mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. you know, it is truly an honor to work with the veterans in tennessee and we have hundreds of thousands of veterans in our state. and i know that the chairman says he prize himself in work -- prides himself in working with the veterans. i can tell you quite frankly i consider it a humbling experience to work with these veterans. and whether they're from world d war ii or korea or vietnam, whether they are from any of our recent wars, the middle east, whether we're dealing with agent orange or burn pits, to me it is heart-wrenching to hear their stories. and the v.a. has not done their job. so what we're doing is standing up for these veterans and saying to the v.a., get your act together. provide this information. how do you deal with this backlog? do you have the capability to deal with what we are discussing? do you have that capability? what is your capacity? how do we best handle these issues? now, the v.a. for years, decades, decades, decades has not done their job in a timely ma

mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. if the constitution is the foundation of our republic, then the concept of one person, one vote is the cornerstone. it's also a promise that every single eligible voter in america takes with them into that voting booth on election day. it gives them confidence that their vote matters. it helps them to keep the faith in our electoral system and in their local government. we can talk about the vote on a grand scale here in washington, but that's where it really matters -- back home, at your local polling place, in your home county, and in the precincts with the people who do the work of stands up elections, running elections, and certifying their own elections. madam president, it is of the people, by the people, for the people that this process is carried out in each and every one of our counties. and, you know what, madam president? that is how it is supposed to be. article 1, section 4, of our constitution clearly states -- here it is -- the times, places, and manner of holding elect

mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. i ask that we suspend the quorum and that i be allowed to finish my remarks before the scheduled vote. the presiding officer: the senator has been recognized. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. it seems that for the past month senate republicans have watched as our democratic colleagues send up one partisan test balloon after another. they threatened a battle over a so-called equal pay bill, which turned out to be charming the water for the trial lawyers but really not much else. then they once again threatened the second amendment, but they couldn't find a friend across party lines to join them in that fight. so that trial balloon was popped. and who could forget their promise to bring the improperly named equality act to the floor for a vote. well, that balloon didn't take flight either. and yesterday the democrats democracy-destroying election takeover bill almost survived. but it too came crashing back to earth after failing to clear a procedural hurdle. still they made t

mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. it's been so interesting to talk with tennesseans over the past couple of weeks, and it's interesting in the vein that they are beginning to really question some of the proposals that my democratic colleagues are bringing forward and items that they are pushing from the left side of the aisle. i have to tell you i -- i honestly can't blame them. after all, when they promised covid relief, they delivered a blue state bailout which was something that was not popular in tennessee. they said that they were going to be all for some much-needed infrastructure projects. in tennessee, we like to talk about this in terms of roads and railways and runways and rivers. but what did people from tennessee hear? they heard all about a green new deal. and they heard about incentives for electric vehicles. they heard about alternative energy. and they looked at that infrastructure bill and said this is fantasy land, and then when they promised to support families and children, what did you get from th

mrs. blackburn: it is a very long list.nd i think it's safe to say my democratic colleagues are trying to make the most of the next year and a half. they know that time is not on their side, nor are the american people. there really is something for every faction of the left. here are a few of the items that are contained in this biden boondoggle of a budget. the environmental lobby did a great job these past few months. they're more than taken care of with more electric car subsidies and a $936 million payout towards environmental justice initiatives. we also have more funding to expand the department of education. if you think that more government is what your child's educational experience has been missing, well this is the budget for you. but if you are fed up with the way teachers unions have treated children in the classroom, if you are fed up with schools that have been in locked down, you want to pay close attention to what i'm talking about today. apparently the good people over at the department of health and huma

mr. chairman. >> senator blackburn. >> thank you so much mr. chairman.o our witnesses we appreciate you being with us. i represent tennessee. in 2020 tennessee came to appreciate the resiliency of their networks we had tornadoes, storms, floods. other natural disasters and then on christmas day we had the bombing that was detonated outside of the at&t building in nashville where the switching capabilities for much of the southeast is located. at that point we had people in several states who were affected by the christmas day bombing. with my work here in congress whether in the house or senate, working on broadband infrastructure resiliency is something that has taken a good dealhe of my efforts with the internet exchange act recently passed the senate as part of a larger package to help build the resilient and redundant networks. right now in tennessee those that are living in a census block that has no provider that hits that mark so the average cost of streaming the fiber is 30 or $40000 per mile. and then to trench that fiber is between 30 and $7000

mr. cruz. i would like to turn to senator blackburn for her questioning. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. charles, i just want to say i am so delighted to see you here today. >> thank you. >> i want to thank you for continuing to be a voice and to speak up. i think it's necessary and i think you have an important message and you're an important voice in this entire discussion. thank you very much for taking the time to be here today and you probably have found it's about as hot here as in nashville. welcome to this muggy weather. mr. garcia, i want to talk with you for just a moment, if i may. you were just talking about the impact of drugs and what you're seeing te border and, of course, you're right there in texas and in tennessee, i many times will say because of the open border situation that we're facing right now and have for the last several months, every town is becoming a border town in every state a border state. and certainly when i speak with law enforcement, they are living this out every day because of the impact of drugs on our city streets and in our communities. as i talk

mr. chairman. >> senator blackburn, you're recognized for 5 minutes. >> thank you so much, mr. chairman. and to our witnesses, we appreciate you all being with us. i represent tennessee and in 2020 tennesseeans really came to appreciate the resiliency of their networks. in 2020 we had tornados, we had storms, we had floods, we had other natural disasters, and then on christmas day we had the car bomb was detonated outside the at&t downtown building in nashville. and that is where the switching capabilities for much of the southeast is located. at that point, we had people in several states who were affected by that christmas day bombing. during my work here in congress, whether in the house or here in the senate, working on broadband infrastructure resiliency is something that has taken a good bit of my efforts. we have the internet exchange act, which recently passed the senate as part of a larger package and will help in building these resilient and redundant networks. right now in tennessee what we know is that we have 400,000 tennesseeans that are living in a census block that has no

