nadler: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. nadler: mr. speaker, h.r. 3985, the averting loss of life and injury by expediting s.i.v.'s act of 2021, or the allies act, makes essential changes to the afghan special immigrant visa program to ensure that the lives of those who served faithfully alongside troops in afghanistan are protected. the special immigrant visa program allows those individuals who work for or unbehalf of the u.s. government in afghanistan or for the nato international security assistance force in support of the american mission to seek lawful permanent residence in the united states. to be eligible, applicants must establish qualifying employment in afghanistan for two years, receive approval from the chief admission, and undergo rigorous background checks and national security vetting, a process on average takes three years. a 20-year mission in afghanistan will formally come to an end in just a few

nadler: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. nadler: mr. speaker, h.r. 3985, the averting loss of life and injury by expediting s.i.v.'s act of 2021, or the allies act, makes essential changes to the afghan special immigrant visa program to ensure that the lives of those who served faithfully alongside troops in afghanistan are protected. the special immigrant visa program allows those individuals who work for or unbehalf of the u.s. government in afghanistan or for the nato international security assistance force in support of the american mission to seek lawful permanent residence in the united states. to be eligible, applicants must establish qualifying employment in afghanistan for two years, receive approval from the chief admission, and undergo rigorous background checks and national security vetting, a process on average takes three years. a 20-year mission in afghanistan will formally come to an end in just a few

nadler: mr. speaker, i now yield four minutes to the distinguished gentleman from colorado, the sponsor of this bill, mr. crow. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado is recognized for four minutes. mr. crow: thank you, mr. speaker. and thank you, chairman nadler, for the time. the allies act is a chance for congress to ensure that america honors its promise to our afghan partners and friends. the phrase, life and death, gets tossed a lot in this chamber, but this bill is truly that for thousands of our afghan friends. the taliban is intent on hunting down and killing afghans that served alongside americans the past 20 years. . some members of this body, including me, may not be here today without the service and sacrifice of afghans who answered the call to serve shoulder to shoulder with us. those afghans knew the risk their service posed to them and their families, yet they signed up to help because they believed we would have their back. they have already demonstrated unwavering

nadler. rep. nadler: mr. chairman, i appreciate you holding today's hearing in response to the supreme court's decision in brnovich versus the democratic committee, which narrows the scope of the voting rights act of 1965. section ii prohibits procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, membership in certain language minority groups. while the extent of fraud remains to be seen, the brnovich decision appears to have significant undermined section ii's voting rights protections. it will likely make it harder for plaintiff to prove denial comes under the results test which congress adopted in 1982 as a guide to determine whether the plaintiff has established a challenge to voting practices violates prohibitions on discrimination when the practice while facially neutral has a discriminatory effect. one silver lining is that at least congress has the ability to undo any potential damage the court has inflicted on section 2 . that is because the majority's opinion, brnovich disposed solely on the int

she is leading jerry nadler skate. matt took this footage of nadler in the capitol maskless.y in progress? no arrests. that perp got away. maybe democrats might be using covid for political advantage. why wouldn't they? the pandemic has been good to the democratic party so far. their allies helped to create the virus in the first place with ghoulish taxpayer funded experiments in china. when it came here they rode the panic to the congress. now they are betting coronavirus will help them keep power forever. could that be what is happening? let's see. go to a quiet place for a moment and think carefully about the last 18 months including the part where they told you that blm riots could not spread covid? what do you conclude? why are republicans in the congress still playing along with it? because they are afraid of being called science deniers by people who think men can are babies? what is going on here. today congressman chip roy of texas looks liking a hero contrented the republican leader: why are we letting nancy pelosi politicize science to create a one party state. mcc

nadler: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman will suspend. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? mr. nadler: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 535, i call up h.r. 3985, the allies act, and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 3985, a bill to amend the afghan allies protection act of 2009 to expedite the special immigrant visa process for certain afghan allies, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 535, the amendment printed in part c of house report 117-95 is adopted, and the bill, as amended, is considered as read. the bill, as amended, is debatable for one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the judiciary or their respective designees. the gentleman from new york, mr. nadler, and the gentleman from california, mr. mcclintock, each will control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes

