>> state environment or regulators testify about the relationship between the epa and other states in implementing the clean air act and other environmental initiatives. shelley moore capito chairs the senate environment and public works subcommittee hearing. thank you to everyone for being here today. we are kicking off a few minutes late. this hearing of the committee is called to order. i will begin by recognizing myself for a brief opening statement before turning over to my friend and ranking member, senator white house for five minutes and then we would hear from the panel of expert witnesses. i recognized myself for five minutes. the concept of cooperative federalism is enshrined in all of our major environmental statutes and the clean air act is no exception. previous congresses realized the preservation and its importance to human health, the economy and theth public enjoyment of the te national heritage is the responsibility of the government and at every level of her predecessors also recognized the different levels of government should have different responsibilities. ever

, and then landed on our state.'s very hard to ask ohio or pennsylvania or kentucky to crack down on pollution that is not landing in ohio or pennsylvania or kentucky. it's a tough expectation to have for them politically. we could regulate until we are blue in the face in rhode island, but it doesn't help if what's coming in is coming in and being deliberately set up to come in from out of state. and it's in that circumstance the epa plays an essential and vital role, and that goal cannot be subject to the control by the polluting state, because there's another state involved that is the downwind recipient of all of this, and it's that particular situation we have to be very careful about how cooperative federalism to if you're not dealing with the public good state as well. so i just want to be clear on that point. >> i agree with you in this case. >> and it's true with water as well. >> it's not the case as we talked with commissioner baker. in that case it is quite clear that they had a lot more knowledge in han

started out just a little bit further and assume that israel is a state of mind described that state of mind for us at this point in time. well it was this quote was made there regarding the decision of denmark and president to move the american embassy to jerusalem and it was very controversial in israel and outside of israel and my take was that actually it was a good decision because jerusalem as the capital city of israel represents israel it is a place where you have citizens and then you have hundreds of thousands of people who are not citizens and you have a separation between different groups between arabs and he's ready to issues rallies so in that sense jerusalem israel is a state of mind reminding us that i would say the challenges with which is very is confronted and actually we two here in germany. shai rosana is also an israeli citizen based here in germany working for the arch of ela israel at seventy what does it mean to you well. you know there's lots of troubles lot of challenges but but i want to break the gloom and doom fast i feel we are we're about to launch her

russia as ad terrorist state. did you have a meeting of mind here as to the threat that russia poses to the neighboring countries? thank you. pres. trump: we have a very strong relationship, as a presidents will tell you. with the baltic states. we are with them. we are friends and allies. we are going to have a long-term very fine relationship. in addition, we do business entree. we work very hard on security together. numbers ofy, large trade -- these are very industrious nations, you are from there, so you know what i am talking about. these are tremendous people. and very industrious. we do a lot of business on trade. thank you. thank you very much. >> the second part of your question, interesting, especially because we did not about the rival. especially on our border. the country behaves aggressively, performs wars, you sometimes call this country not fruitful. that is why. our security. we are investing into forming me know. we would like to see strong nato. strong alliance. that is what we are going to do

there are pro-choice states and pro-life states. if a pro-life state can dell a doctor, you have to tell people about adoption, why can't a pro-choice state tell a doctor, a facility of whatever it is, you have the tell people about abortion? that's simple. the one we've said, you can make a doctor whose very prolife teller about abortion? get it? why don't we have to say the cause is the same? you're a pro-choice state and you can make these people tell them about abortion? >> yes or no if it's a simple demark case about abortion that will be unconstitutional in any state. the law being upheld are doctors who are going to perform abortions -- >> you want to draw line to whether it's it's a doctor treatment or medical institution about to do it? >> yes. >> okay i've got it. >> my other question. you have a different line in which you are attacking this, you say this statute picks out 60 to 70 really pro-life facilities and say, you have to post these signs but nobody else does? right? >> that's correct you honor. >> okay. now, that

