mr. inhofe: thank you -- >> thank you, mr. chairman. general votel, i want to follow up on questions that senator warren asked about yemen. what would be the implications and the impact if the united states stopped providing the aerial refueling, the intelligence, and the advice to the saudi forces? mr. votel: i think right now the provision of those things that you just covered right now gives us placement. it gives us access and it gives us influence with the saudi arabia. and what i would highlight to you is that we have been working with them, sharing our own experiences. >> but you testified that we don't -- when we refuel a saudi plane, we don't have any control over the mission, where it goes, what it does next. if the argument is this allows us to maintain control, are we maintaining some level of control? mr. votel: the influence we derive with them is by working with them to demonstrate how we do our targeting process. mr. king: do they listen? mr. votel: they absolutely do. the work that we've been doing with them related to

mr. inhofe: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call in progress be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: mr. president, and i ask unanimous consent i be recognized for such time as i may consume. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: thank you very much. you know, this is going to be kind of a strange statement to make. i have a great regret i'm going to have to vote for this bill when it comes up, and i'm talking about the spending bill, and i don't like it. i've spent a lot of years, since i have been here, i have been ranked with three of the most conservative members every year more times than anybody else have. i was looking at this and listening to some of my colleagues who are concerned about the spending and no one is more concerned than i am about the spending. we've got a problem though that nobody -- a lot of people don't understand. i've been on the senate armed services committee for -- well, actually, 24 years in the senate and i

mr. chairman. the chairman: thank you, senator fischer. senator inhofe. senator inhofe: thank you, mr. chairman. i do want to get in the area, secretary chao, of this funding they are talking about over here. but before that, i think rick perry, you're one of the real experts on pipelines. i heard what you said about the rpus -- what's going on down there and what's going on in brownsville. i know what's going on down there. when you look at the problems that we have in terms of pipelines and according to a 2013 report, we need $890 billion of energy infrastructure investment through 2025. a lot of that would be through, course, the pipelines restructuring and improvement. the impediment of infrastructure is existing federal government regulation. i don't think this. i know this. i served for a number of years as chairman of the environment, public works committee. one of the real successes we had there was doing away with a lot of the regulations, streamlining things. i have to give credit to my fellow senator, barbara boxer. she's a very liberal and real conservative. we all agreed on this and

mr. chairman, thank you for giving me this priority. >> thank you, senator inhofe. senator merkley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to start mr. james by asking you about the tribal villages along the columbia river that we have had a chance to talk about before. these their villages that were flooded by building dams on the columbia river. we rebuilt the city that served the caucasian population but didn't fulfill our commitment to the native american tribes to rebuild their villages. i think you have indicated some interest in this and some support for this. just want to check in and see if you are prepared to help champion getting this long overdue commitment done. >> yes, sir. i do think that is the right thing for this country to do. the tribes that were moved out of their homeland areas have been promised housing in other places and we should do that as a nation. there's no question about that. i look forward to working with you in the future, and we'll help with your efforts in doing that. >> thank you very much. sure appreciate that. secretary chao, i want

. >> on behalf of senator inhofe, senator graham? >> thank you. mr. park, you mentioned in your opening testimony and i think you're very qualified for your job, so congratulations on the nomination, that one of the goals is to make sure we do not proliferate nuclear weapons or materials. is that correct? >> yes, sir. >> are you aware of an agreement between the united states and russia entered into in the early 2000s where we dispose of 34 metric tons of access weapons and they would do the same? >> yes, senator. >> and under that agreement, that's enough weapons to make 10,000 war heads. are you aware of that? >> yes, senator. >> under that agreement, the united states was going to convert their weapons plutonium to fuel, turn a sword into a plow. are you aware of the l program? >> i'm aware. >> and the russians were going to dispose of their 34 metric tons to a reactor. >> yes. >> in 2001 we entered into that agreement. >> yes. >> in 2007 construction of the facility baegan. are you aware of that? >> yes. >> in 2010 there was an amendment to the or

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator fisher. senator inhofe. >> i do want to get into the area of secretary chao of this funding that they're talking about over here. before that, i think rick perry is an expert on pipeline and i heard what you said about the corpus christi -- the same thing happening down in brownsville. i'm very familiar with that part and what is going on down there. but when you look at the problems we have in terms of pipelines, according to the 2013 report we'll need $890 billion in energy infrastructure investment through 2025. a lot of that would be through, of course, the pipeline restructuring and improvement. the impediments to more energy infrastructure is existing government regulation and red tape dragging out the completion of needed project. i don't think this. i know this if served for a number of years as chairman of the environmental work committee and one of the biggest successes was doing away with the regulations and extremelining things, and i have to give credit to my fellly senator, barbara boxer. she

editorial that senator crapo wrote with senator inhofe, myself, and senator booker as an addendum to my remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: finally, i should thank senator alexander from tennessee, the home of oak ridge, the other national lab that focuses so much in this area would has been a constant advocate and has been very interested in all things nuclear for a very, very long time. this bill, the nuclear innovation and capability act has been so well summarized by senator crapo that i won't go back and resume rise it but i will emphasize that i think and it's our intention that it provide an opening for nuclear innovation into next generation, third generation, even fourth generation nuclear technologies with the goal that we can compete effectively enterally, to be the producers of clean, safe nuclear energy and with the hope, and at this point i think it's somewhere between a hope and a prospect, that this technology will develop to the point where we can begin to look at our existing nuclear waste stockpile and use these new technologies to turn hazardous and dangerous nuclear waste for which we hav

mr. chairman and thank you general, for your service. >> thank you senator reid. we will now have open statements by our two guests and your entire statement will be made part of the record. >> senator inhofe, ranking member read, distinguish members, good morning and thank you for the opportunity to appear today to discuss the current posture in state of readiness of the united states central command. i am pleased to be here today with my fellow combat commander and fellow minnesotan. i come before you on behalf of over 80000 members of the command. u.s. military, command and coalition members from 71 nations in the most complex area of the globe they serve and sacrifice on a daily basis. in many cases for the benefit of not only american strategic interest but also the world. our people are the very best at what they do and they and especially their families deserve our admiration and gratitude. it is my sincere honor to lead and be a member of such a fine team of dedicated professionals. since i last appeared before the committee, we have made considerable military progress across the region. however, as we consolidate our gains in places like iraq, syria, lebanon and yemen, we remain c