here's house judiciary chairman jerry nadler also not wearing a mask.deputy press secretary of the united states breaking the administration's mask policy two days in a row. and here is her boss, joe biden with something on his chin and as you can see on your screen, an aide wrote him a note saying "sir, there is something on your chin."." biden promptly wiped his face. notably, it is not a mask. just likely a piece of food. apparently we are in the middle of a deadly pandemic unless of course you are a democrat. but fear not because nancy pelosi is a big advocate for personal choice and medical privacy, just watch this. >> here's the thing, we cannot require someone to be vaccinated, that is just not what we can do. it is a matter of privacy to know who is or who isn't. i can't go to the capital position and say give me the names of people who aren't vaccinated so i can go encourage them or make it known to others to encourage them to get vaccinated, can't do that. >> jason: that was from april when she was actually correct. now she's trashing the dnc

they included jerry nadler, maxine waters.r karen maloney as radical leftists. yen that maxine water s a favorite boogey man. that one was a little more expected but definitely not for jerry nadler. >> the squad is already taken. squad 2.0, maybe? >> i don't know. the triad. >> sold. that's it. that's what it is. i know he frightens me. what do you make of this? the openness of these people. interesting he picks jewish women and black people as enemies of the state. that's not a coincidence. roy admitting all we want is cay yous. >> i have to say that i find these comments completely unsurprising. he is articulating what all of us has known is the republican position. they are not interested in passing anything. the whole owning the libs, trolling style of politics is about chaos. it's about obstructionism and quite frankly, republicans are completely comfortable with all of this. this plays well with the base. we may sit here and think it's a gaffe like, oh, my gosh. look what they are saying in private and they are looking g

representatives nadler and fitzpatrick and jackson lee and wagner and scanlon. everyone who has helped make possible this moment, including so many of you who are here today that i haven't mentioned. when someone commits a crime, it's not enough to bring the predator to justice. we also need to support the victims. and it's something that, way back 150 years ago when i was chairman of the judiciary committee, we spent a lot of time working on, setting up victims' funds. that's what this crime victims fund does. in many years of working on the issue, i visited an awful lot of domestic violence shelters. every time i'd go into a city , i would quietly, before i went to where i was supposed to be, quietly slip in and spend time in a domestic violence shelter to speak to the people giving the services, and people getting the services. and, you know, many times the body language that you'd see when you walked in was one of the victims of crime find , themselves almost curled up in a ball. they were still suffering from a serious, serious, not only physical abuse they

nadler: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. nadler: mr. speaker, h.r. >> the gentleman is recognized. >> mister speaker, the averting loss of life and injury by expediting -- or the allies act makes essential changes to the afghan special immigrant visa program to ensure that the lives of those who serve faithfully onside american troops in afghanistan are protected. the special immigrant

somehow chief pelosi is letting jerry nadler skate.sendale just took this footage lumbering through the capital mask list. your face will notice is naked to the world. a felony in progress but no arrest. that purpose got away.er it's all enough to make you wonder that maybe democrats might be using covid for political advantage. why wouldn't they? the pandemic has been awfully good to the democratic party so far.th their allies in the federal bureaucracy help to create the virus in the first place with ghoulish tax pended experiments in china. they rode the panic all the way to the white house to a socialized economy. they are betting that corona will help them keep power forever. could that really be what's happening? let's see. go to a quiet place and think carefully about the last 18 months. all of it. including the part where they told you that young lives could not spread covid. the question is why are republicans in congress still playing along with it. because they are scared of being called science deniers by people that think

chairman nadler agrees.s matter-of-fact chairman nadler stated and encoding directly, congress must make it extraordinary difficult if not impossible for the department to spy on the congress or the news media. we cannot rely on the department alone to make these changes. when i saw the reports about members of congress offices being targeted, mr. swalwell,, mr. schiff, i was the first and the only republican to say that that was improper. and more of my colleagues should join me. it was easy to believe that the department of justice would do that to the democrats because they threatened to do it to others. mr. chairman, i seek in its consent in into the record fox news publication of september 27, 2018, rosenstein launched hostile attack in may against republicans over russian records. >> without objection. >> rosenstein threatened a member of republican staff with criminal process if you did not bend to what mr. rosenstein's wanted at the time. so it's not hard to believe. the most-watched cable news host

