mr. whitehouse. mr. warner. mr. kaine. mr. van hollen. mr. lujan. mr. padilla. mr. chairman. mr. chairman the yeas are eight and the nays are 11. >> whitehouse number two. more storms addressing the worst drought seeing more hail and worse hail and for those of us in coastal states being the level rises to boot and this is causing homeowners insurance rates go up homeowner insurance non-holes to go up in states like florida and counties in other states it has reached a true crisis level with a thousand% increase and this would be a response to that and i would encourage a yes vote on the repeal of the epw instruction and change to reduce revenue. >> thank you. call the roll. >> mr. grassley. mr. crapo. mr. johnson. mr. marshall. mr. cornyn. mr. lee. mr. kennedy. mr. ricketts. mr. moreno. mr. scott. mr. merkley. misses murray. mr. wyden. mr. sanders. mr. whitehouse. mr. warner. mr. kaine. mr. van hollen. mr. lujan. mr. videa. mr. chairman. on this vote the yeas are eight and the nays are 11. >> we will come back to that. king three. cam three is the one that i discussed that would

mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. senators voting in the affirmative -- alsobrooks, baldwin, bennet, blumenthal, blunt rochester, booker, cantwell, fetterman, gallego, gillibrand, hassan, heinrich, hickenlooper, hirono, kaine, kim, king, klobuchar, lujan, markey, merkley, murphy, murray, ossoff, peters, reed, rosen, sanders, schatz, schiff, schumer, shaheen, van hollen, warren, wyden. senators voting in the negative -- banks, barrasso, blackburn, budd, cotton, cramer, crapo, cruz, curtis, daines, ernst, fischer, graham, grassley, hoeven, husted, hyde-smith, johnson, justice, lankford, leigh, mccormick, moody, moran, moreno, mullin, paul, ricketts, risch, rounds, scott of florida, scott of south carolina, sheehy, thune, tillis, wicker, young. mr. marshall, no. ms. smith, aye. mr. sullivan, no. mr. mcconnell, no. ms. murkowski, aye. ms. duckworth, aye. mr. coons, aye. mr. tuberville, no. ms. lummis, no. mr. padilla, aye. mr. schmitt, no. mr. kennedy, no. mr. welch, aye. ms. slotkin, aye. mr. cornyn, no. mr. whitehouse,

mr. whitehouse. senator whitehouse: no. the clerk: mr. warner. senator warner: no. the clerk: mr. kaine. senator kaine rrp no. -- senator kaine: no. senator van hollen: no. >> lujan votes no. the clerk: mr. padilla. senator padilla: no. the clerk: mr. chairman. chair graham: no. no. aye. never mind. [laughter] the clerk: mr. chairman -- mr. chairman, the ayes are 11, the nays are 10. chair graham: thank you. senator van hollen number 4. senator van hollen: thank you, mr. chairman. as we discussed earlier, this creates a point of order against legislation that would cut medicare or medicaid benefits. we should all go after fraud, waste, and abuse in medicare or medicaid but no one campaigned cutting medicare or medicaid so this creates a guardrail against it. i urge its adoption. chair graham: thank you. i have determined the amendment threatens the privilege of the budget resolution. therefore, rule it out of order. i move to table the motion -- to table the appeal. the motion is nondebatable. senator van hollen: you're ahead of me. i haven't appealed the motion. i do appeal the m

mr. whitehouse. senator whitehouse: no. the clerk: mr. warner. senator warner: no. the clerk: mr. kaine. senator kaine rrp no. -- senator kaine: no. senator van hollen: no. >> lujan votes no. the clerk: mr. padilla. senator padilla: no. the clerk: mr. chairman. chair graham: no. no. aye. never mind. [laughter] the clerk: mr. chairman -- mr. chairman, the ayes are 11, the nays are 10. chair graham: thank you. senator van hollen number 4. senator van hollen: thank you, mr. chairman. as we discussed earlier, this creates a point of order against legislation that would cut medicare or medicaid benefits. we should all go after fraud, waste, and abuse in medicare or medicaid but no one campaigned cutting medicare or medicaid so this creates a guardrail against it. i urge its adoption. chair graham: thank you. i have determined the amendment threatens the privilege of the budget resolution. therefore, rule it out of order. i move to table the motion -- to table the appeal. the motion is nondebatable. senator van hollen: you're ahead of me. i haven't appealed the motion. i do appeal the m

