evanina: thank you for that question, senator lankford. i believe we as a nation need to be more in the true public-private partnership of those out in the country who makes things and build things, financial networks that are the bedrock of our nation. the government needs to partner in a very, very close manner so they can understand the threat and provide efforts to help mitigate that threat. senator lankford: what does that look like, a public-private partnership, are you talking government dictating how it will work in the private industry and the private industry sets a set of standards, what entity do you think that does that and how does it happen efficiently? mr. evanina: i believe it's a combination starting with d.h.s. what we do is provide the sliver of counterintelligence threat to not only the d.h.s. and department of energy as well as all the companies so they can understand the who and why and what's happening and help other federal organizations and regulators provide mitigations to those. if i believe those companies out

>> senator lankford: i don't think he needs to come back. he's appeared before the senate judiciary committee, he's done hours and hours of testimony and that has been consistent. they are just digging and hoping they can find something or leave and innuendo, that maybe there is a secret question they can ask to find something. the hard part is after months and months of this investigation, they are not finding anything. maybe i could bring him back one more time, i will. but it's just not there. >> bret: rudy giuliani has said that mueller has told him that he will adhere to the justice department guidance, and there will not be an indictment of the president. >> senator lankford: quite frankly, that's the same thing that jim comey told the president. he told the president out three times in their meetings. either that has come up, or they have both said that over and over again. so i would be surprised by that but i didn't hear it firsthand that there wasn't going to be an indictment, but that wouldn't surprise me as that hasn't been the c

. >>> anyway, just ahead, my exclusive interview with republican senator james lankford. we talk about whether the president's favorite #spygate is a fair description. his answer is no, at least, not yet. >>> and as we go to break, a state of emergency in maryland. this is dramatic video of brown waters rushing down main street as flash floods strike ellicott city, not that far from where we are here. emergency rescue is underway. 13 miles from baltimore, it was devastated by similar flood waters in july of 2016. we are going to be watching this story. our thoughts and prayers are with our neighbors. we will keep you updated on that. "kasie d.c." is back after this. thanks to dawn, rescue workers only trust dawn, because it's tough on grease yet gentle. i am home, i am home, i am home >>> welcome back to "kasie d.c." this week congressional leaders from both parties were briefed on those highly classified documents related to the russia investigation. rudy giuliani now says the president's own legal team wants a briefing on this classified information as well. i asked rep

help us understand that better. >> thank you for your question, chairman lankford. we're asking $8 million to upgrade our i.t. systems. those upgrade consist of basically two different buckets. one is systems i guess you would say the other is more applications. one of the examples of the systems we're looking to upgrade involves the disaster information reporting system or dirs this is critical during hurricane season to allow the commission, public, congress to know where outages might happen if hurricane or other natural disaster comes through. that system is in need of upgrading. that is where some of the funding will go to. broadband form 477. this is information we get to the fcc that allows us to know where the digital divide is existing and where it is not. to be able to upgrade the user interface in order to make it more user-friendly and more responsive to us is going to be critical. so those are the kind of i.t. up grade it might involve up front investment but in the long run there will be a big payoff in terms of saving congress money, providing benefit

senator lankford, thank you. mr. lankford: senator tillis, thank you. mr. president, thank you for acknowledging our time. this is a serious conversation because this is a nato ally. dr. andrew brunson has been in turkey now 24 years. 23 of these years he served as a pastor and a humanitarian worker. he took care of providing food and clothing, pastoral ministry to anyone who would come, just like anyone does. that's not an issue in turkey for decades because they have been open to all faiths and religions and have prided themselves on being a facing nation that recognizes -- on being a nation that recognizes all religions and ethnicity. at least that was the old turk can i. and literally under dr. brunson's feet, turkey shifted from where they were to we don't recognize them anymore as a nato ally. in october of 2016, dr. brunson was called by the police department there, assuming it was an immigration issue. he and his wife went because they had gone multiple times to the police department to be able to renew their visa and keep up to date. they had a gre

