mr. secretary. i yield back, mr. chairman. >> it's important that we have some nba finallies here because there's been good clock management going on and we're going to get to go a little bill longer if everybody wants to participate with additional questions. mr. secretary i have just a couple. now that you've had a few meetings of fsoc, under your belt, give us an update on the direction of the council and where it's going. in addition, you've been directed by the president back to april to review the processes and maybe you can update us on that review, and then speak to, i guess the processes, multiple processes, but if you could speak to your review and your thoughts on that designation as well. >> okay. so let me just say, i have had several meetings of fsoc. in my mind, fsoc has two fundamentally very important functions. one is around the designation, and given the significance of that issue, the president signed an executive order so it's not covered in our existing finding, and we look forward to doing the

mr. secretary. >> nice to see you too. >> mr. secretary, i want the thank you for your understanding of the role and importance of community banks. i did serve on the bank of a family bank, and i can tell you in north carolina we've lost 50% of our banks since 2010. i serve eight counties, seven of which are rural. it's had a devastating impact onsets to capital crept, so appreciate your efforts there. i'm currently working on a cfius reform bill with senator cornyn. we hope to introduce it sometime this fall. one of our primary goals is recognizing the alarming transfer of our new and emerging military applicable technologies that have gone from the united states to the chinese. and we want to see greater oversight with that that. chinese investments here in the united states have grown by 350% from 2015 to 2016. and we believe that cfius, of course, needs a greater teeth and greater reforms. the defense department has spoken out on this, our military's technological superiority is at risk due to this well-coordinated effort by t

mr. chairman, and welcome, secretary mnuchin. mr. mnuchin as secretary of the treasury you have a wide range of responsibilities that are of great porps to our economy and the well-being of the american people. these range from safeguarding our financial system to advancing u.s. values nationally. one bureau within the treasury responsible for safeguarding our financial system is the financial crimes enforcement network, which, as you know, collects, analyzes and dissemnates financial intelligence in addition to the foreign bank and account reports and other reports. they have numerous arrangements from foreign intelligence units making the bureau well-positioned to identify and law enforcement in curtailing illicit activities. it's critical for the public to learn to which the extent president trump, his immediate family and his associates colluded with russia to influence the outcome of last year's elections. serious questions have been raised about their suspicious financial arrangements and involvement with russian government offi

mr. secretary, i look forward to your testimony. but first i'd like to go to senator murray for her opening remarks. >> thank you very much, chairman blunt. welcome secretary acosta. before we talk about this, what i think is an indefensible budget request, i want to reiterate today how appalling it is that we are potentially, if not hours away, from voting on legislation that would spike health care costs for patients nationwide and kick millions of people off of coverage as we have now seen with the cbo numbers. yet senate republicans have yet to hold a single hearing or any kind of open public debate under regular order. now that we've seen it, it's pretty easy to see why. this is going to be a devastating bill and have a tremendous impact on patients and families. so we on this side remain deeply concerned about that. now, this committee has a history of working together in a bipartisan manner. i sincerely open my colleagues will remember that and urge their leadership to hold open transparent process so people have time to under

mr. secretary. i was relieved to hear you saying negative you are going to be very vigilant on line and time monday wandering -- money laundering. so to find out if that investment activity tie-ins scrutiny for regulators and law-enforcement? so of course, our president and his family has engaged in. and those that are convicted of crimes is that problematic? yes or no. >> it sounds that way. >> i can be specific what about the so whole project. >> but i cannot comment. >> is this where it cygnet: negative is that problematic?. >>. >> i am not connecting this to a terrorist financing. >> i could consume all my time but i would just bring to your attention that there have been comedies are not secret to it is in the news for everybody to read about the partnerships the trump family has with those convicted of crime and associated with russian activity. is that problematic?. >> that is not part of my job to commit one way or another. >> your secretary of treasury with the foreign corrupt practices act

