mr. carper: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: i have six requests for committees to meet today, they have the approval of the majority leader and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. carper: thank you. i want to say to senator menendez, my thanks, our thanks to him, and others on the foreign relations committee for the leadership and setting us up for great success. american business is up for extraordinary success here today. i think the path is clear. we need to use some common sense and work together. i think we'll benefit from that, and so will the men and women who sent us here to serve them and to represent them. i rise today, mr. president, in support of ratification of the kigali amendment to the montreal protocol. mr. president, i have worn many hats throughout my life of public service, including naval flight officer, state treasurer, congressman, governor, and united states senator. today, i rise to speak from my heart as a recovering governor, if you will. during my eight years as governor o

mr. carper: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: good afternoon, mr. president. i rise today to remind my colleagues of the incredible opportunity that we have before us today. incredible opportunity that we have before us today. later today this body, the united states senate, will have the opportunity to vote to ratify the kigali amendment to the montreal protocol. what does that mean? kigali, as it's affectionately known, it is to phase down hydrofluorocarbons, also known as hfc's. it is known as a refrigerant and is in refrigerators and other cooling products. the united states is trangsing away -- transitioning away from hfc. why? one reason is the american companies are at the forefront of developing the next generation of coolant technology. this transition away from hfc's is expected to stimulate literally billions of dollars in economic investment in this country. billions of dollars, create tens of thousands of jobs, and significantly increase u.s. exports, all using technology developed in this country. all by usin

mr. carper: mr. president, i want to thank our leader for his leadership. none of this would have happened without your leadership. i want to thank your staff. i want to thank the relative -- respective staffs on our side here and the environmental public works committee. i want to thank our friend from louisiana who has been great and other folks on the other side of the aisle. my mother used to say to my sister and me when we were kids, she would say things happen in three's. i remember she would say things happen in threes. given what the leader just said, i'm thinking about three's especially with respect to making sure this planet is going to be around for our children and grandchildren. if you go back to the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law roughly ten months ago by the president, we did a whole lot there, you'll recall with respect to roads, highways, bridges, water, wastewater, water infrastructure, flood control. but that legislation had at that point the largest climate title that we'd ever put in a bill of any consequence here in th

senator carper and we are very proud as well so i think you are going to get a good answer. >> thank you mr. germanic first let me answer senator carper's question in part by mentioning the neighborhood home investment act. you would be disappointed if i didn't. thank you for the comments that you made. i wasn't in the committee room at the time for the cosponsorship on this and certainly senator wyden and senator crapo we have support from both branches of government. but i want to acknowledge the work mr. roberts in his organization has done with regards to developing the legislation. we developed it as a needed to deal with affordable housing. covid-19 has underscored this even greater. inflation has made it even more urgent in this regard and we are talking about the appraisal gap but the cost of building and renovating exceeds the value and therefore cannot be done under the regular commercial circumstances. this leads to the decline of neighborhoods as well as making the wealth gap in america. so, can you just elaborate as to how the current markets which is anything but a predictable

carper? >> thanks, mr. chairman. everybody already had a chance to say hello to our witnesses before the hearing began. but we're delighted that you're here grateful to you for your service and i am grateful that you're that you're you're here today. let me just say mr. rasicot? how do you pronounce your name? have you ever met the governor? former governor, former attorney general of montana. his name is rasicot and he spells it almost exactly the same way. one of you is wrong. [laughter] well, we'll come back to that for another day. he is a great guy. you would love meeting him. ok, mr. rasicot, you state that the countering weapons for destruction office was established to consolidate the department of homeland security's efforts to counter threats from biological, from chemical, from radiological and nuclear weapons. he also stated that i think in your testimony, that the the office has brought together expertise from i think four or five distinct department of homeland security components into one single office

