mr. inhofe: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma is recognized. mr. inhofe: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call in progress be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: well, mr. president, for 59 years in a row, congress has passed the ndaa almost always on a bipartisan basis. this year will be the 60th year in a row, and i'm proud to say that fiscal year 2021 national defense authorization act continues to be that long bipartisan tradition. there's not much around here anymore that passes every single year, let alone with the support of both parties. but we all know what the bill is all, it's about support of our troops and our national security. i hope we'll all keep in mind as we discuss the amendments to this bill to keep them on topic. last week i talked a little bit about how we're falling behind china and russia and how those two countries are now our biggest threats. and i think we all know how that happened. this happened the last fi

mr. inhofe: for the next week, the senate is going to be debating what i consider to be and i think most people consider to be the most important bill of the year, the national defense authorization act. it's an act that we passed and have passed every year for 60 years. in just a few days, the american families across the country will be celebrating the 4th of july, independence day, the day that honors our blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. not all countries share these values. in fact, they reject them. china and russia would rather have an authoritarian world, one where democracy doesn't exist, where the rest of the world yields to them. according to the national defense strategy, -- this is the document that i refer to all the time because this was put together a few years ago. actually 12 really expert democrats and 12 expert republicans came into an agreement on what our defense should look like in the future. and so they said at that time, they said that china and russia in this book are our greatest threat right now. they are building up their militaries,

mr. inhofe: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call in progress be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: i ask unanimous consent that i be recognized for such time as i shall consume. the presiding officer: the senator shall be recognized. mr. inhofe: for the next week, the senate is going to be debating what i consider to be and i think most people consider to be the most important bill of the year, the national defense authorization act. it's an act that we passed and have passed every year for 60 years. in just a few days, the american families across the country will be celebrating the 4th of july, independence day, the day that honors our blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. not all countries share these values. in fact, they reject them. china and russia would rather have an authoritarian world, one where democracy doesn't exist, where the rest of the world yields to them. according to the national defense strategy, -- this is the d

mr. inhofe: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that i be recognized for such time as i shall consume. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: yeah, it's another way of saying i want to complete my remarks and let me just say this about the senator from maine. of all the members of the senate armed services committee, he's the one that is always there and getting involved in these things with the sense of a urgency that he feels in his heart, and i appreciate him as a very valuable member of that committee. that's for all your service, i say to him. earlier this morning i was at the white house with some of the other members to receive a briefing on the reports that putin putting boundaries on troops in afghanistan, you've been hearing about this. after a very long hearing, i'm confident that president trump didn't know about the reporting. there's some confusion in terms of our own intelligence, and it just didn't rise to the level of the president at that time. another takeaway fro

mr. inhofe: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: i ask that the quorum call in progress with vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: madam president, on tuesday night, senator reed and i had the honor of filing s. 4049, the 60th annual national defense authorization act. now, stop and think about that. 60 years. you know, and that's something we're always pretty confident we'll eventually get the thing passed. to me, it is the most significant bill of the year. and we've been doing it now successfully for 60 years. this is what we consider every year, and we know it's going to pass because it's always passed. but it's also, it's about taking care of our troops and defending our country. you know, there's a document no one reads anymore. it's called a constitution. it talks about what our primary responsibility is, but that is to defend america. and it's -- and we're in such a much more dangerous position today than we've ever been in before, so it's -- and i think it's fitting that we're doing this ahe

mr. inhofe: thank you, mr. president.i want to respond to the accusations that were made, and i worded that carefully not to violate answer rules. and i'm going to do that. i see kind of an active desperation that's creeping in on statements, things that are said about other people when right now we are experiencing some things that actually are being a success. and i want to respond to some of the accusations that were made, but first i have something else to do that's kind of an awkward thing to be doing at this time because i'm going to to go back and talk about something that happened not yesterday or this week but back in 1983. and i think it's important that we do this. about every ten years i do this. we're going to be successful now because i have a commitment from the president that he's going to stay hitched on an issue, a huge issue in the past. in 1983 not much was known about iran's efforts to train the, and arm the radical proxies and to kill americans and to kill our partners and our allies, but people know

mr. chair. sen. inhofe: senator warren? ,en. warren: general hokanson congratulations on your nomination. i want to have your views on the use of military in response to peaceful protests and other acts of civil disobedience on american streets. i was very troubled that national guard soldiers were deployed in washington, d.c. to disperse peaceful protesters against systemic racism. that response included using d.c. national guard helicopters, one of which was a medical evacuation helicopter, and using them to fly dangerously low over protest. this blue debris everywhere and kicked up dirt and snapped trees. i know this incident is under investigation but i am raising this with you because you have been nominated to be the chief of the national guard bureau. andging in peaceful protest -- if the national guard is deployed in an area involving peaceful protests in the future how would you ensure that guardsmen clearly understand the type of orders under which they have been activated and the activities that are within the scope o

inhofe. senator cardin. >> thank you mr. chairman and let me thank our witnesses. to follow up on senator inhofe we are in total agreement. infrastructure does bring us together and it's an important area from making advancements. our committee has worked in a bipartisan manner and now that we are rack ignites over the last several decades as being in decline in an economy that's been devoted to infrastructure spending we need to do smart investments coming out of covid-19 and i particularly appreciate the comments by doug with regards to how we pay for it now. i am for paying for it and coming out of this covid-19 we have to look at how we can create jobs. we have put trillions of dollars into the economy and we know the impact covid-19 has had on our economy. now we need to look at how we can create the jobs that have been lost from covid-19 and investing in infrastructure gives us that opportunity to create jobs but at the end of the day as senator inhofe pointed out we also have and economy that is performed better for the people in our community and is well giv

mr. president, there's also a long list of legislative priorities which the senate was going to tackle before these new issues materialized. this week chairman inhofe and the armed services committee have been marking up the 60th consecutive national defense authorization act which i hope the full senate will be voting on later this month. and here on the floor, we've also been considering a landmark bill to protect and preserve our nation's public lands for future generations. in my home state of kentucky, we know all about the important role that public lands play in our preservation of our physical heritage, providing access for outdoor recreation, and sustaining jobs and prosperity in the process. across the commonwealth, outdoor recreation supports 120,000 jobs and drives nearly $13 billion in consumer spending. from natural wonders like red river gorge and mammoth cave national park to the historic sites like mills springs battlefield and camp nelson, kentuckians have grown up enjoying our public lands, and we intend to protect them for future generations. so let me give you an example. as i mentioned yesterday when i came to the senate, kent