mr. whitehouse? >> aye. >> mr. warner? >> aye. >> mr. kane? >> aye. >> mr. van holland? mr. luhan? >> is that okay? yeah. thank you. [laughter] momentum here. mr. padilla? >> aye. >> mr. chairman? >> no. >> mr. chairman, the yeas are ten the and the nays are 11. >> senator widen one. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this takes medicaid off the chopping block in the united states senate. and we know that medicaid is a lifeline for nursing home patients and families. we know it's so important in rural communities. we know it's so important for employees who work somewhere where the employer can't afford healthcare coverage. i urge my colleagues to support this amendment. i guessth it's called widen one. >> what senator said before sounds good to me. i will oppose it. the clerk will call the roll. >> mr. grassley? >> no. >> mr. crepo? >> no. >> mr. johnson? >> no. >> mr. marshal? >> no. >> mr. cornyn? >> no. >> mr. lee? >> no. >> mr. kennedy? >> no. >> mr. ricketts? >> no. >> mr. moreno? >> no. >> mr. scott? >> no. >> mr. merkley? >> aye. >> mrs. murray? >> aye. >> mr. widen? >> aye. >> mr

mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- banks, barrasso, britt, budd, cassidy, cotton, crapo, curtis, daines, grassley, johnson, justice, lankford, moran, mullin, risch, rounds, schmitt, scott of south carolina, sheehy, tillis, tuberville. mr. hoeven, aye. senators voting in the negative -- alsobrooks, coons, hassan, heinrich, kim, klobuchar, lujan, murray, peters, schumer, shaheen, van hollen, wyden. mr. mccormick, aye. mr. ricketts, aye. mrs. hyde-smith, aye. mrs. fischer, aye. mr. schiff, no. mr. boozman, aye. mr. schatz, no. mr. marshall, aye. mr. gallego, no. the clerk: mr. thune, aye. the clerk: ms. duckworth, no. ms. ernst, aye. ms. collins, aye. ms. hirono, no. mr. merkley, no. ms. cortez masto, no. the clerk: mr. ossoff, no. the clerk: mr. welch, no. the clerk: ms. baldwin, no. ms. cantwell, no. the clerk: mr. kelly, no. the clerk: mr. graham, aye. mrs. moody, aye. mr. warner, no. ms. lummis, aye. the clerk: ms. blunt rochester, no. mr. husted, aye. ms. slotkin, no. mrs.

mr. whitehouse, no. ms. hassan, no. ms. cortez masto, no. ms. warren, no. mr. sanders, no. ms. smith, no. mr. lujan, no. mr. warnock, no. mr. chairman? the chairman votes aye. the final tally is 14 ayes, 13 nays. chair crapo: with the click please restate the vo--with the clerk restate the vote? >> 14 ayes, 13 nays. chair crapo: the vote is reported favorably. since i asked my republican colleagues to hold off at the outset, i will go to my republican colleague first. senator tillis. sen. tillis: i voted aye today and i wanted to briefly explain why. i believe in my 65 years -- i will be 65 in august -- that mr. kennedy will be one of the first people coming before who is not a trained health care expert. he views this through the lens of an attorney. he's brought many lawsuits on food safety, vaccine safety, a number of other things. mr. chair, i think it was senator warnock that said that the president said he was going to go wild in the department of health and human services. i hope he does. i hope he goes wild and finds a way to reduce the cost of health care. i hope he go