christine nadler and you represent district 9. tell us what happened on the roadways. we heard reports of rockslides. give us the picture there. >> absolutely. so we closed u.s. highway 395 at bridgeport to the nevada state line. there is a canyon through there, walker canyon, which has had several rockslides and there are several campgrounds up there. we also have slides on state route 88 and 89 and all of our maintenance crews are out and deployed, looking to see what the damage is and if anybody needs assistance and how quickly they can get the boulders off the sides of the road. >> this is a very large undertaking to actually move these boulders and undoubtedly it will take time. you have any idea of delays and also if anyone has been injured by any of the falling rock? >> sure, no, we are diverting traffic heading northbound on 395 to state route 182, just out of bridgeport. that will take them through the western side of nevada to rejoin 395, further north. we have not been able to see what kind of damage has happened as our crews are rolling, but are not there y

thank you, chairman nadler for the time. the aize act is a chance for congress to ensure that america honors its promises to our afghan partners and friends. the phrase, life and death, gets tossed around in this chamber. but this bill is cruel that for thousands of our afghan friends. the taliban is intent on hunting down and killing afghans who served alongside americans the past 20 years. some members of this body including me may not be here today without the service and sacrifice of afghans who answered the call to serve shoulder to shoulder with us. those afghans knew risk that their service posed to them and their families. and yet they signed up to help because they believed we would have their back. they've already demonstrated up wavering courage and loyalty by working alongside us. they have demonstrated their commitment to america and they have earned a path to safety. the u.s. combat mission in afghanistan will come to an end in a matter of weeks. at the same time, the threat to our afghan partners who served al

>> thank you, chairman nadler for convening this hearing. secrecy surrounding the issuance is concerning. every actor is implicated from the department of justice which has abdicated its role. to the legislators who have thrown their hands up and allowed the doj to transgress without any accountability and transparency, while it is shocking to hear that the doj was engaging in surveillance practices against government officials, the staffers and their families, it is not an anomaly. as a protester and activists, i know firsthand. it is for this reason i have vocal in my opposition. the department's ability to surveil americans exercising their first amendment rights to protest has built the infrastructure that has now allowed the department to surveil members of this body. companies like apple and others are left to hand over the records at their disposal, betraying the trust of the people who use their products. in this instance, apple complied with the doj demonstrating the thorny provision of tech companies balancing their customers' priv

that chairman nadler will vote yea on h.r. 2497. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? mr. reschenthaler: thank you, mr. speaker. as the member designated by mr. hagedorn of michigan, pursuant to h.res. 8, i inform the house that mr. hagedorn will vote yes on h.r. 2497. as the member designated by dr. green of tennessee, pursuant to h.res. 8, i inform the house that dr. green will vote yes on h.r. 2497. the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 416. the nays are two. 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. without objection, the title is amended. federal bureau of investigation, the -- the unfinished business the unfinished business the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4300, as amended, on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title . the clerk: h.r. 4300, a bill to direct the secretary of the interior

nadler. >> thank you for holding these hearings. i appreciate the opportunity to focus today on the selection and confirmation process. a diverse judiciary preserves public trust in the courts. as i said at the first hearing on this topic, we need to determine why our federal courts remain so non-diverse in so many ways and what we can do to ensure that the path of the bench is open to all highly qualified lawyers. we have made progress, although the judiciary remains predominantly white and male, the courts are less, genius than they once were. that progress did not just happen. it was a product of decades of effort by leaders who recognize the value of increasing diversity. this progress comes in waves. it began with president jimmy carter. by the end of his single term, president carter appointed four times as many women to the bench as all of his predecessors combined and more than twice as many people of color. the progress continued with president clinton. it resumed again under present

nadler.my career, i have come across a lot of judges in courtrooms as well as in judicial hearings we have had over those decades, and i have found that the vast majority of the judges that i have come into contact with well-qualified and able to fairly adjudicate cases based on the constitution, based on the laws we pass in congress, and the laws of the various state legislatures. today's hearing is the second part in a series of hearings, which seem to suggest that for many of my democratic colleagues that the most important determining factors in judicial selection ought to be race or gender or both. while it is important to have a diverse federal judiciary, i would argue that the most important factor is selecting and confirming nominees, whether it is a candidate or whatever, that they are qualified, highly qualified, and they are impartial and their legal decisions. during his administration, president trump nominated dozens of qualified and diverse judicial candidates who were time and

