even in cases where inhofe might personally disagree. so james inhofe is the one who's stepping up in particular. host: one of the key differences between the house and senate versions of the bill was a provision involving the chinese telecom company z.t.e. how does z.t.e. figure in each bill and how is the issue resolved? john: well, the senate had a provision that would have basically barred american companies from exporting to this chinese company z.t.e. which is controversial, we should point out, because it was found to have violated u.s. sanctions and trading with north korea and iran and it's widely considered to be an espionage threat that's tied to the people's liberation army in china. and so there's a lot of member concern about doing business with this company and a lot of insistence on penalizing them. the administration did not want to have this ban. they have instituted fines and other punitive actions against z.t.e. so the senate provision that would have blocked private business with z.t.e. was stripped out. what the bil

thornberry: i was saying that senator inhofe has done a great job on senator mccain's behalf and this conference report bears senator mccain's unmistakable stamp. he has once again made a strong positive difference for the men and women in uniform and for the national security of the united states of america. we certainly wish him and his family the best in his current fight. we thank him and we attempt to honor him and his scout -- outstanding service to our nation with this legislation. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves his time. the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. smith: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. smith: thank you. i want to thank the chairman for his leadership of the committee. our committee is committed to completing this process every year. i think it is a great example of how the legislative process should work. it is bipartisan and it follows regular order. and the chairman deserves a great deal of credit

use of that is coming our way inhofe an. unofficial. locust it's. muscles has. nothing. to. do it he. doesn't go to the middle of the sinai you know it's. all forced well it's only about the look at the mother and the couldn't care for the one of the ninety one columns on the wall she. will. cut. you'll. make us manufacture consent to public wealth. when the ruling class is to protect themselves. with the fine larry you're a gift to the one percent. of the room sick. come on and welcome to world a part of western europe has long been the birthplace of both the most dangerous and the most in the light and ideas that almost burned the planet alive with the two world wars and came up with the european union as a prevention strategy against the third is the euro centric way the only strategy of saving the world from a new disaster or is it perhaps the surest way of bringing it about well to discuss that i'm now joined by collapse and the collide is director of the center for international studies at oxford university professor nickell it is it's an honor talking to you thank you

he is a long-time washington lobbyist and worked on capitol hill for james inhofe and epa. he knows the ins and outs of the regulations. he could be more effective than pruitt because we won't have the ethical standard scandals headlining. >> something you wrote caught my eye. wheeler is expected to run a more conventional and inclusive policy process even though the end result is similar to those of pruitt. what do you mean? >> one thing that upset people at the agency is administrator pruitt was exclusive with the way he was seeking advice and rolling out regulations, which is one reason he's not been as successful and as far along repealing the regulations because he hasn't been following protocol as much as before. you could call it, he's not a swamp creature, but not following the rules the swamp has been following for decades. andrew wheeler is said to take the input of staffers more. that doesn't mean he will end up on a different spot, he won't. he will end up in the same spot as pruitt. >> pruitt is skeptical on climate change being due to us. >> he's not going to

senator inhofe of oklahoma is one of the climate change skeptics. he worked there, left, went to k-street and followed that golden path that leads to lobbying job, lobbied for big coal, energy companies and lobbied the energy industry, epa and department of interior. the very people now he is going to regulate as we pointed out in some of our reporting, were paying him a year or so ago. that should be an interesting dynamic. andrew wheeler did have to pledge he wouldn't be involved in any decisions involving his former clients. we have that to deal with. >> likely very little change in policy. we know people around the president think he responds to praise, gratuitous praise but pruitt's resignation letter is a whole new level. i believe you are serving as president today because of god's providence. that takes it to a new level. >> it does take it to a new level and certain level of divinity and faith and destiny. it's very hard not to read that letter and come away from the belief scott pruitt thought she was serving a man opposed to a country and

a former coal industry lobbyist and a former chief of staff to republican oklahoma senator james inhofe. some say that he is expected to carry out the same agenda but he is more likely to stay under the radar. >>> officials in thailand say that time is running out for the 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a flooded cave and now they are dealing a death in the rescue effort. a former navy seal died during a mission to get oxygen to the boys. he ran out of air under water. authorities overseeing the rescue say the weather is getting worst and oxygen levels in the cave are running low. the kids, 11 to 16 and their coach have been trapped since june 23rd. >>> a man from antioch may have to spend months in the hospital after a fireworks explosion badly hurt his hands and his eye. the family of the 33-year-old say that he found fireworks, possibly a roman candle in a trash dumpster and lit it. it exploded, blewing off parts of his fingers on his hand and hit him in the eye with shrapnel. >> called my attention instantly. like a big bomb. i looked outside and all i saw was the smoke an