mr. whitehouse, mr. whitehouse, no. miss hassan, miss.san, no. >> miss cortez masto. >> miss cortez masto. >> no. >> miss warren, no. >> miss warren, no. >> mr. sanders, mr. sanders, no. >> miss smith, no. >> miss smith, no. >> mr. lujan, no. mr. lujan, no. >> mr. warnock, no. >> mr. warnock, no. >> mr. welch, mr. >> welch, no. >> mr. chairman, >> chairman. votes i. >> mr. chairman the final tally. >> is 14 ayes. >> 13 ayes. >> the vote. >> was. would the clerk please restate the vote. >> mr. chairman. >> the final tally was 14 ayes. >> 13 ayes. >> the vote was 1413. the nomination is reported favorably. we will now turn to other senators who would like to make a statement. since i asked my republican colleagues to hold off at the outset, i'll go to the republican side next. first, senator tillis. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i voted i. >> today. >> and i want. >> to just briefly. >> explain why. >> i believe. >> in my. >> 65 years. >> okay. you just watched 14 ayes, 13 noes, party line vote there to advance robert f kennedy, jr. s nominat

mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i'm here to join my distinguished colleague from california in opposition to the nomination of kash patel and to make crystal clear to this body what he is going to do in that job. he has shown who he is. so when she's things -- these things go wrong, i want to be absolutely clear that our republican friends were warned. they will own the consequences of kash patel's misbehavior. let's start with the fact like any fbi director before, this guy is a have i t -- this is a guy who is a politician, those are the stripes he's shown when left to his devices and those are the characteristics he will revert back to when he is running the fbi. just a few examples. this is from his book that contains -- called government gangsters -- and this is a page of his enemies' list. attorney general bondi said nobody should come to a law enforcement job with an enemies' list. then they had to pretend this is not -- if you're going to set up a man hunt against people, are they not your enemies by any log

mr. whitehouse: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, today is a sad, discouraging, even disgraceful day here in the senate. the vote that we have just taken signals the utter and complete subservience of the trump administration and the republican party to the polluters of the fossil fuel industry. to the extent that there's any justification for fossil fuel poll pollution, leaks from pipes and valves and wells that aren't properly maintained by fossil fuel companies are probably the most shameless form of pol pollution, and yet that is precisely what this vote that we have just taken protects, and even encourages. let's start for a moment with why methane matters. we are well into a climate cr crisis. we have been warned about it for dec decades. the scientists, god bless them, actually got it right, even exxon's scientists got it right. and on the basis of all that science, it then fell to us here in this building, in congress, to react prudently and sensibly and steer our course away from the worst dangers t

mr. whitehouse: is the senate presently in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. whitehouse: in that case, mr. president, i am here to speak in opposition to the nomination of tulsi gabbard to serve as the director of national intelligence of the united states of america. setting aside her lack of qualifications and setting aside her rotten judgment, her nomination strikes me as being part of a pattern of unilateral disarmament by the trump administration against russia. one can hazard as to why this is happening, but the fact that it is happening seems hard to deny. in november 2024, "the washington post" wrote this: gabbard's planned appointment as the head of national intelligence elicited the most excitement in russia because she has long been regarded as a darling of the propagandaist russian r.t. network which i am my fied her sympathetic takes on bashar al-assad and putin. russian state tv has called ms. gabbard our friend tulsi. the russian newspaper published an op-ed, and it was titled, the cia and fbi are trembling why trump protege tulsi gabbard will su

mr. whitehouse, no. >> and it looks as though right now the vote is 54. rfk jr you know, susan, i'm just struck by the historic uniqueness of that. we're very probably going to be seeing in 2025 a kennedy in the cabinet of the united states, and that kennedy is robert f kennedy jr. his father was a cabinet member under jfk2 rfk s in cabinet, far different political parties and persuasions. >> yeah. different parties. i mean rfk jr opposed by most of the members of his own family. we saw caroline kennedy schlossberg come out with quite a fierce statement opposing opposing his confirmation here. so divided family still a powerful name. you know, kennedy is still a name that resonates in american politics. but this is this is quite the turn. you know, ron talked about how this is or maybe it was charlie, how how we're seeing trump have so much more power in the republican party than and in the republican congress. and he did the first time around. we're also seeing him. here's another difference. we're seeing him pursue bigger ambitions in a more concerted w

mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. the clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- banks, barrasso, britt, capito, collins, cotton, crapo, curtis, daines, ernst, fischer, grassley, hoeven, husted, johnson, lankford, lee, marshall, mcconnell, moody, moreno, mullin, paul, ricketts, risch, rounds, schmitt, scott of florida, scott of south carolina, sullivan, tillis, tuberville and wicker. senators voting in the negative -- duckworth, durbin, gallego, hassan, hickenlooper, hirono, kim, lujan, merkley, sanders, schiff, shaheen, van hollen, and wyden. mrs. blackburn, aye. mr. kennedy, aye. mr. fetterman, no.