. >>> plus, my exclusive conversation with senator james lankford.talk about the president's insistence his campaign was spied on and we learn the senator is working secretly behind closed doors with a bipartisan group to resolve daca. >>> but first, we are trying to answer a simple question. will the president actually be able to have a summit on june 12th with north korean leader kim jong-un after he abruptly canceled it? on friday, "the new york times" wrote the following. quote, a senior white house official told reporters that even if the meeting were reinstated holding it on june 12 would be impossible given the lack of time needed. president trump 1307bded on twitter with this false accusation. quote, the failing "the new york times" quotes a senior white house official who doesn't exist, use real people, not phony sources. the source was, in fact, a senior white house official speaking to a large group of reporters in the white house briefing room. we journalists try as hard as we can to always identify our sources on the record so that we ca

. >> thank you chairman lang ford for conve -- lankford. i hope we can continue to find common ground and work well together. i'd like to welcome our witnesses, treasury secretary mnuchin and irs acting commissioner kautter. thank you for joining us and your service. treasury is central to our government's stability and ongoing operations, helps sustain our country's fiscal health and protect our national security. you have a vital and wide ranging job from collecting taxes and processing over $3 trillion in federal payments to prosecuting financial crimes in the united states and identifying and stopping individuals that finance and promote terror abroad. i'm pleased you requested an increase in the office of terrorism and financial intelligence which is the critical responsibility of enforcing sanctions. i want to discuss the adequacy of resources for that office later in this hearing. i'm concerned the real and important work you are doing regarding north korea and iran not limit your ability to enforce other sanctions around the world.

lankford: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: mr. president, i was in a conversation with a group of oklahomans just last week. the issue of net neutrality came up in that conversation. a gentleman there who publishes content on the internet said he's very concerned about net neutrality and wanted to make sure that the content that he had he could continue to publish and he would not have to go to every single i.s.p., inter net service provider across k the country and negotiate a deal with them. and that's what happens with net neutrality. i said it's very interesting. has that happened to you? have you faced that? and he said no, but i'm afraid i might. here's the problem we have with this conversation about net neutrality. for 20 years the internet functioned under a very clear set of rules. the federal communications commission had a set of rules for both content providers and for the fiber, the internet service providers. a clear set of rules. they couldn't violate any trade practices. they couldn't do monopolies. they couldn't

that's why senator lankford and senator tillis and i are doing everything we can to send a message tois our nato ally, they're supposed to be on our side. >> senator lankford, we expressed concerns after the hostages taken in north korea came home, used as a bargaining chip and that being celebrated as positive behavior by north korea. are we beginning to see hostage-taking by supposed allies and enemies alike as a new way to bargain with the united states and this administration? >> this is has been ongoing for a while. he has been held since october of 2016, pastor brunson has and the hostages in north korea have been held since 2016 and before as well. this is a long-term issue. i said on the senate floor last week i thought i would never say i want turkey to act more like north korea and release our hostages. that seems like an odd thing to say to a nato ally. you should see the transcripts for the trial itself. they're bringing in secret witnesses from prisons and saying someone else in my prison i heard say something about pastor brunson. there's no eyewitness testimony, there's

as senator lankford talked about in the tax gap. in my mind, one of the biggest ways of shrinking the tax gap is through additional use of technology as opposed to throwing money at enforcement, but i think the acting commissioner and myself have spent a lot of time. we meet monthly with the i.t. people there and for both of us that is a major priority across the departments. >> very good. agriculture is one of the few areas where the u.s. actually runs a trade surplus and accounts for a third of arkansas' overall economy. in many of arkansas' small rural communities, much of arkansas, it is more like 90% of what is going on in the area regarding the economy. i've heard from many of my constituents who simply the uncertainty that we're going on through right now is causing significant problems as far as their plans and costing them market share. for arkansas' largest grow crop soybean, every third row is exported to china. it was reported almost 1 million tons of soybean exports have been canceled. with 95% of the world's consumers

we are going to have senator lankford on "special report" tonight. >> juan: jesse, i realize you lovei want you to ask your toughest question now that we have bret baier right here. >> jesse: how will you handle the fact that gutfeld might outsell you with the monologues? >> greg: i like that he plugged my book. >> jesse: come back when i have mine. you have the kilmeade book, the gutfeld book. how will you feel if you don't outsell all of them? >> bret: i will feel like that bear. >> greg: the bear is feeling pretty good. has the best seat in the house, my lap. >> juan: what have you heard from charles krauthammer, or friend? >> bret: he is doing better. his doctor say he has turned a corner and he hopes to be back. >> juan: here is wishing you all the best, charles. i know you watch. >> greg: does he watch "the five"? >> juan: he watches "the five" "the five." >> dana: i hope we don't embarrass ourselves. >> greg: it is a little late for that. i am holding a bear with a human face. >> juan: do you get aggravated? >> bret: no, i think it's good. i always hear you laughing. >> juan: i