it will take states bring the press. -- the evolving state bring the -- baltic states bring the press. madam president. thank you very much. it is my pleasure to congratulate estonia, latvia, lithuania on the 100th anniversary of their independence. quite a great achievement. congratulations and an honor to have you with us. in the white house and the oval office. really tremendous. 100 years, we are thrilled to celebrate this historic milestone by welcoming all of you. beforeyou have been him but this is something special. we enjoy having you. from the beginning of your country's independence, the united states, this is never, you know that better than anybody, never ceased to recognize your sovereignty of the three baltic republics. even though, throughout the years, there has been conflict and problems. we never let you down. we will not let you down. at today's u.s.-baltics summit, we are celebrating 100 years of renewed partnership among our nations. grounded once more is a shared commitment to independent sovereignty and a total respect of the rule of law. this afternoon, we wil

a jewish state. you have been looking very thoughtful yeah well. he's a middle eastern discussion in germany so i find both have said we're just going to struggling with each other. well first of all i think israel was founded not only because of the holocaust there would have been the state of israel or a kind of a as an institution entity in palestine with or without the holocaust this is important i think the lesson is much more to think we have to remember from the holocaust especially now that we are moving from remembering the holocaust as having the holocaust as a part of the human history because the last victims and the last perpetrators are dying. is the university stick lessons it gives us. and i must say you know when you speak of the israelis only seventy years old and we have to let to give you time we have a basic construction full in the in the in the heart of this beautiful house called the state of israel and this is a failed partnership with palestinians. course among the great wri

into the state. north dakota argue the supreme court's decisions interpreting the dormant commerce clause have evolved and become less rigid and more permitting a state regulation at least in the absence of express prohibitions by congress since the time it was decided. the same evolution of supreme court doctrine of south dakota mason in the state. so out the supreme court to overturn and the supreme court refused. again emphasize the negative impact it would result on interstate sellers, but more importantly they held that it must apply and follow its prior precedent in this area because under our constitutional scheme, congress and not the supreme court has the final word as to what regulations in interstate commerce are permissible and by maintaining a consistent interpretation the court explained congress is now free to decide whether, when and to what extent states may burden concerns with the duty to collect interstate taxes, close quote. that brings us to the competing theories at issue in th

there's nothing grander than a state visit in state dinner.e highest invitation our president can extent to a president, prime minister, king or queen of another country. the evening is magical. >> a little jealous but aren't you glad not to have the nerve. it seems like there such high-stakes, but why? >> because of the type of invitation that's extended. it's the greatest honor at the moment it's extended at the end of january by president trump in the moment that happens that every office hears about it in the white house social office they begin immediately to start making plans. it's a minute by minute very detailed and meticulous planning. it's exhausting but extraordinary. we take our direction from the president and first lady. they will determine how they will receive them and what the format of the day will be. there is a certain tradition, we've seen many elements take place to right now they arrival a -- for the beginning of the state dinner. it's a very special time and a wonderful celebration in a country. >> i want to get into t

two states. a jewish state of israel. a palestinian state, living side by side. in peace. that's the only option. [ applause ] the united states is beyond any one person. the united states must be a facilitator of those talks, were the only country that has the capacity to bring this about. one of the great opportunities that i have had in life be with shimon peres on several occasions. and listen to his vision for israel and her neighbors. he understand the aspirations of the palestinians and israelis. he recognized by having peace and opening up the middle east to prosperity that it would be a lasting peace. because what people want is an economic future for their children and grandchildren. and opening up peace between the israelis and the palestinians would lead to that. shimon peres said israel welcomes the wind of change. and sees a window of opportunity, democratic and science-based economics by a nation desires peace. israel does not want to be an island of affluence in an ocean of poverty. improvements in our neighbors' lives means improvement in our neighborhoods

beautiful state. the -- i applaud the reduction in emissions that you talked about in your testimony. when our secretary shaun garvin spoke, he mentioned 90% -- correct me if i'm wrong, repeat what you said. >> over 90% of our ozone comes from outside our borders. >> yeah. that's not good. that is not good. earlier in my life i was privileged to serve as governor of delaware and remember having a conversation with folks from maryland and they -- these are folks who made their living on harvesting the creatures that live in the chesapeake bay, and they had the big dead spots in the chesapeake bay and the sea grass had stopped growing and they -- their ability to make a living was diminished. they came and said to us, we needed to do something about it. we said why? they said, because the river that flows from delaware into maryland and the chesapeake bay that was carrying a lot of nutrients from when we clean out chicken houses, poultry houses in delaware and our farmers were in some cases just stackin

