mr. moran. mr. marino. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schiff. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of souths. carolina. mrs. shaheen. mr. she he. miss slotkin. mrs. smith. mr. thune mr. tillis. mr. turberville. mr. vane. hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. >> a quorum is present. a quorum is a president present. how to preserve the leadership time is reserve the senate will be in the period of morning businesspe with the senators permitted to speak and they're in for up to 10 minutes each. the majority leader will then calling up. i'm not going to read. [laughter] majority leader. >> not a present asking a subset of the sea of consideration as friends one comment which was submitted earlier today. >> clerk for pope reports a resolution for. s >> s rez one to establish a committee to inform the president of the united st

mr. moran. mr. moreno. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schiff. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. mr. sheehy. ms. slotkin. ms. smith. mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. the clerk: mr. young. the vice president: a quorum is present. the vice president: a quorum is present. under the previous order, the leadership is reserved. the senate will be in a period offed morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the majority leader will then begin calling up -- the majority leader. mr. thune: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to consideration of s. res. 1, which was submitted earlier today. the vice president: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: s. res. 1, establis

mr. moran. rep. moran: let me give you a foundation about my district. 17 counties in rural texas. let me provide the impact of the tcja and what would happen if it expired. expiration in my district alone for our businesses would put 12,000 plus family-owned farms in texas in jeopardy of having their tax exemption slashed and half last -- next year. they would be hit with a 43% tax rate increase if the 199 a small business deduction expires in the failure to renew certain pro manufacturing initiatives puts nearly 14,000 jobs in my district at risk. these statistics underscore a larger theme that across several industries whether it is agriculture, small businesses or large manufacturers, the tcja promotes the growth of business in america. now more than ever it is important to ensure congress continues to put americans first by providing tax incentives for american businesses to grow themselves. restoring the immediate r&d expensing provision is a prime example of putting american businesses f

mr. moran. mr. moreno. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schiff. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. mr. sheehy. ms. slotkin. ms. smith. mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. the clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- barrasso, budd, cornyn, crapo, daines, graham, hassan, hyde-smith, johnson, kaine, kim, lee, lummis, marshall, mcconnell, mccormick, moody, moreno, paul, rounds, scott of florida, tillis. senators voting in the negative -- alsobrooks, duckworth, gillibrand, klobuchar, lujan, murray, padilla, reed, sanders. mr. schumer, no. mr. hickenlooper, no. the clerk: mr. schmitt, aye. the clerk: ms. rosen, no. ms. ernst, aye. the clerk: mrs. fischer, aye. the clerk: mrs. capito, aye. mrs. blackburn, aye. the clerk: mr. heinrich, no. mr. warner,

mr. eaton: yes sir. chair moran: how do you explain that? mr. eaton: without clearly-defined access standards the v.a. is left to other alternatives to find that level of care. he goes back to education, but also really clear whenever a veteran is met with ambiguity in this critical time you can imagine different barriers they have to face. so, we need clear standards that are dispersed across the entire v.a. that outline what veteran'' options are and what their rights are in this case. ms. marg: can i add something to his statement? when my husband went to tucson they have a program just for veterans. it is a wet -- red, white, and blue program. my husband was housed with veterans. the veterans had the v.a. paid for their care there. so, it really seems very hit or miss as to what the provider understands and knows what the process is, as to what kind of care they get connected with. chair moran: that is really a partial answer to my follow-up question with you again. it is, you know of other veterans, other veteran families that have experien

mr. moran. mr. moreno. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schiff. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. mr. sheehy. ms. slotkin. ms. smith. mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. senators voting in the affirmative -- banks, barasso, blackburn, budd, daines, ernst, fischer, graham, hagerty, hyde-smith, johnson, justice, kennedy, lee, lummis, marshall, mccormick, moreno, mullin, ricketts, rounds, scott of florida, sullivan, thune, tuberville, wicker, and young. ms. hassan, no. mr. blumenthal -- ms. slotkin. senators voting in the negative -- mr. husted, aye. senators voting in the negative -- baldwin, blumenthal, collins, coons, cortez masto, duckworth, durbin, hassan, kaine, kelly, kim, lujan, merkley, murray, padilla, reed, schatz, schiff, slotkin, and wyde