few seconds left by congressman bigs, you're on the judiciary committee, how the world could jerry nadler chairman of that committee not hold a hearing on more than 1,000 pages put forward by the inspector general of the department of justice about all the wrongdoings of the fbi? not even a single hearing. >> because he's so busy focusing with his colleagues about domestic terrorism or january 6 or anything else, they don't want to get with the inspector general has revealed. i guess if he's not going to do it he needs toth keep pushing. >> it is absolutely abhorrent that they would both hold a hearing based on what the inspector general was doing. congressman, thank you again for joining us tonight and we really do appreciate it. right after the break, aoc and black lives matter are blaming the united states for the crisis and care about. leo terrel, sean duffy and mercedes schlapp to join us next with reaction to this and more on the cuba hypocrisy. ♪ ♪ >> jason: >> jason:co welcome back to the special edition of "hannity." black lives matter has been taking heat this week for releasing

and the second gentleman, senators durbin and baldwin and grassley and murkowski, representatives nadlerlee and wagner and s scanlan. when someone commits a crime, it's not enough to bring the predator to justice. we also need to support the victims. way back 150 years ago when i was chairman of the judiciary committee, we spent a lot of time working on and setting up victims' funds. that's what this crime victims fund does. i've visited an awful lot of domestic violence shelters. every time i went to a city, i'd quietly slip in and spend time in a domestic violence shelter to speak to the people giving the services and the people getting the services. many times the body language you'd see when you walked in was one of the victims of crime find themselves almost curled up in a ball. they were still suffering from a serious, serious not only physical abuse they received, but quite frankly, the emotional abuse. you can see the pain. you can see the pain was still with them and you wondered when is this going to abate no matter what we did. according to the cdc and i think senator feinstei

, but they never put on red hats, wandered into the capitol, and stole office supplies from jerry nadler confederates, back then, never breached the capitol. as insurrectionist did on january the 6th. i'm not saying this to alarm you. i am saying this because you should be alarmed. [laughter] >> greg: so wait a second, powell. january 6th shouldn't have alarmed you because by january 6th, you should have already been alarmed. what is going on in that brain? but true, we were already alarmed, when you, mr. magoo, won the election. you claim you were a unifier as you deem to half the country a bunch of nazis. how is this rhetoric now not incitement? but keep going. >> i never thought in my entire career i would have to say, buto god, to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution, and that is an oath that forms a sacred trust to defend america against all threats, both foreign and domestic. >> greg: oh, man. dude, you would not know if foreign threat if a shirtless putin rode his horse into the oval office and took a dump on your desk. so the problem we face as americans today isn't us,

as chad program points out jerry nadler says reconciliation is the only option to pass daca, in the reconciliation don't get cinema, manchin or tesla. jillian: we exist so we should get paid. >> reporter: ilhan omar will introduce legislation that creates a guaranteed income program which will send $1,200 a month to most americans. those making 75,$000 a year or heads of household that make 112,$000 a year as was a $600 monthly payment per child. we will see how well this is received on capitol hill. todd: you want to get paid for not doing anything, get jillian and carly breakfast and money appears in your account. a huge power move by the black widow. >> reporter: scarlett johansson is playing hardball. >> i was an avenger. and a lot of enemies. jillian: she has a new enemy, the actress and her attorney filed $50 million lawsuit against disney over the company's decision to release black widow and disney plus and in theaters at the same time alleging breach of contract with her agreement guaranteed of the ethical release only and her salary was based on box office performance. the company said,

only have a few seconds left but you are on the judiciary committee have in the world could jerry nadler, the chairman of that committee not hold a hearing on more than 1,000 put forward by the inspector general of the department of justice about all the wrongdoings at the fbi? >> because he is so busy focusing with his colleagues about domestic terrorism in january 6 or anything else, they don't want to get with the inspector general has revealed and we've got to be holding some hearings and if he won't do it, the minority needs to keep pushing to hold minority hearings. >> jason: it is absolutely abhorrent that they wouldn't hold a hearing based on what the inspector general was doing. congressman scalise and congressman bigs, thank you again for joining us tonight, really do appreciate it. aoc and black lives matter are blaming the united states for the crisis in cuba. leo terrel, sean duffy, and mercedes schlapp will join us next with reaction to this and more on the cuba hypocrisy. stay with us. namaste... ...surprise parties. aww, you guys. dupixent helps prevent asthma attacks...