state to impose use taxes on the resident out-of-state purchases inevitably will try to conscript out-of-state marriages in the collecting and remitting of taxes. precisely because they are out-of-state have no recourse to the ballot box. without fail, states will always choose to impose the tax collection duty on out-of-state merchants to whom they are not politically accountable rather than trying to collect the tax directly from in-state purchasers to whom they are politically accountable. forcing out-of-state merchants come especially those engaged in e-commerce to collect and remit is unpopular use taxes is exactly what south dakota seeks to do in this case. south dakota is hardly the first state to do so. both south dakota and others have tried this many times before. it seems about every 25 years or so another set of state concocts a new regime to test these laws. to date, the supreme court has rejected every such attempt, holding true to the principle that a state can only impose such tax collection obligations on merchants that have a physical nexus to the state. the supreme court ann

>> state environmental regulators testified about the relationship between the epa and theiother states in implementine clean air act and other initiatives. west virginia senator shelley moore capito chairs this hearing. >> i apologize for getting started a couple minutes late. this hearing on the subcommittee is called to order. i will begin by recognizing my soul for a brief opening statement. then we will hear from the panel of expert witnesses. i recognize myself for five minutes. the concept of cooperative federalism is enshrined in all of the major environmental statutes and the clean air act is no exception. the congress realizes environmental preservation and it's important to the economy and the publics enjoyment of the country's national heritage is the responsibility of government at every level. predecessors also recognize different levels of government should have different responsibilities. not every aspect of the policy can or should be dictated from in washington. we lack expertise and capacity for oversight on the industrially diverse country. it must be to implement en

the state. attorneys present oral arguments on tuesday. this is one hour. >> you will hear arguments in case 17494, south dakota versus wayfarer. >> mr. chief justice, may it please the court, there are two very significant consequences brought about by quill. first, our states are losing massive sales tax revenues that we need for education, healthcare and info structure. second, our small businesses on main street are being harmed because of the unlevel playing field created by quill where out-of-state remote sellers are given a price advantage. >> i'm sorry, isn't the problem not quill? but the fact that you don't have a mechanism to collect from consumers quest markets not the merchants paying the sales tax, it's the consumer. they are collecting it for you. so, find a way to collect from them. >> we believe we have a right because we have a statutory team in place. it's a fair scheme, it has safe harbors in place to allow our state. >> i'm not concerned about your scheme as such. i'm concer

nigeria's trade well it was a united states stood at six going to zero seven billion united states dollars according to two thousand and sixteen statistics and conference for four and seven six billion united states dollars was of nigerian export to the united states and one point eight or nine and four billion united states dollars exports to nigeria we are greater effort to increase these figures substation. we thank the united states government very much for cooperation we have received in our efforts to recover stolen funds. to governments if with the machinery in place for their respective attorney generals to collaborate in ensuring their turn to nigeria or about five hundred million not to say the loss of looted funds siphoned away in banks around the world in this connection we congratulate the united states government can learn chin left talk or say i said the recovery initiated which was spearheaded was a united state department of justice said full feature and money laundering we hoped that we could continue to count on united states support in this area the government on nigeri

the state. that's the meaning that's been attached to the phrase physical requirement that the court used but i think it's very clear that it was not issuing inadvertent holding about the role of the internet presence in determining accompanies obligation to collect state sales tax for the court was dealing with the summarized rule of if this date retailers only have goods and catalog by mail or common carrier, that was insufficient and the court used that physical requirement term as shorthand for that principal. the court was not saying anything one way or another about the role of a pervasive internet presence in establishing contacts with the state to allow for the collection or rough analog might be that in the past 15 years this court has sometimes acknowledged that its prior decisions had used the word jurisdictional in a less than precise manner and the court has sometimes said statutes that we previously characterized as jurisdictional are not really that. they are something else. to be

