mr. inhofe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call in progress be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: mr. president, more than 100,000 people and families will join together and march for life in washington. it's going to take place actually tomorrow, i guess it is. they will brave the cold. it's supposed to be sleet and very bad weather out there, for one simple reason -- to give voice to the voiceless. the unborn, our most vulnerable among us, but are still deserving to the right to life. jeremiah 1:5 says, before i formed you in the womb, i knew you. before you were born, i sanctified you. to everyone who comes to the march for life, know that we hear you and we're standing with you, just as we have in the past. this is not a new topic, not for me, to speak on either. 25 years ago i came down here to tell a story, and at that time i was in the house. it's been going on for

mr. inhofe, mr. isaacson. mr. johnson, mr. jones, mr. cane, mr. kennedy, mr. king, ms. klobuchar, mr. lankford. mr. leahy, mr. lee, mr. manchin, mr. marquee, mr. mcconnell, ms. mcsally. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. muran, ms. murkowski, mr. murphy, mrs. murray, mr. paul, mr. perdue, mr. peters, mr. coordinateman. mr. reed, mr. risch, mr. roberts, mr. romney, mrs. rosen, mrs. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders, mr. sasse, mr. schumer mr. scott, mrs. shaheen, mr. shelby, ms. cinema, mr. smith, ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan mr. chester, mr. mr. mr. toomey, mr. you doll, mr. van hollen, mr. warner, ms. warren, mr. white house, mr. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> mr. young -- >> mr. pence: senate will be in order. a quorum is present under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved and the senate will be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak their -- for up to ten minutes each. t >> sen. mcconnell: i ask if we. >> the presiding officer: with s-res. 1. >> informing the president of the united states that a quoru

mr. inhofe: good job. and that's coming from a brand-new senator. anyway, what they've come up with is a formula as to what it's going to take us right now and for the foreseeable future. they say all of our defense budgets coming up will have to be an increase of 3% and 5% above inflation, and, of course, that's exactly what these three years will do. so we are making headway in that respect. this -- this -- this growth projection is also one of our secretary of defense, as well as our chairman of the joint chiefs of staff say will be necessary for us to get back up even with and competitive with both russia and china. you know, i can remember not long ago being in the south china sea and watching china do their -- they are actually building islands. it's not legal, but they do it anyway. and if you look at what's on these seven islands out there, it's as if they are preparing for world war iii and our adversaries and our allies in the south china sea are very much concerned about this and -- as to where we, you know, who's side they are going to b

mr. wheeler. >> thank you, senator inhofe. senator cardin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you and i had a chance yesterday to talk about the water bill -- a bipartisan bill that passed this committee that provides new tools in dealing with water issues in this country. and we both talked about the fact that you are going to be restrained by funding, because some of the issues have not been funded at the level i think this committee would like to see funded. and i agree with you on that. and we're going to work to get you not only the legislative authority, but also the resources. in one case, there is funds. and that is the new lead service line replacement grant program. congress did appropriate $10 million for the program for fy-'18. will you commit to standing up the program and providing this committee a status update on how we're dealing with the lead service line replacements? >> absolutely. that is an important part of our lead strategy, and our drinking water strategy, is to try to make sure that people have safe drinking water, and we get the corrosive pipes out -

inhofe. >> thank you mr. chairman. there is a lot of media spin and you heard it again just now , over the recent report showing that c02 emissions in the united states, increased last year. a lot of the adversaries wanting to blame the administration so-called rovac and withdrawal of the paris agreement among other actions i would like to enter into the record this forbes article that says this isn't surprising given the unprecedented economic growth that the united states has seen in the last year in states quote c02 emissions in the united states are still down 11% since 2005. can you address this mischaracterization? >> without objection. yes. you are correct c02 emissions peak in 2005 on the decline since then. we believe, i was briefed by my career stuff yesterday morning on this, we will continue to see a decline in c02 emissions. last year we had an exceptionally hot summer and cold winter, but more importantly an uptick in manufacturing and industrial output, part of our c02 emissions up slightly. overall we d

thank you. >> senator inhofe. >> thank you, mr. chairman. there's a lot of media spin and charted again just out over the recent report showing co2 emissions in the united states increased last year. a lot of the adversaries are wanting to blame the administrations so-called rollback of the clean power plan and withdraw from paris agreement among other actions. i'd like to enter into the record this forbes article that says this isn't surprising given the unprecedented economic growth that the united states has seen in the last year end-state quote, co2 emissions in the united states are still down to 11% 2005. can you address this mischaracterization? >> yes, you're correct. our co2 emissions peaked in 2005. it's. it's been on the decline since then it we believe, i was briefed by my staff yesterday morning on this that we will continue to see a decline in co2 emissions leicester we had exceptionally hot summer and cold winter but we had more important and uptick in manufacturing and industrial output that put our co2 emissions of slightly

mr. wheeler: i had a lot of help and there was a chairman with the gavel. yes. >> i think it was senator inhofe i don't have to get in trouble here. so we're talking almost 20 years, 20 -- 17, in public sector either at the epa, or at the committee overseeing the epa, correct? >> mr. wheeler: correct. >> i think that's really strong qualifications for this job. and hopefully my colleagues on both sides on it aisle will at least acknowledge that. because it's obvious you come highly qualified in the public sector, so we appreciate that your service to america. and unfortunately the media will write about your almost 20 years of public sector experience hopefully they will write about that. what they like to write about is a lobbyist for a coal company. so you were a lobbyist, and can you talk about what you did in that job, and january murray energy comes up. what was your big issue with representing them? >> mr. wheeler: i represented over 20 clients during my time as a consultant. they range from companies to trade associations to ngo's i represented air quality district in california for murr

mr. wheeler: hi a lot of help. there was a -- i i had a lot of help. there was a chairman with the gavel. senator sullivan: i think it was senator inhofe. you know what i mean. 18, in king almost 0, public sector, either at the e.p.a. or at the committee overseeing the e.p.a., correct? mr. wheeler: correct. senator sullivan: i think that's strong qualifications for this job. hopefully my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will at least acknowledge that. because it's obvious. you come highly, highly qualified. in the public sector. we aa appreciate that. your service to america. let me ask because my colleagues, unfortunately i have the media that's watching this hearing will write about your almost 20 years of public sector experience, because what they love to write about is, quote, a lobbyist for a coal company. you were a lobbyist. you talk about what you did in that job. i know -- what was your big issue with representing energy. you represent a lot more -- mr. wheeler: i represented over 20 different clients during my time as a consultant. it range interested companies to trade associations to n.g.o.'s. i represented an air quali

mr. chairman. i want to thank you all for this important hearing, that modernization and readiness go hand in hand area i know our full committee chairman, senator inhofe, is committed to make sure we are committed to the path of readiness. i want to thank the witnesses for being here today. it has been over six months since we received testimony from the navy and marine corps in support of fy 15 budget. much has happened since that happened. i will try to keep my opening remarks short, but like senator kaine, i would like to highlight a couple of areas that i hope our witnesses can address for us. first, but readiness issues come up with regard to the navy and marine corps, importantly within of the new national defense strategy and the recent national defense commission report, which was mandated by this committee and the congress, the leaders of that commission testified recently, and i thought they did a very good job , all of this within the context of the competition between china and russia that are the highlight and emphasis in the national defense strategy. as senator kaine mentioned, i want to get a sense from our witnesses, as he said, a str