mr. chairman: aye. >> [indiscernible] mr. chairman: by that overwhelming votes, mary mcelroy for rhode island will be reporting to the floor. on clerk will call the role charles nichols for the district of columbia. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> no. >> [indiscernible] aye. >> aye. aye. >> ay by proxye. aye by proxy. >> no. >> no. no by proxy. >> no. >> no. >> no by proxy. no by proxy. >> no. mr. chairman: aye. by that majority votes, carl nichols will be reported to the floor. the clerk will call the roll-on martin packard in illinois. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. mr. chairman: aye by proxy. aye by proxy. >> aye. >> aye. aye by proxy. >> aye. >> aye. >> aye by proxy. >> no. >> no by proxy. >> no. mr. chairman: aye. by that voted 18-3, he will report to the floor. clerk ca -- the clerk will call the role. >> aye. >> aye. >> [indiscernible] -- aye. >> no. mr. chairman: aye by proxy. aye by proxy. >> aye. >> [indiscernible] >> aye by proxy. >> aye . >>aye by proxy. aye by proxy. >> aye. proxy. >> aye. mr.

mr. chairman, and thank you, mr. secretary, for being here. we appreciate your continued commitment to serving veterans. i know that you are working very, very hard in that direction. we've seen reports detailing challenges veterans face when using the g.i. bill. in some instances the v.a. underpaid some 340,000 g.i. bill beneficiaries for their housing allowance. in your testimony you mentioned that i.t. challenges contributed to the situation and that there is an ongoing test to find a suitable solution. when can we anticipate the conclusion of the testing? and how quickly will a solution be implemented? also, in the meantime, what is the plan and subsequent timeline for compensating those students who were underpaid, and will any student who received an overpayment through no fault of their own, are we going to go back and are they going to face a debt owed to the va? >> senator, the g.i. bill issue is an important one. in the issue of full disclosure, my son uses the post 9/11 g.i. bill. let me tell you what has happened in terms of benefi

mr. chairman. i look forward to working with you and noting that you are retiring at the end of this term and i hope we can find a way to proceed in a bipartisan fashion on some important issues the way we did on chip and foster care and other issues. now today the finance committee will consider the nomination of andrew saul to serve as commissioner of the social security administration. it goes without saying that this position is one of the most important posts in the federal government. it's responsible for administering benefits to over 69 million seniors, people with disabilities, and other americans who earned their social security after working for years and paying into the program with every paycheck. mr. saul's nomination comes before the committee at a critical moment. middle-class paychecks aren't keeping up with rising living expenses and health care costs. making saving for retirement even tougher for many workers. that means social security is more important than ever when it comes to

mr. chairman. >> mr. chairman? >> yes, senator wicker, then senator klobuchar. >> since senator wicker is here i wanted to & a question about the work we have done on the precision agriculture connectivity act which identifies gaps in coverage and encouraged broadband deployment on farms and ranchland. in addition, mr. law, to poor coverage data, what are some of the funding challenges associated with deploying broadband on farmland? we want to be as up to date as the equipment and be able to take advantage of these using less water or using lest pesticides or being smart economically environmentally. and that's a bill that we passed. could you the me why this is important? >> thank you, senator, for your question. i concur that the amount of computing power required today to run today's modern agriculture -- family-owned. i am not talking corporate anything. a family-owned agriculture operation is absolutely staggering, the connectivity needs, and the corporate computing power from the probably millions if not bil

mr. chairman. >> thank you, judge. professor ringhand. >> thank you, senators, for the opportunity to speak with you today. a few things are as important to the senate's oversight of the structure and operation of the federal courts as its role in the confirmation of supreme court justices. as you know firsthand, article 2, section 2 of the u.s. constitution provides that although the president nominates supreme court justices, they take their seats only with the advice and consent of the senate. throughout our history books, presidents and senators have taken their respective responsibilities in that process seriously. since they have not always agreed about these important choices, however, confirmation controversies have existed throughout our history. our very first president, george washington, had a chief justice nominee rejected by the senate. presidents madison, tyler, polk, buchanan, grant, cleveland, nixon, and reagan likewise each had nominees rejected by votes of the senate, while many

