mr. sullivan: the u.s. position is clear because it is a position rooted in the one china policy, the taiwan relation, and the taiwan relations act is a unique instrument. we don't have it with other countries or ukraine. it talks about american commitments to support taiwan in various ways. the whole purpose of american policy toward taiwan is fundamentally designed to ensure we never face of circumstance in which we need to directly answer the question we posed. that is how we have approached things in the biden administration and to the extent we see china diverging from the policies that could maintain peace and stability, that they are keeping actions that undermine peace and stability across the taiwan straight, we will call them out and we have called them out because we believe there is a formula that works to maintain the status quo, to not have unilateral changes to the status quo. that is what the biden administration is pursuing. we think that is well understood by our partner ands should be und

mr. sullivan: i dispute that characterization. in fact, since august 31, we have evacuated afghans at risk in a range of categories including those who are siv eligible but don't have siv's. those who help u.s. government and other ways, or those who are at unique risk. we have had planes come out by 5 -- private charter. we have worked closely ourselves to have planes with american citizens i think the premise of your question is a policy that's not actually what our policy is. >> let's get another virtual question. >> we will take the next question from bill. >> i didn't have a question. >> you are off the hook. >> thank you, governor. [laughter] >> in that case, barbara. >> thanks very much. i feel strange with the mask. i want to follow-up up a little bit on iran. sorry, barbara from the atlanta counsel. -- atlantic council. iranians have consistently demanded some kind of sweetener, some kind of acknowledgment from the united states, that they have suffered great harm, as a result of that decision. south korea has $7 billion

mr. sullivan: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak up to ten minutes prior to the vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: mr. president, the next vote is going to be a motion to discharge from the judiciary committee judge who will -- judge holly thomas for the ninth circuit. i'm going to vote no. i'm going to vote no because i have not actually had the opportunity to meet judge thomas. in a remarkable undermining of senatorial tradition, the biden administration white house is now saying that no senator is allowed to meet a circuit court judge prior to the confirmation vote of the judge. mr. president, you might be tilting your head at me like that might seem crazy. well, it is crazy. every ninth circuit judge, a court of appeals that has enormous power over my state, every ninth circuit court judge, every one, i meet with to discuss issues. this is part of our advice and consent role, and, ye

mr. sullivan: it is like old times. with slight exceptions. welcome to today's meeting at the council on foreign relations, one of the final meetings of our 100 year as an institution. for those of you i have not seen in a year or two, i'm still the president of the council and our guest today is jake sullivan, the 28th assistant to the president for

mr. sullivan: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. serving the right to object. mr. president, i've worked very closely with my colleague from rhode island on many, many issues, and there's a pretty simple solution for my objection here, and it's related to judges, and it's related to the senate working with the white house to get judges confirmed. i gave a speech on the senate floor just about an hour ago, mr. president, talking about a remarkable breach of senate protocol where the white house won't let certain senators from the court of appeals of the ninth circuit states to meet with the nominees for the court of appeals for the ninth circuit. mr. president, that's an outrage. in my entire time in the u.s. senate, every time i've requested to meet with a judge who's going for confirmation to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit, i've had the opportunity to meet with that judge. and it's really important. i'm not going to repeat the arguments i made just an hour ago, but there's a simple solution here: we get to

mr. sullivan did not spell them out, although he did say these were measures the u.s. not take in 2014. we understand its various forms of financial sanctions as well as gas pipeline from russia to europe could be a possible target. he also mentioned other actions. he said if there was an invasion, the u.s. would increase its supply of defensive materials to ukraine. that the americans would fortify their allies in eastern europe with extra capabilities and deployments. there are already u.s. troop deployments in and out of eastern europe since the crimea invasion to give them extra training and support. that would be stepped up if there was another russian invasion. laura: president putin does not want nato to expand eastward into ukraine. is that even in the cards or does the white house see that a a russian excuse for amassing troops on the border? >> broadly speaking, the issue of expansion eastward has been a bone of contention for some time because nato did expand eastward after the end of the cold war despite assurances to the soviet union that it would not. tha