mr. secretary, you spoke when you were speaking of the cease-fire about detailed information about who would enforce it. can you give any information about what provisions were reached and the future leadership of syria? secretary tillerson: i would like to defer on the specific roles of security forces on the ground because there are a couple more meetings to occur. this agreement was entered into between jordan, united states, and russia, and we have a clear picture of who will provide security forces, but we have a few more details to work out, and if i could, i would like to defer that until that is completed. i expect that will be completed within the next -- less than a week. the talks are very active and ongoing. and your second question, again -- >> does the administration still believe that assad will be the head of the government in syria? secretary tillerson: yes, our position continues to be, we see no long-term role for assad or his family. we have a clear with our discussions with russia that we do not think syria can achieve international recognition in the future, even if the

mr. secretary. >> senator shaheen? >> mr. chairman, i'll defer to my colleague senator durbin, he was kind enough to open the door for me. >> no. no. absolutely not. senator durbin. >> no good deed goes unpunished. secretary tillerson, thank you for being here. i'm sorry that i missed you this morning at the foreign relations committee because i was at another appropriations subcommittee hearing, but i wanted to ask you about recent news reports that have provided a proposed trip to st. petersburg by undersecretary tom shannon that will happen on june 23rd, and as a news reports have suggested that the purpose of the trip is to try and discuss with the russians how they'll be able to work together against isis in syria, and last week at a state department spokesperson admitted that one of the things that will be part of the conversation are the two dacas that were seized last year in response to russia's interference in our elections, and i have a picture of those there, and we can see that they're quite substantial. it's my u

mr. secretary, you just mentioned the dprk. we know china and russia recently say they asked north korea to freeze the nuclear activities, and also they asked the u.s. to stop the deployment of our systems. so, did president putin bring up his consent the deployment of our system, and what is the expectation of president trump in tomorrow's meeting with president xi? thank you. secretary tillerson: the subject of that did not come up with president putin. in terms of the progress of north korea and this last missile launch, those are some of the differences of views we have between ourselves in terms of tactics, how to do with this. president putin i think has expressed a view not unlike that of china that they would support a freeze for freeze. if we studied the history of the last 25 years, the engagement with various regimes in north korea, this has been done before. and every time it was done, north korea went ahead and proceeded with this program. the problem with freezing now, if we freeze where they are today, we freeze

mr. secretary. i think you ran some of the best businesses in the world, you're a smart guy but here's what's on your plate that i can think of. isis, you're going to beat them militarily but if you don't have a plan for the day after, we're going to do again. what do you do with raqqah, mos mosul, anbar province. how do you hold it? so defeating isis permanently has to have a hold and build strategy that's for usaid and all your smart people come into play. qatar, you read the op ed piece, things are not going well. you've got 10,000 airmen and soldiers there. for god sakes, we can't let this get out of hand, so you're going to be pretty busy with qatar. russia, don't have time to talk about what's on your plate with russia. it's a lot. you'll be at the table trying to find a way to put syria back in together to make sure that the war doesn't start again and lebanon and jordan don't fall because of endless war. the resources necessary to prepare the damage in syria makes iraq look like a walk in th

mr. secretary? >> the senior community employment services program is to some extent, one-third of its participants predation let me put it this way. does it exist to transition seniors into unsubsidized employment? >> yes, it does, senator. >> okay. that was easy. why do we need to spend $434 million to do that? >> well, senator, as i was saying there are a number of programs that have developed over time focus on different groups within our country. and those programs are important, but we can merge them, streamline them and make them part of larger programs. and so one of the things that the budget looks to do is to streamline. there are well over 40 different jobs training programs within the administration, and merging those would be a cost-saving measure. >> look, i agree with you. i'm on your side, mr. secretary. you been here a long time, longer than i have but i driven over a good portion of washington. i can't find the money tree. maybe it's in a warehouse somewhere. i mean, the topic majo

mr. secretary. i think you ran one of the best businesses in the world you're a really smart guy, but here's what's on your plate, that i can think of. day after, we're going to lose again. what do you do with raqqa, mosul, how do you hold it? defeating isis permanently has to have a hold and build strategy, that's where usaid and all your really smart people come into play. qatar, if you read the op ed piece today, things are not going well. you have qatar from our point of view, you have 10,000 airmen and soldiers there, we can't let this get out of hand. russia, don't have enough time to talk about what's on your plate with russia, it's a lot. you'll find a way to put syria back together to make sure the war doesn't start again. the resources necessary to repair the damage in syria, makes iraq look like a walk in the park, and part of those resources will be you and your talented people will go in there and help the syrian people deal with the devastation. north korea, i like what you're doing in