nigeria's trade with the united states is $6 billion united states dollars. [indiscernible] we urge a greater effort to increase this substantially. we thank the united states government very much for cooperation we have received in our efforts to recover stolen funds. our two governments have put machinery in place for their respective attorney generals to cooperate and ensure recovery over $500 million in united states funds that we have invested around the world. we congratulate united states government on launching the asset recovery initiative which was spearheaded by the united states department of justice. we hope we can continue to count on the united states in this area. the government of nigeria remains deeply committed to the principles of human rights as well as the protection of people's freedoms. we commit to ensure that all documented cases of human rights. i thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, mr. president, thank you very much, thank you, sir. steve miller of the washington times? thank you, steve. >> thank you, mr. president. i hav

his body passed hillary through secretary of state with 94 votes. i urge them to make the best decision for country their constituents back home and join me in confirming mike pompeo as the next secretary of state. >> thank you. glad to be here today to be on the senate floor

states. we are mostly concerned with the domestic agenda put the fork and policy depends on the integrity of the united states domestic policy. it is especially when we seek to uphold, protect and defend the constitution necessary that we keep a concerted focus on people who take that oath and particularly in our case the concern about the rights of the first amendment. to that end be alliance of questions that we would like asked in his confirmation hearing as he is vetted for this critical position in the world. so many of these issues speak to the role of muslims and islam in the united states and global society that we felt was critical to convene the allies and coalition partners that are seated appear to offer this briefing. there will be a book from the legal perspective, from the political perspective of impact in the broadview of the arab american institute whose members are not all muslims and from the allied perspective. you will hear concerns about these questions we hope will be

the state. that's the meaning attached to the phrase physical presence requirement that the court used in quilt. i think in context it's clear that will was not issuing at least an advertisement holding about the role of the internet presence in determining the companies obligation to collect state sales tax. the court was hidealing with phyllis has, it summarized the rule as being sthat if the out-of-state retailers only contact with the taxing state was delivery of goods and catalogs by mail, that was insufficient and the court used the term physical presence requirement. we hibelieve as shorthand for that principle, the court was not saying anything one way or eranother about the role of a pervasive internet presence and developing sufficient contacts with the state to allow for the collection duty and a rough analog might be that in the past 15 years this court has sometimes acknowledged that its prior decisions had used the word jurisdictional in a less than precise manner and the court has

the baltic states and united states acknowledged the need to continue the successful existing corporation we are encountering in modern-day security, threats such as terrorism, cyber and informational. today, all of us committed to placing greater emphasis on advancing economic trade and investment relationship. we recognize great potential and areas of innovation, modern technologies, and digital economy. we will explore possibilities towards forging new partnerships to this end. i am particularly proud of the success of latvian companies that have helped generate more than 2,000 jobs in the u.s., georgia, north carolina, california. it shows how important this economic corporation is. finally, the baltic states and the united states agreed to continue promoting closer people to people contact because these contacts are very important for every member of our society. and let me stress that president trump, thank you for hosting us in this very important event when we celebrate 100 years anniversary of our statehood. thanks. >> president trump: thank you. it's become president trump, i e

our state began this effort back in 2007, and a number of states have done the same thing. over the last decade, we've closed or consolidated multiple prisons, saving significant taxpayer dollars. the crime rate has fallen statewide even while the state population exploded during that period of time. something is working back home in the lone star state and it has worked in places like north carolina where the presiding officer has played important roles in his state of north carolina and it has worked in places like rhode island. that's why prison reform has enjoyed broad bipartisan support. it unites all of us by successfully reintegrating our citizens into society upon release. i believe in the essential dignity of every human life, and if there is a human life we can help salvage by giving people access to some of these programs by changing the way we look at incarceration as not just a warehouse where we put people, but also by providing people who are -- who are willing to take advantage of these programs to turn their life around, it strikes me we are giving people a

we congratulate a strong united states in our fight against veryrism and appreciate much the united states agreement [indiscernible] to sell us warplanes. it effectively will help us fight terrorism. to contain insurgency in nigeria, the federal government has adopted a sectorial approach involving related government agencies to address the social economic issues. the armed forces of nigeria provide security and maintain law and order. addressof efforts to imagined cases of insurgency in the country, the nigerian ministry adopted counterterrorism insurgency approach called operation safe corridor 2-d radicalize, re-about a clause -- rehabilitate and reincorporate boko haram members into society. this program is currently included in a number of projects. [indiscernible] a number of international partners including international organization for migration have contributed to the operation safe corridor. we indicated that we would wereciate whatever support could get from the united states. we appreciate the united states support in the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in the northe