mr. sullivan, conversations between the united states and russia [indiscernible] and my second question is, how do you summarize this meeting? was it productive? was it good? jake: it was a useful meeting. it was useful in the sense it allowed president biden to lay out in clear and direct and candid terms where the united states stands on this issue and to do so having coordinated closely with his allies and partners beforehand and also to talk about a potential way forward. now, on the question of african partners, this is true the world over. the attempt to change the territories of another country by force should be vigorously opposed by every country in the world, including every country. one more. reporter: what was putin's demeanor over the course of the two hours? did he signal any willingness to back down? jake: again, i just make it a practice not to characterize the other side's position. he can speak for himself. i would say his demeanor, like president biden's demeanor, was direct and straightforward. and, again, as i said in my opening remarks, this was a real discussion. it

mr. sullivan: madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: thank you, madam president. madam president, today i wanted to rise on the senate floor and talk about a topic of utmost importance to my state, the great people that i have the privilege of representing, and what the biden administration is doing to good, hardworking american families in alaska. it's what i call the anti-alaska agenda or the biden administration's war on working families. and, madam president, i know that americans all across the country have felt pain, economic pain, health pain, unfortunately too many deaths as a result of the pandemic. right now we're seeing high energy prices, empty shelves. there's been a lot of suffering in america. we're a resilient people, however. my state, like many, have been hit very hard by the pandemic, particularly economically. our energy sector, our fishing sector, our tourism sector. and as we are coming out of this pandemic, and everybody trying to work together, we all want growth and opportunity in america, we have now b

mr. sullivan, no by sullivan, mrs. blackburn. mr. young. >> no by proxy. >> mr. lee, >> by proxy. mr. johnson. mrs. capito. mr. scott. miss lummis. miss cantwell. aye. >> thee are 14 the noes 14. the commit will report the tie vote to the floor of the senate. that conclude our markup for this morning. so we'll now turn to hearing -- again thank our colleagues for their attendance today. thank you for helping us get these important nominations filled. we look forward to working with all of them. now we will turn to our hearing this morning. our hearing is a very important set of nominees. i want to welcome them and their families to the dais. thank you so much for being here. first we will consider the nomination of gigi sohn to be commissioner of the federal communications commission. welcome to you and your family who i understand is joining you today. the pandemic demonstrates how essential broadband is to participate in our 21st century economy anti-fcc's critical role in helping our country be competitive. if confirm she will help lead the fcc's effort to address the lack of produ

mr. sullivan: thank you, madam president. madam president, it's thursday, and it's usually the day i get to come down to the senate floor, usually the senate's kind of wrapping up things. we're still pretty pissy right now, but it's -- busy right now, but it's the day i like to talk about somebody in my state, the great state of alaska, making a big difference either for their community, for their state, for their country, you name it, we call this person the alaskan of the week. we've done it a lot, and i usually like to give a little bit of an update. the pages typically really like this time of the week because we get to tell stories about alaska, about the adventure of alaska, but also about typically a little update about what's happening in the state. so right now, we're in a bit of a cold snap pretty much throughout the state. get getting a lot of snow throughout the state. we've seen some record low temperatures all across alaska, from homer, king salomon, bethel. monday in fairbanks, this is not even into december ye

mr. sullivan, between the united states and russian can affect african countries, and my second question is how do you summarize this meeting, it was productive, it was good or not? >> it was a useful meeting. it was useful in the sense that it allowed president biden to lay out in clear and direct and candid terms where the united states stands on this issue and to do so having coordinated closely with his allies and partners beforehand, and also to talk about a potential way forward. now, on the question of african partners, this is true of the world over. the attempt to change the territories of another country by force should be vigorously opposed by every country in the world. i'll just take one more question. >> what was putin's demeanor over the course of the two hours? did he signal any willingness to back down? >> again, i just make it a practice not to characterize the other side's position. he can speak for himself. i would say that his demeanor like president biden's demeanor was direct and straightforward, and again, as i said in my opening remarks, this was a real discussio