he worked for senator inhofe in the senate. we were talking about the fact that he was previously a lobbyist for a major coal company. but we have been talking about a story for a while. what environmentalistsenvironme epe will work under his guidelines without any of the headlines and screaming stories about scott pruitt and much more quietly this agenda to roll back regulations will continue somewhat unabated. so there is fear that andrew wheeler now, i guess, acting as acting deputy, acting administrator could be potentially even worse from the perspective of environmental groups, because he knows how the game is played and knows how to not get in trouble in washington d.c. >> that's right. if you get the policy without the drama, that's a win for the president. >> absolutely. i'm trying to forecast any problems ahead, and only thing i can talk about is trump tried to coal subsidy to prop up manufacturing among his base states, pennsylvania, ohio, that independent coup of thing, and that would cause heartburn among many repu

to level of joe programmer so inhofe no. one else should seem wrong. why don't we just don't call. it. yet to shape out just to come at it. and it gets right it was betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. afshin rattansi we're going underground on the day of the trump putin summit in finland coming up in the show but a state senator dick black tells us if he thinks trump can for the cold war style relations the defined obama era foreign policy and what i did to raise him a call donald trump's child attention policy is wrong and deeply disturbing when her hostile environment has been separating children from their parents for years after donald trump shocked as nato allies could one base used by the alliance be under threat on the eve of cyprus discussions of the u.n. security council we investigate opposition to the air strip from which a razor may launch attacks around the region told us of all coming up in today's edition of going underground but first to our top story told trump meets with vladimir putin today trump said it would

early 1990s focusing on toxic pollution control then he went to work for republican senator james inhofe, swell-known climate change teeptic. most recently he's been a coal industry lobbyist and vice anesident of something called the washington coal club. environmental groups describe wheeler as sort of a scandal free replica of pruitt, conservatives say they expect wheeler to continue the deregulatory work in washington. >> golodryga: i want to switch to another to another topic, supruse the president said today he will announce a supreme court pick monday at 9:00 p.m. eastern p.me, what are you hearing about who may be on his short list right now. >> reporter: we were told the president has confined his list down to three. raymond ketheledge, amy coney barrett and bret kavanagh all sitting on federal appeals court. there are various factions in covor of all three. the president said will make his decision on sunday, announce it to the country on monday evening here at the white house. the president said it was unlikely he will conduct any additional interviews about this while is he in

a perfect example, the person who's coming after him, a former coal lobbyist who worked for james inhofe, sort of the most notorious climate crank on capitol hill i think it's fair to say. you know, the idea is like, yes, a less ostentatious individual is not an improvement. aren't you worried about wheeler? >> of course, we are very worried. he is a coal lobbyist. he is going to undermine the mission at epa as well. and part of the reason that it's so important that these investigations are carried out and really andrew wheeler in his acting position shouldn't go forward with any policy decisions until we get a full sense of the corruption within the agency. he's part of that problem right now. until he steps out and says that he's not going to really carry out all the problems and all the scandal that we saw with administrator pruitt. >> i'm sometimes amazed the white house gets through the day. given what i have heard about how it operates and just the sheer amount of vacancies they have and the processes that do not seem to be in place to make the place function smoothly. >> right. i

inhofe later backed off that. ingraham herself weighing in, pruitt is the swamp, drain it. we see controversies all the time with this president, what we doesn't see all the time, is somebody like laura ingraham saying something has to be done here. >> he was going to quote-unquote drain the swamp. make washington run more efficiently. and yet you have an alligator in your own administration that thrives in this quote-unquote swamp. other conservatives have publicly called for the president to remove scott pruitt. you cannot articulate this message and say the left has done xy and z wrong. and stood for law and stood for order and yet you have a president who has disregarded all of those foundational privileges of what it once meant to be a conservative in this country, saying it don't matter. folks have said we have had enough. >> what does that look like on the republican side, joanie ernst in iowa. i am seeing conservatives right now getting immediate reaction, saying he got a raw deal. what is the divide on the republican side? how many thought he should go and how many

thornberry: i was saying that senator inhofe has done a great job on senator mccain's behalf and this conference report bears senator mccain's unmistakable stamp. he has once again made a strong positive difference for the men and women in uniform and for the national security of the united states of america. we certainly wish him and his family the best in his current fight. we thank him and we attempt to honor him and his scout -- outstanding service to our nation with this legislation. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas reserves his time. the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. smith: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. smith: thank you. i want to thank the chairman for his leadership of the committee. our committee is committed to completing this process every year. i think it is a great example of how the legislative process should work. it is bipartisan and it follows regular order. and the chairman deserves a great deal of credit