the clerk: mr. moran, aye. the clerk: mr. tillis, aye. mrs. gillibrand, no. the clerk: mrs.haheen, no. vote: in the confirmation we finished yesterday with intelligence agency john ratcliffe, mark kelly of arizona, democrat on the senate intelligence committee gave director ratcliffe a ringing endorsement director ratcliffe is qualified for the job, serious guy he has the background, he's got confidence will do a good job senator schumer held up confirmation with two solid days. despite the delay the senate overwhelming the confirmed the highly qualified director by 74-2521 democrats voted in favor of the confirmation the two day delay i want every american to know what's happening in the senate the format to left members of the democratic caucus are intentionally delaying the confirmation of president trump national security team is not advice and consent to visit democrats playbook trying to deny president trump his cabinet sentence preparing to vote this weekend on more i qualified nominees one is south dakota governor kristi noem governor nelms nominee to be secretary of

mr. moran. mr. moreno. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schiff. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. mr. sheehy. ms. slotkin. ms. smith. mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. the clerk: mr. young. the presiding officer: a quorum is present. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of pete peter hegseth of tennessee to be secretary of defense shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will now call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin. mr. banks. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. the clerk: mr. blumenthal. the clerk: ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. the clerk: mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. the clerk: mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. c

mr. moran: mr. president, thank you.for the entire time i've been a member of the un-senate i've had a prif -- of the united states senate, i've had the privilege of having on my team a kansan who invests his time, energy, passion and givers his hearts for helping kansans and amer americans. ed to york has worn many hats in my office. he was a district are nottive, a -- representative, caseworker, videographer and advisor. todd and i first met when he was completing his degree at kansas state university and he be became -- i needed help, and he helped me in 2010 on my senate campaign. as a result, as being a recentlies graduate from kansas stale university, tyler was open to new opportunities, and got the job driving me across kansas. during a two-hour drive on i-70 from manhattan to the airport, it became apparent to me this young man was someone i wanted on my team, and i've benefited from his service every day. at least in this instance, i was right about him. tyler work joined -- tyler york joined my newly formed tea

mr. ratcliffe: the question -- the threat from russia? sen. moran: the threat from russia. you indicate china is the greatest threat. mr. ratcliffe: absolutely. so russia is very clearlyan adversary of the united states. the threat of course is a country with a very large nuclear stockpile. the thing that separates the threat from russia from china in my mind and why i put them, even though we include them in the great power competition, is that the united states is the largest economy in the world. china's the second largest. russia has an economy that's roughly the same size as my home state of texas. so what that means is that the russians have to decide where they're going to compete with the united states and so they've chosen areas like hypersonics and other areas. but that comes at a cost. and i think we saw some of the cost in terms of their troop readiness as they engaged in their aggression against ukraine. so a dangerous lethal adversary who in many respects is -- because of the limitations that i've talked about, has focused on areas where there are great equaliz

i was just complementing you, mr. moran -- of native people, native hawaiians, native alaskans and native american indians. so i was inclined to have a good conversation r conversation with -- a good conversation with mr. burgum and at least consider voting for him. and let me el why i'm voting no. two reasons. one is i do believe what happened this week is unlawful. i think it's unconstitutional. and i think it was presenting us with a constitutional crisis. and so in a moment of it being a close call, i'm going to err on the side of expressing my opposition to what the trump administration is doing as it relates to federal spending. but i also specifically said, i'd like to have a phone call with mr. burgum. and i'm not like -- look, i have an ego like the rest of us but i'm not one to get my nose out of joint except playing basketball against my older brother, about someone not getting back to me or treating me with the proper protocol. but one of the reasons you vote for a secretary is to have a working relationship sho

i was complimenting you mr. moran of native hawaiians native alaskans and native american. was inclined to have a good conversation with a mr. burgum d consider voting for it and let me tell you why i'm voting no. two reasons. one is i do believe what happened this week is and i think it's unconstitutional and i think it was presenting us with a constitutional crisis so in a moment of a close call i'm going to err on the side of expressing my opposition. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. the clerk: mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. snl mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mr. husted. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. justice. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim. mr. king. it's an honor to be serving as the 55th secretary of the interior. this is a tiny town of 40 people. the streets were not paper maker of all gravel. my fat

