mr. whitehouse: with that i yield to the majority leader to do his closing business. mr.mcconnell: i thank my friend from rhode island. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. i withdraw that consent request. i send a cloture motion to the desk for s.j. res. 2. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the measure. the clerk: cloture motion, we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to s.j. res. 2, a joint resolution disapproving the president's proposal to take an action relating to the application of certain sanctions with respect to the russian federation signed by 20 senators as follows -- mr. mcconnell: i ask the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the mandatory quorum call be waived. the presiding officer: with

. >> whitehouse, wicker. >> mr. pence: please raise your rright hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic; that you will bear trueitating and allegiance to thebl same. that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and thatl you will wel and d faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> congratulations senators. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> the absence of a quorum has been suggested the clerk will call the roll. >> mr. alexander, ms. baldwin, mr. burr aso, mr. bennett, mrs. blackburn, mr. blumenthal, mr. blunt -- mr. booker, mr. boseman, mr. brawn, mr. brown, mr. burr, ms. cantwell, mrs. capito, mr. cardin, mr. carper, mr. casey, mr. cassidy, ms. collins, mr. coons, mr. cornyn, ms. cortez masto, mr. cotton, mr. kramer, mr. crepe o, mr. cruz, mr. deigns ms. duck worth, mr. durbin, mr. enzi. mrs. ernst. mrs. feinstein, mrs. fisher. mr. gardener, mrs. gill

and i recognize senator whitehouse. thank you, mr. barr. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this is my first chance at a committee hearing to congratulate you on taking the gavel here. we worked well together when you were chairman of the crime and terrorism subcommittee and i hope that that will continue here. mr. barr, welcome. did you make it a condition of taking this job that rod rosenstein had to go? just to be clear so we're not bandying words here, did you request or signal or otherwise communicate in any way that you wanted rod rosenstein to go? >> no. the president said that the decision on the deputy was mine, anything i wanted to do on the deputy. >> so we will find no william barr fingerprints on rosenstein's departure? >> no. rod and i have been talking about his plans. he told me that he viewed it as a two-year stint, and would like to use, if i'm confirmed, my coming in as an occasion to leave. but we talked about the need for a transition. and i asked him if he would stay for a while. and he said he would. and so as of right now, i would say there's no -- he

mr. chairman. >> senator whitehouse. >> thank you. in order to perform its counterintelligence function effectively, what should department of justice and the fbi know about the business relationships and entanglements with officials and foreign governments. >> well, you know, i guess usually investigations are started because there is some act that comes to the attention of the law enforcement agency that suggests someone is being disloyal to the united states. >> except for -- >> and working for -- excuse me? >> except where we require disclosures in order to give the law enforcement folks that advantage of knowing in advance when a senior official has a business entanglement with a foreign interest or power. >> uh-huh. >> so what should we know? >> what official are we talking about? >> well, let's start with the president. >> are are you suggesting that the president go through a background investigation by the fbi? >> no. i'm suggesting that when there is evidence that he has business relationships with foreign interests, then th

mr. chairman. >> senator whitehouse? >> thank you very much. welcome mr. wheeler. i wanted to let you know that i appreciate the polite and professional demeanor that you have brought to your task. substantively i continue to believe that you have your thumb , wrist, forearm and elbow on the scales in virtually every determination you can in favor of the fossil fuel industry and i think that is very unfortunate. i do think there is a baseline that we should work off of, straight answers that are truthful and complete. and i would note, with respect to your recent answers to senator sanders about the c.a.f.e. standards, that the federal register and your analysis of the c.a.f.e. standards proposal you have increases c02 emissions year after year after year after year , up to 9% increased c02 emissions by 2035, relative to the existing base basement. i don't think it is fair to say that you are taking action to help the carbon emissions problem, when your proposal is worse than the baseline you begin with of the obama c.a.f.e. standards. i put the page into the recor

whitehouse. >> thank you. welcome mr. wheeler. i appreciate the polite and professional demeanor that you have -- that you have brought to your task. i continue to believe that you have your thumb, wrist, forearm and elbow on the scales in virtually every determination that you can't in the fossil fuel industry, i think that is unfortunate. i do think that there is a baseline that we should work off , straight answers that are truthful and complete. i would note with respect to use certain europe -- about the caÉe federal register analysis -- your analysis, the cafÉ standard proposal you have increases co2 emissions year after year after year after year, up to 9% increase co2 increase in emissions by 2035 relative to the baseline. i don't think it is fair to say you are taking action to help the carbon emissions problems when your proposal is worse than the beat -- baseline that you began with. in the record 43327. you referred to your ace program replacing your powerplant is something that would replace -- reduce carbon emissions

whitehouse when we come back. >>> i recognize senator white house. thank you, mr. barr. >> thank you, chairman. this is my first chance at a committee hearing to congratulate you on taking the gavel here. we worked well together when you were chairman of the crime and terrorism sub committee, and i hope that will continue here. mr. barr, welcome. did you make it a condition of taking this job that rod rosenstein had to go? just to be clear so we're not bandying words here, did you request or signal or otherwise communicate in any way that you wanted rod rosenstein to go? >> no. the president said that the decision on the deputy was mine, anything i wanted to do on the deputy was mine. >> we will find no william barr fingerprints on rosenstein's departure? >> no. rod and i have been talking about his plans. he told me that he viewed it as a two-year stint and would like to use if i'm confirmed, my coming in as an occasion to leave, but we talked about the need for a transition, and i asked him if he would stay for a while, and he said he would, and so as of right now, i would say there's no -- h

mr. barr to serve as attorney general, does it? senator whitehouse: to the a concernt there is about whether he will be willing to do that. we could get a replay of this if we're citing the mukasey precedent, i want to know more about it. he's citing the mukasey precedent and number of that,ecollection which is dim over 10 years, but older people have a better the distant past than the recent past so i do remember it to some extent. my recollection is that the did not lead to the gates of the white house. it involved the circumstances under which nine u.s. attorneys were terminated and those people the opportunity to come back. they were also offered apologies that's the way the matter ended. that's my recollection. whitehouse: i would ask you to look at the question for the record that i'll propound to that's different than what the oig and opr felt at the time because they felt they were hindered and left with gaps in their investigation and it was white house files that were at issue so my time has expired but i hope we can settle its question bec

whitehouse when we come back. >> it was no surprise that one of first questions asked was whether the gentleman speaking the attorney general's spot here, mr. barr, was going to take a hands off approach when it came to the mueller inquiry. he said it over and over again, and said it now under oath. it jurunderlines the importance that robert mueller be given the resources and be free of interference from anyone in the administration until it is completed. i also hope mr. barr, if he's our attorney general, will release whatever is found, good or bad, from this inquiry for the american people to see it. that's part of our democratic process. >> senator, are youon

mr. whitehouse: gladly. mr. scott: while i am excited for clemson's success, i note next year clemson and alabama may meet again, so the more you celebrate this year perhaps the more you give credit to next year. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that ryan edwards and kim vi n -- vinstead be granted floor privileges for the remainder of this congress. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president, and happy new year. the new 116th congress brings new hope for the senate to face up to the clear and present danger of climate change. the house of representatives being in democratic hands augments that hope the senate republican majority has failed to address climate change. this is no accident. this is the senate in the citizens united era. i was here before citizens united, and for years we saw senate climate bipartisanship before citizens united. after citizens united, what we see is immensely powerful climate-denying dark money front dpriewps for the fossil fuel industr