mr. chairman. >> senator warren. thank you, mr. chairman. admiral fuller, i hope to talk about the crisis in venezuela today. in fact address you about yesterday's report in the "washington post," which alleges you are one of several officers investigated for your involvement with the defense contract or, leonard glenn francis was fraud and bribery and corruption scandal in u.s. navy history. i understand their investigation and the navy in this committee have this information. this is the first time i heard about it and so i have some questions here. according to the post from you attend one of the pay to play party in december 2004 and expected other gifts from him. this is how the post describes the party. you and your fellow officers were quote, invited to a free feast on the 56th floor at the luxury hotel where your favorite cocktail, cigars and courses of caviar, black truffles of monster thermidor while mingling with quote, attractive young women dressed as santa's little helpers wearing red hats, black boots can be yuletide cost in a

mr. chairman. >> thanks. >> miss thompson, understand, by the way, cheyenne river sioux tribes anniversary and recognize you on that achievement. can you explain unique challenges you've faced over the last 60 years how you've been able to overcome them and what if anything congress can do to help, i should say, in overcoming those? >> thank you, chairman thune. some of the challenges that we face at the tribally-owned telecom business on the reservation is where are we going to find the funding to bring a good quality service, which is in our mind, it's the fiber optics and so without rus funding, as mr. enjady noted in his opening statement. without that rus funding we would not have been able to build the fiber that we did. so, we were very glad about that. the other challenge is, again, the universal service support and the cuts and the budget control mechanism and the pro rata factored impact that's had on us and how are we going to continue to repair loans and service available for the low inc

mr. chairman. let me begin by joining you in recognizing the historic service of chairman john mccain in so many different dimensions to the nation, andfi salute you and welcome you, mr. chairman, as this is your first official hearing as the chairman of the committee. i look forward to workingrw wit you. very, very much so. i also want to recognize senator kyle, one of our new members. a lot of potential. i think you've a got -- i think you -- >> you can barely see him down at the end there. >> i think -- i have goodil feelings about you, senator. i think you'll get this pretty quickly. welcome. general abrams, general faller, you've been nominated for extraordinarily important jobs in theao service of the nation. let me welcome you and your families, general abrams, your wife, connie, your sister, jean, and brother-in-law, john. also your nephews frank and nathan and nathan's children natalie and nathaniel and admiral faller, welcome to your wife, martha and your father, henry. general t abrams,

mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. gallagher. we'll now go to ms. bordallo. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you to our witnesses. i certainly have traveled on c-130s multiple times. i consider them to be the military horses of their aircraft. but, gentlemen, the f1-19 mdda proposed a framework proposed by ranking member smith on safety. i want to ask general harris or admiral khan, can you please offer your thoughts how this commission will benefit mobility mishaps and impact intratheater airlift challenges? >> yes, ma'am, if you don't mind, i'll start. >> surely. >> our approach to any option to look at safety, that's our number one guidance for the business that we do in defense of our nation. so an opportunity to look into that and have those discussions are certainly something we look forward to and are working with. that element will be part of a larger study that's being released by transportation command on the study of our overall air lifts. we'll continue to work with that and make sure we get the information we need, and safety is our number one issue. that's wh

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator blunt. senator hassan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i want to thank you and the ranking member for having this hearing today, and thank you to all the witnesses for being here. mr. batory, as you know, obstructive sleep appear nia was a causal factor in two separate commuter train derailments in september 2016 and january 2017. more than 200 people were injured and one person died, collectively, in these two derailments. earlier this year, robert sumold, chairman of the national transportation safety board, said he was -- and this is a quote -- mystified by your agency's lack of action on sleep appe apnea. i wrote you a letter in february on this topic, which you responded to, stating there was -- and this is a quote from your letter -- insufficient data to support a rulemaking at this time. so how does the national transportation safety board, whose primary job is to provide unbiased safety recommendations, have sufficient information to know that the federal railroad administration should move forward here, yet the federal railroa