mrs. in person and remotely now turn to senator capito. >> thank you chairman carper and thank you for holding the hearing on the program. i want to thank all of our witnesses for being here with us today. it's a rare occasion when a epa program enjoy such bipartisan support on the comedy side as we know. it was first authorized in 2002 it was a resounding success story for our economy and the environment to we have a lot of oversight the -- these sites in the state. ground field for redevelopment complicated by hazardous contamination and a large variety of contamination properties.s crop, and examples are abandoned factories landfills and we had an issue with a dry cleaner and our w state. these underdeveloped properties line what were then bustling agricultural areas in our nation incurred -- discouraging job creation and harming property values. rather than viewing these properties is a on our community the brown field program recognizes the vast untapped economic potential these contaminated sites can't be after they've been successfully remediated. funding has beenca allocated to local c

mr. carico, you are on. welcome. >> thank you, senator carper and senator capito.would appreciate the opportunity to be here. i'm george carico, director of the west virginia brownfields assistance center at marshall university. i'm here today to offer our experience in the valley and the board's redevelopment brownfield properties and service support for continued brownfields program and to offer some input on how this out of the program can be strengthened. our brownfield central works in conjunction with the brownfield center at west virginia university. these centers were established in 2005 by state legislation to assist communities and organizations across west virginia and redeveloping brownfield properties for new and productive use. we've seen firsthand the importance of vba brownfields funding, how these investments have resulted in strengthening of local and regional economies while adding new community vibrancy and resiliency to our cities and towns. re-utilizing brownfield properties for new commercial and industrial businesses, residential use, govern

carper. senator josh hawley, you are recognized. >> mr. rasicot, i would like to start with you, i want to ask you about one of the most potent drugs that are crossing our border and flooding into my state, unfortunately just about every state in the country. that is fentanyl. in 2021, ccpcs more than 10,000 pounds of mental in missouri where i am. from up to hundred and 4%. about 80,000 people between 18 and 45 died of fentanyl overdoses. -- just in the last two years. a number of members of congress have called for doesn't meeting fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. senator markey has talked about, it among others. the florida attorney generally just yesterday urged the administration. i wonder if you have a view on this, designating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction? >> thank you for the question. dhs recognizes the legality of fentanyl. it also recognizes the potential for it to be weaponized. and from a cwmd perspective, we recognize in our broader reference, where we work on chemical warfare agents, that said, any declar

carper. next will be senator grassley and then senator cardin. we >> will start with mr. mctigue.'ve got figures in front of me where we thought x number of dollars would come in to the states under this, and it has come in short in many instances, so in general, not with specific states, has additional revenue collected mac matched gao's expectations? >> i would say yes. we reported that about 23 billion dollars were collected from remote sellers that had economic nexus in 2021. that's more than what we suggested when we looked at 2017. the pandemic has been mentioned. inflation has been mentioned. the growth in e-commerce has been mentioned. so there are a lot of factors that have gone into an increase or an impairment increase in the amount of collections that states have been able to reap. >> miss yetter, if you have any information on this, how are states of hitting remote sellers and how onerous are those audits for home state businesses? >> we are seeing states starting to do audits of remote sellers. that has started. typically, and this may be in part due to the pandemic

carper. senator johnson, you are recognized by questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman.g panel and this panel as well we are talking about a problem that is my true definitional problem when it does not have easy solutions. again harmful content is and i of the beholder. we all abhorrent violence. i certainly condemn white supremacy. i condemn immediately forcefully repealing the violence on january 6th but i am concerned about the bias of your platforms. the earlier panel would not give me any indication whatsoever the percentage of liberals versus conservatives in your organizations. i don't expect you will be any more forthright than that. let me ask you this question. i know that you would like to talk about theth white supremacists and january 6th. democrats love talking about that. what about the 570 plus rides that occurred in the summer of 2020, 2000 law enforcement officers injured, one to $2 billion of property damage. a couple of people killed in kenosha, wisconsin. dozens of buildings burn. a couple dozen people also lost their lives during those riots. mr. c

mr. carper: mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. carper: mr. president, i have nine, nine requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have been approved by both the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. carper: thank you, mr. president. with that i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on the conclusion of morning business -- i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that upon the conclusion of morning business on tuesday, october 11, the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 467, h.r. -- sorry. proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 467