senator inhofe has been one of our great leaders. so it's a pleasure to work with you on this subcommittee that deals with infrastructure, with senator barrasso and senator carper and members of this committee. today's topic is critically important. freight movement, assessing where we are now, and where we need to go. this nation was built by the fact that we were able to build up an economy, and our infrastructure was critically important for us being able to develop that economic strength that we all are so proud, and gives that opportunity to so many people. the u.s. freight system depends upon the multimodal system of infrastructure. roads are critically important for our trucks. rail is important for our freight moving by rail. yesterday i had a meeting of the maryland delegation with mr. foot, new acting ceo of csx. as we talked about freight issues, including the challenge we have in baltimore with the howard street tunnel, where you can't double stack. so that's -- incredibly important that we maintain and strengthen our rai

inhofe: very good. thank you, mr. president. well, i want to begin with wishing everyone a happy new year, and oil i'm -- and i'm hoping everyone had a great christmas. we did. i want to make three observations consistent with 2018. first, here in washington we're experiencing really frigid temperatures this week. and let me tell you in oklahoma it was colder there than it was here, which is unusual, but it was. we had record breaking bitter cold weather, but there were great, warm people and it was a wonderful christmas and it was good. many parts of the country saw 2017 with the record breaking cold weather and meteorologists are predicting more record cold for the rest of the week. i bring this up to highlight the fact that president trump joked last week on a twitter. he said, quote, we could use a little bit of that good-old global warming. i say it a little bit differently. i say, where is global warming when we need? we sure needed it this last week. the alarmists went crazy. let me explain an alarmist. an alarmist thinks

so, all my adversaries were saying we'll sink inhofe with his submarine. nonetheless we got them up there. and there it is in your port, port of muscogee, 300-foot submarine, shows the world we are in fact an inland port. so anyways, scott, nice to have you here. you have a tremendous background here. you've been at the port of muscogee for 28 years now. with more than 1000 acres of land within the jurisdiction the port is poised to continue its growth and provide several transportation options for oklahoma industries. scott's been active in the waterway communities serving on a variety of related boards and commissions including the national waterways conference, the marine transportation system, national advisory council, arkansas-oklahoma port operators association. so it is great to have you here. you will bring a lot of knowledge to this meeting and i appreciate it. >> thank you very much, senator inhofe for that introduction. good to see you. i could spend my five minutes talking about stories about but i won't do that. >> we'll extend your -- don't

. >> senator inhofe? >> i think senator carper brought out something that is significant and is unique that is in this area where we're trying to bring in private sector funding, we actually had to pass a bill and a provision into the law to allow that to take place. i can't think of any other place in government where you have to ask permission to let the private sector pay for something. that was something that was good. mr. robinson, i again appreciate your being here so that we can make it very visible to people that we have problems on this inland waterway. i can remember back when i first came to congress, i would go up through some of the eastern states and see the problems they've had with their old ports thinking, well, we're pretty fortunate in oklahoma we don't have those problems. well, now we do have those problems. enough years has gone by we've outlived the lives of some of the -- our ports. and so we have to address that. we had a subcommittee meeting that i chaired not long ago on transpo

senator inhofe: senator scott. senator scott: thank you. -- shultz thank you for your service to our country. i was interested in your comments about threats that we have not seen before. i think specifically about your threats would be small, smart, cheap, and very lethal. i combined together your comments about drones with new technology and the new gene-editing advancements carrying unique and specific biological weapons. create a national defensive strategy around these new emerging threats the world has ever seen before? mr. shultz: i think it is a very hard question, and in our own little work at the stanford institution, we are trying to address it. we are trying to say to ourselves, what is going to be the impact of this on us? what is going to be the impact on russia, on china, on iran, and so on, in south america, around the world? after we try to think our way through those things, how we position ourselves in this new kind of world to be effective, be effective in advancing our interests and taking care

senator inhofe. >> thank you. i get the impression you don't like you. >> at least one. >> well, anyway, you've been doing a great job. i do have something for the record i wanted to put in, mr. chairman. it's an article out of oklahoma that talks about the -- all the improvements in the economy that are coming with getting rid of some of these very punitive regulations we've been going through. i want to ask consent this be made part of the record. >> without objection. >> i ask for consent to insert for the record a report from moody's which suggests something different, thank you. >> without objection. >> okay, i walked in just at the tail end of somebody else's, who's not here now, inquisitions of you, and talking about the regulations. you know, i remember it so well because i was -- all during the obama administration i was either the chairman or the ranking member of this committee. and i think i sat right behind you, and i used to look at what was happening to our economy. which is in the process of being