democrat jeanne shaheen and republican james lankford, who are both working on this.a sanctions package. this is what senator shaheen had to say when she was with us. >> pastor brunson is being held hostage. i think it goes all the way to the top, to erdogan, president erdogan. he's the one responsible. these are totally made up charges. they don't even connect pastor brunson with his church, they called him a mormon, don't seem to know who he represents. this is someone who has been in turkey for 23 years. at his trial when he was asked about the charges, he said, i love turkey, i would never do anything against turkish people. this is not fair. >> shannon: we have had an abbasid or they are on the ground, other lawmakers, the president, vice president now weighing in on this. turkey is a nato ally. how do we get this guy home? >> we have to up the pressure. we have seen that we held the line with both korea and amazingly, north korea has returned three prisoners. we have to do the same, even though turkey is a nato ally, they are not responding to specific demands f

senator lankford is next and we will hold you to the time-limited test i can. >> director, good to see you again. past six months there've been numerous requests back and forth iwith the fbi and the additional contractors to expedite the process. can you give me an update on the request from the house and senate for anthesenate for any e have requested either from the house with the senate to have access to the rejected or unredacted what is the status of that please? >> as you eluded to, we have been doing quite a number of requests. some of them almost unprecedented in their volume from a number of different committees. we have indicates of one committee for example, we have doubled the number. i doubled the number of people workinworking around-the-clock full-time to over 50 people. so, we are chugging away making progress. a lot of the reductions will depend on particular requests like grand jury secrecy and where we legally have an implication or as i referenced with sharon the human sources and methods that go with it. so, we are trying our best to be responsive but also to be re

senator lankford, republican from oklahoma talking about farmers and their fears. >> they are on the. they have to plan for what's coming and if you don't know based on the trade policies, it's difficult to be able to plan months in advance or a year in advance. >> how much worry and farming's, agriculture, manufacturing and the u.s., there is a potential for backlash. >> there is obviously a slim potential for backlash. a much more likely result is to restore some balance with the trade relationship. with china. that is something farmers and steelworkers and other manufacturers can agree on. that we aren't getting a fair deal. i think the president is absolutely right about that. and i think this broad tariff strategy which includes other countries will have an impact to provide their relief for the steel industry needs domestically and also to in effect quarantine this bad behavior that china has in this massive overcapacity they have in sectors like steel. we have talked about this for a long time. doing something about it will have some cost. i am confident this administration ca

. >>> plus, my exclusive conversation with senator james lankford.ut the president's insistence his campaign was spied on and we learn the senator is working secretly behind closed doors with a bipartisan group to resolve daca. >>> but first, we are trying to answer a simple question. will the president actually be able to have a summit on june 12th with north korean leader kim jong-un after he abruptly

. >> thank you, senator lankford. senator manchin. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. thank you, secretary, it's good to be with you. first of all, we finally got a bill called jesse's law and i think i sent you a letter on that and i want to follow up on that because it's just a common sense piece of legislation, this beautiful girl jesse grub as you know had an injury and she was an addict and she was trying to clean up and she was doing very well in rehab and went -- had a running injury and went to a michigan hospital and she told the doctors her parents were with her and she was so proud of being a recovering addict and wanted to be careful about her markings on her -- all of her transcripts as far as her admission to the procedure she was going to need. to me i just thought it was common sense that we market as if are you allergic to penicillin, something very critical. it wasn't. she got discharged, discharging doctor didn't see it, gave her a prescription of oxycontin and she had overdosed by that evening and died. so what we're saying is this piece of legislat

lankford: mr. president, i ask for the ability to be able to have unanimous consent to have a colloquy with chairman isakson. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: mr. president, i do want to thank chairman isakson for the work that he's done on this. it's been a long road to be able to work through to reforming the v.a. the v.a. is exceptionally complicated. there are a lot of interests that are engaged with this. he's heard a lot of voices from all over the country and all over this town to be able to help resolve some of the issues and bring them together. this is exceptionally important, though, for our veterans, especially for our veterans that live in rural areas very far from health care. so section 101 of this bill requires the v.a. to give access to community care for a veteran or veterans -- when a veteran or veteran's referring clinician agree that furnishing care or services in the community would be in the best interests of the veteran after considering certain criter

