mr. sullivan: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: madam president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. sullivan: i ask unanimous consent that andrew hamp alternation an intern in my office, be granted floor privil for t rainder the day. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: madam president it it's thursday and it is one of the best times of the week for me and i know the parliamentarians and others who work here in the senate, now the pages are going to learn this, too, because it' the time every week i get to talk about what i call the alaskan of the week, someone who's made a difference in my state, someone who's doing a great job, someone who's oftentimes an unsung hero, doesn't get a lot of attention but deserves it. that's what we do here. as i like to say, alaska is a very, very beautiful state. i think the most beautiful state in the country, probay the most beautiful place in the world. and now summer has arrived. the sun hardly ever sets. the fish are running. the air is

mr. sullivan: i want to thank, mr. president, my colleague, senator murkowski from the great state of alaska, our great state, talking about someone we really care about but someone who is going to do really important things for the entire country. for the entire country. you know, senator murkowski talked about tara sweeney's background. when she held -- when we had the confirmation hearing in indian affairs, i had the honor of introducing her and she did fantastic in that hearing. republicans, democrats all agreed. and when you look at her background, she's a leader. she is a leader. you can read her resume. you can see all the things that this young woman, relatively young woman has accomplished. senator murkowski mentioned some. she was, for example, the cochair of the alaska federation of natives. that's an elective position in alaska. almost 20% of our population are alaska natives. she was one of the youngest cochairs ever in that incredibly important organization. she was the chair of the arctic economic conf

mr. chairman. >> senator sullivan. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you for volunteering to serve again. i think that was a powerful opening statement, one of the best that i'v i've heard on anyt nominee and i want to thank you for that. i fully intend to support your nomination and hopefully most of my colleagues or all of my colleagues will as well. i appreciate you and the chairman already talking about rural issues as i've said before there's a rural america, extreme, and then alaska. it's not just the size. i don't like doing this to the ranking member, but you mentioned montana and i think we are close to five times the size of montana but it's also the expansive you look at as we've talked about in our meeting if you look at the expense of alaska and superimposed it over the southeast communities like my state it would be any kind of a northern florida area. the northern communities in my state would be like the northern part of north dakota and the chain would extend out to san francisco, so my state is a continent wide place and yet we

mr. chairman. >> thank you senator sullivan. >> thank you, mr. wilkie for your service and continued desire to serve. >> as you can tell, we are all proud of veterans in our state. we want to make sure you don't move everything to alaska. >> that's right. we still don't have a hospital so i don't think that's going to happen. >> secretary tillis won't let me move everything. >> that's right. >> anyway, this morning there were 93 va jobs on the va federal jobs for west virginia. we have full time primary care physicians needed in different countries, psychiatrist, social work coordinator at clarksburg and registered nurses. we'll submit everything for you. and we brought there to your predecessors before. what plan do you have in recruiting, especially in rural areas, whether it be alaska, west virginia, rural north carolina, or nevada, all of our states, montana, georgia, what's your plan to basically get more people involved in helping us in the va with expertise? >> yes, sir. i would go back to experience i had with secretary tillis when the ri

mr. sullivan, welcome back you guys are off to a very strong start with comparable store sales up double digits how are you doing it >> yeah, it's -- first of all, it's great to be back, tyler thank you for having me on last year was remarkable we had 15% comp store increases and we were all a little nervous going into 2018, and we're having double digits comps again. this week actually, father's day week, we will break history for our company. it will be the biggest sales week in the company's history and saturday will be the biggest selling day of the year, so it's really exciting right now. i know you had david on from taylormade earlier in the week there's a lot of good progress and interest >> we're glad you watch "power lunch. we appreciate that how important is it that tiger woods is prominent again in golf does it boost sales? does it help taylormade which is now his manufacturer of choice >> well,it certainly doesn't hurt it definitely helps. you know, but i'll say this. the beginning part of the year, certainly in markets where golf was at a fever pitch, whether it be florida o

mr. michael sullivan, the crew of the oceanography ship the savanna. -- savannah. mr. carter: while they were on the savannah conducting a fish survey, they were contacted by the coast guard about a nearby ship in distress. after searching multiple location, they located and saved two florida fishermen struggling to cling to their lives. the fishermen had been taking on water for five hours and couldn't keep up with the water flowing into the ship. if the savannah had not located and rescued the fishermen it's possible they wouldn't have survived. i sincerely thank the university of georgia's captain sweatt and mr. sullivan for their bravery and heroic actions in this emergency situation to save the lives of two fellow americans. thank you, mr. speaker. yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent that in the engrossment of the bill h.r. 6157, the clerk be authorized to make technical corrections and conforming changes including inserting amendment number 1 printed in house report

sullivan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. general, welcome, i'm very thankful that you are willing to take on this job. i want to thank your family as well. in terms of qualifications i think you might be uniquely qualified for this task. we don't get many generals in front of this committee that not only have the expense you have but purple hearts and exceptional awards for valor that i want to thank you for that and think your family as well. your command particularly is relevant for your next assignment. i certainly plan on supporting you fully. you are seeing the themes, about 17 years in a long time, many turning points but really not the turning points the ct mission is critical, pakistan is a safe haven, i think there's a lot of good questions here. i want to ask you to maybe take this opportunity to educate us and the american public who have a lot of interest in these. right now you'll be going into a broader mission that's focused on and advise and assist mission and also a ct mission. can you explain the difference