mr. secretary. the department of energy is a global leader in science and technology with an unrivalled network of national laboratories. it is also key to our national security when it comes both to nuclear and cyber threats. the president's budget proposes to slash many of the doe's essential programs and it would devastate emerging clean energy jobs in our economy. it would kill science and innovation in the jobs that d.o.e. supports. the budget would raise electricity rates in the pacific northwest, i guarantee you a number of people on this committee will not be supportive of that by auctioning off federal utility assets. the budget would undermine u.s. energy leadership in a sector that is posed to grow millions of jobs around the world, and according to the international energy agency more than $30 trillion will be invested in new renewable energy facilities and energy efficiency between now and 2040. so we've heard a lot about the so-called energy dominance from this administration. i'd like

mr. secretary. abouteeply concerned terrorism financing. ,uring her confirmation hearing you stated and i quote "i agree that law enforcement anti-money laundering efforts face serious challenges if they are unable to determine the beneficial ownership of the various companies and entities that utilize the u.s. financial system. ,t can be a real vulnerability various bad actors including terrorists and criminals can then you later stated that if confirmed you would "be willing to work with congress and the various equities impacted by due diligence requirements to address this challenge." we have on this committee introduced a bipartisan bill called the corporate transparency act that would require companies to disclose their true beneficial owners at the time the company is formed. bes information would only available to law enforcement and financial institutions that are required to know their customers with their consent. our bill says that states can collect this information but if they do not b

mr. secretary. at this time we will proceed to our questioning where each senator will have five minutes. so i'm going to begin the questioning, and i would like to welcome you and thank you also for the visit, recent visit to my office. i appreciate the opportunity to get to know you and see your vision of where the department of treasury is going to go. let's talk about regulatory reform. you mentioned it in your remarks. i know that you have talked to stakeholders all around the country, independent regional and large banks, regulators, consumer advocates, academics, analysts and investors, the whole range, to get a clear picture of what the regulatory framework is now. what would you say is your most significant challenge that you have encountered to this point to getting real meaningful regulatory relief? >> thank you very much. first of all, let me just say under the president's executive order we've examined regulatory changes for the financial system. while this looks at many aspects of dodd

mr. secretary. at this time we will proceed to the questioning where each senator will have five minutes. i'm going to begin the questioning and thank you also for the recent visits to my office i appreciate the opportunity to get to know you and see your vision where the department of treasury is going. let's talk about regulatory reform. i know you talked to stakeholders, academics, analysts and investors, the whole range to get a clear picture of what the framework is now what would you say is the most significant challenge that you encountered to getting the meaningful relief? >> under the executive order, we've examined the regulatory changes from the financial system and the wildest looks at many aspects and goes further we are pleased we delivered the first report and credit unions if we look forward to delivering the three reports as it impacts other areas. for us the biggest challenge is making sure and making sure they are working together to. we look forward to working on meaningful chang

mr. secretary, thank you very much. (audience applauding) - [announcer] we'd love to have you join us in the studio. visit our website at klru.org/overheard to find invitations to interviews, q&as with our audience and guests, and an archive of past episodes. - one of the first things that i told people when i walked in the room was, yeah, i'm asking you to raise your taxes and it's gonna cost you $7.81 a year so that we can fund these 22,000 low income students to get high quality, full day pre-k over the next eight years and then people can see what we stand for. - [announcer] funding for overheard with evan smith is provided in part by the alice kleberg reynolds foundation and hillco partners, a texas government affairs consultancy, and by klru's producers circle, ensuring local programming that reflects the character and interests of the greater austin, texas, community.

