mr. blumenthal: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: mr. president, i want to thank my colleague, senator warner, and we'll hear shortly from senator wyden. these two great colleagues are championing election security. senator warner at the helm as vice chairman of the intelligence committee has done as much as any american, any member of this body to uncover the serious russian threat to our election system, and it's a threat not just from the russians but from other countries as well. and that's why i have offered and i will shortly ask for unanimous consent for the passage of s. 1247, the duty to report act. this legislation, like senator warner's, is based on a very simple idea. if you see something, say something. the duty to report act would require campaigns, candidates, and family members to immediately report to the f.b.i. and federal election commission any offers of illegal foreign assistance. it differs in some technical aspects. for example, min

mr. blumenthal: mr. president, i have a separate bill. it has not come to us from the house but it should have bipartisan support, so i ask unanimous consent that the rules committee be discharged from further consideration of s. 1247, the senate proceed to its immediate consideration, that the bill be read a third time and passed, and that motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. mcconnell: i object? the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: for the information of all of our colleagues, i want to provide an update on the remaining items -- on the remaining items the senate needs to deplete before we adjourn -- complete before we adjourn for the august state work period. here's what we need to accomplish before members depart next week. we need to confirm well qualified nominees to two open positions of utmost importance, the deputy secret

mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. blumenthal: i ask that it be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. when it comes to air safety, the united states of america should be the gold standard for the world. in fact, better than the gold standard, it ought to be the sullenberger standard. you remember sully sullenberger who was the pilot at the controls when the miracle of the hudson flight in 2009 landed safely? he prescribed the qualities that we should regard most highly as we choose a new administrator of the f.a.a. and he also gave us the leadership we need and should respect in consideration the nomination of stephen dickson. we should reject it. and he articulated exactly why. sully sullenberger said about stephen dickson, quote, his actions and words raise grave concerns about his ability to act with the integrity and the independence the next f.a.a. administrator must have to navigate the challenges of the ungrounding of the 737 max and to rebuild global trust in

mr. chairman. >> thank you senator blumenthal. senator blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you to our witnesses. we appreciate that you are here. i enjoyed visiting with you for a few minutes before the hearing began. mr. wolfram, i want to pick up where we had discussed. in your testimony computational irreducibility. look at that for just a moment. as we talk about this, does it make algorithmic transparency sound increasingly ielusive and would you consider moving towards transparency is a worthy goal or should we be asking another question? >> yeah, i think there are different meanings to transparency. if you are asking tell me why the algorithm did this versus that, that's really hard. if we really want to be able to answer that, we're not going to be able to have algorithms that do anything powerful. in a sense being able to say this is why it did that, we might as well follow the path we used to explain it rather than have it do what it needed to do itself. >> so the transparency, what we capital do is try to get a pragmatic result. >> yeah, we ca

blumenthal. >> thank you, mr. chairman. general milley, thank you for your service to our nation and your family's as well. it's been extraordinary over many, many years. and thank you for your conversation with me in my office recently. i am going to proudly and strongly support your nomination, not only because of what you said, but what you have done throughout your extraordinary career. you identified the nuclear triad and space as two areas that require modernization. i know that as ain't infantry lieder, you have a deep concern about families and servicemen and women who serve in our nation. they are a major resource, in my view, despite all the new forms of hardware and new bright, shiny objects that may be in space or on the battlefield. at the end of the day, it's people that matter most in our military. so i want to ask you about military housing. not glamorous, not sexy, but essential to the assurance that we recruit and rewe taint the best. because if we don't provide adequate housing and compensation and guaran

i will be asking my request in a minute but first let me yield to senator blumenthal who will also have a uc request. >> mr. president. >> i think my colleague from new york are distinguished leader for his very powerful and compelling remarks and for his steadfast leadership on this issue of election security. the issue of election security goes to the core of our national security. in the last presidential election this nation was attacked. it was an attack as pernicious and insidious as any in this country's history. although it was less visible than bombs dropped at pearl harbor and less dramatic then the attacks on our troops elsewhere in this country whether in iraq and afghanistan it was an attack on this nation. some of us have called it, in fact, an act of war on both sides of the. on both sides of the aisle there has been unanimity that the attack was by the russians through social media, through other means and tools misinformation and disinformation to interfere with our election. that unanimity comes not only from robert mueller, a distinguished public servant and dedicated Ãbut also from our

blumenthal. senator duckworth. >> thank you mr. chairman. , thank you for holding today's on the implementation program. and, mr. anderson, mr. jeffries, i would like to start with you. last week, i extended an invitation to the head of fra and fm csa, to meet with me to discuss their ideas and priorities for service presentation realization. i think it would also be helpful to discuss industry and quasigovernmental perspective. would you come to my office in the coming weeks to discuss your specific priorities for the authorization? >> absolutely. i would love to. >> thank you. mr. jeffries, implementation a ppc continues to be my primary focus as it is so many of my colleagues for the rail industry. the december 2020, that line is right around the corner and while significant progress has been made, i'm still concerned about the interoperability components, specifically, and dynamic areas like northeastern illinois. mr. jeffries, are you still confident that the interoperability issues will be fully addressed before december 31,