mr. sullivan, conversations between the united states and russia [indiscernible] and my second question is, how do you summarize this meeting? was it productive? was it good? jake: it was a useful meeting. it was useful in the sense it allowed president biden to lay out in clear and direct and candid terms where the united states stands on this issue and to do so having coordinated closely with his allies and partners beforehand and also to talk about a potential way forward. now, on the question of african partners, this is true the world over. the attempt to change the territories of another country by force should be vigorously opposed by every country in the world, including every country. one more. reporter: what was putin's demeanor over the course of the two hours? did he signal any willingness to back down? jake: again, i just make it a practice not to characterize the other side's position. he can speak for himself. i would say his demeanor, like president biden's demeanor, was direct and straightforward. and, again, as i said in my opening remarks, this was a real discussion. it

mr. sullivan: mr. president, i want to come down to the senate floor and commend a number of senators, but i want to particularly commend the chairman of the armed services committee, senator reed and the ranking member, senator inhofe, and their staff and all the staff on the armed services committee for the exceptional work they have done over the last several months to produce the strong national defense authorization act that just passed in a very strong bipartisan vote here on the floor of the united states senate. that vote, mr. president, was 88-11, and i think it's a prime example of something that i mention a lot back home is that there's a lot more bipartisan work that gets done near the senate that isn't often recognized and there is nothing more important than having senators from both sides of the aisle come together with regard to national defense and supporting our troops and their families. we've been doing that over 60 years in a row where we have passed the national defense authorizat

mr. sullivan, and i can -- i will let you -- we are going to continue looking at these issues. the chinese communist party's influence into u.s. companies and into technology and the silencing and censoring of free speech of u.s. citizens online. >> it's a really important issue. i appreciate that. >> senator lummis, you're recognized. >> thank you. i'm going to start directly with questions, and if i have any time left, i would like to read a statement into the record. but i'll start with a question for ms. miller. you tube has implemented several features, such as autoplay that have proven to make the platform difficult to stop using. what mechanisms has you tube employed to ensure that children specifically have tools to counter act these design decisions, and to believe those controls are sufficient. >> thank you for your question. autoplay is default off on you tube kids as well as in supervised experiences. we do allow if the default is changed to allow for autoplay, for example, if a family is in a car and they would like to have the parents have decided they want autopl

mr. sullivan, and i will -- we are going to continue looking at these issues on the chinese communist party teats influence into u.s. technology and into the silencing and sense urining of free speech of u.s. citizens online. >> great, it's very important, i appreciate that. senator, you are recognizeeds. >> thank you. i will start directly with questions and if i have time left, i would like to read a statement into the record. i will start with a question for ms. miller. youtube has implemented several features, such as auto play, that make the platform difficult to stop using. what mechanisms has you to employee to make sure that children, specifically, can counteract these design decisions? and do you believe those controls are sufficient? >> senator, thank you for your question. autoplay's default off on youtube supervised experiences on youtube. we have set those two default off. we do allow that if the default is changed to allow for autoplay. for example if a family is in car and the parents have decided they want autoplay to continue. but we have set it to a default of off. >> do y

mr. sullivan and ms. bureau cowsky in the senate. the historic cares act was signed into law on march 27, 2020. and included critical aid for states, territories, tribes and large localities to combat the coronavirus pandemic. however, the treasury department did not have a pre-existing conditioning allocation process for dispersing the $8 billion set aside for tribes. according to a g.a.o. review, it took extra time to set up these processes. treasury also established some allocation methodologies without consulting with tribes first, which led to legal challenges and even further delays of emergency relief. taken together, these delays have resulted in a compressed time frame for tribal governments to put their cares act funds to work. which is unacceptable in light of the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on the tribal community. according to a report by the centers for disease control and prevention, covid-19 infections were three times higher for american indians and alaska natives compared to white americans during t