mr. chairman, go after it. >> mr. chairman, and lastly i do want to make one note and it's something senator inhoff and i have discussed. and of course our members are all allowed to ask questions. but i just wanted to make a comment on the space force. i commend president trump for thinking about space in a more assertive and organized way. but i think the witnesses won't be surprised. what i have been saying about this idea is that first, and it is appropriate for this committee, we must focus on the readiness of the existing military services, which i think everybody recognized has plummeted over the last several years so they are fully ready to do what the president and the american people expect of them. and while i understand that the desire to talk about the space force today might be pressing, i believe that the chairman of the full committee intends to address this topic. as kind of a full committee issue as well at some point. so again, i want to thank the witnesses. your prepared statements will be entered i

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator murray. i'll address two or three of those points briefly but i'll do it during my five minutes when the time comes so we can appreciate senator murray's comments. we'll go now to the witnesses. thank you for being here. our first witness is dr. matthew blomstedt who is a nebraska commissioner of education. he's lead the statewide effort to create the nebraska every student succeeds state plan working to find input from thousands of nebraskans and prior to becoming commissioner he was executive director of the nebraska rural community schools association. our next witness is dr. susan bunting, secretary of the delaware department of education. dr. bunting makes it a priority to visit 100 schools statewide every year. i think there are only three counties in delaware. so a lot of schools for three counties. prior to her time as secretary, dr. bunting served as indian river school district superintendent a middle school language arts teacher and elementary school g

mr. chairman. a number of us on this site and others on the republican side as well have been staunch advocates over many years for ptc and i particularly want to commend my colleaguesco, senator nelson and klobuchar. ptc technology is not a cure-all. it is not a panacea. they've also worked on issues like rail crossings, an area that senator klobuchar in particular has worked on and still a lot more work to do on all of these areas of rail safety. before i ask about ptc, i want to focus, mr. batory on gateway, which in many respects is as important to rail safety as any other issue facing not. there is still no final eis in record of decisions for the gateway tunnel project. can you commit to ask when they will be gone? >> thank you for that question, senator. be nearly a 20 year resident of new jersey come i am very familiar with the northeast corridor and many of the projects from the gateway. naturally, when i was confirmed, my interest was stimulated to learn more about where we were with gate

mr. chairman. and thank you to the witnesses for their testimony here today. the subcommittee today meet once again to consider a rash of tragic mishaps that have cost the lives of many service members. in 2017 we held a series of hearings and briefings to consider the causes, consequences and path forward following four ship collisions and groundings. alongside our partners on the readiness subcommittee, we conducted frequent oversight of this issue, and also guided through a number of reforms in the mdaa on surface ship procedure, which again we believe will reduce the amount of risks for these kinds of events happening in the future. as the chairman said, in the last year and a half, we've also seen three fatal mishaps across our air national guard, reserve and navy fleet. tragically these have taken the lives of 23 service members. we must come together and ensure the right focus is being applied to prevent similar mishaps in the future. as we review the groundings, a single mishap has immediat

mr. chairman. before you begin i'd like to introduce my wife kimberly, daughter abigail, in very much appreciate them being here today. mr. chairman, ranking member and committee members, when they join me at my confirmation hearing to be the director of the bureau of justice statistics in the senate judiciary committee chaired by the honorable joe biden as he lifted his gavel to close the hearing, my infant daughter began to cry. senator biden smile and remarked that the record show that abigail has the last word. while quite memorable, she's an adult now and i am not expecting her to repeat that performance. let me begin by acknowledging the importance of public service to my family and me. my wife and her mother were public school teachers. my daughter also was a public school teacher. she saves her money for summer travel as a volunteer teacher in villages of developing countries. my father in his military service at age 17 during world war ii retired more than two decades -- after more than tw

mr. chairman. this hearing was originally scheduled for september 13th, the same week ten years ago that lee man brothers declared bankruptcy. we know what happened next. the bush administration put together an alphabet soup of programs to keep the financial sector afloat. it was not enough. describe those early days of the collapse with this headline 36 hours of alarm and action as crisis spiralled. a decade after the most severe financial crisis since the great depression today we're discussing how it will roll back rules, put in place after that crisis. imagine that. these are the same agencies and your agencies that ignore the build up to the '08 collapse and in the case of the occ went to court for those who are fighting to try to do something. in some cases they're lead by the people people that failed to prevent or profited from the crisis. many of us agreed and should improve. in reality, this bill is littered with concessions to the big banks. it offers virtually nothing to american consum

