked to also about taiwan being the close friend and ally of t

and over to senator inhofe. >> well, if chairman risk can call you linda, i will, too. i will tell you how much we have been taking the time that we have done, and if you have spent as much time as you have with me, you have been very busy and taking this seriously. >> yes, i shgs , i have been. >> and i particularly enjoyed that i did not get up to the numbers that you did, 800 employee, but i can remember spending 20 years getting beat up by the bureaucracy and so i understand a little bit about it. i think that the office that you have has the opportunity to do so much more than it has in the past. we have a guy, todd buchanan who is the head of the oklahoma farm bureau and talking to him about the problems of the farmers mot just in my state of oklahoma which is a farm state, but throughout america, he said it is nothing in the agricultural bill. it is the overregulation of the epa. now, those are his words in my words, too. so we watched this happen. and he said of all of the problems that we have had of all of the overreg you haitians that scared tus most was the

role that senator inhofe and senators have identified earlier. the small business administration's office of advocacy sent a letter which i would like, mr. chairman, submit for the record today. they sent this letter 2014 to october 1, epa administrator of the u.s. the armyccarthy and corps of engineers. they recommended the entire rule be withdrawn. that was apparently ignored. the rule continued forward. i would like to know if you are confirmed as administrator of the sba would you be willing to write a similar letter recommending this rule be withdrawn and reminding our new administrator of the apa of the damage it has done to small businesses, farmers, and ranchers alike? ms. mcmahon: i would look forward to working with you and the other senators, those were brought the issue. i think senator ernst told me small business in her state wanted to expand it would have to get approval from the federal government in order to do that. i think that is overreach. i look forward to working with you and members of the committee to make sure we have ri

senator inhofe. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i don't think you had adequate time to answer some of the questions that were asked. is anything you'd like to add to elaborate? >> hanky. i do want to say to senator carper is concerned with respect to president-elect's statements that the campaigns, i believe there's a very important role the environmental protection agency that affect you and i talked about that in your office. i believe that our air quality issues and water quality issues that cross state line, that the jurisdiction of the epa, it's involved in protecting our air quality, improving our nation's waters is action important. epa as a survey about the role. after all it was republicans who created the epa under executive or in the 1970s and this body has passed legislation since the 1970s to focus on improving our air and water quality. we have much to celebrate. the six criteria pollutants since 1980 are down 63% beer we have made progress as a country as a country but we work to do and epa has a very valuable role a

inhofe: mr. president, we -- we are introducing today a c.r.a. that's kind of interesting. this is something that has only been successful one time, but i think that everyone knows that during the past eight years, the obama administration, we've seen thousands, literally thousands of regulations that have come through that have been antibusiness, many of them anticertain businesses, such as the oil and gas industry. there is no secret to the fact that we have had a president in president obama who has had a war on fossil fuels, and that's something that's -- it's kind of interesting to me when i go back to my state of oklahoma. and one reason i go back all the time is because i want to be around real rational people. sometimes i get the feeling that there really aren't any around here. they will ask you a question, they will say tell me, explain this to me. if we have here in the united states of america, in order to generate power, 89% of the power that we're generating is either fossil fuels -- that's coal, oil or gas, or it's nuclear. now, if you do away with that and y

senator inhofe is next. >> thank you. mr. ross, i enjoyed first of all the visit i had in my office. and i'll make mine quicker than most of them. i do apologize the reason for all of us being late is that in my case we have our oklahoma attorney general has been nominated to be the director of the epa and i have more than just a casual interest in that. in fact, the last four of the members here are late because they were up at that hearing. so this is not the way it should be, i suppose, but it's the best we can do. let me just mention one thing. way back when nafta was passed in our delegation of seven members from oklahoma i was the only one who voted against it. and i would just like to be drawn into the loop as you make progress on changes you may want to make just so that we'll be aware of that. you can perhaps participate in a small way. >> i believe there is a consultative process provided in the tpa regulations and that therefore there will be at least that level of consultation. >> good. i talked to you also about

you talked about i think senator inhof rates the issue of readiness of our troops. when we met we also talked about the national guard and the importance of the guard as being part of the one force that we depend on. readiness is obviously a concern for the national guard as well, and in new hampshire, for example, our national guard has experienced 32% decline in force structure since 2007, much more than many states that are smaller than we are. and they've had trouble with training rotation, resources, equipment, other aspects of readiness. can you commit to us that in addition to try to address readiness, that you will also look at the guard as well and make sure they have whatever they need to be ready for deployment? >> senator, i share the chairman's view that we have shrunk our military capability, and one of the things that that forces on us is an awareness, not just a military reserve. it's an operational readiness. they have to be ready to go on a moment's notice. so we are going to have to keep the national guard and the reserves of all the armed forces