blumenthal. senator duckworth. >> thank you, mr. chairman, thank you for holding today's hearing on the implementation of freight and passenger rail programs. mr. anderson and mr. jeffries, start with you. last week i extended invitation to the head of n.r.a. and-- their ideas for surface to rail transportation, and i think it would help for quasi governme government. and would you come to my office to discuss this authorization? >> absolutely, would love to. >> thank you. mr. anderson and mr. jeffries, implementation of ptc continues to be my primary focus as my colleagues. the deadline is right around the corner and while significant progress has been made, i'm still concerned about the interoperability in areas like northeast illinois. are you concerned that it will be addressed before december 31st before 2020? >> i am, as you know we've briefed your office on a few occasions and as issues come up, we address those. chicago is the center of interoperability. we're working through it and have full confidence. >> mr. anderson, you

mr. secretary. sen. blumenthal: thank you, mr. chairman. welcome, dr. esper. thank you for your service to our nation. thank you to your family as well. we haven't had a chance to visit yet, but i hope before the vote we will have an opportunity to get together. and i hope also that you'll have an opportunity to visit connecticut, particularly our sub base and ship yard which as you know is the submarine capital of the world, perhaps stop by rhode island while you're there. dr. esper: if confirmed, you have my commitment, maybe in august as soonest. sen. blumenthal: wonderful. that reflects a commitment you indicated to superiority in the undersea domain and in the air which involves the f-35 and the helicopter force. i notice you're nodding for the record. dr. esper: i'm sorry, yes, i do. we need to sustain the f-35 program. it is the world's premier fifth generation fighter which provides extraordinary capabilities. you mention rotary wing. the army undertook initiative, top priority to modernize aviation fleet, future vertical lyft. ift. there are exceeding

blumenthal: in order to misconduct ond of mr.internet, let me ask stone and mr. clark, are the tech companies providing you with all the forensic data and support that you need when you are investigating sexual exploitation? >> until we get to the issue of the encryptions, yes, sir, i think we are getting a good bit of that information. i prosecuted a case in may, in which the people, there was 115-year-old that shot and killed another 15-year-old. the threat the shooter made to the victim was over snapchat. the problem with snapchat is it is instantaneously, it goes away. we were not able to get that material. the shooter also, when he was looking for his 40 caliber gun to gun down the other teenager, he posted that on facebook, and we were able to pull all of this facebook material through a search warrant. sen. blumenthal: you mentioned the department of defense sponsored mix project -- nimic's project to crawl the dark web and is an example of the technical schools the government could provide for local and state law enforcement. >> thanks for saying that. th

blumenthal gets here and come right back. yeah, i think i'll do that. okay. senator mcsally residing. >> thank you, mr. chairman. we'll wait for senator blumenthal. >> senator plum thole, you're recognized. >> thank you, madam chair. thank you general hyten, four your service to our nation and your family and you being here today. i'm probably the last to ask you questions, and i just want to say for myself that i appreciate your willingness to cooperate with this committee and to answer the questions that you have. many of us i think feel there remains serious unresolved questions and factual issues that have not been completely answered on the record. we will be submitting questions for the record. i know you'll be responding promptly. out of respect for the courageous men and women who serve in our military and who will answer to you, if you are confirmed, we need to seek those answers and make them public as much as possible. a number of my colleagues have made reference to the truth that has been revealed to the committee in the course of the seniors work we've done and the hours we've spent and the document

blumenthal. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for being here, director wray, and thank you for your service to our country and the men and women every day courageously do after threats against our nation and i want to say that i regret some of the attacks that have come from the highest levels of our government and i respect you have to continue to work without responding to them directly. i think you have a lot of supporters and friends in this body and around the country. i want to ask you about threats identified by members of congress. i appreciate the fbi's responsiveness to them. i'm concerned that these threats are increasing, and this they have been condoned and, indeed, encouraged by the president of the united states. i'd like to know what is being done proactively, not just responsively, but proactively to protect members who have been targeted by the president's attacks which may ignite white supremacists and nationalists organization? >> obviously i can't discuss any particular investigation but i don't tak

blumenthal. >> thank you chairman and welcome to the committee and thank you for being here mr. bhatia . i want to first ask you about an allegation which actually the president surfaced on monday. the president launching a treason investigation into google for allegedly working with the chinese government. this appears to be based on a comment, and i will ask that the report of that comment he entered into the record if there is no objection. without objection a political article which is dated july 16. the claim appears to be based on allegations by peter seal that giggle google has somehow been involved in treason. we know it has been a target of chinese hacking. that was the comment from google in 2009 have you found any evidence of infiltration of your management or database? >> absolutely not, senator. >> has google made decisions of its contracts with the government about pressure from china? >> absolutely not.>> has google turned a blind eye to the software or private data with the chinese intelligence? >> absolutely not we take serious those threats of any penetration of our sys

mr. blumenthal: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. madam president, i'm very pleased to follow my colleague from connecticut and to continue his thoughts about the utter chaos and catastrophe that would be caused by success in this lawsuit. now before court of appeals, chaos and catastrophe that would, in effect, turn back the clock to days that i remember well because i was attorney general when preexisting conditions were used as a ruse to deny lifesaving medical care and coverage to people with cancer and brain tumors and literally lethal diseases. and in those days as attorney general i took their fight and made it my own, even sometimes calling presidents of insurance companies over weekends to go to bat for those individuals. those bad old days, the days of no protection against preexisting conditions are over now, but they will come back if this lawsuit is successful. if this lawsuit wins, young people who are now covered by their parents' policies up to the age of 26, will be without it.