mr. secretary. the department of energy is a global leader in science and technology with an unrivaled network of national laboratories. the presidents budget will/many of the doe's essential program senate would devastate emerging clean energy jobs in our economy. it would kill science and innovation in the jobs the doe supports. the budget would raise electricity rates in the pacific northwest and a number of people will not be supportive of that. the budget would undermine u.s. energy leadership and that is post to grow millions of jobs around the world. according to the international energy agency more than $30 trillion will be invested in new facilities between now and 2040. we have heard a lot about the energy from this incident -- administration. i would like to hear less about exporting commodities that even nations like china are having major blowback on. and focus more on how we are going to focus on winning the opportunity and energy efficiency advanced technology and thinks that consumer

mr. secretary. if these sanctions don't work what would the next step be? general mcmaster, the next question to you, have we ruled out or anything on the table other than economic sanctions? >> let me say, i said this generally, we very much believe that sanctions do work and we will continue to monitor the situation and consider additional sanctions. >> to general mcmaster? >> the president's prioritized his concern for the venezuelan people. so he is only considering those options which would benefit directly the venezuelan people. >> mr. secretary. >> thank you very much. >> how many times has ofac sanction ad head of state before and does maduro have any assets in the u.s.? >> i can't comment on his assets and this will be the fourth head of state. >> mr. secretary? >> in the back. >> i have two questions. one about the sanctions and election yesterday. on elections do you elections an of the by maduro to consolidate power and in some state, that is their position and also "washington post" editorial board the venezuela january regime is in the directi

mr. secretary? >> i do, sir. >> do you agree from a homeland security point of view, the outcome in afghanistan matters in terms of whether it's a failed state or stable country? >> yes, sir, i do. >> do you believe that every soldier serving in afghanistan today, american soldiers and insurance policy against another 9/11? >> an insurance policy. >> against another 9/11 coming from -- >> oh, absolutely. >> do you agree with that, general dunford? >> if anybody falls in the service of their country in the service of afghanistan, they die for the homeland? >> believe strongly that the pressure that we've put on terrorist groups outside of afghanistan over the last 15 years is the reason we haven't seen another nerve. >> one of the best purchases you could have in dealing with international terrorism is afghanistan. do you agree with that, both of you? it's a good place to be in terms of countering international terrorism. >> the center of international terrorism, sir and we've got to confront them th

mr. secretary, for your opening remarks. i would like to recognize the secretary of state of maine for five minutes. >> thank you mr. vice president. i apologize i do not have any prepared remarks, so i will try to keep it within the 45-minute allotment. [laughter] our experience in maine is -- we are truly blessed to have the commitment of truly devoted and dedicated people across the state in 503 towns and 425 unorganized territories in the state of maine. from fort kent to kittery to ease part, the people that i work with in elections, i am the chief elections officer for the state of maine, but the actual election is run by the local town officials who put an extra in her amount of effort to make sure that their neighbors can freely and fairly exercise their constitutional franchise of democratic self-governance. we owe them a great deal. we have a great deal to be proud of. we do quick questions from time to time about something that happens in election. you get a few hundred allegations about possible double voting. be

mr. secretary. 16 years ago, secretary powell signed an agreement in south america in which the u.s. completely ruled out support of who was -- who would have an indirect change of government throughout latin america and supported the direct succession. this occurred in haiti when president aristide was overthrown. are you still abiding by the agreement secretary powell signed and ruling out any u.s. support of a coup or an uprising against the maduro regime that brings in new leadership? >> again, i'm just going to comment on we are focused on the democratic process and that's what we're focused on right now. thank you. one more question right here. one more question. >> are there going to be sanctions on the minister of defense, the people linked to the military? >> again, as i have said, we have announced sanctions. we will continue to monitor the situation and consider every one in the future. thank you. i appreciate it. >> you guys wasted all your questions on the same one over and over. just kidding. tough crowd today. i know it's a little late. i know we're used to doing the b

mr. secretary, you just mentioned the dprk. we know china and russia asked norththey korea to freeze the nuclear activities, and also they asked the u.s. to stop the deployment of our systems. -- didident putin president putin bring out the deployment of our system, and what is the expectation of president trump in tomorrow's meeting with president xi? thank you. centricy tillerson: the -- the subject of that the not come up with president putin. in terms of the progress of north korea and this last missile launch, those are some of the differences of views we have between ourselves in terms of tactics, how to do with this. president putin i think has expressed a view not unlike that of china that they would support a freeze for freeze. if we studied the history of the last 25 years, the engagement with various regimes in north korea, as has been done before. and every time it was done, north korea went ahead and proceeded with this program. the problem with freezing now, if we freeze where they are today, we freeze their activ