mr. chair. >> senator blackburn? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you to each of you for being here today. i appreciate your time. and i want to start with one question. so yes or no. we'll just go right down the list. and is it doctor renow? and you have a memphis tie, and i appreciate knowing that. but here's my question to each of you. do you support the rule of law in this country? yes or no? doctor, i'll start with you. >> yes. >> yes. >> mr. rodriguez? >> yes. >> thank you. you know, we're here because we all support the rule of law. but what is frustrating, and you've heard it from my colleagues. there are hundreds of thousands of people that have come across our southern border since president biden raised his hand and took the oath of office. there was 183,000 alone in the month of may. and this is not right. and those are individuals who are choosing to evade the rule of law. because there is a right way and a wrong way to come to this country. and why in the world would we make any decision that encourages people to evade u.s. law?

thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you, senator blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you for your service and thank you for being here today. i want to start first by saying how disappointed, and also to say i'm quite angry at a recent decision by the air force to not aware a guard base the f-35 national training mission, and my feelings are based on the data and the criteria that was presented both by each of the installations, and south ridge was clearly the superior choice in the matter and this is clearly a problem that we have seen before with the air force, as all of you know the gao is investigating a strategic basing decisions being made by the air force over the last few years, and without question this committee, this body needs to retain confidence that the choices made by the u.s. air force are based on data and criteria and not at a whim or whatever may be behind it, so my question for you, secretary austin, is do i have your commitment you will review the air force's f-35 training mission and we'll have an opportunity to talk about th

mr. cruz. i would like to turn to senator blackburn for her questioning. you, mr. chairman. mr. charles i just want to say that i am so delighted to see you here today. and i want to thank you for continuing to be a voice and to speak up. i think it is necessary and i think you have an important message in your important voice in this discussion. so thank you very much for taking the time to be here. you probably found that it's about as hot here as it is and nashville. so, welcome to this weather. mr. garcia, i want to talk with you for just a moment if i may. talking about the impact of drugs and what you are seeing at the border and of course you are right there in texas. in tennessee many times i will say because the open border situation we are facing. certainly when i speak with law enforcement, they are living this out every day because of the impact of drugs on the city streets. and in our communities. and as i talked to moms who one of the things they've mentioned to me is fentanyl. you were just referencing this. so, the distress that they are seeing now used with pill

mr. crews. >> i would like to turn to senator blackburn now for her questioning. >> thank you mister chairman, and mr. charles, i just want to say, i am so delighted for -- for continuing to be a voice and speak up. i think it is necessary, and i think it is important that your message, through your important voice, thank you very much for taking the time to be here today. and you probably have found it is about as hot here as it is in nashville. >> [laughs] >> so, welcome to this muggy weather. mr. garcia, i want to talk with you just a moment if i may. you were just talking about the impact of drugs and what you're seeing at the border. and of course you are right there in texas and in tennessee i many times will say that because of the open border situation that we are facing right now, and have, for the last several months, every town is becoming a border town in every state, a border state. and certainly, when i speak with law enforcement -- of drugs impacts on our city streets. and our communities. as i talk to moms, one of the things that they have mentioned to me is fentanyl. and you w

mr. chairmanments thank you so much, senator blackburn. >> thank you, chairman, i appreciate you holding the hearing, and witnesses i appreciate you being here. a little something building on what senator peters said and everyone is talking about network resilience, but i just want to add my few cents about the wildfires and network ability to address wildfires. the chair knows all too well, the wildfires have become an ever present threat to the southwest and 90% of the west coast is under extreme drought all across california, oregon, nevada, new mexico, arizona lake mead in nevada hit its lowest water level object record last week since the inception, i believe, of the dam. 46% of my state is living in elevated risk of wildfires so it's imperative in my communities, across the west, across the country have access to reliable and resilient community caigs-- communication networks. i won't go on, but that because others have, but resilience is important. i want to talk about what we're calling the middle mile. in some of the rural and underserved parts of nevada and across the country,

also recently introduced bipartisan legislation with senator blackburn to establish a civilian cybersecurity reserve at both dhs and dod. so mr. wales, how can cisa utilize preexisting links between the private sector and the federal government to mobilize a cybersecurity surge capacity at our times of greatest need? >> sure, senator, it's an important question, and one that was in some respects the basis for our strong support for the cyber response and recovery fund concept. i know that it's being considered as part of the s. 1316. but for us, it's really about how do we ensure we have the right resources. and part of the way in which we obviously used those resources, it's calling upon the significant private sector capacity we have in the country to support us when we have incidents that are significant and when our capabilities are being stretched to the limit. we are lucky we've not actually got to that point yet. but we know that with our adversaries growing more aggressive, it's only a matter of time before a catastrophic cyber incident really requires us to expand our capabilities beyond those that we have on board.

mrs. blackburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. we have a tendency in this chamber to talk about hindsight being 20/20 and i think that's what we'll be doing in 10 or 20 years when we look back on the biden administration. i really expect that we'll highlight all the big talk here in d.c. that led to some really bad ideas the white house tried to legitimatize through legislation and budget requests. if you remember, even before the 20 election, biden's big talk -- 2020 election, biden's big talk on amnesty welcomed the hundreds of thousands of migrants that are currently flooding the southern border. he said we expect to see these migrants at the border. so, yes, they heard him say y' all come and they're coming. his talk on green new deal programs got us the boondoggle of an infrastructure package that all but ignores roads, bridges, and broadband. the people in memphis, tennessee have not appreciated some of this talk of other items as infrastructure. they won't bridge repairs immediately. and