mr. manchin: mr. president. mr. president, as the ranking member on the committee of natural resources, i was especially pleased by president trump's decision to withdraw the nomination of william peripendley to lead the bureau of land management. as i said, when the president nominated mr. spently, he is the wrong person for the wrong job and the wrong place and he should not continue to lead the bureau. the job of the director of the bureau of land manage is a sacred public trust. the director of the b.l.m. is one of the principal stewards of our public lands, as we're here from our colleagues today. the bureau of land management manages 245 million acres of public land, more land than any other federal agency. the bureau was acquired -- is required by law to manage the lands committed to its care not only for the benefit of our own generation but for many generations to come. it must carefully balance the use of the land for grazing, timber production, mineral development, recreation, fish and wildlife and the pr

manchin. senator rounds. >> thank you, mr. chairman. finish first of all, i want to just say thank you to everybody on this panel. this is a very important issue, and i thank the chairman and the ranking member for them bringing it to our attention and also to try to promote the passage of this in the house of representatives before the end of the year. my first question is, first of all, i want to thank you for your service in the united states army and for being here today to represent the american legion. in your written testimony and your remarks, you've talked about the importance of project atlas. this is where the legion is partnering with the have v.a. to install technology at legion posts and rural areas to make sure veterans have access to telehealth. based on your expertise, if s. 785 does not get passed in the house and then sent to the president's desk, what kind of an impact will this have on access to millionth care for our rural -- mental health care for our rural veterans? >> thank you for your question, senator rounds.

mr. chairman. and -- whoops. thank you very much. i want to -- she isn't here at the moment but -- thank chairman murkowski for her words. ranking member manchin, subcommittee chairman lee, ranking member wyden, and members of the committee. thank you for moving so quickly on this bill. and i want to thank senator danes. thank you for being here. thank you for being a partner. it took a while to put this together but we have it now. and i hope it can pass quickly. let me be blunt. california is on fire. smoke is blanketing the entire western part of the united states. and a good dose of it was here yesterday. california's traditional fire season has only just started. but five of california's largest fires, in history, have occurred this year. as i speak, 25 major fires are burning across nearly 2. million acres, statewide. 25 californians have died in these fires. 4,200 homes and structures have been destroyed. and more than 42,000 people have been evacuated. i think we have 90 pieces of equipment in the state today from other states. the largest fire in state history is now burning in the mendocino national forest. it's 875,000 acres. all to

mr. manchin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator for west virginia. mr. manchin: mr. president, i would like to speak to the resolution. mr. president, you know it's a shame that we have to come and reaffirm our commitment to our country, to our constitution, and who we are as a people and how we became a great country, the greatest country on earth, the freedoms we all take for granted many, many times, and sometimes we hear things that challenge that, and we heard that yesterday, and we were very concerned about that. as of today, my friend and colleague from indiana, senator braun, basically wanted to reaffirm our commitment to the pledge of allegiance. which is something that we should do every day. our pledge of allegiance to our flag of our great country. what we are doing with this resolution is saying that basically the bedrock of democracy is the orderly and peaceful transfer of power when the president transitions out. it should not be a question. there should not ever be one iota of interruption whatsoever as that peaceful demonstration. i remember 1960, th