senator inhofe then senator baldw baldwin. >> thank you, mr.chairman, and i say to you eand the ranking member that i'm just delighted to be on this committee and i'm looking forward to i keep thinking, last night i was with you and your family, your daddy, how popular, how excited your daddy is right now. thinking about the things that's going on, that he is responsible for you and performing in your cute little nieces i guess they are. >> miranda and jessica spirit they are great. anyway -- [laughter] i have 20 kids and grandkids so you have some homework to do but that's all right. let me share a couple things with you that perhaps even you didn't know, i think you probably did know this. i think a lot of members of this committee did not know this, that i've been on a committee that is like this environment -- a lot of jurisdiction here also in transportation for 21 years. prior to that eight years on that kenai committed in the house of representatives.. i've been around this thing for a long time. our biggest probably use me when i was in

you talked about -- i think senator inhofe raised the issue of our troops and the importance of the national guard being part of the one force that we depend on. readiness is also a concern for the national guard as well. in new hampshire, for example, our national guard has experienced a 32% decline in structure since 2007, much more than many states that are smaller than we are. and they've had trouble with training rotations, resources, equipment, other aspects of readiness. can you commit to us that you in addition in trying to address readiness with our active duty forces, that you also look at the guard and reserve and try and ensure that they also have access to what they need to be ready for deployment? >> senator, i share the chairman's view that we have shrunk our military capability and one of the things that that forces on us is the awareness, if not just a strategic recover never, there's also an operational reserve. they have to be ready on very short notice. it's a reality when we have shrunk the military we have and not reduced our strategic commitments. we can't deploy witho

inhofe. mr. isakson. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. langford. mr. leahy. mr. lee. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. mccain. mrs. mccaskill. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mr. murray. mrs. nelson. mr. paul. [inaudible conversations] mr. ball. mr. perdue. mr.. mr. portman. mr. reid. mr. risch. mr. roberts. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schumer. mr. scott. mr. sessions. mrs. shaheen. mr. shelby. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. toomey. mr. udall. mr. van hollen. mr. warner. ms. warren. mr. whitehouse. mr. wakir. mr. wyden. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] mr. young.t. >> a quorum is present., >> could we have order in the chamber?animous >> the majority leader i ask proceed with as rezwan submitted earlier today. >> senate resolution 1 informing the president of the united state

senator nunn, senator reid, senator inhofe, i think you may be the only three who are still here in the armed services committee when 20 years ago i came before the committee seeking your endorsement for secretary of defense. it's been 20 years and what a difference a generation makes because you were a young captain in the navy and took us on a trip, senator nunn mentioned to china where he met xi jinping and did some great work on the way back in korea. i thank you for all of the years you devoted to this country. you remain a hero of mine. and to millions of people not only in this country but the world over. it's a real honor for me to be here with you. >> thank you. >> and with senator nunn. i served 18 years here in the senate. he served 24. i must say that the experience of working with senator nunn was one of the true highlights of my political career. so it's a pleasure of me to join with senator nunn. i want to associate myself with the remarks of the former senator from georgia, and simply submit my own written statement which is quite brief to the committee and i'll try to s

senator inhofe asked the can question earlier about china. china hacked, al allegedl -- al think, and maybe you can confirm that, government-led 22 million files and a lot of the sfx 86 files that you are using for the background clearances, and they have mine, i was informed by the governmen government, and very sensitive information as you know they could use against the intelligence operatives and intelligence members and senator inhofe asked, did we retaliate, and what did we do? and the answer that i heard from all of you is that we try to protect people like me, and i am shure others whose sensitive intel information and background information was compromised, but did not hear any claim of a retaliation on a huge hack. huge. 22 million american federal, military, intel workers hacked by the chinese. and the president signed this statement with the president shi shi ping, the u.s./china agreement, but obviously, general clapper, from your testimony, the chinese have not abided by that, have they? >> they have. >> i thought that you said

senator inhofe asked a question earlier on about china.na hacked, allegedly, maybe you can confirm that, government-led, 22 million files. a lot of the sf 86 files that you use for backgroundu clearance, they hacked mine, i was informed i about the government, very sensitive information that you know they could use against intelligence operatives and military members, and senator inhofe asked the question did we retaliate, what did we do?? the answer that i heard from all of you, well, we try to protect people like me and i'm sure others whose sensitive intel information and background information was compromised but i didn't hear any claim of a retaliation, on a huge hack, huge, 22 million americans federal, military intel workers got hacked by the chinese. so the president signed this statement with president xi xinping, the u.s. china security agreement but obviously mr., or general clapper, from your testimony, the chinese have not abided by that, have they? >> they have. >> i thought you said -- >> i'm sorry? >> i'm sorry, i thought y