mr. moran. mr. moreno. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. ms. rosen. vote: the clerk: mr. rounds. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schiff. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. mr. sheehy. ms. slotkin. ms. smith. mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. >> good to see all of you. it's an honor to be with all of you. a lot of familiar faces, a lot of new faces your president trump is back and the golden age of america has most definitely begun. the senate has confirmed five of president trump's exceptional cabinet nominees. secretary of state marco rubio, defense secretary pete hegseth, cia director john ratcliffe, homeland security secretary kristi noem and treasury secretary scott bessent. it is imperative that the senate continue to confirm the remainder of the president well-qualified nominees as quickly as possible. as y

mr. moran from texas, you're recognized. >> mr. secretary, thanks for being here today. i want to start where mr. moscowicz left. speaking about withdrawal, i quote, there were major mistakes made in afghanistan. first of all, do you agree with that statement by mr. moscowicz? >> i do. >> could you specify in the mistakes that were made in the withdrawal from afghanistan? >> i think the most fundamental mistake was, again, not recognizing the fragility of the afghan government, the afghan security forces and not anticipating across the government, and i take responsibility for this along with the other departments of government in recognizing that there was a potential, more than a potential, likelihood of very quick collapse by both the government and the security forces. >> how would you advise a president in the future to do something different? what different advice would you give to him or her? >> i think we have to do what we did, but obviously we didn't see this piece of it which is too continuously check the assumptions, prod and push about the durability of the

mr. ratcliffe: my state. and i absolutely make that pledge and look forward to working with you to address that threat. >> thank you. senator moran. >> mr. ratcliffe, i appreciated our conversations in the office. i particularly appreciated the indication of your transparency with this committee, your forthrightness, telling us the truth. it has been difficult from time to time to know what the true story is and there are certainly opinions about truth, but we ought to be trying to find the truth. i want to ask you about statements you have made. i agree with you that china is the greatest threat facing our country. i rate russia as our second gravest threat and believe it is the most accused -- acute threat today. would you describe the scope of the threat as you see it and the importance of countering the kremlin? mr. ratcliffe: the threat from russia? >> the threat from russia. you indicate china is the greatest threat. mr. ratcliffe: absolutely. russia is very clearly an adversary of the united states. the threat of course is a very large nuclear stockpile. the thing that separates the threat from russia and china in my mind

. >> thank you, miss moran mr reichlin melnick, chairman durbin, ranking member graham and distinguished members of the committee. my name is aaron franklin melnick and i'm the senior fellow at the american immigration council at the council. we have long studied the population of immigrants in the united states and provide detailed estimates of their demographics and economic contributions on our map. the impact website today, there are at least 13 million undocumented immigrants in the united states. president elect trump has promised a mass deportation campaign with the stated intent of rounding up and deporting every single one of them. so who are they? well, most have been here for at least 15 years. having entered before the obama administration. over 4.8 million people have been here for 25 years or more with no path to permanent legal status. no line for them to stand in. most undocumented immigrants have spent decades living working and putting down roots all at constant risk of deportation. nearly all are either employed or attending school. some have permission to work legally

i wanted to turn to the senators from kansas who wanted to say a few words for senator moran and thank you. and, mr

moran: it seems to me we should be working for your fast confirmation. mrs. ins: that seems like a really good idea. [laughter] sen. moran: let me highlight nifa and erf. the trump administration in the past decided they wanted to put agencies, federal employees across the country not totally centered here in washington, d.c., the nation's capital. nifa and ers agencies were moved to kansas city. and there is, i think what happened is in the circumstances here in washington, d.c. there were 600-5700 employees, i'm told there are 400 employees now in kansas city, but i'm also, at least by press reports, only 20% of the people are actually working in the office. so, if we want to have the consequence in reviving rural america, other places in the country, this is a kansas, missouri, nebraska, iowa, where sometimes our farm kids cannot get a job on the farm, cannot return to the family farm, but they want to work in agriculture, or it is a spouse of somebody on the farm. having those employees in places like kansas and missouri and iowa and nebraska creates oppor

i wanted to turn to the senators from kansas who wanted to say a few words for senator moran and thank you. and, mr. secretary, thank you. and to our first responders, thank you very much for all that's taking place here. i'm jerry moran. i'm a united states senator from kansas, and i chair the subcommittee in commerce, committee on aviation. so we have really a serious and sad circumstance that we want to be here to be helpful. and we're praying that our responders are safe. and the folks who are on that flight are recovered. the circumstance i would describe is that i know that flight. i've flown it many times myself. i lobbied american airlines to begin having a direct nonstop flight service to dca. that flight has been in existence about a year. and it is certainly true that in kansas and in wichita in particular, we're going to know people who are on this flight, know their family members, know somebody. so this is a very personal circumstance as well as an official response. and again, we're we will do everything we can to make certain that we're supportive of the rescue efforts, and we'll do

