mr. sullivan: tab 5, sir? mr. nields: tab 5. mr. sullivan: and, what page sir? mr.ields: it's right at tab 5, on that page. mr. sullivan: well, would you give us a moment to read it, sir? mr. nields: yes. mr. sullivan: could you help us out, mr. nields? do i begin the reading right on tab 5, or the page behind it? mr. nields: right on tab 5, and my question is simple. did you tell the iranians with whom you were negotiating on october 8 and 9th that the secretary of defense had told the president at his most recent meeting, when the american people find out that this has happened, they'll impeach him? that's the entire question. did you say that to the iranians? lt. col. north: does it say that on this page, sir? mr. nields: yes, at the very top. lt. col. north: mr. nields, this is apparently one of the transcripts of tape recordings that i caused to be made of my discussions with the iranians. i would like to note that for every conversation, whenever it was possible, i asked for the assistance of our intelligence services to trans -- to tape record and transcribe

mr. sullivan: mr. chairman. may i please register and -- register an objection. chairman inouye: may i continue my statement. mr. sullivan: i find this offensive! i find you engaging in a personal attack on colonel north, and you are far removed from the issues of this case. to make reference to the nuremberg trials, i find personally and professionally distasteful, and i can no longer sit here and listen to this. chairman inouye: you will have to sit there, if you want to listen. mr. sullivan: mr. chairman, please don't conclude these hearings on this unfair note. i have strong objections to many things in the hearings, and you up there speak about listening to the american people. why don't you listen to the american people and what they have said as a result of the last week. there are 2000 telegrams and our room outside the corridor here that came in this morning. the american people -- chairman inouye: i'm sure that there are. mr. sullivan: the american people have spoken and please stop this personal attack against colonel north. chairman inouye: i have sat

mr. sullivan's left...mr. sullivan: which book, sir? book 1? exhibit 1? john nields jr: book 1, exhibit 1. that is a draft, is it not, of the kind of document you were just referring to? north: yes. john nields jr: and, on page 5, at the end of that draft, there is a line heading "recommendation," and the recommendation is that the president approve the structure depicted above under "current situation" and the terms of reference at tab a. and it has a line for "approved" and a place to check, and a line for "disapproved" and a place to check, is that correct? north: that's correct. john nields jr: and that's the kind of memorandum, again, that you just testified about? north: yes, it is. john nields jr: this is a draft. but i think you just testified that on five different occasions, you put one of these drafts in final form? north: it is my recollection that each we prepared to conduct one of those transactions -- and not all of them went through to fruition. there were only three that actually transpired during the time that i was supervising this acti

mr. sullivan, how many of these positions are you contemplating right now liminated? >> senator markey, there is no preconceived view on any of those, those offices. the goal is for all of those issues and all of the issues that are represented or addressed by those offices all are important. our overriding goal is to make sure those issues are addressed properly. one concern we have with a special envoy is, speaking generally, is that they are delinked from the substantive bureau. so for example, for the northern ireland representative, it's not part of the european bureau. so it wouldn't be the case, i don't think, with a prejudging but just as an example, for that special envoy rather than being a special envoy outside of the

mr. sullivan. that's a concern i have and i think others have as well. and northern island is another example. maybe we can say now who cares, but it's moved on to a more mature area. but in the area of brexit, there's likely to be an exacerbation of tensions that we haven't seen in a long, long time. and to be honest the formation of the government, the new government in great britain is dependent upon this alliance with a northern ireland party that may or may not square up with cut of the objectives which the united states has been trying to advance over the years. i just point that out to you and i would hope that we might be able to get the sequencing correct. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. thank you very much. senator udall. [inaudible] >> mr. chairman, thank you very much, and thank you, deputy secretary sullivan, for joining us do you believe career foreign service and civil service officers serve an important role in our nation's diplomacy? >> unquestionably. >> and will you increase efforts to integrate the new political leadership of t