inhofe: while you have the floor. on the nuclear strategy, we had a hearing recently and it has been obvious to everyone and all three of you remember this, that china and russia have been modernizing their nuclear have beenell we sitting around not doing anything on ours. if you look at our nuclear triad, all three parts are aging. do you have any recommendations for what we need to do now? >> i believe in the tremendous importance of getting rid of nuclear weapons. as long if there are nuclear weapons the united states must have a robust, secure, and safe arsenal to use for deterrence and for a basis from which to negotiate down. >> we really haven't been doing any modernization since you have been at the helm. would you agree with that? dr. shultz: i read, but i guess was an early version somehow, that was sent to me of the national security strategy. i like to the beginning of it because it talked about our commitment to getting rid of nuclear weapons. this notion of using them that is spreading around is deeply d

>> i think so, senator inhofe. i think we need more tools and that would be one of them. the question would be whether states are so focused on their highways needs, roads and bridges, how much effort for how much expenditure they would allow from those funds for waterways. and the other question is what with the use those funds for? when they use it to cost share new projects? if that were the case i think there's a real need to cost share projects. there's not enough money and the inland waterway trust fund to do that. perhaps this data equated to pick up a little bit of the load there. so yes, i think that -- >> it's that what happened unless somebody does something. >> that's exactly right. >> you've got to get aggressive and coming with the state, decide what the alternatives are. and what percentage perhaps might be appropriate for that. because i look at sources and i run out of ideas. anyway, that's something i think we can do and something that doesn't affect us here in the federal government as much as it does in the state government. >> i also think the water i

senator inhofe? >> thank you, mr. chairman. since we were in the other committee not able to be here during this time i was told there are a couple things where you didn't have ample time to respond and they would -- actually there were two questions i was going to ask. these were the subject matter you didn't have time to respond to. you've been vocal about the differences of the epa being about stewartship versus prohibition. we've been through a period of prohibition. what is the difference and how are you moving epa from a policy of prohibition to stewardship? >> i think it's something the american people we need to wrestle with what is true environmentalism. that's a very important question because i think as we answer that question, to your question senator inhofe, many look at that as a prohibition to say that even though we've been blessed with natural resources to, again, power the world and feed the world that we put up fences and prevent the development of those resources and we've never done that as a country. we've

regular consumer and power utility on top of that he saves money cutting his electricity bill almost inhofe. not least because he's now independent of the large energy concerns. it's not really for us we are the most satisfying aspect of course is that we're making a small contribution to climate protection and limiting carbon dioxide emissions. so we could and that's the most important thing a levy well done yes making a financial saving on the side at least once the plant has been running for years and paid for itself. that's a welcome side effect i'm happy to take along it. even if it didn't come with name his household is only one example of sharing climate friendly electricity plenty of others could soon be joining the system. so now with most of the by arco of the congo basin these pygmy people who live in the central african republic like many indigenous people they see the our culture on the right right outside influences that is why the by arco all being young have come together to preserve the one knowledge of their ancestors how are they doing that shown for thousands of years th

inhofe: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to ask that my remarks -- that after my remarks, the senator from rhode island be recognized, senator whitehouse, and after that, the senator from arizona be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: we like to do this, mr. president, because on mornings like this when we're supposed to be going back and forth between democrats and republicans, i that i that's the proper way to do it. this kind of lox it in. this kind of locks it in. it's really interesting because i have been through every shutdown in the last 30 years. i was eight years in the house, 22 years in the senate. and this is the first time -- in every other time there's always been some question, could it be a little bit of blame on the democrats? a little bit of blame on the kweupbdz? the fin -- on the republicans. the finger pointing is always happening until this time. this time there can be no question if you want to say whose fault it is. i suggested that the

are and hurting whenever my my babies says my book was published in the year two thousand called inhofe a million americans have been killed by far olds in the us where how does thought to me as i did this is a middle school we go through drills and we put ourselves in real scenarios it was interesting to see who actually got hit by the gun i just saw it to return to the subject to track down each gun owner who i'd met and photographed those years ago i don't know this but we are not. saying that market failure many times we thought two thousand and eight we thought in one theme ninety seven we saw it in one nine hundred eighty seven and we're going to see it again probably in the very near future because the underlying design of this couple of cisco has not been modified to account for changes in technology over the past fifty sixty seventy year and we keep having these catastrophic failure. about your sudden passing i've only just learned you worry yourself in taking your last wrong turn. up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry for me i cried so i write these last words