mr. whitehouse, no. mr. justice, aye. mr. boozman, aye. ms. smith, no. ms. murkowski, aye. mr. ossoff, no. mr. thune, aye. ms. cortez masto, no. mrs. hyde-smith, aye. mr. markey, no. ms. klobuchar, no. the clerk: mr. king, no. mr. murphy, no. mr. sheehy, aye. the clerk: mr. booker, no. mrs. gillibrand, no. the clerk: ms. slotkin, no. the clerk: mr. hawley, aye. mr. cassidy, aye. the clerk: mr. blumenthal, no. vote: the presiding officer: the ayes are 51. the nays are 47. and the motion is agreed to. mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: i recognize the majority leader. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that all postcloture time on the mcmahon nomination be expired. further, that the senate vote on confirmation at 5:30 p.m. on monday, match 3. if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that the senate resume legislative business and be in a period of morning business with senators permitt

whitehouse: did mr. pella have a role? mr. vought: he is a member of the center for renewing america, but i won't speak to that. sen. whitehouse: here we go again. i will not speak. my time is up. chair dwram: he -- chair graham: he said he stands by the letter. senator whitehouse: that's not the question. my time is up. chair graham: senator lee. sen. lee: thank you for being here and for your willingness to serve. the administrative state has been crushing the american economy and american innovation, and it is also something that operates in a manner fundamentally contrary to the structure and intent of the u.s. constitution. article 1, sections 1 and 7 make clear that only congress may enact federal law. in article 1, section 7, in particular, it makes clear you cannot make a federal law unless you follow the formula and the formula involves bicameral passage of a single bill, a single item, legislative text, in both houses followed by submission to the president for signature, veto, or acquiescence. unless you follow that

mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. senators voting in the affirmative -- banks, barrasso, blackburn, britt, budd, cassidy, cotton, ernst, grassley, hagerty, hawley, hyde-smith, kennedy, moreno, paul, schmitt, scott of florida, tillis, and young. senators voting in the negative -- duckworth, durbin, king, lujan, murkowski, murphy, padilla, peters, sanders, warner and welch. ms. slotkin, no. mr. sheehy, aye. mr. schatz, no. mrs. moody, aye. mr. crapo, aye. mr. scott of south carolina, aye. ms. rosen, no. mr. tuberville, aye. mr. husted, aye. mr. johnson, aye. mr. risch, aye. mr. kelly, no. mr. ricketts, aye. mr. blumenthal, no. mr. daines, aye. mr. justice, aye. ms. cantwell, no. mr. graham, aye. ms. collins, no. mr. marshall, aye. ms. lummis, aye. mr. mccormick, aye. mr. schumer, no. mrs. gillibrand, no. mr. sullivan, aye. mr. mcconnell, aye. mr. wyden, no. ms. alsobrooks, no. mr. cramer, aye. ms. blunt rochester, no. mr. kim, no. mr. merkley, no. mr. lankford, aye. mr. kaine, no. mr. warnock, no. ms. hirono, no. mr. bo

mr. patel: i believe 10. sen. whitehouse: -- sen. coons: is it possible to give 30 days notice in 10 days? mr. patel: no. i'm not going to entertain hypothetical on legal violations but i will look at all legal violations referred. sen. coons: for those of us concerned about the quality and duration, i think it was a violation of a law passed by congress could in september 2023 on a podcast, you said and i believe i'm quoting accurately, all these general counsel offices throughout every agency and department need to be slashed in half because lawyers come in to slow down and paralyze the movement of the america first agenda. does that comment suggested that if confirmed it would be your intention to fire the career civil servants, the lawyers in the fa general counsel office? mr. patel: no. sen. coon: could you give reassurance it would be your intention to listen to the advice and counsel of the inspector general of the department and agency? mr. patel: with ig's, as you know, i believe and have shown through this proceeding that id