mr. sullivan. that's a concern i have and i think others have as well. and northern island is another xample. maybe we can say now who cares, but it's moved on to a more mature area. but in the area of brexit, there's likely to be an exacerbation of tensions that we haven't seen n a long, long time. and to be honest the formation of the government, the new government in great britain is dependent upon this alliance with a northern ireland party that may or may not square up with cut of the objectives which the united states has been trying to advance over the years. i just point that out to you and i would hope that we might be able to get the sequencing correct. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. thank ou very much. senator udall. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much, and thank you, deputy secretary sullivan, for oining us do you believe career foreign service and civil service officers serve an important role in our nation's diplomacy? i'm hoping you can help us answer these questions. there are properties all over the world with the trump name dis

mr. sullivan? >> no, i think the ambassador summed it up well. >> thank you. >> i think we're about ready to wrap up. thank you and i'm sorry we've got multiple things happening right now. none more important than this. we will keep the record open until the closing of business monday. we thank you for your testimony and staying through the reports. great production. we look forward to continuing to work with you on this issue and all the outstanding people ambassador coppridge referred to. we look to continuing the relationship with you in other ways we hope. and with that the meeting is adjourned. thank you. >>>friday on c-span 3 a discussion about the annual medicare trustees report with remarks. live coverage starts at 9:15 eastern time. and at noon eastern a look at the foreign intelligence surveillance act also known as ficea. the congressional internet caucus committee is considering amending the law to restrict surveillance of online communications by u.s. intelligence agencies. watch it li

mr. sullivan, on latin america? >> no, i think the am bass coba summed it up very well. >> thank you. i appreciate the witnesses and i thank you for your testimony. >> i think we're about ready to wrap up. >> thank you. i'm sorry we've got multiple things happening right now, none more important than this. we will keep the record open until the close of business monday. we thank you for your testimony, for coming back for this and staying through the reports. great production. we look forward to continuing to work with you on this issue and the department and all of the outstanding people that ambassador coppidge referred to. we look forward to a continuing relationship with you, in other ways we hope, and with that the meeting is adjourned. thank you. >> thank you. >>> the senate foreign relations committee meets tuesday to can consider the nomination of callista gingrich to be ambassador to the vatican. she is the wife of former house speaker newt gingrich. in addition to her testimony the testimony will hear from nathan sales, the nominee for state department temperature cord nator

mr. sullivan: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. sullivan: mr. president, i want to talk a little bit about what's going on on the senate floor right now. so we just had a nomination for the deputy secretary of defense. we're trying to move him along. a really important job. and it's taken some time. as a matter of fact, it's taken a long time, mr. president. as you know, to get nominees from the white house confirmed by this body to run the government, to run the government. pretty important job to run the government. we not only need cabinet secretaries, which by the way took months for this body to confirm. it slowed down the confirmation of the white house's choices to run the federal agencies. no real explanation why. and now under secretary, deputy secretaries, assistant secretaries, federal judges, delay, delay, delay, delay. we're supposed to be trying to put people in place

mr. sullivan's -- >> which book sir? mr. nields: book one, exhibit one. do you have that in front of you colonel north? lt. col. north: i have exhibit one. mr. nields: that is a draft, is it not, of the kind of document you were just referring to? lt. col. north: yes. mr. nields: and on page five, at is end of that draft, there recommendation, and the recommendation is that the president approve the structure depicted above under the terms of reference at tab a, and it has a line for approved and a place to check and disapprove and a place to check. lt. col. north: that is correct. mr. nields: that is the kind of memorandum you just testified about. lt. col. north: yes it is. mr. nields: this is a draft, but i think you just testified on five different occasions you put one of these drafts in final form. lt. col. north: it is my recollection that each time we prepared to conduct one of those transactions, and not all of them went through to fruition -- there were only three that transpired during the time that i was supervising this activity -- but it is