presentation of bill, mr secretary davis... the government'sjob will be bill, mr secretary davis...s... the government'sjob will be made harder because it doesn't have a majority in the house of commons, and opposition parties are clear they plan to battle the government we wa nt to plan to battle the government we want to bring eu law into british law and we would do it properly. at the moment, this bill doesn't do that. so we find that the government intends to make changes behind closed doors, they may put sunset clauses or deadlines in, they are not being reasonable with this is —— with the devolved administrations, we don't know how they intend to deal with disputes. they need to a nswer deal with disputes. they need to answer those questions. this morning, jeremy corbyn and his team headed for brussels for talks with the eu's negotiators, clear the party would derail the government's new bill unless changes are made. and the liberal democrats have warned ministers the government faces hell trying to get the repeal bill through. in the months to come, some tory mps may be tempt

mr. secretary, and, so promptly. we appreciate that you made time to appear before this committee twice in a weeks time passing an annual state department authorization bill was one of the fundamental responsibilities of the committee. and when we assert thatat responsibility and declined to exercise on our oversight, we surrender our authority to the executive branch and other congressional committeecongresse failed to do the job of the constituent.sesenc restoring this annual practice was a top priority of mine when i became the chairman and i'm proud of the significant progress that we have made when the first authorization bill in 14 years became law. and i want to thank senator cardin and everybody on the committee for making that happen.er however, because of the previous inaction there are programs that have not been appropriatelyer reviewed and analyzed in over a decade. this lack of oversight result in a certain policy goals, wastefud spend and a lack of transparency. this year's state authorization contains

mr. secretary, again so promptly. we appreciate that you've made time to appear before this committee twice in a week's time. passing an annual state department authorization bill is one of the fundamental responsibilities of this committee, and when we shirk that responsibility and decline to exercise our oversight we in essence surrender our authority to the executive branch and other congressional committees and fail to do the jobs our constituents sent us here to do. restoring this annual practice was a top priority of mine when i became chairman, and i'm proud of the significant progress we have made -- we made last year when the first authorization bill in 14 years became law. i want to thank senator cardin and everybody on this committee for making that happen. however, because of previous inaction there are programs at the department that have not been appropriately reviewed an analyzed in well over a decade. this lack of oversight results in uncertain policy goals, wasteful spending and a lack of transparency

mr. secretary, let me get your reaction to this dramatic report we just got. how dangerous is it for the president's national security adviser to feel undermined by his own colleagues in the white house? >> wolf, right now all i see in the white house is chaos. you have everybody shooting at each other. i think i remember moudall once saying the worse thing you can do with a firing squad is put them in a circle. everybody is shooting at one another. it is creating tremendous chaos. it is undermining the ability of the white house to respond to a number of important issues, whether it is dealing with health care on the hill, whether it is dealing with foreign policy issues. i just think it's a tragic situation. and my hope is that general mcmaster will stay in his position. he is a good man. he is trying to do the right thing when it comes to national security issues. i just hope that he remains as national security adviser. >> i want to turn to another important issue that has come up over the past day or so. the president announcing yesterday on twitter that

mr. secretary. we've got time for a few questions. i appreciate you staying to talk. obviously i think one of the areas that the housing community is probably most anxious about is related to the budget that's been proposed by the administration and i think you've said in the past you don't expect anyone to get kicked out of housing. i think whether the issues of reductions in the housing choice vouchers or public housing properties that can't exist on sufficient funds, the resident can't afford a higher payment or rental assistance provided by home, that feels like a difficulty to achieve. i wanted to give you chance to talk about what's going to give and how will we sort of achieve keeping folks from losing their housing if hud's budget going to shrink by $7 billion. >> sure. very good question. cbg homes are actually not the primary mechanisms for rental assistance. it's section 8, tenant based, and, you know, given the fiscal restraints we have to prioritize in terms of which things we're going to really emphasize. now, there are millions of families, 4.6 million