senators who are from kansas, who wanted to say a few words first senator moran and then senator marshall. >> mayor, thank you. and, mr. secretary, thank you. and to our. >> first responders. >> thank you very much for all that's taking place here. i'm jerry moran, i'm a united states senator from. >> kansas. >> and i chair the subcommittee and commerce committee on aviation. so we have really. >> a serious and sad. >> circumstance that we. >> want. >> to be here to be helpful. and we're. >> praying that. our responders. >> are safe. and the folks who are on that flight are recovered. the circumstance i would describe is that i know that flight. i've flown it many times myself. i lobbied american airlines to begin having a direct nonstop flight service to dca. that flight has been in existence about a year, and it is certainly true that in kansas and in wichita in particular, we're going to know people who are on this flight, know their family members, know somebody. so this is a very personal circumstance as well as an official response. and again, we're we will do everything we can to make certain that we're support

first, senator moran and then senator marshall. >> mayor, thank you. and, mr. secretary, thank you. and to our first responders, thank you very much for all that's taking place here. i'm jerry moran, i'm a united states senator from kansas. and i chair the subcommittee and commerce committee on aviation. so we have really a serious and sad circumstance that we want to be here to be helpful. and we're praying that our responders are safe. and the folks who are on that flight are recovered. the. circumstance i would describe is that, um, i know that flight. i've flown it many times myself. i lobbied american airlines to begin having a direct nonstop flight service to dca. that flight has been in existence about a year, and it is certainly true that, uh, in kansas and in wichita in particular, we're going to know people who are on this flight, know their family members, know somebody. so this is a very personal circumstance as well as an official response. and again, we're we will do everything we can to make certain that we're supportive of the rescue efforts, and we'll do everything w

senators who are from kansas, who wanted to say a few words first senator moran and then senator marshall. >> mayor, thank you. and, mr. secretary, thank you. and to our. >> first responders. >> thank you very much for all that's taking place here. i'm jerry moran, i'm a united states senator from. >>

moran: thank you, mr. vice chairman. pleased to be back and sitting here at the dais at the e.p.a. committee. thank you very much for your testimony and for the conversation we've had in my office. thank you for your willingness to serve. let me highlight a couple of things we may not have talked about when we did visit. i want to describe the kansas oil and gas industry to you. we are an oil and gas producing state. but our production is done by really small, independent companies that produce from what we call stripper wells, which means they produce less than 15 barrels of oil a day. it's a significant component of the kansas economy and significantly important. and in my view, this small size, small businessman and woman who operate oil and gas leases and explore for additional production of oil and gas, the e.p.a. has written one side fits all solutions. we are not the majors and we are stripper well producers. and i just want your commitment to work with the industry, these small producers, to find right-sized regulations for the circumstances that they're in. mr. zeldin: sen

mr. biden saying the deal was negotiated by his team. this comes after 15 months of fighting in that region of gaza and israel. nbc's jocelyn moranoins us now. jocelyn, cautious optimism here about this deal. that's right. and there is a sense of relief that a deal has been reached, but it's to be implemented in three phases over several weeks. before i begin, let me speak to important news that from earlier today. tonight, president biden began his farewell address by talking about the cease fire and hostage release deal reached by israel and hamas. and it will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. that's why i told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because thas how it should be working together as americans. the deal will be implemented in three phases. phase one lasts six weeks. hamas will release hostages in return for hundreds of palestinian prisoners held by israel. trucks of humanitarian aid will be sent into gaza daily. phase two includes the exchange of remaining living hostages, including soldiers. biden said remaining israeli forces would be withdrawn from gaza during phase th

mr. lutnick: easy to do, yes. sen. blunt rochester: senator moran asked about exclusions and you said there were too many exclusions the first time the administration posed tariffs. you were just talking about drugs in particular. are there exceptions that you would make? you said there were way too many, like producing life-saving drugs or drug components. is this an area you would make exceptions? mr. lutnick: i thicken needs to be studied. i think the right answer is the president launched in his eo substantial studies. let those studies play out and i will come back and gladly talk to you about it. sen. blunt rochester: what we do know is that generic drugs are increasingly being produced overseas, and as a country, we are facing active drug shortages. do you think that tariffs will increase the cost of drugs for americans? mr. lutnick: i think the problem -- one of the problems we see in drugs is we have the innovator of drugs all. over the world all these other countries just disrespect us and basically force our companies to sell dirt cheap t