mr. sullivan. so just on the issue of special envoys, this is precisely why we need to look at the entire organization so we're not doing an end run around our regional bureaus, our functional bureaus and so forth, but it would be helpful. i agree with both sides of the aisle that we need to at least over a period of time establish some operating principles and inform us when a special envoy will be appointed, when one won't. one possibility is that we are notified and that special envoy will continue to exist unless we affirmatively indicate after 60 days or whatever that that special envoy was inappropriately from our perspective put in place. i would like to pivot to the proposed merger, at least circulating in some circles, the contemplated merger of usaid with the state department. csi has published what i thought was some instructive and thoughtful analysis of the merger of united states information agency and the state department in 1999 and why that went awry. i would like to just read some

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, in providing the counternarrative and pushing back against islamic extremism. so my question for you, is there an ability to keep some of these important entities like the global engagement center specifically from being weakened by a hiring freeze or other reorganizations that could lead to it having more difficult

mr. sullivan: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. ivan: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. sullivan: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: mr. president, as you know, for months now, i have been coming to the floor to recognize a special alaskan, somebody who makes my great state a better place for all of us to live, someone we call the alaskan of the week. usually an unsung hero who has done great things but doesn't want anyone to tell you about it because they're humble, humble people. some of these people have been very well known throughout the state. others that i mentioned are doing their jobs in different communities throughout the state, but they're all considered our alaskans of the week. unsung, well known, they all share a love for alaska for good reason. there is so much to love about our great state. i know most of the people in this room and watching on tv and in the gallery think of alaska as a majestic place, majestic landscape. it's tru

mr. sullivan. >> aye. >> mr. tester. >> no. >> mr. thune. mr. tillis. >> aye. >> mr. toomey. >> aye. >> mr. yu dal. >> no. >> mr. van hol in. >> mr. warner. ms. warren. >> no. >> mr. white house. mr. wicker. mr. widen. mr. young. >> aye. [ no audio ] >> senators voting in the affirmative. al xander, blasso, blunt, boseman, burr, kcapito. cassidy, cochran, corker, cornen, crapo, dans, enzi, ernst. fisher, flake, gardner, graham, grassley, hatch, hoven, inhoff, isaacs isaacson, kennedy, langefort, lee, paul, purdue. portman, rich, roberts, rounds, rubio, scott, shelby, strange, sullivan, thune, tillis, toomey, wicker, young. senators voting in the negative. baldwin, bennett, blumenthal, booker, brown, cant well, carden, carper, casey, collins, coons, cortez masto, donnelly, duckworth, durbin, feinstein, franken, jill brand, harris, haszen, hinrich, height camp, hirono, king, king -- leahy, manchin, marky, mccain, mccaskill, menendez, americaly, murcowski, murphy, murray, nelson, peters, reed, sanders, shots, schumer, shaheen, tester, udahl, van hollen, warner, warren, w

mr. sullivan. >> aye. >> mr. tester. >> no. >> mr. thune. mr. tillis. >> aye. >> mr. toomey. >> aye. >> mr. yu dal. >> no. >> mr. van hol in. >> mr. warner. ms. warren. >> no. >> mr. white house. mr. wicker. mr. widen. mr. young. >> aye. >> senators voting in the affirmative. al xander, blasso, blunt, boseman, burr, kcapito. cassidy, cochran, corker, cornen, crapo, dans, enzi, ernst. fisher, flake, gardner, graham, grassley, hatch, hoven, inhoff, isaacson, kennedy, langefort, lee, paul, purdue. portman, rich, roberts, rounds, rubio, scott, shelby, strange, sullivan, thune, tillis, toomey, wicker, young. senators voting in the negative. baldwin, bennett, blumenthal, booker, brown, cant well, carden, carper, casey, collins, coons, cortez masto, donnelly, duckworth, durbin, feinstein, franken, jill brand, harris, haszen, hinrich, height camp, hirono, king, king -- leahy, manchin, marky, mccain, mccaskill, menendez, americaly, murcowski, murphy, murray, nelson, peters, reed, sanders, shots, schumer, shaheen, tester, udahl, van hollen, warner, warren, white house, widen. >