mr. chairman and to all of you for being here. mr. enright, can you tell me about how much google spent in order to comply with the gdpr? push your button. >> thank you. senator, i don't have a specific figure available but i can tell you that for multiple years in advance of the effective date of the regulation massive cross functional effort was mobilized across the company including capital expenditure and staff toward compliance when they would be using products and features to enjoy today. >> and i understand it could be difficult to have an accurate estimate but i assume from your answer, we could assume it was more than hundreds of dollars and more than thousands or tens or hundreds of thousands, i assert it is into the millions. >> it was orders of magnitude higher than any figure you've mentioned. >> orders of magnitude higher than any figure i'm mentioned. and offhand, any idea on how many human hours it might have taken for google's workforce to bring the company into compliance with the gdpr? >> we do have some analysis of

mr. chairman. i would like to introduce my wife, emily, my daughter abigail, my youngest uncle and aunt, john and debbie billingham . i appreciate them being here today. mr. chairman, ranking member and committee members, i would like to share with you an experience some years ago when my wife, kimberly and daughter, abigail joined me at my confirmation hearing to be the director of the bureau of justice statistics. the hearing was before the senate judiciary committee chaired by the honorable joe biden. as he lifted the scuffle -- gavel to close the hearing, my infant daughter cried and he quoted, let the record show that abigail has the last word. she is an adult now and i am not expecting her to repeat that performance. let me begin by acknowledging the importance of public service to my family and name. my wife and her mother were publix -- public school teachers but my daughter is a public school teacher. she saves her money for summer travel as a volunteer teacher in villages of developing co

mr. chairman. my name is morgan reed, i'm the president of the app association and the executive director of the connected health initiative. a coalition of doctors, research universities and patient advocacy groups and leading mobile health tech company, our organization focuses on outdated health care regulations and using digital tools. constituents in rural america face serious challenges in getting cost-effective, quality care. people are too far away from health care services that cost frankly too much. it's likely to get worse. by 2030, more than 70 million americans will be over the age of 65. by 2025 we'll have a shortfall of more than 90,000 physicians, while 20% of americans live in rural areas, only 10% of physicians practice there. finally, 44% of rural hospitals are currently under water and are at risk of closure. we live in a world where every person can pay their mortgage, monitor their package delivery. review their child's homework while sitting in the waiting room of their docto

mr. chairman, for convening today's hearing. arms control efforts to reduce the risk of nuclear war are vital for maintaining u.s. national security. two months after president trump's helsinki meetings with president putin, we remain largely in the dark. we do know that russian ambassador to the united states told reporters that important verbal agreements were reached at the helsinki summit on arms control issues, including preservation of the new start and inf treaty. we continue to find ourselves in an -- the american people, the elected officials -- administration hear more from russian officials in alleged agreements that the president is making about critical national security issues. what constitutes an important verbal agreement? has the president reached key decisions with russia on key arms control treaties? if so, why hasn't congress been informed about this decision? along with many others in this body, i have for many years strongly supported policies to confront russia for its multiple and ongoing transgressions i

mr. chairman this concludes my statement. i would be pleased to answer questions you or others may have. >> thank you ms. fleming. mr. corbett. >> thank you. good morning chairman, ranking member and members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to speak on the ptc implementation program. new jersey transit is the nation's largest state white public transportation system. we provide more than 944,000 weekday trips on the 5 is bus rights, three right rail lines, 12 commuter rail lines and transit services. the positive train control challenges that new jersey transit faces today were years in the making. to be blunt they reflect years of inattentiveness to blemting ptc. let me be clear, the single most goal we have is to meet our federal requirements by december 3 ist. we are fully and absolutely committed to doing everything possible in order to meet that deadline. what i found in february was that serve years lapsed since new jersey transit awarded funding. they entered into a contract in 2011 with equipment install