i welcome to the program i'm jane docked in france in the united states have a long history that goes back centuries from the american revolutionary war to the statue of liberty the two countries have had strong ties french presidents emanuel mccaw is hoping to build on that special bond jury in his three day state visit to washington d.c. and donald trump has rolled out the red carpet but beyond the handshakes smiles and lavish ceremonies there are serious policy disagreements including the twenty fifteen iran nuclear deal which could threaten to put a strain on the special relationship trump says he wants to withdraw from the agreement while france and other european nations are urging him to stick with a deal iran for its part says if the u.s. withdraws it too will likely abandon the agreement or get our guest in a moment but first al-jazeera as kimberly elkins reports from washington d.c. . u.s. president donald trump welcomed french president emmanuel macron to the white house with a state dinner to celebrate the bond between the two nations. what appears to be a warm friendship

it is also good for the united states.and the john deere tractors the better for iowa in the national economy. unfortunately china is not interested in the level playing field. and confucius said heaven does not have two sons in the people do not have to king. and by the same token the chinese leadership does not think there is time for two great powers on this earth. you see the advantage of trade with united states but not mutually beneficial free trade in the spirit of the wto. despite having a middle class that is bigger than ours still claim to have special preferences extended to these countries. the second largest economy in ldthe world still once special preferences like we would do for country that would be ranked 100 the standing. and with the nontariff barriers and to have wto compliance in violation of the spirit with the level playing field that it has seek to create. it is 60% larger -- larger. and in violation of international law by creating artificial islands reveals the expansion of impulse. you can't hid

in some sort of constant state of combat and so there is a war weariness in the united states there you have to remember donald trump campaigned saying that he wanted to pull the united states out of these foreign conflicts even suggesting it's hard to believe but just a little more than a week ago in fact suggesting that it might be time to leave syria and now here we are at the same commander in chief has just put in place still a terry strikes in syria for the second time in two years or is sorry in a year just a little more than twelve month period so there's a confusing syria policy coming out of this white house that is left the american public equally confused but i can tell you when you look at most polls there's a general war weariness among the american public that's in large part why donald trump was elected there was this belief that there's time to look inward in the united states should no longer be the world's policeman well if we do look at it would just just fine make him believe this is a very convenient distraction for donald trump a time when he's facing a lot of

the united states has a lot to offer.e history of the world — in syria, the united states, with but a small force being used to eliminate what is left of isis, is doing what is necessary to protect the american people. over the last year nearly 100% of the territory once controlled by the so—called isis caliphate in syria and iraq has been liberated and eliminated. the united states has also rebuilt ourfriendships across the middle east. we have asked our partners to take greater responsibility for securing their home region, including contributing large amounts of money for the resources, equipment and all of the anti—isis effort. increased engagement from ourfriends including saudi arabia, the united arab emirates, egypt and qatar and others, can ensure that iran does not profit from the eradication of isis. america does not seek an indefinite presence in syria. under no circumstances. as other nations step up their contributions, we look forward to the day when we can bring our warriors home. and great warriors they ar

fema supports the states.we provide, very bureaucratically, when the staff at access, can what our statute says, we provide supplemental assistance to the governors during a disaster. it does not say we are going to be there for every citizen. i would love to be but the expectation of the citizen needs to be that they're all go for 72 hours. they need to have a plan. you need to have the food, water and medicine you need, all of these things, again, the monitor you've heard over and over. we just need to continue the conversation and maybe be more blunt, like i hope you have heard me be. >> russians upfront here and then we will go there. we will not get to everyone. >> from your civil defense perspective, a lot of our adversaries are considering combined cyber and electronic, electromagnetic attacks. how would fema plate in that role in strengthening both the governmental and private sector preparedness for that? >> i would put emp and the same category as nationstate and cyber and all that is related i think