mr. secretary. sixteen years ago, secretary powell signed an agreement in south america in which the u.s. completely ruled out support of coups that would have a indirect -- in south america. this occurred in 80. are you still abiding by the agreement secretary powell signed in ruling out any u.s. support of a coup, or an uprising against maduro to bring a new leadership? >> we are focused on the democratic process and that is what were focused on right now. one more question. >> other sanctions on -- link to the military? >> we have announcing shins and

mr. secretary, let me assure you that this election, britain has a strong government and a steadfast commitment to defense. having delivered on our promises to meet the 2% target and to build the new ships and planes and tanks that armed forces required, we will continue stepping up, thinking always globally. america under your new presidents faces great challenges of tomorrow and britain will remain by your side, confronting aggression and relentless in the fight for freedom. thank you. defense sec. mattis: thank you. thank you ladies and gentlemen for coming. we appreciate it. is yourrth korea, what thessment on the status of warhead? defense sec. mattis: we are still analyzing the latest test at this time, so i do not want to speculate or mislead you at this point. obviously they are continuing to mature in threat and in violation of the united nations and that is the way that we look at it. i cannot give you a specific on that. but thank you very much. >> do you believe there will be further testing? [indiscernible] defense sec. mattis: as far as another test in the future, you will have to

mr. secretary and mr. chairman for your indulgen indulgence. we will stand in recess for 15 minutes and reconvene at 5:49. thank you. thank you for being here, sir. you know how i feel about you. i appreciate the proactive approach you took a. it's something we feel strongly about in 2017 the senate and the house and the national defense authorization act with a take on additional responsibilities with regards to d get this informatin coming from countries intended to destabilize democracies, undermined some of our basic values and institutions. russia and china come to mind. my question for you, is there an ability to keep some of these important entities in the global engagement centers, specifically from being weekend by the other organizations that could lead to a more difficult time and the responsibilities. >> certainly. thank you, senator. with respect to the engagement center it is a priority for something. we are flexible and there is a hiring freeze, but we are flexible and we've granted a number of exceptions, over 700 exceptions to

mr. secretary, this week, president trump said you were responsible for the passage of a health care bill. here's what he said about you. >> hopefully, he's going to get the votes tomorrow to start our path toward killing this horrible thing known as obamacare that's really hurting us. he better get 'em. oh, otherwise, i'll say, tom, you're fired. i'll get somebody. >> safe to say you still have your job. i know you say it was a joke. but there was a message to you there. what could you have done differently? do you feel you let the president down? >> i think what that statement was, one, i think it was -- a humorous comment that the president made. i think what it highlighted is the seriousness with which he takes this issue. he understands that the american people are hurting because of obamacare. we have over 30% of the counties across the nation have one insurer offering coverages. premiums and deductibles are up. we have insurance companies fleeing the market. the president understands that this -- obamacare right now is not working for the patients across this land. that's what he w

mr. secretary, notice context of those that were elevated to the secretary, was there any occasion where factors not related to government's efforts to combat trafficking come up in the discussion about a country's ranking? >> none. >> none whatsoever. >> none. >> so in china's case it was purely what they did as it relates to the lack of their standards meeting under the trafficking persons act. >> exactly. the secretary applied the statutory standards to the facts. >> okay. thank you, chairman. >> i appreciate the kind of questions that have been asked. and i really do. and i think that highlighting the importance of this to all of us but also the premeetings that we many of the people that you refer to, ambassador, that put this report together and in charge of regions points to the fact we care deeply about this issue. i do think that this year's report was vastly, vastly different than what we experienced in 2015. but i still appreciate the fact that people want to probe and understand why decisions are made about child soldiers and/or other issues. so i hope you can see the importa

mr. secretary, thank you for being with us. when you hear the commander of u.s. forces in the korean peninsula say that self-restraint is all that is preventing war, that sounds pretty terrifying to a lot of people. how long do you believe this self-restraint can or should last? >> it's been lasting for some time now. the north has been engaged in provocative action for years, building its nuclear capability and missile technology, engaged in attacking south korean boats, killing a number of sailors, et cetera. this has been going on a long time. and the south has exercised, as has the united states, great restraint, because there are some 800,000 troops on the border of south korea, from the dmz, that could rain havoc on seoul. nothing has changed except it's gotten worse. the north korean allies, china and russia, have been helping his economy grow. we used to say you can't have guns and butter. well, he's had guns, but he's also had butter. furnished by the russians and the chinese and others. the reaction has to be to go after the countries supporting the nor