they are and hearty when i buy my baby this is my book was published in the year two thousand called inhofe a million. americans have been killed by firearms in the u.s. we had a thought to me as i did this is a middle school we go through drills and we put ourselves in real scenarios it was interesting to see who actually got here. and i decided to return to the subject to track down each gun owner who i'd met and photographed those years ago i don't know that but we were not for a. kentucky . boy you could walk down the street. a co money since he was almost no coal mines left. the jobs are gone all the coal miners the said. and it was a laugh to see these people the survivors of disappearing before their eyes. i remember thinking when i was younger that if anything ever happened to the coal mines here that it would become a ghost town but i never thought in a million years i would see that and it's happening it's happened. welcome back to go through some of the stories now is the broadcaster of a liberal democrat member of parliament then bit o. pick i'm going to have guts i had to run o

inhofe: mr. president, i'm going to talk about something that's different than anyone else has talked about here, but there's a very good reason for it. first of all, to try to establish some credibility here, i had occasion to spend quite a bit of time working on issues in africa. in fact, i've had occasion over the last 23 years to make 156 african country visits. that's a lot of african country visits. and we have friends there. i personally have friends there. intimate friends. we've worked on a lot of military concerns that they have. but this is an area where we have very close friends, and so i'm going to be singling out one close friend but not to the detriment to the rest of them, because we have many close friends, certainly as many as 32 country presidents and prime ministers that we've been very close to. but there's a reason for singling out one particular individual which is paul kigame, president of rwanda. first of all, he's going to be coming in as the chairman of the african uni

. >> martha: james inhofe, senator, good to see you.n you watch that, president obama talked about that? >> it sickens me. when he said it, i was sitting there. he pushed through this 836-billion dollars and he didn't do anything. the percent that went to infrastructure, roads, and highways and bridges, 3%. that's just outrageous. all of that money went into is environmental agenda. >> martha: and the jobs that were not as ready. >> he had no intention to do anything on infrastructure. >> martha: you have been frustrated with this administration on infrastructure? >> no, he will talk about it tomorrow night. that will be one of the main things. and rebuilding the miltary. how much will the president commit to infrastructure? we are hearing from states that they are worried that the burden will fall on them and they don't have the money to do it. >> there will be an incentives for states and private sector and local governments. the differential is going to be a lot of the incentives will be there for them to do it. there will other thin

>> yes, senator inhofe i am. and i think there probably needs to be an adjustment. the problem, as senator carper acknowledged, is not doing more with less. we have been trying to do that forever. it's not working. we do to do more with more and efficiently in a business like manner. >> and those of us who have been down there and observed some of the problems in the relatively ports ports that carry our goods and services. our nations system directly touches 38 states brought out. it's not just the coast. three of our ports go through senator boozman state. and two more ports are in oklahoma. now, in the fast act for the first time, and i've been through all seven of them since 1987, that we were able to have a freight provision. and that freight provision left a lot of the authority up to the states as to how to expend that and so forth. and so i would ask the question, would allowing the states to use fast act freight funds on our waterways, if they chose to do it, would that be available to address the issues and the needs of our inland states? >> i think so. i

times with the congressional black caucus to africa, i was very involved with it, as was senator jim inhofeey're extremely fine people, one of the big mistakes americans make when they say africa. they don't understand it's 53 different countries. >> americans aren't making this mistake, though, the president of the united states is. he's making broad generalizations about an entire group of people based on where they live, because he's ignorant of their experience. we need to have a frank conversation about that. donald trump has a documented history of not only using racist dog whistle coded language, but engaging in racist practices, he discriminated against black people in his real estate company. yes, the president of the united states identifies with white supremacy. the president of the united states has repeatedly made racist remarks and we need to hold him accountable. >> that real estate lawsuit involved his father who was named in a group of realtors, it was a -- almost like a class action suit, it wasn't against any one person. but i just would maintain that somebody who promote