mr. sullivan. >> aye. >> mr. taster. mr. tillis. >> aye. >> mr. toomey. >> aye. >> mr.dal. >> no. >> mr. van hollen. >> no. >> mr. warner. >> no. >> ms. warren. >> no. >> mr. whitehouse. >> no. >> mr. wicker. >> aye. >> mr. wyden. >> no. >> mr. young. >> aye. >> we've just learned that senator john mccain from arizona has voted no on this effort to get this skinny repeal of obamacare. we had also heard vice president mike pence is there at the capitol ready to cast the tie-breaking vote if need be. it's going to come down to the wire for senate republicans if they can get this bill passed here in the senate chambers. >> this could be a last ditch effort for republicans in the senate to repeal obamacare. >> senators voting in the affirmative. alexander, veraso. >> we've heard if they are having trouble, they could hold the vote open for a while, possibly to try to twist arms. it could go until dawn. it's really good theater. the votes are coming now in rapid succession. the senate healthcare freedom act is essentially the senate republicans' last dutch attempt to repeal

mr. sullivan, aye, mr. rono, no. divide can have a purpose, says amy walter of the cook political report: >> i don't think partisanship in and of itself is a bad thing. i think the challenge is when that alone is what prevents people from working together to do other things. >> reporter: part of the trouble: fewer moderates. data from the cook political report shows that 20 years ago, more than a third of all house districts were moderate, voting similarly to the nation as a whole. but since, then house districts have become more partisan-- red or blue-- and the number of moderate or swing seats has fallen by half. >> and they have all been replaced by idealogues: these are on the left or the right. >> reporter: one reason: special interest groups on the left and the right are spending record amounts of money in ads, and increasingly scoring lawmakers' votes on sometimes narrow issues. again, susan collins: >> unfortunately, there's a lot of pressure from outside special interest groups to toe the party line. they wa

mr. sullivan? >> aye. >> mr. tester? >> no. >> mr. thune? mr. tillis? >> aye. >> mr.oomey. >> aye. >> mr. udall. >> no. >> mr. van hollen? >> no. >> mr. warner? >> no. >> ms. warren? >> no. >> mr. whitehouse? >> no. >> mr. wecker? >> aye. >> mr. wyden? >> no. >> mr. young? >> a . >> senators voting in the affirmative, alexander, barrasso, blunt, bowesman, bury, capito, cassidy, cochran, corker, cornyn, crapo, daines, enzi, ernst, fisher, flake, gardner, graham, grassley, hatch, hoven, inhofe, isackson, johnson, kennedy, lankford, lee, mcconnell, paul, purdue, portman, ratio, robert, rounds, rubio, scott, shelby, strange, sullivan, thune, tillis, toomey, wicker, young. senators voting in the negative, baldwin, bennett, blumenthal, booker, brown, cantwell, cardin, carper, casey, collins, coons, cortez masto, donnelly, duckworth, durbin, feinstein, franken, gillibrand, harris, hassen, heinrich, hidecamp, hirono, king, klobuchar, leahy, manchin, markey, mccain, mccaskill, menendez, merkley, murkowski, murphy, murray, nelson, peters, reed, sanders, schatz, schumer, shaheen

mr. sullivan, on may 9th, in your nomination hearing, you were kind enough to indulge a number of different requests that i made of you. and you immediately followed up, proactively, with a letter. thank you for your responsiveness and thoughtfulness in the letter. you have taken action steps, and i'm grateful for all of that. the first issue i raised with you in that may 9th hearing pertained to the general accountability office. i think this is an underutilized institution of our federal government. they really provide some critical feedback, and programmatic issues, organizational issues and so forth. and i commend, for example, the department of state for taking their recommendation to improve the clarity and usefulness of this year's t.i.p. report. so that's an example of the sort of thing that, where they often add value. i note that as of this morning, gao's website reports there are 57 publications from gao with a total of 125 open recommendations for the department of state, including 28 priority recommendations that haven't been implemented or fully implemented. now, some of these