mr. secretary, bloomberg news.ou tell us whether president trump said there would be any consequences for russia for the interference in the u.s. election? did he spell out any specific consequences that russia will face. and also, when does it begin, and what makes you think the cease-fire will succeed this time when past u.s.-russia agreements on cease-fire have failed? >> with regard to the interference in the election, i think the president took note of actions that have been discussed by the congress, most recently additional sanctions that have been voted out of the senate. to make it clear as to the seriousness of the issue. but i think what the two presidents, i think rightly focused on, is how do we move forward. how do we move forward from here. because it's not clear to me that we will ever come to some agreed upon resolution of that question between the two nations. so the question is, what do we do now? and i think the relationship and the president made this clear, as well. it's too important. and it'

mr. secretary, with all due respect, you're blaming me for what the president of the united states has spent his entire week focused on? >> no. listen to me. with all due respect. the american people are concerned about a health care system that is not providing choices, where premiums are going up, where the insurance companies are vacating markets across this land. that's what they want us to concentrate on and fix, and that's what i and the president are working on. >> why isn't the president as devoted to this as you are? >> i think that he is, absolutely. the fact of the matter is that he can do more than one thing at a time, and the challenge that he's put before us at the department of health and human services is to make certain that we not only just address the issue of this health care piece of legislation but address the united states' role in the world as it relates to pandemic influenza, to address the united states' role in the world as it relates to research and development, to make certain we're on the cutting edge of incredible innovation that's available to decrease human s

mr. secretary. >> good morning.onderful to be with you this morning. >> wonderful to have you on the broadcast. help us try to understand what you think is about to happen next given what took place last night and the new conversation about perhaps passing a skinny version of this bill >> yesterday what the senate did was to pass a procedural motion to make certain that they could get to debate and then vote on various aspects of health care reform understanding that the situation that we're in right now is untenable. and so what will come up is a series of amendments a series of substitutions for the house bill and then they'll work through that over the next day or two or three. and the end product of that will be what passes the senate and that will go into conversation likely with the house of representatives to come up with a final piece of legislation to try to move us forward in the direction of patient centered health care where patients and families and doctors are making decisions and not your federal gove

mr. secretary and mr. chairman for your indulgen indulgence. we will stand in recess for 15 minutes and reconvene at 5:49. thank you.

mr. secretary. thank you, mr. chairman, for your indulgence. >> we will stand in recess for 15 minutes. we will reconvene at 5:49. you are welcome to our great coffee back there or sitting and talking to others, but thank you. >>> recess will end and we'll stand in hearing again. i'll move to senator portman. thank you for being here, sir. >> thank you, mr. chairman. secretary sullivan, you know how i feel about you. i appreciate the proactive approach you took on getting ot ot otto warmbier home. i appreciate you coming to his funeral. i know the reorganization was a topic of discussion and i want to talk to you about that as it relates to the global engagement center. as you know it is something i feel strongly about. in 2017 as a senate and house in the national defense authorization act asked the global engagement center to take on additional responsibilities, specifically with regard toinformation coming from countries intended to destabilize democracies, undermine some of our basic values and institutions. russia and china come to mind. gc also has an important role, as you know,

mr. secretary, i am asking you why the president of the united states, mr. secretary, with all due respect, you are blaming me of what the president of the united states spent his entire week is focused on? >> insurance companies vacating markets all across the land thar that's what they want us to fix and that's what i am and the president are working on. why is the president not as devoted to this as you are. >> absolutely. >> he can do more than one thing at a time. and the challenge that he's put before us at the department of health and human services to make certain that we not only address the issue of the healthcare legislation but address the united states world of the world as it relates to researches and developments and make certain that we are on the cutting edge of this incredible innovation that's available to decrease humans suffering, not just the united states but around the world. that's the challenges that he's given us. secretary price. >> i don't think a lot of people envy or the position that the president put you in. thank you for comi

has the government been underpaying nurses and teachers, mr secretary? we can all have a view.red, but things have changed since 2010, and politics sees other issues as more pressing — none more so than pay forfive million public workers.