sanitation more than two million people have been forced to leave their homes since the war began three inhofe years ago but it smith reports. this family will get just a few minutes warm from the fire here in merritt province yemenis who've lost their homes in the civil war are beyond the reach of even the most basic relief that aid groups can provide people here are escaping either hoofy fighters who control the capital or they're escaping as strikes and attacks by a coalition of countries led by saudi arabia two million yemenis have been displaced since fighting began in september twenty fourth scene as if. we left our homes because of the war we found ourselves here without anything we have nothing here but are low we don't have food and the weather is very cold. four hundred sixty thousand displaced people are in camps like these in mera province they don't get any humanitarian assistance. we leave here in despair we have kidney problems my kids are also sick i have nothing and i can do nothing we urge all countries and international organizations to pay attention to us. disease is rife a

senator jim inhofe saying of flake who is not seeking re-election, i think we all knew that. he doesn't like the president. and it gets closer to the end of his time here, i think he is going to accelerate his rath against thwrath againstthe president. end quote. the white house had this. >> he is not criticizing the president because he is against oppression. he is criticizing the president because he has terrible poll numbers. and he is, i think, looking for some attention. i think it's unfortunate. >> harris: well, i guess you can get attention by lambasting the president when you vote with him 92% of the time. >> yeah, look, i don't think that what jeff flake is doing is primarily about attention. i think he does have these concerns. i have talked to him about it i think he does have these concerns. i think some of his concerns are legitimate. i wouldn't suggest that the president is comparable to joseph stalin. but. so things the president has said about the media being the enemy of the american people i think are irresponsible. the white house would be much better off i

one-year anniversary of the presidency, that the shutdown was a pres frent the democrats, and senator inhofea republican from oklahoma agreed saying that your party is doing this to distract from his success. is that true? >> this is the president of the united states who began his campaign by saying that mexicans are murders, rapists and drug dealers and we should get rid of them. >> and so this is a way for the democrats to embarrass the president? >> look, this is not about the wall. and i will tell you another reason it is not. because, you know what, today, more people are entering the country through l.a.x. and chicago o'hare and dulles with illegal visas than crossing the border, so if you are concerned about people coming to america, why are you only talking about one point of entry, the point of entry through which most of america is, because you want the drive the message through. >> and, again, on the behalf of the republicans, they are saying that the democrats are trying to embarrass this president, and given the s-hole comments that he made recently, and given a list of comment

and i recall only senator inhofe and i actually spoke about him on the floor when the actual extended debate time was required. when he arrived at his desk, he was handed 125 backlog cases that hit his desk the same today that he got there. this has real world consequences, the more that this slows down the process. >> and as one of those consequences that we can't get to other work during this 47 or 63 times 30 hours that we've -- >> when you're at post-cloture, you can't bring up other things as this body knows extremely well. so we can either do nominations or legislation, but the senate cannot walk and chew gum at the same time. we can only do one thing at a time. so if we have extended debate and require post will post-clot, if that's the vehicle that will do it, that will permanently block legislation from being done because we have to do personnel as well as legislation. >> and the large percentage of this president's first year appointments, while we're not done with this yet, if you wanted to do this in a way that only dramatically affected the next president, the fist year o

. >> thank you, senator inhofe. senator lee is up next. >> thanks very much to each of you for being here and for answering our questions. we are on the precipice of ground-breaking technological revolution, one that combines computing power with telecommunications ability, sensing abilities, so as to change the way the american people interact with their means of transportation, and that has the power to make us healthier, safer. one of the things that i worry about in this circumstance, is that the only thing that can stop this technological revolution from taking place and from improving the lives of from improving the lives of 330 americans is the government itself. i worry, for example, about the push that some are seeming to desire, to depart from our traditional regulatory processes and to add an additional layer here, specifically for you, for this technology. i shudder at the thought of what the government might have done had pre-market approval been a prerequisite for some of the technologies that brought

some republican senators really interested in that, senator inhofe, republican senator said yes, he would be in support of that, they don't want to see any sort of long shutdown, not what a lot of senators wanted up here tonight, i have not seen any democrats pass. just republicans enroute to the vote. the big question is what's the plan b, there are fascinating conversations, if you look down on the senate floor, fascinating huddles going on. there is this collective oh, goodness what is plan b, we have to figure this out. for many hours, this was the direction that republicans and democrats knew they were headed. right now, they're faced with the reality of having to go there. >> the democrats are supposed to meet tomorrow at 10:00, are there plans for republicans to meet? take us there, take us to this contingency plan and who will be at these meetings? >> we know that democrats in the house are going to be meeting tomorrow. as of now, we don't have any firm plans for any other groups that will be meeting. of course, we know that senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says he intends t