. >> thank you, senator inhofe, welcome to the committee. >> senator baldwin is up next, followed by senator. nobody else shows up -- capano. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank the chairman and ranking member for a warm welcome to the committee. i'm delighted secretary chiao that my first commerce committee meeting is your confirmation hearing. welcome, and thank you again for our visit last week, it was helpful to start the conversation, and i actually want to start by asking you to speak a little more on a topic that we discussed when we visited, which is the buy america rule. i firmly believe that american workers should build our infrastructure with american products. and that taxpayer money should not be spent on chinese, russian steal or iron. here in the senate, i have spent time working on including a buy america provision in our recently passed water infrastructure bill that was signed into law just a few weeks ago. and despite broad bipartisan support in the senate, speaker ryan and the congressional republicans pulled my buy america provision from the water infras

spirit senator inhofe. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm so excited you are willing to do this.the two things that we are concerned with our readiness and what's happening, i'm concerned with is readiness and the use influence. i year ago you said that you stated our influence in the middle east is at its lowest point in four decades. i agree with that. also confirmation testimony last november by general goldstein the said continuous combat operations and reduce overall budgets have driven readiness to historically low levels. and i look and i see senator cohen and senator nunn, i spent time with both of them and admired them so much. this isn't like it used to be. right now we have won the third the army brigade combat teams are ready to fight and all types of warfare. the current air force is the smallest and oldest and air force history, yet only half of its fighter squadrons are ready to fight in intensity combat. general mattis, your marines, the aircraft, their combat, the aviators are at historical lows right now, in terms of flight time. same thing with the needy. we ha

i look forward to continuing to work with senator inhofe on a legislative solution on a lot of our problems. >> i noticed when i left that subcommittee no one's hair was on fire. >> mr. chairman, it was a great iscussion. we welcome you at any point, linda, to our sub-committeesubcommittee. it's a great place for gathering of talking about cross section of small business and regulatory reform. i wish just for a minute you'd been able to turn around when you were speaking about the challenges you had and have seen the pride and affection in your daughter's face. it was quite lovely. it's clear you have a great relationship. as my mother's heart just got a little warmed by that affection. i think it's what so many small businesses are about. they're about families and they're about working together and learning how to overcome struggles. but i want to talk about two groups of entrepreneurs that i think are looking for a different level of engagement and involvement. we talked a lot about programs. the first is young entrepreneurs and the second are native entrepreneur entrepreneurs. -- entrep

. >> i don't have the seniority or the stature or the grandchildren of senator inhofe, so i can't go over my time but i will say in my next round i will go back into this because the documents don't seem consistent and i would like in my next round of questioning to go deeper into this historic settlement. >> thank you, senator. i was introduced for the record an article that appeared in the tulsa world this past january 12, 2017 going way beyond the 20 years of the panel, but 33 years served as the agency administrator of the oklahoma senior rivers committee until june of 2016. his statement is i have found through it has always done right by the scenic rivers. he has for the first time ever got in the state of arkansas which happens to have parts of the river originating in a flowing through the states to agree to oklahoma is scenic river's phosphorus standard and incredible environmental accomplishment, the effect of which cannot be understated. >> thank you mr. chairman. attorney general, in august of 2016, the epa inspector general found that the epa failed to follow through wit

. >> senator inhofe. >> thank you, mr. chairman. rare that a confession like this is made, i really did come here to learn. it's been really good testimony. i, one thing that has occurred to me is that we keep repeating over and over again the senior officer. what about enlisted personnel? >> i think that is completely different issue, senator, i really do. i could give you a long lecture which would bore you to tears about the history of civil-military relations but the distinction between officer and enlisted is quite important but more importantly the purpose of the law is to really exclude general officers from moving from being generals to secretaries. >> the, of course we had chuck hagel and do you have any thoughts about that, dr. hicks? >> i agree it is very different. secretary hagel coming as former enlisted -- >> lots of time too. >> he brought a unique perspective in that sense but something that military hierarchy coming to top of the civilian hierarchy, it just has a different character. >> i understand that. each one

senator inhofe asked the question about china. allegedly 22 million files. they have mine, i was informed there in its very sensitive information they could use against intelligence operatives. did we retaliate? what did we do? the answer that i heard from all of you was we try to protect information and back and information was compromised. i didn't hear any claim of a retaliation on a huge hack. american workers got hacked by the chinese. the president signed this statement with china. from your testimony, the chinese of not abided by that. clapper: they have. >> i thought you said in your testimony today that they continue to conduct cyber. curtailed as have best we can tell. there has been a reduction. the private sector would agree with this. there has then a reduction in their cyber act to be. the agreement called for stopping such exfiltration for commercial gain. >> did we retaliate? clapper: we did not retaliate against an active espionage any more than other countries retaliate against us for one week conduct espionage. >> is it answer part of the