jerry nadler, new york city. eric swalwell, san francisco. cori bush, st. louis. houston. this happened to be the major distribution hubs for fentanyl and they are against those tough sentences. have i mentioned how much i dislike lawyers? [laughter] i like you, geraldo, i'll make an exception. the democratic party now doesn't want to reduce crime, they want to reduce prison population. they believe the fact that people are incarcerated, a lot of african-americans there, is because we have a white supremacist system, and they are the victims of white supremacy, so even if they have to reduce sentences, if that comes with an uptick in crime, they don't care. >> katie: so, greg, you have the opposite take. you believe in legalization, and fomenting more sentencing only exacerbates the problem? >> greg: first of all, in terms of crack, two at geraldo was talking about, the people who wanted those harsh penalties for the black communities because that's what was really killing them. but nobody actually goes to buy fentanyl. it isn't a drug that people go look for. it'

earlier today was from a republican point of view i thought it was one-sided what adam schiff and jerry nadlerhe investigations. i thought it was a partisan investigation. when you hire a company who said before the audit they believed the election was stolen, when the head of the cyber ninjas is going on a documentary that's saying the election was stolen in the middle of an audit and you're only allowing a network that is a right leaning network to have a pool feed for all of this, you're only speaking to one crowd. and i thought that was the wrong thing to do. >> what have you learned about how people have gone bad on you by just speaking the truth about this? what does it tell you what used to be that side of the ball? >> i think it happens on both sides. when you get into twitter and when you get into social media, there have been a lot of people that have been angry about it. i understand the passion, i really do. if you align with someone most of the time and all of a sudden they're a loud voice against something you really believe in. so i don't take it too personally because most of t

it took over two years of legal battles, jerry nadler took four months to go to court, fought it, draggedquickly if we get this battle. >> the department of justice in the past hasn't been involved in the contempt sigcitations but t could. merrick garland could get involved. >> it's their choice. the people held in contempt barr and holder is in charge of doj. >> mo brooks, a lot made of the fact that mo brooks said that he was wearing body armor. mo brooks was at the baseball ot up and scalise got injured. says he has worn body armor in public some since then because of threats on his life. but there are those who look at this and say, a, if he was wearing body armor, that may somehow impact his legal defense in the swalwell case. what gives? >> he could get a subpoena as well. i think one question for him is what led you to wear body armor in this case? how often did you do it? did you have specific information about what was going to happen this day that led you to wear body armor? also importantly, the justice department decided this week they will not be representing mo brooks in the

. >> gillian: you know so many things, so many eyes are always on nadler and the fact he says reconciliationfor sure. of course reconciliation is something that i think the american people don't always want to be the answer that we keep going back to in a lot of these scenarios. do you think there's anything that d rekale this? -- that can derail this? >> yeah, i mean, look, i think there's -- on the broad reconciliation package, you still have moderate democrats who have said they aren't for 3.5 trillion dollars in new spending. i think having progressive democrats bring these moderates aboard in order to pass something via reconciliation is going to be a pretty heavy lift. and it's interesting that after the early sort of positive signs from the bipartisan package, the progressives have taken the opposite tact i would take if i were a progressive democrat is they are sort of chastising these moderates saying you are working with republicans. you are narrowing the progressive possibilities of a biden administration because you're requiring us to get approval from republicans. well, that see

chairman nadler agrees, chairman nadler stated, i'm quoting directly, congress must make it extraordinarilynot impossible for thedi department spy on congress for news media. we cannot rely on the department alone to make these changes. what i saw on the reports about members of congress and offices being targeted, i was the first and the only republican to say that that was improper. more of my colleagues should join me. it was easy to believe the department of justice would do that to the democrats, they threaten to do it to us. i seek unanimous consent to enter into the record fox news publication from september 27, rosenstein launched hostile attack in may against republicans over russia record. >> without objection. >> rosenstein threatened a member of republicanmb staff criminal process if he did not bend to what mr. rosenstein wanted at the time so it's not hard to believe. the most watched cable news host has been stating for the last several might that the nsa has been monitoring n communications and amazingly, nsa issued a statement that's so much, it's functioning in mission. let