mr. sullivan, whether or not you believe the three key products, broad anything the base, reducing rates, simplifying the code, is still the key moving forward on this proposed movement of tax changes. >> well, i think they are very important. i also think revising our international tax system is a very important part for all the cross-border business activity that occurs and will be increasing over time. >> we talk about these words, broadening the base, simplifying the tax code, easy to say, what does that mean for the average taxpayer? >> so for the up average taxpayer it may not have an effect because the average taxpayer today is not affected by a lot of the things an issue here, so they may not be it itemizing tax codes. but if you do great rate expanding, that would take a lot of people out of the itemized income tax range. and that would have a positive effect on them and reduce the record-keeping burden and make the tax code simpler. there are things we can do that would involve broad anything the base, lowering the rate, greater simplification average for the taxpayer. >> i don'

mr. sullivan, is the preference over equity finance versus debt financing and economic policy issue that you think is important to adjust? if so what would you do about in the tax code? >> in the code today there's a difference in the treatment between dividends, the payment of dividends in the payment of interest. it creates distortion. having additional data in the system encourages systems to take on debt. it may affect the relative proportion of the debt. that's an example of a distortion in the tax code but as you try to level the put -- >> senator hatch has been talking about making dividends deductible. another way is to if the house bill does a deductibility of interest. any thoughts on it? >> i testified in my testimony that i thought corporate integration was better approach in going after interested act ability. based on my discussion with capital-intensive businesses come interested act ability is more important to them than most other issues. i somewhat disagree with my colic here, eric, because i believe that the debt bias is not led to over leveraging based on the research

mr. chairman. >> senator sullivan has some additional questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. gentleman, i want to follow-up on the north korea discussion briefly. i know you're korean history buffs in many ways. i heard you talk about the korean war yesterday in the house armed services testimony. general dunford, you talked about a potential conflict on the korean peninsula. general milly had similar testimony a couple of weeks ago before this committee about what a conflict on the korean peninsula could be like. you just mentioned the rapidly developing threat the north korea present in terms of an intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile. you stated it was the policy of the trump administration to prevent them from getting that capability. i think you have strong support from most members of the committee on that. but it does certain ly seem like those too issues are going to start colliding here relatively soon. and i know there's a lot of ways to present them from getting that kind of capability, left of launch kind of activities. but if one of those ways was a decisio

mr. spencer: i have not. sen. sullivan: i think that is something i have extra copy of that i would like you to take a look at. it is about the korean war and our lack of training and lack of readiness and what it did to the men and women in the marines and army that had to go fight. a really dire situation. book,cribed in the thousands of americans were killed in the summer of 1950 because they were not trained, hard, ready to fight. can you give me a sense of your philosophy on training sailors and marines? unfortunately in the last month, we have had accidents at sea. a lot of talk and concern about what happened with the refueling tanker just yesterday. what is your view on how we should be training our marines and sailors? mr. spencer: senator, it is my point of view, and if confirmed, the total will be set from the secretariat's office that we are all here for one purpose, and that is the pointy end of the spear. whether ay, all focus dental hygienist, whether motor pilot, we have tot train. it is mandatory. the bca

mr. spencer: i have not. sen. sullivan: i think that is something i have extra copy of that i would like you to take a look at. it is about the korean war and our lack of training and lack of readiness and what it did to the men and women in the marines and army that had to go fight. a really dire situation. as described in the book, thousands of americans were killed in the summer of 1950 because they were not trained, hard, ready to fight. can you give me a sense of your philosophy on training sailors and marines? unfortunately in the last month, we have had accidents at sea. a lot of talk and concern about what happened with the refueling tanker just yesterday. what is your view on how we should be training our marines and sailors? mr. spencer: senator, it is my point of view, and if confirmed, the tone will be set from the secretary's office that we are all here for one purpose, and that is the pointy end of the spear. all urgency, all focus whether a dental hygienist, whether motor pool, whether pilot, we are here to