jake sullivan said mr. biden looked putin in the eye and said the things u.s. not do in 2014 when russia seized crimea from ukraine, quote, we are prepared to do now. >> we still do not believe that president putin has made a decision. what president biden did today was layout very clearly the consequence if he chooses to move. he also laid out an alternative path and ultimately we will see in the days ahead through actions, not through words, what course of action russia chooses to take. >> sullivan says that the president made the cost of an invasion clear to putin. he warned the u.s. would provide additional military equipment to ukraine and nato allies in the area as well as impose a range of painful economic sanction. >> all right. let's put this all in perspective with dave sanger, cnn national security analyst. thank you for joining us bright and early this morning. the president making clear that should russia invade ukraine, the response would be greater than it was in 2014. of course, after the annexation of crimea. do you think the call was enough to

mr. chairman. >> thanks, senator sullivan. senator young by webex. >> thank you, chairman. welcome mr. mosseri. in ms. haugen's testimony she discussed how instagram generates all farm and self-hate, especially for vulnerable groups like teenage girls. now i happen to have three young daughters and two teenage daughters and this issue hits home to me, but it hits home to a lot of americans. so you're here today. you're the head of instagram. you have an opportunity to tell your side of the story. and i do believe if we're not receiving some constructive, actionable and bold measures to deal with what is popularly believed to be a serious health -- and significant public health issue, congress will act. because our constituents insist that we act. we've held a lot of hearings now. we've done our best to educate ourself. but frankly, since you run the platform, since you know the technology, since you spend so much time working on these matters, you could really help us. if you don't, we're going to feel an imperative to act. that's just the reality of it. so with that said, with that foundation

. >> senator sullivan. >> mr. davidson thank you for our discussion the other day. i really appreciated it. i appreciated your statement onn the statute the rural unserved community is going to be first in the infrastructure bill. my state has a lot of those. can i get a couple of commitments that fall on our meeting to come up to alaska to truly prioritize unserved which is what the statute says and to take advantage of the opportunity with the fcc, usda and other agencies that are really focused on this moment of trying to wire our country in my state which has the least amount of broadband. >> senator i would welcome the opportunity to see the challenges that you are facing in alaska and have a commitment to do that. >> in the commitments on the other things. >> i want to talk on a number of issues with you. but first there has been some concern with the administration put forward a nominee and after the hearing that person is ftc with the big example we did not know that. have you had any discussions about the biden administration being over commissioner? >> no.

sullivan. >> thank you, madam chair. mr. davidson very quickly. one of the things when i was in the house i have said many times we need to have an inventory of spectrum that is held by federal agency. and while congress supported doing this we have federal agency that impose this but we need to know what spectrum is in what hands, what they are using those bands for, and that we need to recoup spectrum that is lying fallow. this is in tias of jurisdiction. will you commit to working with us to get this done? >> i commit to working with you to get that done. >> we appreciate that and i see ms. sohn over-the-counter chuckling because you certainly talk about this for years. and the need for hitting this done and ms. sohn let me come to you. let me ask you for a yes or no on some questions. has chairman pai's -- in any way stop the fcc from executing its broadband deployment effort to? >> it has not but it rests on a very thin -- >> okay, yes or no. yes or no. >> the answer is no. >> okay. all right, no. that's correct it is not impeded, that is cor

mr. biden was vice president. the national security adviser sullivan said the white house does not believe putin has, yet, made a decision on whether to invade we will have reporting from ukraine, in a moment first, cnbc's senior white house correspondent, kayla tausche. >> tonight, a standoff over the sovereignty of ukraine in a two-hour video conference with vladimir putin of russia, president biden calling for deescalation and a return to diplomacy. >> and the measures we have put on the table are designed to show the russian government that, should it choose to engage in such an invasion, there will be those consequences. and we also believe that there should be an alternative pathway, by which we can make progress on diplomacy. >> reporter: in a statement, the kremlin accused nato of a dangerous incursion into ukraine. again, demanding a legal guarantee the alliance won't economic sanctions that russians expand there but pledging to keep talking meanwhile, western leaders pledging a united front with the white house. >> that makes the u.s. a lot more credible when it comes out and says that there will be severe econ