mr. whitehouse: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i sit on the judiciary committee and was present for the confirmation hearing of pam bondi in her quest to be attorney general of the united states, and i have to say that there is a lot to admire. she had been a competent prosecutor for many years. she was the twice elected attorney general of a major state. and she said a lot of the right things about independence of the department and rule of law. what i couldn't get over was how things changed when she got to a topic that would have been sensitive to donald trump, something that would have gotten donald trump all twitchy. when she hit those topics, it was like watching the plane fly into the bermuda triangle, and all the navs and comms go crazy. she couldn't say obvious things, things like did president biden win the 2020 election? that's an easy answer. yes, he did, sir, or ma'am. soup simple. when she -- super simple. when she can't say that, that's a sign when she told us that there had been a peaceful

mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. senators voting in the affirmative -- boozman, cornyn, crapo, graham, mullin, risch, rounds, and tuberville. senators voting in the negative -- bennet, gallego, lujan, markey, schumer, and wyden. vote: the clerk: mr. wicker, aye. mr. marshall, aye. mr. moreno, aye. mrs. britt, aye. mr. heinrich, no. mr. justice, aye. mr. sullivan, aye. the clerk: mrs. blackburn, aye. ms. baldwin, no. the clerk: mr. murphy, no. the clerk: mr. cotton, aye. the clerk: ms. alsobrooks, no. the clerk: ms. warren, no. mr. young, aye. mr. kelly, no. the clerk: mr. johnson, aye. ms. ernst, aye. the clerk: mr. durbin, no. the clerk: mr. cassidy, aye. the clerk: mr. sanders, no. ms. hassan, no. mr. peters, no. mr. barrasso, aye. mr. reed, no. the clerk: mr. curtis, aye. the clerk: mr. ricketts, aye. mr. thune, aye. mr. ossoff, no. the clerk: mr. hagerty, aye. the clerk: mr. van hollen, no. ms. rosen, no. mr. banks, aye. the clerk: mr. tillis, aye. ms. duckworth, no. mr. mccormick, aye. ms. cortez masto, no. the

mr. chairman. sen. whitehouse: thank you, mr. chairman. republicans clearly do not want to talk about a looming crisis headed for our economy and our budget. but it's not hard to see how the dominoes fall. fossil fuel emissions, methane, one of the worst, are making the weather worse and harder to predict. this makes risk worse and harder to predict for insurance companies. this means insurance companies have to raise their rates or if they can't figure it out, back away entirely. as insurance gets more expensive and harder to find, property values begin to fall. each member of this committee is likely experiencing this in your states. in fact, i bet you're even hearing about it from your constituents. let me start with florida. which is the preview of coming attractions for other coastal states. it's the first and it's the worst. in florida, glades and monroe counties have seen homeowners' insurance nonrenewals increase by more than 3,000%. in glades county, one in six homeowners was dropped from their insurance in 2023. in miami-dade cou

mr. patel: that is me at the top. sen. whitehouse: you said fbi agent's were responsible for the violence on january 6 "beyond a reasonable doubt." is that what you said. mr. patel: that is completely incorrect. sen. whitehouse: in writing. but this is my time. an inspector attorney general found that that was false. and you said we should impeach judges who rule against donald trump who are in your words " political terrorists." when this nominee tries to explain all this away keep one thing in mind. he has testified under oath before a colorado judge who presided over a trump case in which he was a witness and the judge found and i am quoting here "he was not a credible witness. his testimony is not only illogical but completely devoid of evidence in the record." that is from a judge. this is a dangerous time and i ask all my colleagues to consider whether these plain comments, by this person, and by his own trump administration colleagues should be given a blind eye, just overlooked or, whether, like the warnings of pardoning viol