mr. chairman. thank you, senator booker. you did sign the brief in texas versus united states. the justice department banned its previous protections for existing conditions. it went against long-held private practices. the 2017 tax cut and job act the race mandates of pre-existing conditions. that, of course, depends on severability. severability depends on congressional intent. senator sanders said -- as far-fetched as any as i've ever heard. i'm quoting senator alexander. we know exactly what congress intended. i agree with him. the scholars are long time. these are critics of the affordable care act. they said your brief was a pro version of conversion intent. why did you put your name on this? it's a controversial brief. consider the perversion of law by conservative scholars. >> senator, that was a case drop by 20 states by the federal government. it was our job to decide what the legal position would be. my role is to consult our career public servants. in the government administrations admi

mr. chairman. >> senator portman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this is a hearing there are so many topics to raise. we don't have enough time to do it all. let me focus on a few quickly. one is the drug crisis. it was referenced earlier. we have an opioid academic. people don't know the role that fentanyl played. 4,000% increase in fentanyl overdose deaths. now the number one killer in ohio. relatively inexpensive to make synthetically. most of it is coming from china. most is coming through the mail system, i'm told, by your experts. secretary nielsen and also from the d.a. and other law enforcement folks. the question is, what are we going to do about it? it helps telling the post office you have to screen the packages. i guess i'm looking for a couple of things. one, a commitment by you, madam secretary. i know you have been with us on this issue for the last few years as we try to get this through, despite resistance from the post office. you've been saying your customs and border protection people need these tools to identify the needle in t

mr. chairman? mr. chairman? >> --to serve as associate justice-- >> mr. rman, i'd like to be recognized for a question before we proceed. the committee received just last night, less than 15 hours ago, 42,000 pages of documents that we have not had an opportunity to review or read or analyze. >> you are-- you are out of order. i'll proceed. >> mr. chairman, i agree with my colleague, senator harris. mr. chairman, we received 42,000 documents that we haven't been able-- >> ...and everyone else joining us today. >> --to review last night. and we believe this hearing should be postponed. >> i know this is an exciting day for all of you here. >> stephen: "and once all the shouting stops about advice and consent, we will have fun. because that's what this is: the kavanaugh family fun day. now let's all go roast marshmallows over the burning document pit." ( laughter ) but kamela harris has a point: she wants to be president. also, she and other democrats wanted the hearing delayed because it's impossible to read 42,000 pages in a single night. that sentiment wa

mr. chairman. dr. dillingham, i chair the union affairs committee, and earlier we held a hearing on the 2020 census is. obviously, there are questions with getting accurate count everywhere, but certainly on the reservations. how do you intend to get the most accurate count you can? what steps are you going to take in regard to indian country? >> senator, i appreciate that question. it's a very good question, and it's a question that has a great deal of interest within the census bureau and one for which there has been considerable planning. in your state i understand there are certain outreach activities that might be required that may not in many other states, particularly with native americans and other groups that are hard to reach. there's been a comprehensive communications plan, a comprehensive partnership plan. i -- this morning i was reading over the statement by the secretary to latino groups in which he addressed many of these issues pointing out that the, there's been record speed in the hi

mr. chairman. >> senator kennedy. >> can we agree that banks enjoy numerous advantages on the non-bank competitors as a result of the government actions? >> yes we can. >> for example, i could start a competitor to youtube tomorrow, but if i want to start a a bank i would have to get a charter so that limits the existing competition. thanks can lend a nationwide campaign not depending upon the charter. >> the government has given them the privilege of lending nationwide, am i correct so long as they comply with the necessary rules. a non-bank, they have to get a license for every sigel state, don't they. -- every single state, don't they? what about transferring money? banks can transfer money across state lines at the non-bank competitors have to get state licenses, do they not? >> are you saying where a bank has a location to multiple states? yes they can. and nonbanks will use a financial institution to accomplish it. >> how about federal deposit insurance, does that give the bank a competitive