inhofe: mr.president, i ask unanimous consent that i be recognized in morning business for up to 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: mr. president, first of all, let me just make a comment. or make a permission here. 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. inhofe: also, let me just follow up with my friend from iowa. i think we have all, most of us around this chamber have had a chance to meet judge kavanaugh. i am in kind of a unique situation in that i am not a lawyer, so i ask different questions than most people do. i was already convinced, judging from his history of voting and his adherence to and commitment to the constitution, that he is my kind of guy. i even sent a message to him saying don't bore wasting your time -- bother wasting your time on me because you don't need to. but nonetheless, he came in. what's in

i used to take senator inhofe to africa quite a bit, too.uld pray with the president's of those countries from a religious standpoint. he was pretty supportive of the foreign aid program. he is one of the last people most people would guess what do that. ofdsey graham is way on top those things. senator mccain, it goes back to what the ambassador said. we have two of the narrative for people who don't necessarily think of foreign policy or foreign affairs. -- theber the saying chinese gives the africans what they want and the united states all somewhat to do. we are losing the battle they are. we need to look at it as a humanitarian issue. or is nothing wrong with feeling good about what you do, but we have to get the story out. early on, we talked about the marshall plan. read, and i recognize you do, president bushes autobiography, he was asking for a medical marshall plan. i was surprised at what senator daschle said. africa, parts of africa would hollow out. i would say when it does, does not go silent. disease can spread to the united s

we'll see inhofe time at the boat but ten fifteen minutes ago when those goals would see you'd be forgiven for thinking that the will cup is already started here a real sense of excitement you feel in college at the moment as you say all attention now in this small but exceptionally well see gulf state and of course it's not without its challenges there are questions being asked with respect to how qatar is going to accommodate what could be up to one point five million fans coming into this country this talk about massive tent cities being built to accommodate them as well as oversee all the hotels and ocean liners being built into the polls as well for accommodation we're seeing massive infrastructure projects being built right the way across the country the metro system we believe will be on the standees jus to open suddenly one line of the metro system in the next couple of months what you can probably hear now is a cultural event stopping here in these tough times. showcasing exactly what the countries want the will to see them going to how this will be. well the big. and the very pro

i have the opportunity to be the ranking democrat on the infrastructure subcommittee with senator inhofe and as we are looking at the infrastructure authorization for america on transportation clearly technology issues need to be part of those conversations. i think this panel is particularly important. we support enhanced use of technology to make transportation more efficient, make it more friendly, to make it safer certain challenges are brought out by this you already mentioned some. how this come out of the maintenance budget i thought was interesting concept as compared to construction and we don't have enough resources right now into the transportation infrastructure. so, unless we have an adequate funding source it seems to me that technology is not going to get the attention it needs, in the planning of infrastructure. so, secondly, i would point out that technology will help make prance -- transportation more efficient, which we want to make it more efficient but revenues coming in to support the infrastructure gets lower, it is less. once again it is so important as we look at

banking committee, who ushered this legislation through that committee, passed unanimously, and senator inhofe for leading the conference here on the senate side, and from seeing that this important piece of legislation was included. in june, president trump called on congress to pass a strong piece of legislation to modernize what's known as the committee on foreign investment in the united states or cfius, and now we are going to do exactly that. the senate version of the bill updates cfius so we can guard against attempts primarily by china but not only by china to acquire sensitive dual-use technology and know-how by exploiting gaps in the u.s. rules on foreign investments. this legislation takes a carefully tailored approach to updating the review process without hamstringing our ability to meaningfully engage in trade with partners around the world. it is not antiforeign investment. just the opposite is true. but it is all about protecting our crown jewels when it comes to leading edge technology that can be easily acquired through creative investment strategies and then along with the i

inhofe: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call in progress be vitiated. the presiding officer: we're not in a quorum call. the senator is recognized. mr. inhofe: thank you, mr. president i -- first of all, we're about to go to conference, the first of three votes here, very, very soon. they are yet to be considered among the most considered consequential votes of the year. we've been working closely with the president, with -- in our john s. mccain national defense authorization act is going to be a reality. it's going to be going to conference. we have actually spent -- we've done this through regular order in a very effective way. we've had our committee, the senate armed services committee has been in concert with our combatant commanders, with secretary mattis, with the service chiefs, with the president. we have a markup in our committee markup. we actually had over 300 amendments. i'm disturbed that we can't change this policy that we've had for a long period of time th