policy in syria is in disarray we fall after the defeat of the islamic state the united states will withdraw from syria and then we had to speech by the former secretary of state rex tillerson at stanford where he said no way we are here to stay not only to prevent a remote chance of the islamic state but to decrease the influence of iran in syria and find a political solution and now we heard donald trump a couple of days ago say we bring back our boys quite soon so it's a bit difficult to understand what the united states actually wants the troops in syria now last time we had a similar chemical attack back and when in two thousand and seventeen yo read the reference that their response of the trumpet administration was to sound tomahawk missiles into syria but they did it in a very unusual way it wanted both the russians and the syrians in advance so those missiles only damage some rusting aircraft so in the eyes of the public it was a tough response but the military military terms it was really not much and i think there are many ways of how you can interpret that do you do you think tha

policy including the secretary of state. and as we know, i mean, this committee has been an island in a sea of partisan. we have continued to scuct our business in a very high bipartisan way, always. always. beginning with republicans and democrats working together to come to a good end. i want to give a little history on nomination votes. john kerry was confirmed by a vote of 94-3 on the senator floor this committee favorably reported its nomination unanimously. hillary clinton was confirmed by a vote of 94-2 on the senate floor. we voted her out 16-1. condoleeza rice was confirmed by vote of 85-13 on the senator floor. this committee favorably reported the nomination 16-2. both this committee and the senate unanimously voted in favor of colin powell's nomination. now, to our nominee. and to his qualifications. he graduated first in his class at west point. first in his class. he served our nation in uniform as a calvary officer before the fall of the berlin wall. as he testified in this committee, he was there he learned t

for the united states. hat is what the trump administration is trying to do now, it will result in etaliation, could let to it-for-tat, that will hurt consumers and businesses. guest: the question of leverage and trade deficit is interesting one. so gary raised point i think is out there. ht china has large trade deficit excuse me, u.s. has trade deficit with 98 countries, not just china. 98. greater debt burden in some bad is this? second thing i would point out, how does it have trade deficit straight year? after all, if you or i household stantly spent more than owned, that wouldn't happen. trade america have deficit before china became economic or trading power and dollar. the role of the because the dollar is a global currency, america can run trade deficit and pay with dollars and s long as they are willing to accept it, u.s. can -- deficit not an issue. america has xosh tant privilege. perpetually consume more than it earns forever. now get to the question of leverage. what is ultimate leverage? the

the natural state of the world is conflict. and it takes an enlightened powerful hegemon like the united states to produce a degree of order. - nature abhors a vacuum. power. leadership. abhors a vacuum. something will fill that vacuum if the united states discontinues its leadership role in areas. - the period between the first world war and the second world war is the relevant comparison to look at. where we had this gap between an exhausted britain and a reluctant america, this vacuum was filled. and my concern is that if america is pulling back, retrenching, stepping down from its role, then other, less benign forces are going to take its place. - [narrator] the conflicts in syria and yemen are in many ways proxy wars between the iranians and the saudis as they battle for regional dominance. china meanwhile is also working to increase its influence in the asia-pacific region. - china is throwing its weight around in building roads and railroads in africa and putting together a trade pact for other east asian nations as well

secretary of state. i would simply note to my doubtingdo friends who are standing on the other side of thele aisle that the overwhelmig public opinion from the news media has come down on the side of mr. pompeo. the wall street journal headline today says we need to secretary of state a mic pompeo should be confirmed. the "chicago tribune" in an editorial states why the senate should confirm mike pompeo. the "washington post" on the editorial page confirm mike pompeo. president trump need to secretary of state and i would add madam president that this country needs a secretary of state. because of internationalti diplomacy we need ads secretaryf state or because of human rights around the world we need a secretary of state. "usa today" said to confirm mike pompeo a secretary of state. i will not question the motives of any of my colleagues. i will only say that things are surely different around the united states senate nowadays than they were previously. when we rose up almost unanimously and confirmed

of state, the last three secretaries of state have been my friends. one of the things that they have lacked, and i think it is widely acknowledged, is they did not really have a relation -- a good relationship with the president. each of them made sure that we know that they felt differently about what was happening than what was happening. this would be the first time in four nominees that we actually have a nominee that has relationship with the president where the president listens to what they have to say. so, with that, i just want to say, i cannot imagine, and maybe i have overstated that last point. let me just put it this way. he has a very good relationship with the president. that is somewhat different than the last three secretaries of state that we have had. so, let me just say i cannot imagine -- i cannot imagine having someone more qualified o be secretary of state. i know -- i know what the outcome is possibly going to be today. and there is a lot i could say but i don't want to say it. i do not want to harden positions. we have got tre