mr. chairman, thank you very much and deputy secretary sullivan for joining us. just in the past week we have learned the state department spent approximately $15,000 at a trump hotel in vancouver when the president's daughter stayed there. the washington post obtained this information by the freedom of information act. this use of taxpayer dollars reminded me of the many questions in an unanswered letter that i sent to the state department, along with several other senators. i am hoping that you could help us answer these questions. there are properties all over the world with the trump name prominently displayed on them. many areas that have been targeted by terrorism. on march on march 8 i wrote asking what, if any taxpayer resources are being spent to secure trump organizations commercial real estate around the globe? first, will the state department respond soon? it has already been four months since we sent a letter? >> senator, you have my apologies that you have not received a response yet. >> do you have a timeline on how so you can respond? >> it is the

sullivan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. general, it is good to see you again. thank you very much for your continuing service. discussing the threats posed by both russia and north korea, there are two very different countries we are trying to figure out -- what's it going to take for us to alter the behavior of both of these countries? in the case of russia, it appears as though maintaining sanctions and possibly imposing ofe sanctions had some kind affect. would you agree with that? >> yes. in concert with our nato allies and other partners that targeted sanctions on russia do actually have affect and can affect their behavior. >> isn't it a lot harder to figure out what will incentivize north korea to alter their push to become a nuclear power? we think it will be placing a lot of emphasis on our hope that china will play a pivotal role in reining in north korea's ambition. do you think we are placing too much emphasis on china? diplomaticmentioned solutions or diplomatic approaches. adon't know that we even have confirmed ambassador to south korea, for exam

sullivan in black and white. >> diane carol will join our panel. also the very talented and please forgive me for blanking out on mrs. reese's first name, responsible for the excellent exhibition on pop culture, modern culture at the museum, the smithsonian national museum of african american history and culture. margo, she is a film maker and is also the granddaughter of ed sullivan and the daughter of diane carol. it's going to be a very interesting conversation. >> now tell us about tickets because we need tickets. >> yes you do. you need tickets. at the website. march on washington film festival.org. so whether the event is there's charge you need a reservation so please some of them are already sold out. you want to get on there quick. >> you have done this with volunteers. >> yes. >> this year we issued a call through our list and we have many volunteers that will be working in different aspects of the festival in support of our work. >> i know it's going to be a fantastic ten days. >> it will be. >> educational entertaining and informative and ten days of awareness raising here in the washington area. >> it's

mr. speaker, rise today to recognize a rebounding community in the eighth district of indiana. sullivan county, indiana, is located in central west indiana along the roy bash river. home to roughly 21,000 proud hardworking hoosiers. the local economy relies on manufacturing and the coal and transportation industries. in the first six months of this new administration, we have worked with the trump administration to roll back aggressive job-killing federal regulations of the last eight years that have devastated this area of the country. the agenda we set forth of less regulation and lower taxes is breathing life into our local economies and communities like sullivan, indiana. as of may, 2017, the unemployment rate in sullivan county is at a 27-year low, sitting at 3.3%. just a year ago the unemployment rate was 7%. mr. speaker, as we continue to work on behalf of the american people, i'm hopeful this trend continues and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from indiana yields back his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek reco