mr. chairman. >> senator hassan. >> thank you, mr. chairman and ranking member mccaskill, and thank you to our witnesses for being here today. not only for being here but for your service and i hope i want to submit comments to the chair and ranking member. please thank all the men and women use as well for the service. mr. travers, a question to you. the administration has talked quite a lot about the death, desmet isis and destroying its safe haven in syria and iraq. with that said i'm concerned that isis and its so-called caliphate are not as desperate as would we think they are. in august duty reported isis croy is more than 3000 fighters across suit and black, number that was reinforced by the u.n.'s isis monitoring body. just last week the institute for the study of war a nonpartisan think tank released a new study entitled isis second resurgence that argued isis is reconstituting its force in syria and iraq and is using those 30,000 plus fires to raise funds and reinsert control over key swaths of land. these reports are very co

mr. chairman. lands andny tribal i've noted many times, the issues with broadband. this is the infrastructure challenge of our generation, i remember back 10 years ago people were just can learn about whether or not they had broadband, they wanted to send an email to the grand kid in college. times have changed and they need high-speed broadband and they needed to their school work in a to their work and they certainly need that today in modern agriculture. with precision agriculture and what we're seeing all over our country. deploymentoadband report shows that more than 24 million americans lack access to high-speed broadband. areas, reports of the lower of lands in 48 states have adequate broadband access. in my home state, more than one in four minnesota households lack access. it in every single rural county i visit and every single tribal area. from a tribalrd member in leech lake who told me what happened when one of their members got wi-fi at their house. they were really excited and all of

mr. chairman. i thank all of our panelists today. mr. jefferies let me start with you. for over a year i have raised concerns about secretary devos's implementation of the essa, specifically approving state plans that do not comply with all of the laws, equity guard rails including the sub group accountability and school identification. this law really is a series of building blocks. each phrase provides the foundation for the next phase of implementation. so in phase one, like state plan approvals, if it is flawed and implemented incorrectly, that flawed implementation will then necessarily impact the implementation of the next phase of the law, which is school improvement. talk to us about how the failure to correctly implement sub group accountability and school identification impacts school improvement and what that means for students who are sitting in our classrooms today. >> thank you, senator. that failure fundamentally defeats the core purpose of essa. congress was very clear and explicit.

mr. chairman. thank you for having this very important hearing and again all of our thoughts and prayers are with the gulf coast in this incredible about to hit senator nelson and all the people of florida in any of the adjoining gate that might be hit by this storm as well. i appreciate this opportunity to discuss a priority that i have personally worked on for years, which is protecting americans privacy. data is the oil of the 21st century. it fuels all of the services, the apps, the website and improve our quality of life and make america competitive in today's digital world or other data-driven economy has undoubtedly revolutionized way they communicate and conduct commerce, too often these changes have come with an unexpected cost to users. many data-driven services use their customers personal information as a commodity, collecting, using, sharing and selling individuals personal information without user's knowledge or permission. consumers are frequently unaware of these practices and have

mr. chairman. sen. thune: thank you, senator blumenthal. senator moran. oran: mr. chairman, thank you. i chair the subcommittee of this consumer protection and data authority. our subcommittee as well as the full one remains committed to a better system than what we have today. let me begin with what i hope is a yes or no answer -- what i think can be a yes or no answer -- to dr. jelinek and mr. mactaggart. i mentioned this in the hearing on the 26th, the privacy of consumer data. i support privacy roles that afford consumers the same protections and matter where they are in internet ecosystem. it appears to me that both gdpr and cdpa take a similar approach. rather than regulating the type of business handling the data, would you agree that regulating and enforcing privacy rules based on the sensitivity of data collected or stored is the preferred approach and in the best interests of consumers in the terms of certain cn transparency? i think that can be a yes or no answer. dr. jelinek. dr. jelinek: i think it is very important that the consumer knows which data are collected and wher

mr. chairman.thank you for your comments on the bill that i will be leaving shortly to be back on the floor to help manage that and appreciate your support for that as well as much of our work here. and thank you, to all of our witnesses today and i am especially looking forward to hearing from mrs. giunto, about her work, her organization is the washington health alliance and it is from my home state. very glad to see you. the alliance has actually been an incredible advocate for quality and value in health care and taking on very impressive projects to increase transparency, in all of our patients and employers and health care providers across the state with information that they can use to provide patients' care. one report from the alliance details how improvements to our state's health system can help more kids get checkups, more women get screened for breast cancer, and more diabetics get the treatment they need. another refutes the myth that higher costs or bigger facility necessarily means