at the initiative of the united states. we signed it, both the united states and france. that is why we cannot say we hould get rid of it like that. it is true to say that this agreement may not address all concerns and very important concerns. this is true. but we should not abandon it without having something substantial and more substantial instead. hat's my position. that's why france will not leave the jcpoa because we signed it. your president and your country will have to take in the current days and weeks its own responsibilities regarding this issue. but what i want to do and what we decided together with your president is that we can work on more comprehensive deal addressing all these concerns. that is why we have to work on this more comprehensive deal pillars.four the substance of the existing agreement. especially if you decide to live it. the post-2025 period in order to be sure we will never have any nuclear activity for iran. the containment of the military influence of the iranian regime in the region. activity. listic i think these four pillars, the ne

. >> state department officials discussed u.s. policy in the middle east at a hearing of the house foreign affairs committee. they answered questions about yemen, theia and arena nuclear program. congressman ed royce chairs this to our and 20 minute hearing. and 20 minuteur hearing. tothis hearing will come order. in announcing military strikes against syria last week, the president made clear, the syrian people must shape their own destiny. he is right. but that doesn't mean we don't have a vital national interest in the region, or a reason to tolerance andity, respect for human rights. the u.s. and our allies were justified in taking limited military action against bashar al-assad. which of that action in response to his barbaric use of chemical weapons -- we took that action in response to his barbaric use of chemical weapons. i hope he gets the message. if not, i have no doubt there will be more military strikes. the world has enough security challenges without the breakdown of the 100-year norm against the use of chemical wea

recapping our top stories for you so far today syrian state t.v.says rockets are struck several military bases and how much the aleppo countryside the army is calling it a new aggression by its enemies state media out earlier reported of successive blasts in the west and how much province al jazeera has man reports now from aleppo . it's one of the strongest attacks on the military civilians in aleppo described hearing a huge explosion and their description is in line with what the state is saying the first of the airstrikes killed eight people at military posts in the aleppo countryside but we haven't heard a full tally of deaths from the military yet it is clear the explosions were massive and the equipment used was sophisticated it is only like this strikes carried out by the western trio which had minimal damage what is clear is that the syrian military is still being targeted and this was a big hit after the u.s. led airstrikes. earlier syrian state media also reported a deal between the syrian government and opposition fighters under the prop

with homeland security funding, the state and local governments. training and exercise, having reports that all of us can agree to that we rally around and say these are important tirades. to your point what we can do to prepare on response we are calling readiness would be the innovation teams. we know every state is not the same baseline level and by handling manage the recovery programs. we have the fifth integration team being in a handful of states as part of a pilot but rolling it out more broadly across many states and other levels of government in the future. and a handful of fema experts, since we talk about logistics the largest vision, fema has amazing larger stations who understand how to get people, equip and and commodities following a disaster. i want to embed below decisions for the emergency management agency that hasn't given a lot of thought to logistics or they don't have capacity or experts. we want to provide experts to build up the level of capability so that state could manage a recovery program on their own and fema would p

and france aligning with the united states to just reinforce whatever the united states wants to do which leaves the international community without any real balance which was the brilliance of having the p five the permanent five members of the security council and the security council and the u.n. to have this balance a multilateral balance in international affairs that is slowly but surely being destroyed and we see what that real of real devastation strategic devastation across the globe as the united states is unable to accommodate itself to the reality of a multi-polar world where other countries have power and they're going to exercise it the only way for the united states to true. be safe in that environment is to have is to work in a balance of power environment with other countries but instead you have people here in washington especially holding onto this idea that that really blossomed in the wake of the cold war in the one nine hundred ninety s. that the united states not only could be but has to be the sole superpower in order to protect itself that is really what's so dange

state is in opioid crisis. it's imperative that mike and i work with our colleagues to share information and to hold those individuals accountable. we mentioned some of the educational pieces and perhaps even though we are lawyers and i know we want to talk about the law i want to encourage you all to clean out your medicine cabinet. the saturday is national drug take back day. you can find a police station or sheriff's office to clean out those medicine cabinets and most of the young people in your lives get their first prescription drugs from their parents or grandparents medicine cabinets. while of us can imagine taking prescription drugs out of the families and our grandmothers and taking their nerve pills or whatever you want to call it then that is what young people do. they do not, prescription drugs, do not increase in value sitting on your counter or kitchen cabinet and they do not increase in value so clean those medicine cabinets out and help a loved ones in your life. that's my psa for today. it's v