mr. zients: let's open it to questions. >> thank you. we will try to get through as many questions as possible. first, peter sullivan. >> hello. are the supplies of the new pfizer treatment -- they're up in experts calling for more in terms of the supply and listing other manufacturers the way merck is helping make the j&j vaccine so you are not just relying on pfizer with its capacity alone. have you considered that it all or is there more steps you mr. risch can take to boost the supply. >> we also have dr. fauci talking some about the process which takes months to do. but we know that the pfizer team is hard at work, ramping up production. everyone agrees that this is a very promising antiviral, and therefore, we want to make sure the production is wrapped up as quickly as possible. there is a complex chemistry involved in creating the active degree of the pill. that means that production takes , as i mentioned, six to eight months. now, the pills authorize, and we will have discussions to explore how we can help them and improve manufacturing capacity. even further. we will provide resources that they need, as quickly as p

mr. bolten: i think jack's sympathetic view towards ron's role is probably right. i was alluding to the decision-making on afghanistan, but i think it is entirely plausible that ron and jake sullivan of the national security council ran a good process that just did not lead, ultimately, to good decision-making by the president. that happens. by the way we ought not resist that too much. we ought to celebrate it. the only person in the national security council room that was actually elected by the people to make a decision is the president. so i don't think -- it is probably unfair to hold the chief of staff responsible win in all like schwinn -- responsible when in all likelihood the good stuff and the bad stuff comes from the top . with the chief of staff is responsible for is making sure the process runs as smooth as possible and puts the president and the best position to make a decision. tara: i will take a question from our audience. a great one from bill anderson asking the issue of executive privilege is in the news again. president trump has claimed executive privilege, as well as the staffers, for the events of january 6. it seems the d.c. bubble has one constant. every

sullivan, your name has been used not in vain earlier. but with some of the good work that you've done with senator white house and others please proceed. >> thank you. mr chairman. and i appreciate the witnesses here. i do want to talk just briefly about you know, the save our seas act and the save our seas 2.0 i think that's an example with senator white house and all of us really working together where you got key stakeholders, a lot of you guys were critical and important in getting this over the goal line and working on both the executive branch the congress industry, key conservation environmental groups all work together on this. so you know and you don't get everything you want. that's just the nature of getting things done here. right. and so i think this issue though is really a unifying issue. you can get democrats and republicans and industry and environmental groups all on board and i think we want to keep the moment. -- the momentum. so let me ask miss lise and mr johnson you may have seen in the infrastructure bill. there is significant funds on the implementation of save our seas 2.0 that's got a domestic international component. what wo

sullivan, who are with me as cosponsors. this bill would keep americans employed and help us beat the pandemic in a smart way. i urge my colleagues to support it. to that end, mrpresident, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on health, education, labor and pensions be discharged from further consideration of s. 2846 and that the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. i further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mrs. murray: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: reserving the right to object. unfortunately even though the senate has had multiple exposures to nonsense ideas like this bill, they keep coming back. the c.d.c. and n.i.h. are already looking closely at the data on covid-19 infection and natural immunity. they have been since the earliest days of this pandemic. in august the morbidity and mortality weekly report, c.d.c. actually assessed data from kentucky and found that out of a group of people who had been infected with covid before, those who were

sullivan. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. mr. sullivan: mr.president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: mr. president, it's thursday. the senate is still busy here. we have a lot of work to do as we're all trying to get home for the holidays. i thought it was still the appropriate time to come down and talk about somebody's making our state such a great state, somebody who is contributing to community, somebody who i refer to us as our alaskan of the week. we've been doing this for, gosh, going on almost six years. maybe five years. but it's always one of my favorite times of the year, even when the speech is late. so i appreciate the majority leader and the presiding officer letting us stay open here for one more speech. and i know the pages -- i mean, they love the alaskan of the week. so this is a little bit of a treat. but i always start this speech with a little bit of an update, what's going on in alaska. so right now the -- barrow, point barrow, the northern most place, northern most community in north americ