. >> that show was off the air, fred sullivan was on the telephone with me saying is it showing that woman. >> hello, no this is not mrfriendly it's mrs. friendly. mr. friendly has a much higher voice. >> now get your coat and come on? >> what makes you think you can order me around like that? >> you're my wife i have the wife. >> when he says wife he means possession. >> so what maude. >> really turn the spin off series into an art form. >> normally -- called the here factory. all the series come out of this building allowing heard leer -- leer to move -- >> "good times" was like holy smoke that's a black family. >> you never see a black show with the father present. >> we got $32 and a show box and i got another $6 in my pocket. >> you worked all night and all they paid you was $6. >> there were a lot of people not happy with the show. the black panthers were very upset. the big complaint was why can't we see a black man that's doing better than that. >> the jefr sons started as neighbors of archie bonger. >> don't call me honky. >> why are youo sensitive all of a sudden. >> how wou you like it if i called you nigge

sullivan george and natalie. >> it's interesting that we've heard from many people here in the united states, the white house say that mrmay not bring up the election meddling. and we know that cnn now reporting that it looks like that russia is stepping up espionage in the u.s. has there been any reaction from the kremlin to this situation? and/or what mr. putin might say in response at this meeting? that's probably another question no one can answer yet. >> right your report -- referring to cnn reports citing officials in the u.s. who are alleging that russia has sent more intelligence agents, spies to the u.s. we reached out to the russian embassy in washington which declined to comment. we reached out to vladimir putin's spokesperson and he responded in a text from germany. good morning! . doesn't listen to fakes. and we're awaiting further response to the allegations. but probably russian officials will will use the same line of argument they've used for months, which is to argue that many allegations of russian meddling in the november 2016 election are ruso phobia. examples of paranoia. or in one line of argument

mr. chairman, senator cardin and members of the committee. it is a real privilege to be here before you today on an issue to which we are all dedicated. i'm honored to join deputy secretary sullivan and happy to answer questions on this year's tip report. i also to say i'm very humbled by the kind words that have been spoken about me this morning. the effort to produce this report, the state department white effort, there are five of his staff in the tip office year, our embassy personnel around the world, none of this hard work to be done without them and i'm the beneficiary of that hard work and dedication by the state department employees. hearings like this are very important to highlight u.s. governments commitment to combat trafficking here the tip report is used not only by governments but also by ngos and civil society members, some of whom are here today and many of whom will be watching. this conversation is a valuable opportunity to discuss the report analysis and how it can be used as an effective tool to help improve government responses around the world. i look forward to discussing the report with you. >> well, thank you. i again thank you both for your testament t

sullivan. good to have you on board, brian. so -- >> apparently it's not so interesting i'm here. >> it's great to have you here. >> i'm just hypersensitive, i don't know what it is. >> mrole lot of time. >> go, go, go. >> because this is important. obviously the media is obsessed for good reason with the russia story. >> yeah. it doesn't do anything for democrats. >> thank you. that's where i'm going. could you explain to democrats out there and your base how talking about russia on the campaign trail is not going to get you back in power. >> i don't know what more evidence you need. at the end of the day, even if you game this thing out and you get rid of trump, you're left with a guy who's out there talking about conversion therapy. it doesn't do anything for the democratic party and our agenda. unless we deal with the issues of economic anxiety, cultural issues in a substantive way and we get in the how business and we actually demonstrate with some acuity and strength a clear conviction in terms of the fate and future of this country, then we're never going to take back -- >> so you're running for governor, big state, biggest state in the union. take us down the in

mr. sullivan formerly served as the treasury department and internal revenue service holding various roles in the office of tax policy at treasury from 1999 to 2009, in both the clinton and george w. bush administrations. he was assistant secretary for tax policy in 2006 through 2009 and the irs he -- and at the irs he headed the corporate tax division in the office of chief counsel from 1990 to 1995. before his government service he practiced in new york city, was partner with brinker, biddle in philadelphia. mr. sullivan is a member of the executive committee of the tax section of the new york city state bar association and has been an officer of the american bar association, section of taxation, and teaches corporation taxation in the llm program at georgetown university. he is a graduate of princeton and a law school, and received his llm in taxation from new york university. finally we will hear from mr. monk j. major, the posen director of the urban brookings tax policy center. from 2012 until early this year mr. maiser served as assistant secretary for tax policy at department of tr