you know, from a republican point of view, i thought it was one sided, what adam schiff and jerry nadlerestigations. i thought it was a partisan investigation. when you hire a company, who said before the audit that they believe the election was stolen. when the head of the cyber ninjas is going on a documentary that's saying that the election was stolen in the middle of the audit. and you are only allowing a network that is a right-leaning network to have the pool feed for all of this. you're only speaking to one crowd and i thought that was the wrong thing to do. >> what have you learned about how people have gone bad on you by just speaking your truth about this? what does it tell you about what's happened on the conservative side of the ball -- what used to be that side of the ball is this. >> i just think it happens on both sides in the extremes. you know, when you get into twitter and you get into social media. there have been a lot of people that have been angry about it. i understand the passion. i really do. if you align yourself with somebody most of the time, and then all of t

nadler and mr. johnson are going to be introducing soon. and it makes a lot of sense. but as we all know, it's an up hill battle. that doesn't mean that we shouldn't fight it, but it does mean that without eliminating that filibuster, we can't succeed, and we can't succeed in voting n climate change, in guns and many other issues. what has to happen particularly on judicial nominations is to build a greater grass roots network in support of this so that progressives across the country understand what's at stake and why it's important and we can't -- we can try now, but we have to look at ethics reform that i think chris mentioned and we have to also look at the lower courts. i will stop there but we also have the imperative of the nominations, and making sure that trump's 234 don't stand by themselves and president biden's on his way. he has nominated a diverse slate, not as diverse as some of us might like, but diverse in background and experience and race, and ethnicity. so we have to build this movement in order to make it happen. >> if i could just pick up on somet

nadler and mr. johnson are going to be introducing. very soon. it makes a lot of sense as we all know it is an uphill battle. that does not mean that we should not fight it. but it does mean, that without eliminating the filibuster, we can't succeed. and we can't succeed in voting in climate change, and many other issues. what has to happen particularly on judicial nominations, is to build a greater grassroots network. in support of this. so that progressively across the country, understand what is at stake. and why it is important. and we can try now, but we have to look at ethics reform, get that i think chris mentioned. and we have to also look at the lower courts. i will stop there quote, it is imperative. and the nominations and making sure, that trump's 200 234, do not stand by themselves. and president biden has nominated a diverse slate. not as diverse as some of us might like, but diverse views in background, and experience and race and ethnicity. we have to build this movement. in order to make it happen. >> if i could just get a commen

nadler the , chairman of the committee. >> thank you. on your report you found agencies using systems owned by 15 another federal entity and 14 reported using systems owned by state, local, tribal entities including the fbi. can you describe how the fbi uses these systems to expand facial recognition search capacity? >> thank you for that question. i will briefly talk about how the fbi used the technology around the events of january 6. the fbi has a media tip line. therefore people -- they asked for people to submit images. they then inserted those into a frt system to get potential matches. we did a report a few years ago on fbi specific use of the technology and we had issued a number of recommendations that spoke to them complying with the privacy impact assessment and another system. the fbi ultimately -- they agreed with our recommendations and they implemented the recommendations. i think it was dr. alexander had mentioned that the fbi has done a number of things to ensure the accuracy of the frt systems they are using has improve

nadler: i thank the gentleman. mr. speaker, i rise in strong support of the consumer protection and recovery act. this legislation is essential to promoting the federal trade commission's commission to enforce antitrust law and protect consumers. for decades, the commission has secured monetary relief of victims of unfair, deceptive and anti-competitive conduct, such as pharmaceutical companies blocking access to lower cost drugs. an recent example of the f.t.c. returned nearly $60 million to patients suffering from opioid addiction. but a few months ago, the supreme court severely weakened one of the f.t.c.'s most vital tools for protecting consumers and deterring bad conduct which ruling that the f.t.c. could not seek monetary relief under one of the key statutes it enforces. this legislation would restore one of the commission's critical tools for fighting mow nop luss and protecting -- monopolies and protecting consumers. i thank the author of the legislation, mr. cardenas, in addressing this problem. i ask my coll