mr. chair. >> senator menendez is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman.omarova, a lot has been said about your background. let me ask you my understanding is that your grandmother -- what did that teach you about the communist system? >> what that told me about the communist system is that it is oppressive and doesn't care about human beings and kills its own citizens for no other reason but a refusal to follow what in oppressive state government ideology tells them to do. what that told me also is that in that system, you do what you have to do to survive so you can fight against it. i chose to come to this country and to become a u.s. citizen and in everything i do, no matter how people may interpret my work, my goal is to make this country better and stronger so we canst never have a repetition of that communist system anywhere in the world. >> i think only and is when my parents came from the system, only when you live in such a system can you understand what is necessary to survive, but you seek to ultimately revolt against it in every way you can an

mr. chairman. >> senator menendez from new jersey is recognized. >> thank you mr. chairman. dr. omarova. a lot's been said about your background. let me ask you. my understanding is that your grandmother was orphaned because stalin sent her entire family to siberia, and they died there. is that true? >> that is absolutely true. >> did that teach you about the communist system? >> what that taught me about the communist system is that it is oppressive. it doesn't care about human beings, and it kills its own citizens. for no other reason but refusal to follow what an oppressive state government ideology tells them to do. what that taught me also is that in that system you do what you have to do to survive so you can fight against it. i chose to come to this country. i chose to become a u.s. citizen. and in everything i do, no matter how people may interpret my academic work, my one goal is to make this country better and stronger so we can never have a repetition of that communist system anywhere in the world. >> i think only when as my parents came from a communist system, only when you'

menendez. >> thank you, mr. chair, mr. magnus. i am deeply concerned about the inhumane treatment of haitian migrants at the border and the substandard conditions in the del rio encampment. if confirmed, will you commit to providing members of congress with regular updates on the status and wellbeing of migrants encountered at the border? >> senator, thank you for the question. and like you, i found those images troubling. but i also believe, and i certainly learned this over my career in policing, that a full and thorough investigation is necessary before any final conclusions are drawn. that said, i would totally support keeping this committee, any member of the senate, abreast of the progress associated with the investigation. >> dhs officials reported that multiple agency failures including a failure to share important intelligence left u.s. immigration officials unprepared to adequately respond to the large influx of haitian migrants. if confirmed what will you do in your role to address these operational missteps? >> senator

menendez: thank you mr. chairman. >> senator tillis is recognized from his office perhaps. he may have turned his camera off. senator kennedy is recognized. sen. kennedy: mr. chairman want to start with you. i understand owen is clairvoyant , but i think it's fair to say the experts who have been advising you about the future rate of inflation have pre-much the same credibility. the late-night psychic hotlines you see on tv. is the fed considering increasing the pace of its tapering. it is ravaging our people. chrm. powell: what we missed about inflation was we didn't predict the supply-side problems and those are highly unusual and very nonlinear and it's really hard to predict these things. that's why all the professional forecasters had much lower inflation projections. you ask about the taper. as i mentioned earlier since the last meeting we've seen basically elevated pressures. we've seen labor market data without improvement in labor supply. i've seen strong spending data. remembering every dollar of asset purchases does increase accommodation. we now look at an econo

mr. magnus: yes, i would. sen. menendez: finally, one of the jobs you would have would be to safeguard americans from the importation of counterfeit products. if confirmed, will you commit to taking steps to support our many anti-counterfeit measures? the bridal industry is one of -- one where the dresses are made for the people in this most significant day of their lives, they buy something they think is going to be what they saw at the store in new jersey, they get something with a quality that suggests something different and was far different from what they got, but it is too late and they appear to be the same exact as that which would be purchased domestically. there's a lot of counterfeiting going on in that regard and with -- i would hope you would make a commitment to strengthening our counterfeit measures. mr. magnus: senator, thank you for the question. the whole area of e-commerce is something i'm particularly interested in. you are right to remind us that these are dangerous items, in many cases, ranging from p

mr. sires, all of them, for their bipartisan leadership of this important resolution. thank senators menendez and rubio for their -- for the same. we have the opportunity today here at this moment to show up equivocally that the united states stands with the people of cuba. that we stand with them in their desire for basic rights. that we want to see relations between the united states and the cuban people flourish. that we support today and will always support the cuban people in their pursuit of freedom, the rights to free expression, the rights to live and be free. i thank the bill's sponsors for their important work on this resolution. i urge my colleagues, all of my colleagues, to stand for human rights, to stand with the people of cuba, and to support this resolution. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. all time has expired. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 760. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended and the resolution is agr