. >> senator jim inhofe of oklahoma talking with bernie sanders.is probably the furthest you can get two humans together >> elizabeth warren was there. >> they're all going to gather, too, for lunch. but then there's still work to be done, even though this is a holiday. there are confirmationless. there have not yet been any cabinet secretaries confirmed yet for president trump. some suggestions it's been a slow moving process. he does expect by the end of the day to have a defense secretary and homeland security. >> nancy cordes certainly has a front row seat at the capitol. nancy? >> reporter: i've been speaking to aides to senator mcconnell, the leader of the republicans in the senate, who say it is still possible that the cia director pick, mike pompeo could be confirmed later tonight if democrats get a couple hours of debate which is what they want. most likely, that vote will come on monday, but it is still possible for tonight. as members of congress started to file in, we noticed that a lot of the democrats were wearing big blue buttons, no

i also, going to give some assurance from senator inhofe a short time ago.y about approval ratings. don't worry aboutwho is not showing up. just understand that donald trump is walking in with a house and senate, and thanks to harry reid, only needing a simple majority to get things done, he will have more power to do more things than almost any other president with 85% approval rating or 67 or 61 like george w. bush. and that is the fact of the matter. these 44 might not want to come and they might not want him president but he is going to be president and he has a lot of power. we know he has a lot of energy. stuart: how about this, brian, the other side of the coin. if mr. trump's policies enjoy a degree of success, if he grows the economy, creates jobs, for example, if he does that, if he wins, those democrats who did not attend his inauguration and say he is not a legitimate president, they will be losing big-time in 2018. it could rebound against them, can it not? >> they have not reconfigured to come up with a philosophy and strategy amongst the liber

inhofe: mr. president, i was not preparing to come down and speak today. i just want to make a few comments because i've been listening to what's going on in one of the other rooms up here. everyone is zeroing in and targeting a guy named scott pruitt that they don't think should be confirmed to be the administrator of the e.p.a. well, i know scott pruitt pretty well. he happens to be the attorney general for my state of oklahoma. in fact, i recruited him to run for the state legislature many years ago. he's someone i know very, very well. he resides in my city of tulsa, oklahoma, and he is imminently -- eminently qualified for this thing. i want to make a couple of comments responding. i chair the environmental and public works committee for some number of years, and during that time frame, we started considering his nomination, and i heard all kinds of criticisms. i say to the chair that they talk about the fact he has sued the e.p.a., and how can a person who sued the e.p.a. be qualified to serve as the director of the e.p.a.? well, i think that's a pre

. >> senator inhofe. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i have two unanimous consent request an order to start my clock it. one is i really believe and perhaps overly sensitive to this, that mr. promotes integrity has been put into question with the accusations of contributions to his campaign. i'd like to keep in mind the oil industry is a huge industry. middle income people will say yes we are, they support may also. but i think we need to have in the record that there are some things that are going on that should not be going on and this affects the democrats and not the republicans. as a guy named tom stier, and put this in the record, the city is going to put $100 million into the campaigns, individuals, talking about the global warming and what he's expecting. in 2016 he didn't do that. he only put in, i'm sorry, 14, 75 million of his own money. in 2016 he was the largest contributor putting in $86 million million dollars of his own money. i'm going to read this because it does reflect the names of people who are on this dais. i ask

this morning to testify on behalf of the general mattis, senator nunn and senator reed and senator inhofe, you may be the only three still here in the armed services commits when 20 years ago i came before the committee seeking your endorsement for secretary of defense. it's been 20 years and what a difference a generation makes. because at that time you -- when we first met you were a young captain in the navy and took us on a trip senator nunn mentioned to china where we met and some great work on the way back in korea. i thank you for all of the years you devoted to this country. you remain a hero of mine and to millions of people, not only in this country but the world over. it's a real honor for me to be here with you. >> thank you. >> and with senator nunn. i served 18 years here in the senate. he served 24. and i must say that the experience of working with senator nunn was one of the true highlights of my political career. so it's a pleasure for me to join with senator nunn. i want to associate myself with the remarks of the former senator from georgia and simply submit my own wri