good morning, wejust outside bury st edmunds, lankford la kes, outside bury st edmunds, lankford lakestohs. typically you would see more in this field but recently according to a recent survey by the british trust for all apology, which monitors mammals and birds, there's been a decline of 60% in the last 20 yea rs been a decline of 60% in the last 20 years —— ornithology. numbers were decimated in the 1950s due to myxomatosis and it's a new disease thatis myxomatosis and it's a new disease that is causing concern, rabbit hammer rogic disease as well, which is getting lots of people concerned about the decline in rabbit numbers, so about the decline in rabbit numbers, so later we will find out why that is happening and what can be done to help that but first, here's the news, weather and travel where you are this morning. good morning from bbc london news, i'm alpa patel. the human element of the grenfell tower tragedy is in danger of being lost according to one conservative mp. kwasi kwarteng was speaking yesterday at a westminster hall debate on the forthcoming inquiry into the fire

senator johnson: before i go to senator lankford, i think it's a good time, senator daines, you showed up, explain a little bit more. when you say we do this every -- you know, prosecutors, law enforcement, local law enforcement, does this every day. so let's consider maybe a drug dealer or single parent with children in the home. that drug dealer is arrested. is there any difference really in terms of how d.h.s. handles some -- someone you will prosecute, detain, someone who has entered through the port -- other than the ports of entry, is there any difference in terms of how d.h.s. would handle that situation, those children than what local law enforcement, other than different jurisdictions have different rules? secretary nielsen: broadly speaking, not to my knowledge. the idea here is to make sure that the now unaccompanied children or the children whose parent is incarcerated because they broke a law are cared for. we transfer those to h.h.s. as i just mentioned, we have now worked on a memorandum of agreement to ensure those children are not been in turn placed in the hands of tr

this hearing is led by oklahoma republican jane -- james lankford. spent good morning, everyone. i'm glad you're here. the subcommittee will come to order. i do want to say that this is the first of our hearings on this senate subcommittee. i do want to greed my colleague and say how publicly pleased i am to work with you. so please have mercy on us as we try to transition in this. this hearing marks the first of our fiscal year 2019 budget hearings together, under the jurisdiction of the financial subcommittee. we look forward to collaborating with the ranking member and the entire committee of the fiscal year 2019 bill. and to conduct oversight for the agencies to ensure they are spending resources responsibly. today we have the chairman for the federal commissions and the chairman of the federal trade commission. thank you both for being here today. this hearing is very timely considering the recent debates in the senate. since the internet was developed, the marketing consumers have driven innovation and expansion, which has caused the internet to thrive in a relatively relic

lankford: should the hp v, you have received another letter from the alaska delegation. get an answer within this next week, we are in where our processors are not able to be on the ready to receive the fish when they hit. we can concern -- control lots of things, we cannot control when the fish come. this is a priority for us and we are asking you, urging you politely and then forcefully to address this very quickly. we can't be in the same situation that we were in last year where the assistance came after the fish have already come. sec. neilsen: i agree. if i could ask in return to work manyyou, i've spoken with members of congress on this issue. because of our appropriations cycle, it is not responded to the seasons. i would like to request formally that congress please put the ceiling number in law. it is the only thing that is fair to these companies that are trying to plan for and understand what they will have each year. you have me now, i will make a decision. the decision is working its way ,hrough the interagency process but i cannot guarantee what the next s

i walked in as senator lankford from oklahoma was talking about drug pricing, transparency, pbms. senator capito and i have long before supporters of legislation that requires transparency in the pbm world. i can tell you our legislation is not advanced very rapidly and i would look forward to hearing from you knowing from you how we can be assistance -- assistance to you and your department's effort, but this issue of rebates that's now front and center, i think maybe our conversation is better had once the announcement from the administration occurs as to what your plan, what your policies are going to be, but this, again, is an example of where -- if we can find ways to reduce unnecessary costs in healthcare, we can -- and the cost of healthcare, we can reduce the unnecessary costs of healthcare. so i applaud the department's efforts in regard to drug reform and particularly as it relates to pbm transparency and the rebate issue. i'm encouraged. you and i visited on the phone i guess it's now last week. i would highlight for you once again the importance of the 340-b program. o