state nominees is misplaced.like all of my colleagues, i take my article 2 advise and consent responsibilities very seriously. so i would like to tell you why i oppose mr. pompeo's nomination to be secretary of state. my opposition my opposition is not about politics. it isn't really about policy either. while i disagree vehemently with many of mr. pompeo's positions on issues such as human rights and climate change and the iran nuclear deal, these differences alone are not enough to disqualify him or any nominee for at that matter. fundamentally, my opposition to mr. pompeo's nomination is about whether he can credibly fulfill his duties as our nation's chief diplomate. can he effectively and faithfully advocate for american diplomacy at home and abroad? and in this regard, as one of my esteemed colleagues said while introducing mr. pompeo before the foreign relations committee, quote, your background does matter. so, here is what it is in mr. pompeo's past that concerns me. mr. pompeo was okay characterizing an

you are 50 states. if you do not have the power to get congress to do something, i don't know who would. >> congress does not have incentive in this instance to take action in something that can be perceived as a tax when they don't get the opportunity to use the revenue. >>as you stand now, it seems that both the states and internet retailers have incentive to ask for a congressional solution to this problem. the internet retailers will have to deal with things like the andrado reporting statute -- the states obviously have incentive to require retail to collect the tax. overruled, what incentives to the states have to ask for any kind of congressional legislation? >> certainly if it is overruled the states will have constitutional responsibilities to follow. is inas happened her e quill, they set the baseline. as nondiscriminatory as it may be such as south dakota's, it is automatically unconstitutional instructive. >> can i ask you the question. you answer them when you wish and if you wish. the reas

from becoming a state. it is a misconception. constitution says that there has to be a seat of government not to exceed 10 miles square, which is an old time he way of saying a hundreds were miles. the national government shall have exclusive jurisdiction over that federal district. maximumdoes is set a size for the federal district. but not the minimum size. the theory of d.c. statehood is ,o take the seat of government our federal area, and make it in the way that the framers intended. >> although his perspective seems more against d.c. statehood, paul stross says that most of the constitutional you it ashat he knows an essential controversy that should be accomplished. apart from the constitutional aspects, stross says the lack of d.c. statehood is currently unfair for many reasons. >> here's what makes us eligible to be estate. we have more people than several other states. they are american citizens, they follow the laws. the serving the military and do all the things that citizens are supposed to do. they don't have the rig

states. imagine asking them to oversee new massive snap bureaucracy. at most two halves that barriers that will increase the length of time that people left away and at worst it will kick people off nutrition support and create an environment that discourages people from applying in the first place. even though he was exempt from work requirements due to persistent homelessness. >> you time has expired. >> own associate myself with remarks; who will i have demonstrated that nt tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands will lose their food benefits. new hampshire we have 92000 and rituals and 37 families relying on supplemental nutritional assistance to put food on the table. over half include individuals living with disabilities. 47% have children under the age of 18. one third have elderly individuals. the average net benefit per person per meal is $1.11. $1.11 per person, per meal. we've had discussion about categorical eligibility but i'll go to the administrative burden that the repr

let's look at cases of nuclear states threatening nuclear states. according to their data nuclear states have issued these threats 49 times since 1945. guess how many of those threats were against countries with fewer nuclear weapons and guess how many were against countries with more nuclear weapons according to their data? 4920. according to their data never in the history of the world has a nuclear armed state with fewer nuclear weapons today nuclear armed state with more nuclear weapons. that is pretty compelling evidence the inferior state prefers not to play these games of nuclear chicken. >> are there meaningful cases of actions between the us, russia and china that would more significantly inform the question of stability between major nuclear powers or these smaller things? how applicable is that? >> a broader point, this book tries to bridge the gap between theories of deterrence and real-world nuclear strategy and policy so i'm trying to engage in several debates. the more academic side questions how do you get evidence about the real wor