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator sullivan. senator reed and i would like to entertain if someone has one final question to ask. all right? >> one followup to that. >> i knew you would: thank you. i'm here, right? might as well do it and that's important. how should the country think about the idea of a long war? you have been in charge of it. we are overseeing it. there's discomfort here, 17 years in, but do we need to just have a different mind set? the way that general abizzaide talked about ten years ago. >> if it's acceptful. as we discussed, part of this is building the force for the long haul. are you sustainable? if this is going to be enduring -- and i'm not talking about afghanistan here specifically. how do you posture the force, how do you array the forths to get set to handle the security challenges? we have many discussions on that and a lot of the array of our forces are based on that, as well as orient agency collaboration and cooperation and multi-national engagement was well. >> thank you. >> and general mille

sullivan. how likely is what mr. kudlow said likely to happen? >> it seems kind of unlikely.or one, the u.s. trade partners, canada and mexico, have reiterated that they would like to stick with the trilateral agreement. though kudlow seems to be firming up this idea that trump had earlier floated, i don't see how the u.s. trade partners would take two separate deals. it just would not be a nafta agreement. i don't think there is strong support for this in congress. we heard a top senator say he would like to see a trilateral agreement remain and to keep the course on renegotiating nafta, not something new. hard to see that happening. guy: especially with what is happening -- ramy: especially with what is happening with mexico putting tariffs on u.s. pork. those sides seem really far apart. no exaggeration. it a deal still possible this year? greg: it kind of looks like it is not anymore. we heard that earlier the white house was trying to wrap up a deal by may because of deadline debatedetting something and approved in congress. we heard from a key house member that the dead

sullivan theater.i'm ur host, s. >> oh, that's who you are! >> stephen: nice to meet you, mr. patterson. first time we've spoken.od to have aounjoy it? >> i do. i think you have a real future in this. >> stephen: thank you very much, thank you very much. i think you do, too. ( laughter ) now, you guys have been on the book tour-- how long have you been doing the book tour so far? >> second day. >> stephen: second day. well, it's been an eventful two days so far. i noticed-- i watch you on "the today" show yesterday morning. i noticed you didn't enjoy the entire interview. i want you to enjoy this one. but i do want to ask you something which is, when i got home last night, on the cnn-- they had a lower-third banner that said something about "william clinton's tone-deaf response to the question from "the today show." my question is, would you like a do-over on that answer? do you-- do you understand why some people thought that was a tone-deaf response-- >> absolutely. >> stephen: ...to his questions about the me, too movement and how you might reflect on your behavior 20 years ago, and how that reflection may ch

mr. cantor. but up next, opec's decision on alpha. brian sullivanoin us >> thank you and speaking of the trump administration, after today will the president of the united states be able to say that he helped push opec to raise oil output a decision is coming later today. it looks like he will. we'll be live from vienna, austria, right after this. hi! are you two getting along? oh, yeah, yeah. [ hiss ] [ gasps ] [ birds chirping] ♪ no matter what you are they're a perfect match. the new ipad and xfinity stream app. hey guys, i'm home! surprise! i got a puppy. add an ipad to select packages for just $5 a month for 24 months. upgrade online now. >>> welcome back to "squawk box" this morning oil producers have a big decision to make in vienna brian sullivan is there right now and joins us live. good morning to you, brian >> hey, good morning thank you very much. listen the outcome it looks like we're going to get more oil. we're going to have a headline right now in vienna that says there will be more oil on the market in a month or two than there curr

sullivan theater in new york city, it's stephen colbert! ( cheers and applause ) ( theme song playing ) >> stephen: how are ya? ( cheers and applause ) haj, children of all ages, mr. and mrs. america and everyone, thank you so much. welcome to "the late show." i'm your host, stephen colbert. every day i get up, i'm hopeful i'll be surprised by the news. ( laughter ) but, mostly, i'm just shocked by how unsurprising the news is. the latest "holy predictable" comes from the humanitarian crisis on our southern border. first of all, there's still no announcement on what they're going to do to put these stolen kids back together with their parents. and no indication that they could successfully do it. "23andme is donating d.n.a. kits to help reunite migrant families." ( applause ) good for them, yes. but while they're at it, can they test trump's d.n.a., too? ( cheering ) ( piano riff ) just to be sure. i want to find out what species can survive that long without a heart. ( laughter ) ( applause ) >> what is he pumping through his body? i think it's fry oil. because the president is not freeing the children, and i just want to repeat that sentence. the president is n

mr. sullivan: mr.president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: mr. president, it's thursday, and as you know because you preside a lot on thursday, that means it's the afternoon in which i get to talk about someone in my state who's doing a great job for the state and oftentimes for the country, somebody who's really making a difference. and as you know and the pages know, i like to refer to this person as the alaskan of the week. it's one of my favorite parts of the week here in the senate, being able to talk about someone who's made a real difference. right now in alaska where i give this speech every week, i like to talk about what's going on in alaska. it's certainly the most beautiful state. it's the biggest state, we all know that, in the country. and the state's fully in bloom. its tourists are flocking north by the tens of thousands to view the wildlife and the glaciers and the mountains. they'll eat our delicious seafood, take in ama

mr. cassidy: i ask unanimous consent that andrew hampton, an intern in senator sullivan's office, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the day. the presiding officer: without objection. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. cassidy: mr. president, i'm here to speak about honoring steve gleason with the congressional gold medal. steve is well known in louisiana through the gulf coast and to football fans across the country. he's a washington state native, as senator murray recently spoke, but now lives in new orleans with his wife, michelle, and his son, rivers. steve played in the nfl for eight seasons, mostly with the new orleans saints, famous for the new orleans saints because on september 25, 2006, monday night football, the first game back in the superdome when the superdome reopened after hurricane katrina, the saifntses were playing their arch rierval the hated atlanta falcons. probably the presiding officer likes the falcons. the falcons were punting deep in their own territory. steve broke through the line, blocked the punt, the ball recovered for a touc