mr. senator whitehouse, i will say, you say if you are sending it back to agencies for reconsideration, youre running into the problem that ms. pavia said came out in their survey. which is, i don't want to say lack of expertise, not enough capacity to move these through the different agencies quickly. senator whitehouse. >> thank you for mentioning project labor agreements and we have a project labor agreement with one of the offshore develop ers. things get built on time, on budget and done right. the american submarines are built in buildings in rhode island. thank you for flagging that. with respect to the seven offshore wind projects that are now at a standstill, how many jobs do you estimate those would have supported? >> thousands. from what the actual work in the water that will be, from the port of grades, the harbor of grades, we are building vessels in this country to support offshore wind. it's in the tens of thousands. thousands of building traits jobs and tens of thousands of related jobs to that. >> and when an ongoing project is put on a standstill, do you have a sense of wh

mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. the presiding officer: a quorum is present. the ske is is it the sense of the senate that the debate on the nomination of russell vought of virginia to be director. office of management and budget shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin. mr. banks. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. >> thank you, mr. chairman, ranking member, members of the esteemed committee for the opportunity to appear before you today. let me begin by thanking my girls who are now returning to the congressional confirmation. their love and enthusiasm for me serving again is a major reason why i feel going back to own be as of right endeavor at the right moment. beyond my enthusiasm for being at president trump side. it is a profound honor to be nominated a second time by president trump to serve as the director of the office of management and budget. the president has promised the american people i federal government that works for all americans, not the i

whitehouse: i don't have very many seconds. mr. greer: i am to work with you. sen. whitehouse: there you go. we need your technical assistance. we would like to melt them. second. on the intelligence committee, i developed a proposition that the largest theft in human history was the theft by the chinese on american ip through cyber intrusions. that theft has never been properly recognized in our commercial relationship with china. is that history of massive theft appropriate consideration in designing commercial policy with china including tariffs? mr. greer: yes. that is fundamental. that was a driving force behind much of what we did in the first trump administration with respect to china. sen. whitehouse: third. there is an issue trade policy can help a lot but that we often overlook here. rhode island are, ocean state, fishing community. what's going on in international fisheries is a crime. pirate fishing fleets answer to no one, crews are essentially modern-day slaves. there is a predatory chinese fishing fleet. i would put that" because very often they are do

mr. whitehouse: i'm here to join my colleagues in objecting to president trump's fake energy emer emergency, which is part of the trump continuing strategy to hurt families and help billionaires. in this case the fossil fuel billionaires who put at least $100 million into getting him elected, probably a good deal more because so much of the money was dark money. we don't know, but there's every reason to believe that it was multiple hundreds of billions of dollars spent to p get him elected and it's payback time for the big donors, and tough bounce to the families whose bills are going to go up as a result. how are families' bills going to go up? for starters, renewables are less expensive than fossil fuel. when you add them to the mix, the grid runs on a you queue and it takes the cheapest sources and puts them in the line and as you demand more and more electricity, you finally get to the more expensive energy sources. and inexpensive renewables coming in drives out the expensive fossil fuel from the top, and it lowers energy costs overall. when you stop doing that, the most expensive pla

mr. whitehouse: well, we're in interesting times, mr. president. and we're beginning to see the corporate and billionaire takeover of the united states government. and in that corporate and billionaire takeover of the united states government, the nominee russ vought to run omb has a key role. and that key role to do the work for the billionaires and the big corporations is what makes him unfit and dangerous and what compels us to come to the floor tonight to warn the american people of what this guy will do and who he is. let's start with a little history. this is the guy who violated the impoundment control act by withholding 214 million appropriated dollars from the soldiers fighting and dying in the trenches of ukraine against putin's thug army. it was that stunt that led to the impeachment of president trump. this is the guy who caused lives to be lost in those ukrainian trenches by withholding funding they needed desperately, withholding the funding they desperately needed illegally and withholding that desperately needed funding illegally in