i was really lucky senator inhofe was the chairman of transportation and asked if we could get some help, called, boom. the problem was settled. we don't have that anymore. i mentioned to my friend, the publisher about research on weather at the university of oklahoma. he said, yeah, that's great. he raised the alert time from five to 15 to 20 minutes. that's life and death in a place like oklahoma. that was an earmark. he said, those were all great projects. bingo. that's the point. 95% of these things, anybody, any member who dealt with them, could get up and defend. it was mostly a matter of not getting extra money but making sure a particular local problem got involved. t the idea that all the decisions made in the bureaucracy or any administration of either party are somehow nonpolitical and somehow there is no preference expressed, i have been around government long enough to know that is not true. whoever is making decisions brings some set of values and criteria. sometimes it is objective and sometimes it is not. at least in this case, it seems to me these things are much more tr

into "newsmakers" from john james inhofe. >> the national defense strategy says the united states greatest threat will come from russia and china. the classified version of that report? and what you think of. some things i can't talk about right now. you were talking about the 2/3 strategy. i agree in terms of the greatest threat eventually would be or china and china i could say. the other three are important too. that's north korea, iran, and isis. so that's the strategy that he's priority to as a get to us. so you really have two different of strategies. is one is -- i mentioned it north korea. that's the one that every person comesmes to our meeting to our hearing and public televised hearing. they come up now. we're talking in the military now. they say we have the greatest faced, that we've ever because in the case of north jong-un isguy, kim totally unpredictable. they always use that word un predictable. scary when you are un predictable. you have a weapon delivery system. let me hasten to say, i know the credittics are out there watch ing us right now. yes, they have something tha

first, on sunday, tune into interview withan james inhof, on the armed held thatommittee, we interviewday, he talked with reporters with national last e strategy released week by the defense department, here is a bit of what he had to say. defense strategy says the united states greatest threat is from russia and china. seen the classified version of that report and what you think of the -- can't talk about it right now, but you're talking bout the two-three strategy, and i agree in terms of the greatest threat conventionally be russia or china, and china, i could say. important, ree are too, north korea, iran and isis. o that is the strategy he's putting down as a priority to get to it. have two different types of is, i ies, the one mentioned north korea. one, every person comes to our hearings, public, elevised hearings, they come up, talking military now, they the greatest threat we've ever faced because in the korea, kim jong-un is totally unpredictable and word, ways use that unpredictable. that is scary when you are you have a e and weapon delivery system. et me hasten to say, i

there's larger fatalities, crossings, other things on those lines, also you mentioned that senator inhofe, you know, if he hadn't been chairman of dpw, you wouldn't have been able to necessarily jump that hoop and be able to take vapg -- advantage of that relationship or seniority. one of the things that's different about lobbying the administration, i understand, one thing you don't have there is pay to play because those are campaign contributions. >> i think those are legitimate points. just for the record, i never secured earmark for any private entity, but i think that's probably one of the reasons my friends on the other side instituted as one of the reforms and i give them credit for that because we ended up with people in jail, the only difference is they put it in pocket instead of campaign but the practice you're talking about, i would consider that abusive practice as well. so, again, maybe if we go down this road and i think that's a very open question because people are rightly distrustful and worried. no cause for dispute there but those would be important kinds of reforms t

inhofe: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: i ask unanimous consent that we proceed now to the vote -- the 1:30 vote. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

inhofe: mr. president, for about 20 years now, i've viewed the development and deployment of layered ballistic missile defense shield as probably singularly the most vital thing we could be doing around here, adversaries like north korea. people are aware of that now. and others have ballistic missiles. they're increasing in range, capability. iran is getting almost everything -- one of the problems you have is you get countries like north korea developing capabilities, missile capabilities, and if they have it, then other adversaries have it. talking about yemen, all the rest of them. so, anyway, it's important for us to communicate to the american people that the threat that we face is probably the most imminent threat that we've had in the history of this country. today i think it's the most -- the greatest threat that we've had certainly in my lifetime. i've spoken on the floor on this issue. in 2001, 2009, 2012, and this will be the fourth time this year. over the last 30 years we've witness