mr. chairman. >> absolutely, ambassador burns, i'm sitting in while senator menendez votes and it's my turn in therder, so congratulations to you, you're a wonderful public servant. i want to ask you a couple of questions about assumptions. so pre-2000, china had to sort of make a case to the united states every year to be granted most favored nation status. and it was an annual decision that the president would make. and china, that annual decision provided a forum for discussions about human rights issues and such. in 2000, congress granted china permanent normal trade relations status which paved their path to becoming a member of the wto. so we no longer have that annual determination and opportunity. and i think possibly we've lost some focus on some of the human rights and other issues for that reason. the decision was made because of a belief that if china was part of the wto, they would conform themselves to global trade rules. and i think everyone, whatever their thought at the time, would say that china's behavior has been disappointing, that they haven't done what we hoped. i'm curious,

mr. secretary for being here. i'm going to follow up on a couple of things. first of all, both senator toomey and menendez and others to emphasize expressions of commitment have and lead to ledo action in terms of enforcing. you said something else to senator scott about multilateral coordinations. north stream two has been strongly imposed by the european union. two votes of 400-100 and that's rounding up the higher number so it's hard for me to see the commitment when the president announces out of the blue the lifting of sanctions. and i think we've concluded that the state department determines north stream to has facilitated sanctions. on whose behalf, who is the winner here? why are we facilitating this, on whose behalf is this being done? >> i appreciate the concerns that we've shared of what we are doing in the treasury department looking for any evidence that we can. we've met with several members here to hear from them in terms of the evidence that they have and we've also worked closely with the department of justice so we have a good understanding of the legal authorities in order to be in a p

mr. secretary for being here. i'll follow up on a couple things. first of all both senator toomey and senator menendez and others have certainly emphasized the expressions of commitment haven't led to action in terms of enforcing and in the case of nord stream 2 where i want to drill down a little bit. certainly capsa. that is a pretty big problem. because you said something else about i think it was to senator scott about multi lateral coordination is really important. nord stream 2 has been strongly opposed by the european union parliament. i mean, on two votes of 400 to 100. that is rounding up the lower number and down the higher number. so it is hard for me to see much commitment when the president announces just sort of out of the blue the lifting of sanctions on nord stream 2, authority he doesn't even have. and i think we concluded that the state department determined that nord stream 2 has facilitated sanctions evasion. on whose behalf? i mean, who is the winner here? why did the president lift the sanctions? why are we facilitating this, i mean, whose behalf is this being done sf. >> senator

menendez: i understand senator young is with us virtually. senator young, are you with us virtually? sen. young: i yes, sir. am. can you hear me? all right. thank you, chairman. mr. mckeon, i wish we could spend this hearing looking at long-term resources for the state department. i wish we had the luxury of rethinking the state department of evaluating new horizons of diplomatic efforts throughout the world. i especially wish we could discuss how we're shifting our focus to asia to deal with the growing threats to national security from a rising china. instead, we must first attend to this administration's sub-optimal withdrawal from afghanistan. its careless failure to treat allies with respect. two it's -- to its self-inflicted wounds that sapped our nation of vital resources at a critical time in our nation's history. so i want to start with a very simple yes or no question, sir. has our withdrawal from afghanistan freed up resources at the state department to focus on other strategic priorities in asia, such as the threat posed by the chinese communist party? yes or no, sir? brian mckeon: we're spending fewer resources in afghanistan, that's correct. though

mr. menendez: mr.ident, i rise today to seek unanimous consent for eight to nine nominees to critical state department posts. each of them moved to the senate foreign relations committee with bipartisan support, and the only reason the senate has not confirmed them is due to the political obstinacy of a couple of my republican colleagues. and the evidence of that is that when we have a vote, as we had earlier today for the assistant administrator of a.i.d., it passed 59-40. 59-40. we heard many complaints about the management of the state department and the conduct of u.s. foreign policy in recent months. and while the state department is not a perfect institution -- for that fact, no institution is -- it's leadership was decimated by the prior administration. the assistant secretaries and ambassadors who should be participating in the rebuilding of the institution and the development and implementation of u.s. foreign policy are instead languishing on the senate floor. dozens, dozens, nominees who sho