senator udall. sen. udall: thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you both for your service and thank you for being here today. secretary mattis, the existence of multiple local militia forces in iraq remains a major problem, as isil is driven out. kurdish aspirations of statehood may be just the tip of the iceberg. how many different groups are the department of defense advising and assisting in iraq? sec. mattis: we advise and assist iraqi security forces only in iraq and i would just mention that secretary tillerson just returned from there and this issue was brought up with the prime minister. do you want to say anything, mr. secretary? sec. tillerson: yes. the prime minister is asserting authority himself over other various militias, including popular mobilization forces, the p.m.f., which are by and large iraqi forces, they are iraqi citizens who are fighting under militia arrangements. including the peshmerga forces of kurdistan during the war to defeat isis, to liberate mosul. to liberate large parts of other provinces. these force

as an example, senator mccain's uncommon friendship with mo udall comes to mind.ongressman udall was a liberal icon, yet he reached out to a young republican from his state as a friend and a mentor. the two men developed a close friendship that lasted until udall's death from parkinson's disease. although udall had once been among the most powerful leaders in washington, almost none of his former colleagues came calling as he's laying ill at a veterans hospital not far from the capital. but it was senator mccain who visited them quite often. senator, you would arrive at the hospital with newspaper clips and you would sit at your friend's bedside, even when he was no longer conscious, and you would read to him. just as he reached out to you in the beginning, you reached out to him in the end with empathy and true compassion. hearing this story, it is once again so clear of the unique and unusual man we are speaking about, and what a dear friend he was to mo udall. but we must also see a man with a desire to embrace people's humanity, regardless of their politics. t

. >> why would udall 911? reporter: the drivers asked us not to reveal the identities, but they still wanted to tell their stories of what is now being referred to as uberlance. >> i asked "why did you not call the ambulance?" he said "because you are quicker and cheaper." reporter: driver say passengers out for uber for speed and cost since the cheapest ambulance ride in palm beach county, florida is $650 a month, plus mileage. >> depending on my injury, i would call uber. it is a hell of a lot cheaper. they call uber to transport them because they know they will get there safely. reporter: emergency room doctor jeffrey ekman says he has seen climbing outthand, of it over. >> -- out of an uber. >> if udall 911, they provide the best service. if you do not want to burden the ems system -- >> you want to get there safely, and you want to make sure they are not going to die on you. reporter: just be clear, medical professional stress if you have a real emergency, you need to call 911 as uber trained in handling

, and bald within. -- whitehouse, udall, and baldin. i yield the floor -- baldwin. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

president, the amendment that i am offering with senators leahy, brown, harris, baldwin, udall, reed, markey, heinrich is very straightforward and simple. i'm glad that a number of my republican colleagues are on the floor because they can help me as we go forward on this amendment. what my amendment would do is establish a point of order to prevent cuts to social security, medicare, and medicaid benefits, which could only be waived by two-thirds of the senate. in other words, what we are trying to do here is make it harder for there to be do you think social security -- for there to be cuts to social security, medicare, and medicaid. now, i want everybody in america to know that this tax proposal is more than a tax proposal. it is my absolute belief that as soon as this tax proposal is completed and drives the deficit up by $1.4 trillion, i have zero doubt that my republican colleagues are going to come back to the floor of the senate and suddenly say, oh, my goodiness, the deficit has gone -- my goodness. the deficit has gone up. we have got to cut social security, medicare, and med

senator udall. >> thank you chairman thune and thank you for holding this important hearing. i must say some of the testimony is pretty discouraging here. there were 846,188 new mexicans whose identity and possibly their credit worthiness was endangered by the blatant carelessness of equifax employees. when you previously testified, mr. smith, you specifically said that the data was stolen was stored in plain text and had not been encrypted. this is an unacceptable practice for an organization with such power over consumers' lives and it's painfully clear that americans cannot rely on large companies that store their data to protect it. as one possible solution, congress should consider banning the use of unverified social security numbers in commerce. there is the potential for strong bipartisan support for this. social security numbers were never intended to be used as universal online i.d.s. i am glad to hear that the white house is looking at this idea and congress should also evaluate this possibility as well. in that regard, this committee should take a closer look at t