whitehouse: unfortunately, mr.chairman, one thing i learned in my tenure in the senate is that a nominee saying they are willing to work with me amounts to exactly zero. we need to get this fixed. thank you. chair crapo: well, i guess at that point then, we will move on to senator daines. sen. daines: mr. kennedy, i am glad to see you this morning. mr. chairman, thank you. i listened to your opening remarks and you said you wanted to make hhs the gold standard of science. i have found my engagements with you both behind closed doors in my office and listening to publicly to be very thoughtful and science-based. i applaud that and i thank you for that. this will likely be a very partisan vote on this committee and on the senate floor. there are three medical doctors on this side of the dais. i'm a chemical engineer. we believe in science. i'm thankful you do too when you made that comment in your opening remarks. i want to talk about agriculture. we talked about our common love for montana. you have been to montana

mr. whitehouse. the presiding officer: no debate is permitted during a vote. the senator will suspend. clerk: mr. wicker. the presiding officer: no debate is permitted during a vote. the senator will suspend. the clerk: mr. young. the presiding officer: the senator is not recorded. pursuant to rule 12 no debate is permitted during a vote. ma'am, the senator will suspend. the senator is not recorded. a senator: on behalf of of the taxpayers who have been insulted for too long, i vote aye. the presiding officer: remember, sir -- the clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- barrasso, blackburn, boozman, budd, capito, collins, cornyn, cotton, cramer, crapo, cruz, curtis, daines, fischer, graham, grassley, husted, hyde-smith, johnson, justice, lummis, marshall, mccormick, moody, moreno, paul, ricketts, risch, rounds, schmitt, scott of florida, thune, tuberville. mr. sheehy, aye. . mr. tillis, aye. ms. ernst, aye. mr. hagerty, aye. mr. kennedy, aye. senators voting in the negative -- alsobrooks, baldwin, cantwell, coons, cortez masto, duckworth, durbin, fetterman, gillibrand, hassan, hein

. >> thank you, senator whitehouse. >> mr. chair, senator kennedy. >> i forgot to ask william and caroline if they had anything that they wanted to add. anything? how about vote for my dad? >> vote for my dad. >> thank you, mr. chairman. sorry for interrupting. >> excellent round to close the hearing. congratulation each of the three of you did a terrific job. senator kennedy did a terrific job. for everyone's information, written questions for the record will be submitted by tomorrow and will ask each of the nominees to return the questions as soon as possible so we can quickly schedule committee votes and with that, the hearing is adjourned. >> thursday, c-span, bill to repeal the biden administration ener department energy efficiency standards for instantaneous -- presint trump's nomination of linda mcmahon to b education secretary. ssible bill that would overtu the biden administration rule to implement could ocr in the afternoon. and on c-span 3 live at 10:00 a.m. eastern a hearing o the nomination for william to be dicto

mr. greer: this issue is important to me. sen. whitehouse: we don't talk about fisheries much but i encourage my colleagues to consider that. it is not just economic competition. it is the fact that the chinese fleet is a predatory extension of chinese power into a bunch of areas. unless we take that on as a national security problem, we are missing a significant part of the problem set here. chair crapo: i agree with the point about our fisheries. we need to pay attention to them. sen. whitehouse: looking forward to working on it with you. chair crapo: senator smith. sen. smith: thank you and welcome. appreciate your family being here and willingness to serve. i believe too often national trade policy of the past 35 years has failed american workers, under democratic and republican administrations, prophets of corporate interests want to incorporate cheap goods at head of american workers who make things in america. there is a connection between significant income inequality we see in this country and the way our trade policy has been used

mr. president if mifepristone he's made it clear to me he wants me to look at the safety issues. i'll ask nih and fda to do that. >> senator whitehouse. >> thank you, chairman. mr. kennedy i only have five minutes with you. so i've got a lot of experience with cm s. so you're going to have to listen. two things, one, if you want to move from advocacy to public responsibility, americans are going to need to hear a clear and trustworthy recantation of what you have said on vaccinations, including a promise from you never to say vaccines aren't medically safe. when they, in fact, are. and making in disputably clear that you support mandatory vaccinations against diseases where that will keep people safe. you're in that hole pretty deep. we've just had a measles case in rhode island, first since 2013. and frankly, you frighten people. two. i want to air harms that rhode island has experienced from a remorseless senseless cms bureaucracy. cms has for years maintained a reimbursement system that the bureaucracy could never explain be never justify that persistly pays rhode island providers less than neighboring massachusetts and connecticu