mr. chairman. a number of us on this side has been staunch advocates for ptc and particularly want to commend my colleagues senator nelson end quote which are obviously ptc technology is not a cure-all. it is not a panacea. we've also worked on issues like rail crossings, an area that senator klobuchar in particular has worked on and there's still a lot more work to do on all of these areas i want to focus mr. batory on gateway. which in many respects is as important as any other issue facing us. there is still no final eis and record of decision for the gateway tunnel projects. can you commit to us when they will be done? >> thank you for that question, senator. the nearly 20 year resident of new jersey, and very familiar the northeast corridor and many of the projects during the gateway. naturally, when i was confirmed, i was stimulated to learn about more of where we were with gateway. the more profiled infrastructure subject to the hudson tunnel. through my learning experience of the facts that

mr. chairman. >> thank you senator murray. we'd like to ask the witnesses to summarize their testimony in five minutes. i want to welcome each of our four witnesses. first, ms. leah binder is president sir of the leapfrog group in washington d.c., nonprofit representing employers and purchasers of health care working on ways to improve safety and quality in hospitals. leapfrog group developed a system in hospitals across the country based on quality and safety to post this information on a public website. formally she was by resin at the franklin community network in maine. next we'll hear from mr. bill kampine, cofounder and senior vice president of plant analytics of health care bluebook in nashville tennessee. health care bluebook is an online tool to help individuals find high-quality health care options and fair prices. prior to this he served in a number of executive roles in an organization specializing in disease and lifestyle management previously he was a health care economist and consultant. senator murray, which yo

mr. chairman. -- thank you, mr. chairman. >> i want to thank you for having this today and thank you for the witnesses for being here. batory, as you know, sleep apnea was a factor in two separate crashes. more than 200 people were injured and one person died collectively in these two derailments. earlier this year, the chairman of the national transportation safety board said he was "mystified by your agencies lack of action on sleep apnea. i wrote you a letter on this topic which you responded to, stating there was, and this was a quote from your letter, insufficient data to support rulemaking at this time. how does the national transportation safety board, whose primary job is to provide unbiased safety recommendations have sufficient information to know that the federal railroad administration should move forward here, yet the federal railroad administration does not have sufficient data? understanding when the proposed rulemaking for sleep was pulled down, it was because there were two other vehicles in place. o

mr. chairman. >> i'm glad the members of this committee have an opportunity today to consider a nominee to serve as census bureau director. it's a role that has temporarily been filled since june of 2017. since i joined the senate, i've been concerned about the 2020 census and the census bureau lack of permanent leader. a couple of weeks ago, i think there's been mention that my colleagues and i senator carper and hassen and peters requested for the second time this year a committee convene a general oversight hearing. this past march, commerce department officials intervened to add an untested question to the 2020 census asking about citizenship status despite warnings that this question can comprise survey accuracy and cost effectiveness. ongoing litigation has since revealed evidence of political influence including white house influence. behind the addition of this question. there's a pressing need for commerce secretary wilbur ross and the census bureau officials to provide sworn testimony to

mr. chairman. welcome to the folks who are here especially for this hearing, and i appreciate you chairing this hearing. >> thank you. we're going to start with miss rushing. let me give her a quick introduction. >> do we have the statements from the senators to introduce the director? what statements do we have for miss rushing? >> senator tillis has -- senator tillis and senator burr have remarks that they would like to introduce into the record which we will do without objection. miss rushing graduated from wake forest university. she received her j.d. from duke law school. she then clerked for three judges, first with gorsuch on the 10th circuit followed by judge sentel and the district of columbia circuit and justice thomas of the united states supreme court. after these clerk ships, miss rushing has worked in private practice at williams and conley. she became a partner there in 2017 and her practice focuses on appellate matters in the supreme court and the federal courts of appeal as well as