lankford from oklahoma who is smart on foreign policy. , purple state politicians with crossover appeal. voiceese people getting a coming out of these primaries? inl we worry about them november? kevin: an interesting point from gail collins. i would go deeper into the pennsylvania results last night. i grew up outside of philadelphia. regardless, last night mattered in pennsylvania, a state that went for president trump, republican for the first time since 1988. i have my eye on the senate race , president trump did a robo call for lou barletta against senator casey. a crowded republican field and president trump's nominee won. crowdedat be a field that bernie sanders endorsed another opposing candidate, and she beat out the socialist sanders'candidate and suburban philadelphia which is what decides where the state votes in gubernatorial and senatorial and presidential elections. the sanderss for wing of the party in pennsylvania last night, and a win for the program candidate -- pro-trump candidate. democrats are still having tension. b

senator from oklahoma, senator lankford. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me add to that conversation a little bit before i jump into questions. i'm one of the skeptical individuals that so far has not evolved on this issue of marijuana. i have a hard time believing if only more of our parents smoked more marijuana our kids and families would be so much better and employment would be so much better if more of our employees smoked more marijuana. i have a hard time believing that. as far as med inial issues this is issue this nih has done work on. it has several billions dollars that appropriations has allocated to them to be able to study pain medication that is to address that. was entirely appropriate taae we have an opioid epidemic. i've not swapped an opioid epidemic switch to marijuana hand say we solved the problem. we didn't solve the problem so i would love to continue to maintain this. there are ways to manage other different kinds of things to manage pain. but our preference would be our nation doesn't become more addicted to marijuana to solv

. >> before i go to senator lankford, i think this is a good time, senator daines, this would be good time to explain a little more when you say that we do this every, you know, prosecuted, law enforcement from local law enforcement does this every day. let's consider maybe a drug dealer, single parent with children in the home. is any difference in terms of how dhs handles, , prosecuted consumed in the country other than the ports of entry, is any difference how dhs would handle that situation, those children and what local law enforcement, other than different jurisdictions may have different roles? >> right. so broadly speaking, not to my knowledge. the idea is to make sure that the note unaccompanied children or the children whose parent is incarcerated because they broke the law are cared for. so we transfer those to hhs. as i just mentioned with no work on memorandum of agreement to ensure that those children are not then in turn place in the hands of traffickers, criminals, et cetera. >> i want to underscore, that only applies if the units, appeared that crosses illegally betwe

with that the chair recognizes senator lankford. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much.ss haspel, thank you for your over three decades of work for our nation. the lack of recognition that you have had for three decades from our nation because you've served in a way that no one has seen, so this is an opportunity we get to be able to say thank you to you. >> thank you. >> for a lot of years of a lot of service being able to protect our nation. it's also pretty remarkable in some of the dialogue today as i go through the very long list of people that have recommended you and that are both republican and democrats and to be able to see the reports that have been written by the inspectors general about you, about previous doj about you, that have cleared you of any concerns and that have reaffirmed you and whether it is president obama's director of the cia, john brennan or whether it is jim clapper, director of national intelligence for president obama, henry kissinger, john mclaughlin, mike morell, mike mull casey, john neg row upon day, leon upon net at that, george tena

thank you, senator lankford. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: all postcloture time has expired, and the question occurs on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? if not, the yeas are 49. the nays are 46. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate to bring to a close debate on the nomination of joel m. carson, iii, of new mexico to be united states circuit judge. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the senate will be in order. the clerk will contin

lankford: ask unanimous consent the senate resume legislative session for period of morning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: senator blunt and i were here on the floor earlier to talk about the bill that just passed through the senate unanimously and that is a bill dealing with the sexual harassment and other harassment rules of the congress. this was a joint effort, and i wanted to take an opportunity, first of all, to thank everyone that was involved in this. first and foremost, senator blunt, who has been a true partner. we have worked on everything together from adoption to tourism, and last month when he took over from senator shelby's able leader the rules committee, he and i worked together on changing the senate's rules for the first time in the history of the senate to be more family friendly and work with senator tammie duckworth so that her baby will be allowed on the floor, as will other children of male