. >> senator udall? udall: given that i am the last one to ask questions, i thought i would use this opportunity to welcome mr. wilkinson. i hope things are going well from my home state. a hundred of your employees are from our state, said thank you for being here. i know much of this ground has been covered. in your testimony, you mentioned brazil's model of identity model,ions, and in this the government works to provide digital certificates of identification. how did they ensure that the governments's private partners can keep citizen information safe? brazil is a great example, but there are some models that we can share with you, senator, that are being used around the world. certainly, the framework they built for security is close to what we are proposing going forward. but, -- the comment that sen. made was accurate. they're doing really good work that we would love to spend more time with the committee speak about to discuss what security could look like in the future. mr. smith appeared before

. >> senator udall? you for your service and for being here today.secretary mattis, the existence of multiple local militia forces in iraq remains a major problem as i soul is driven out. the curtis aspiration of nationhood may just be the above the iceberg. i am concerned we are adding up on multiple sides of a complicated conflict in a post-isil barak and syria. how many departments are the departments of it defense ?ssisting and advising in iraq rx we advise and assist the iraqi security forces only in iraq. secretary tillerson just returned from there on this issue was brought up with the prime minister. >> yes. the prime minister has asserted authority himself over other various militias, including the iraqiich by and large forces, they are iraqi citizens fighting under militia arrangements, including the peshmerga forces of kurdistan during the war to defeat isis, to liberate mosul and large parts of other preferences. these forces put themselves under control of prime minister a body said there are multiple forces but indicated our forces are

. -- udall's -- evolves. in a private system, you have companies that go bankrupt and come back with a new name, which we have seen. i don't see how you make that any better, because their motive is profit. >> but also the public system builds super max prisons, builds things to put people in cells for 30 years. >> it also created a war on drugs, mandatory minimums, lots of things that inflated our prison population significantly, particularly in the 1980's, when we hear about these private prisons becoming much more appealing. but you are writing a book about private prisons, and you are finding that this model has gone back even before the 1980's. >> yes, we have had for-profit prisons throughout american history. different periods of times, from the first prison in the country was a for-profit prison in philadelphia. the first penitentiaries were essentially factories where they are making textiles for companies. it was about 40 years into the time that we start building penitentiaries that in the south th

conservation act, which ultimately gained the approval of such giants of conservation congressman mo udall, the secretary of interior at the ofe from idaho, the range conservation interests and other interests across our nation and within alaska. it was a grand bargain that was 100 60 million acres of land in our state went the federal classifications within our state. within those classifications, there was -- i am will over that time. do you think we are taking a balanced approach? >> absolutely. >> thank you. >> you mean when i am responding , i am using your time? i did not know that. that.ppreciate lieutenant governor, thank you. >> thank you, madam chair. very, very concerned about the direction of where this is going, and one of the reasons i did not support the budget resolution was because of the provision that would assume $1 billion coming from the opening up. i appreciate ranking members opening comments and other colleagues who have expressed concern, but when we talk about listening to people from alaska, we certainly want to do that. inish we had more diversity terms of view

act, anilca, which ultimately gained the approval of such giants of conservation as congressman moe udall, the secretary of interior at the time from idaho. the range of conservation interests and other interests across our nation and within alaska. it was a grand bargain that was dealing with immense millions of acres. 160 million acres of land in our state went into the federal clarifications in our state. within those classifications there were -- there was -- >> i'm well over the time. i'll insert myself here. do you think we're taking a balanced approach? >> absolutely. >> okay, thank you. thanks, madam chair. >> thank you. >> you mean when i'm responding, i'm using your time? wow, i didn't know that. sorry. >> it was probably better than i interrupt you than the chairman from your state. >> thank you. >> i appreciate that. lieutenant governor, thank you. senator stabenow. >> well, thank you, madam chair. i am very, very concerned about the direction of where this is going and one of the reasons i did not support the budget resolution was because of the provision that would assume $1

i'm offering this motion to commit with the support of senators casey, van hollen, udall, cardin, booker, wyden, menendez, harris, and brown. i said it before and i'll say it again -- there's no question we need tax reform that creates jobs, incentivizes companies to bring back jobs from overseas to protect our farmers, and to help semiautomatics put more money in the pocket of families across michigan and across the nation u that's what i would vote for and i know other colleagues would vote for but that's not what this bill does. that's into the this republican bill does. we in that our friends o. -- we know that our friends across the aisle are in a hurry to pass this legislation as quick lace possible. before the american people discover what a bad deal it is. unfortunately, for republicans we keep uncovering new ways that this tax legislation is a huge giveaway for the wealthiest 1% and now we know from the latest scoring it blows a huge hole in our nation's debt, expand you are our nation's debt. here are just a few ways that this legislation hurts middle-class families. it keeps a