mr. chairman! mr. chairman!as absolutely just gut-en ing to watch them vote. >> you're out of order, sir. >> no, you're out of order, toot by this e, you're out of order. >> it was, "well, this is what we're going to do and this isgo how we'rg to do it. and we're going to over-vote you because we have a supermajority." >> all in favor in the title amendment, signify by saying aye. >> aye. >> all opp (ed? lling): no! >> this committee is adjourned. >> how can you guys shave in the morning without cuttin your throat? >> everyone's upset. tensions are high. and that's when we had 5,000 teachers show up in frankfort. >> many teachers and state employees are upset about being caught off-guard and not having a chance to see thbill before it passed. >> in 20 years at the state capitol, i've never seen protests like that. the teachers kept coming and coming. they were there every day. >> a pension is a promise! >> a pension is a promise! >> a pension is a promise! >> a pension is a promise! (cheering)th >> decades ago g

mr. chairman. sitting in this room is a homecoming for me, i spent many hours over many years in this room. i was more comfortable sitting on the staff bench behind you than it here -- then here at the witness table. i would like to thank chairman grassley and ranking member feinstein. you forlike to thank presiding over today's hearing, i would like to thank the president for the honor and confidence that he has shown in me by his nomination. i'm especially grateful to chairman hatch, a longtime friend of my father's as he noted, and someone whose staff i worked closely with over many years for taking time from his schedule. , that we are not supposed to express personal opinion but i would express the personal opinion that the senate would be poorer as an institution after the senator retires at the end of this congress. no one gets to this stage of the career without many people to thank and there are too many to single out, but i would like to note with particular thanks the role of my senate b

mr. chairman. >> no, this is my time. >> mr. chairman, i'm sorry, i-- point of order. >> it was an outcry of the republican base, fed up with the establishment. a government was at war with itself in that moment. and louie gohmert was the congressman who personified that battle. it's my time. >> that's a disgrace. >> the gentleman from rhode -sland will suspend. >> no, the disgrac what this man has done. >> the gentleman from texas will suspend for a moment. >> there is the disgrace. and it won't be recaptured any time soon because of the damage you've done to the justice system. and i can'help but wonder when i see you looking there with a little smirk, how many times did you look so innocent into your wife's eye and lie to her abt lisa page? >> mr. chairman, this is outreous. >> credibility of a witness... >> shame on you. mr. chairman, mr. chairman, please. >> have you no decency? >> this intolerable harassment of the witness. >> what is wrong with that? you need your medication? >> peter strzok becomes a perfect exemplar for

mr. chairman.

mr. chairman. a number of us on this side and others on the republican side as well have been staunch advocates over many years for ptc and i particularly want to commend my colleagues, senators now send" which are, ptc technology is not a cure-all, we have also worked on issues like rail crossings, an area that the senator has worked on and there is still a lot more work to do on all of these areas. before i ask about ptc, i want to focus on gateway. which in many respects is as important rail safety as any other issue facing us. there is still no final eis and record of decisions to the gateway tunnel project. and you commit to us when they will be done. >> thank you for that question senator, being nearly a 20 year resident in new jersey i am very familiar with the northeast quarter and many of the projects from gateway. naturally when i was confirmed, my interest was similar to where we were with gateway in particular the more profiled infrastructure, subjects of portal bridge and the hudson tu

mr. chairman. i would like to thank the witnesses for coming. we look forward to this. senator paul and senator casey will be real leaders in our efforts to put a spotlight on rare disease. i want to thank you senator paul for the hearing. i want to thank you senator casey for his work over the years and on tricks to the 2 issest ten tree cures act as with senator paul i look forward to the testimony. we have a vote -- i mentioned the opioids bill on the floor at 3:15. i have to leave a little before that. i look forward to the hearing. i salute senators paul and casey for their focus on such an important topic. >> thank you both for coming. as you will see, if you haven't been to a hearing before we have multiple hearings going on everywhere, around, as well as votes on the floor. so sometimes you see people come and go. i do thank you senator casey and senator alexander for coming. we are going to start with testimony from mark dantd who is the chair for the every life foundation for rare disease