mr. kaine: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: mr. president, i rise today to speak about the latest coronavirus emergency aid package, but before i do, as a matter of personal privilege, i want to offer some comments and praise of a colleague. just as we gather together, regardless of party, to mourn when a colleague dies or be together with a colleague who's undergoing a challenge, i think it's good to gather together and acknowledge when something positive happens to a colleague, regardless of our political affiliation. and this is the first opportunity on the senate floor to offer a word about senator kamala harris, one of our colleagues who in an historic move, was asked by vice president joe biden to join him as his preferred nominee to be vice president of the united states. i've come to know senator harris in her years in the senate, as many of us have, in her service especially in the judiciary committee and the intelligence committee. her public service track record is a significant one worthy of praise from her work as a di

mr. chairman, i yield back. >> senator kaine. >> thank you, mr. chair. and to the witnesses thank you for your service to the country and your willingness to continue serving. i want to follow up on questions senator shaheen asked you. when did you join cerberus capital management? >> i joined cerberus, senator, in january 2015. >> january of 2015. when did you become a board member of the chair board one group? >> i'm not exactly sure the date. i would say it was probably around 2017, but i'd have to come back to you with an actual date. >> if tier one group operates -- the board operates with committees have you ever been a chair of any the committees of the chair one group board? >> i have not, senator. >> have you ever been an officer? >> i have not, senator. >> how large is the group? >> very small. i believe we have five directors on the board. >> the name of the board used to be aggressive training solutions, is that correct? >> senator, it's the first time i've heard that name. if there's history i'm unaware of -- >> thank you for that. reports a

mr. abrams: they are. senator rubio: they are. kaine.tor senator mccain: thank you -- enator kaine: thank you to the witnesses. this is a hard problem. the situation we all acknowledge disastrous from a humanitarian standpoint. i think the trump administration has gotten some things right and think the trump administration has gotten some things wrong. to get think it was easy 70 nations to recognize the guaido government. was a good bit of diplomacy and i don't think anybody should simple. that i would put in the positive side of the ledger with respect to the efforts. think the early suggestion that military options were on the table meant that many of the nations that recognized that guaido government would not we wanted sanctions them to and i had conversations with leadership and some of the nations that have been with us the recognition but not on he sanction where they expressed receipt sense and used -- red sense and used that. don't think the venezuelan reality, you know, is bad because of the united states or ad in spite of the united states. it's a brutal dictatorship. it's a dictatorship that's by

kaine. >> thank you, mr. chair, and mr. secretary welcome. the context in which we have this hearing is very, very complicated. and it's almost -- it's just almost too much to talk about. in the last 24 hours we passed 150,000 deaths in this country to coronavirus in my view and i think in the view of many a sizable percentage of those were preventable had the united states handled the pandemic better. this morning the department of commerce indicated that the economy because of covid shrunk at the greatest rate ervin recorded history in the second quarter of the year. and then this morning the president is suggesting that the presidential election should be delayed. and i sort of want to start there. this is not something either you or i were prepared to talk about today because i think it happened in the middle of the hearing. the president sent out a tweet that said, quote, delay the election until people can properly and securely go, question mark. not saying it will happen but raising a question. can a president delay the november presid

. >> on thursday virginia senator tim kaine talked about the end of democrats want to see in the next covid relief bill. >> mr. president, here we, go again, another day has passed, nothing has happened, no incremental progress, no compromising. to some it might just be one day, but to too many americans and other dates fighting for your help or how you will pay your rent or how you will feed your kids is a brutal and terrifying thing. what's oneor more day to an average american? it might be a a day closer to e rent being due, without having the money to pay it. it might be another day with insufficient unemployment benefits while bills pile up. it might be another day closer to possibly needing s.n.a.p. assistance or help from a food bank. one more day could being constrain testing supplies don't pick up as many cases of covid-19 so the carriers can isolate and protect others. one day today means for one of my staffers it was moving day for his oldest daughter in college, but because she couldn't get her test results back quick enough that experience which is an exciting one for a young person could not hap

mr. douglass. my time has expired and we have enjoyed -- then joined by senator kaine who if he is rea ready, with the nature of these jobs, we moved from meeting to meeting so -- >> can you hear me? >> i can indeed. i will defer to you. >> thank you, senator young and senator menon does. i thank you to the witnesses. i have been viewing and hearing you for the last 40 minutes and it is just that i was not able to be seen or heard by you which is to your benefit. it's all a plus that i can see you and assure you you can hear me. anyway, the question that both the senators and meant have asked made it clear that it's good to see you again. i think we were together in the spring of 2019 and i just really want to follow up on one of the many tough issues dealing with venezuela and that is the challenges that venezuela opposed to columbia. to state the reason i'm asking, i think venezuela is almost the textbook case for the world that if you align with authoritarian nations like russia, china, iran and cuba here is what your life will be like. if you allow an authoritarian to run things into the groun

mr. chairman look forward to hearing from our witnesses. >> think it senator manchin. i think the best way to approach this, probably since you've done a combined opening statement which is in the record now, senator kainould you like to begin and then have representative gallagher and then finish up with the general if that works in terms of how you would like to proceed? >> thank you, mr. chairman. there are so many aspects of this and opening statement could go on all afternoon. going to try very hard to make that not happen. let make one point of the pandemic. among all of the other things we have learned, think one of the most important things we have learned is that the unthinkable can happen. a year ago we would not have contemplated where we are now with a disease we are having to deal with on a worldwide basis. so it is with the cyber attack. it seems unthinkable, it seems the stuff of science fiction. and yet it can and it has happened. in fact it is happening right at this very moment. our basic purpose in the work that we did on this commission. and i will outline how we proceeded, was to be the 911 commission without 911. our whole purpose is to avoid not only a cyber catastrophe, but a de

mr. menendez. before i turned back to senator menendez for initial questions, are there any other members of the committee? >> senator kaines on. >> where are you? there you are. >> we have a very strict five minute rule here. >> i have been seeing how unrestricted has been. [laughter] >> i was hoping you were not watching. >> many of my questions have been answered. wong, i want alex to focus on the job that you are currently in because your work on the north korea d'este -- your work on the north korean desk i think is fabulous. i have appreciated when steve egan has come to the committee, he is enthusiastic about his efforts but does not oversell the results. this seems to be a difficult problem. i put that on north korea's shoulders. i think we are making a lot of efforts, but as of yet i am -- i have not seen anything i would consider a result to celebrate. share with me, if you will. we had a hearing yesterday about venezuela and a number of us were trying a lot of things but not seeing the results we would like, just as we tried a lot of things in syria and did not see results there. the current dynamic in north tes

mr. kaine: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: mr. president, here we go again. another day has passed, nothing has happened. no incremental progress. no compromising. to some, it might just be one day, but to too many americans another day fighting for your health or how you'll pay your rent or how you'll feed your kids is a brutal and terrifying thing. what's one more day to an average american? it might be a day closer to the rent being due without having the money to pay it. it might be another day with insufficient unemployment benefits while bills pile up. it might be another day closer to possibly needing snap assistance or help from a food bank. one more day could mean constrained testing supplies don't pick up as many cases of covid-19 so that carriers can isolate and protect others. one day today means for one of my staffers it was move-in day for his oldest daughter in college, but because she couldn't get her test result back quick enough, that experience which is an exciting one for a young person, could not happen. these