mr. chairman. i've spent most of the morning at the national airport and i know senator moran was there last night,orrible tragedy. the victims families are still being notified. for those of us who live in this region, it's always kind of complicated we've got virginia, dc, maryland, and a host of local jurisdictions but last night when this tragedy took place, and i happen to be driving by the national way home and saw all the first responders rushing to the scene. people came from as far away as baltimore, fairfax county, we had dod and federal officials and the first responders always as always they ran towards the tragedy.there will be a time to figure out how what happened and how we rectify it but today with thoughts and prayers ought to be with the families and thanking our first responders. miss gabbard, welcome and congratulations on your nomination to be the next director of national intelligence. i would like to begin by thanking you for your decades of public service both in uniform and as a member of congress from hawaii i applaud your continuing commitment to serve, should you be tco

moran. no, sorry. senator baldwin. sen. baldwin: thank you, mr. lutnick, for your willingness to serve. i'm going to ask a more general question, then i want to dig into some of the details you have heard a little bit about from my colleagues. the department of commerce does significant work to ensure that u.s. companies are able to compete with china. and drive -- it also does a lot of work to drive innovation in america. i want to ask very broadly, how will you utilize the programs within the commerce department? including those authorized by the bipartisan ships and science act, to promote american innovation? mr. lutnick: for the example, we want to bring semi conductors back to america. we want to look at the supply chain and bring that back to america. we want to create those great jobs so we can go back to innovating, which is where we began, right? intel began with chips, right? and then the world sort of leveraged our chips. tsmc leveraged us and took it from us. and who drove them? apple. who is apple? it is america. we want to bring that innovation back and make sure our grea

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator. senator blackburn. >> thank you to each of you for being here today. ms. moran, i am so sorry for your loss. i know that's been a very difficult time for you and your family and this truly is a season of sorrow for you all. and i recognize that. i find it so interesting, this open border policy that we've seen is not a compassionate policy. i've talked to people that work with human trafficking and sex trafficking and what is happening to women and children is abhorrent and we all are fully aware of that. mr. chairman, i appreciated your remark that we should deport those that are truly a danger to americans. i think that is accurate. i don't think there's anything anyone would disagree with that. we've all seen the uptick in violent crimes such as ms. moran and her family have experienced. and this is the reason i reintroduced my clear act this year, which would enable local law enforcement when they apprehend someone who's in the country illegally, to detain them and then call on ice to deport them. and then the federal government has to repay that local law enforcement agency for what the

mr. chairman, thank you. >> well, we are still on the first round. senator moran. >> chairman, thank you. i'm pleased to be a new member of the senate agriculture committee and it took a waiver that probably involved the majority leader's approval so i'm pleased to have that clear. ms. rollins: yes, you are all free. >> i'm all free. thank you for the conversation we had in our office. five things i want to talk about briefly, some of which we did talk in person. it has been described here the dangerous and dramatic circumstances farmers and ranchers find themselves in across the country. we have the same difficulties everybody else has across the country with high input costs and low commodity prices. i would add 80% of the counties in kansas are in a drought circumstance. you add to the problems that we can't grow a crop is dramatic. this is the least amount of wheat harvested in kansas since 1961. there are significant challenges. it highlights what senator thune said and it is perhaps as important as anything else that we will do. our failure to pass a farm bill and one of the reasons

mr. blumenthal, thank you. i call on congressman kevin kremer. he's a former colleague in the house of our witness, the nominee and i now recognize senator kremer. >> thank you, chairman moran and the titles look god on both of you. it is a great honor and a blessing to be here to introduce my former colleague, friend, navy veteran, military chaplain, accomplished attorney doug collins. if we were to write up -- there's a lot of talk these days about people being "unqualified" for these positions when the reality is the only qualify occasion is that the elected people -- but if we were to write up the qualifications for v.a. administrator and secretary, doug collins' picture would probably be right next to a description. working with doug on big bipartisan things. i remember in the house, one of the most unusual things for me to get involved in was copyright law and looking out for the rights of songwriters and somehow doug's big personality and big brain sucked me right in and i'm glad i did. it was important work and precedents setting work in the area of entertainment but he's got that kind of personality. annunen gauging personalities that attracts people to what he's w