wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oarg. mr. wyden: i wants to -- from oregon. mr. wyden: i want to thank my colleague from hawaii for her remarks. senator hirono, let me also, senator hirono, while our on the floor, tell you how much i appreciate your leadership on the my body, my data act. i'm thrilled to be, i believe, one of your sponsors here in the senate. it is hugely consequential, because we have known from even the draft alito opinion that women were going to have their personal data weaponized against them. so, i know you have a busy schedule, but i just wanted the body to know how extraordinarily important this is, because when we look at technology, and particularly what technology can do today, what your legislation does with our colleague from the house, congresswoman jacobs, gives us a chance to get back to the fundamental issue of privacy rights. we're going to start looking more at the contractual relationships between women and various companies, bec

last year, senators wyden, booker and i discussed a discussion draft of the cannabis administration and opportunity act. after receiving more than 1,800 public comments and working with numerous senate committees to improve the bill. today, we are introducing this historic legislation. i am proud to be the first majority leader ever to say that it is time to end the federal prohibition on cannabis. and this bill provides the best framework for updating our cannabis laws and reversing decades of harm inflicted by the war on drugs. i've had many productive conversations with my republican and democratic colleagues about cannabis reform, and i look forward to working with members from both sides of the aisle to secure support for this bill. our bill will legalize cannabis by removing it from the controlled substances act. empowering states to create their own cannabis laws instead. it will establish a robust regulatory system to protect public health, and ensure that cannabis is as safe as possible. it includes rules to prevent impaired driving, prevent youth access, and prevent illegal di

wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oarg. mr. wyden: i wants to -- from oregon. mr. wyden: i want to thank my colleague from hawaii for her remarks. senator hirono, let me also, senator hirono, while our on the floor, tell you how much i appreciate your leadership on the my body, my data act. i'm thrilled to be, i believe, one of your sponsors here in the senate. it is hugely consequential, because we have known from even the draft alito opinion that women were going to have their personal data weaponized against them. so, i know you have a busy schedule, but i just wanted the body to know how extraordinarily important this is, because when we look at technology, and particularly what technology can do today, what your legislation does with our colleague from the house, congresswoman jacobs, gives us a chance to get back to the fundamental issue of privacy rights. we're going to start looking more at the contractual relationships between women and various companies, bec

and if i could senator wyden said what type of regulations are outdated?de policies go back to the smoot-hawley act. so if you think that maybe they are not working and the structure is built into the review process and does not have the effect to act quickly on modifications to trade policies, then maybe t we need to look at the overall picture. >> and then i would follow up in a more general sense and how that could afford it affordable housing that you address that in your last answer. and hopefully the administration takes timely action on these issues. these are practical bipartisan ways. housing availability and affordability are a huge issue for south dakota. i hear about this and communities and then that is significantly inflated making it more difficult and according to the national association of realtors the average cost of housing and that was by $80000 but how it is impacting across the country? >> senator that is a great question andnd by one estimate i have seen the testament double we have a shortage of three.8 million homes in the us whic

president thank you so much i joined my colleague, thank you, senatork wyden for your onpoint remarks and of course senator murray for her incredible leadership. not only the committee but i'm taking this issue on and making clear to the state of washington yes but also to the country that this should be a woman's decision a woman and her doctor in a family's decision and not a decision made by politicians. part of this is making sure there is access toan family-planning. this decision has come out, i cannot believe the number of women that have come up to me at home or airports, flight attendants saying things like is this really happening, you mean i'm going to have to go to another state just to get reproductive health care. how about contraception, people are talking about contraception. people all over the country have realized how extreme this decision is. one of the people that have been leading this fight it in fact leading this proposal on expanding access to family-planning is my colleague tina smith she is here in spirit, she has a mild case of covid and i know she is watch

wyden we need to prioritize security. we can't balance structural deficits by evacuating cities so we will need to make our ability should grow the same amount of food and water priority. >> certainly one of the more urgent issues as providing information and that includes continuing and robust support for the usgs that manage systems approving senator cortez masto's bill to implement the usgs and i think more broadly the support for giving the bureau of reclamation broader flexibility to work with states on new approaches like groundwater management and groundwater storage. thank you. >> mr. stern. >> senators you know the sierra's witnesses fairly recommend one specific approach. i would say there is more support for activities that can be done from the ground up and stakeholder driven things may very from one base into the next. there is more top-down command-and-control type of activity. >> anything else you want to add something you think would be the most urgent thing we could do? >> senator i testified in front of

wyden: mr. president, our economy is as resilient as any in the world, and at the same time we know that it's important to always look to modernize key economic policies, particularly as it relates to fundamental questions of research and development and also production and manufacturing in order to create high-skill, high-wage jobs from sea to shining sea. now, i come from a state that's a leader in technological innovation, not just for our country but for the world. oregonians know how important it is town vest and make sure -- is to invest and make sure the u.s. stays at the forfront of technologically breakthroughs. the reality is when it comes to chips, we've got some important work to do. so i want to take a few minutes to describe why it's so essential for the congress to get this legislation done now. first of all, our bill is going to bring down costs for consumers and businesses. everybody knows there are chips in laptops, phones and cars but there are also chips in refing raters -- r

i'm glad that what senator wyden and senators are doing to schedule the hearing to work on this. i partnered on the tax credit to make sure that extremely low income renters don't have to pay more than 30% of their income towards housing and what happens in families like that everything is upside down when they are evicted. my first question for mr. roberts we have a lot of homes that can provide good affordable first generational opportunities. many of them some of you heard me on this committee as it could my wife and i lived in had more foreclosures in 2007 van any in america. when homeowners can't make the repairs themselves where they are snapped up by out-of-state investors the problems are evidence so how can the neighborhood and i know he referred to it to address the shortfall on single homes to keep those in the hands of aspiring homeowners. >> thank you senator for your leadership and everything you do in the banking committee is remarkable to see the comprehensiveness of your strategy. to fill the gap to build or rehab a home. it's not feasible for private developers

to strikes on this small piece of land along the black sea, there is also information about joseph wyden on a visit to the middle east, today he is in israel, and it became known that joe biden and the prime minister of israel recently signed the so-called the jerusalem declaration was given with a joint press conference. the full name of the document is the jerusalem declaration on the american-israeli strategic partnership. with this document, the text of which was distributed by the office of the head of the israeli cabinet, the united states confirms its affiliation and support for the security of israel. strengthening its military military potential to maintain e-e deterrence let's say enemies and protection against any threat or combined e-e threats in the declaration also says that both they will not allow the appearance of nuclear weapons in iran and undertake to use all elements of national national power to counter the iranian threat . biden will also be in saudi arabia well, given that putin will meet with the president of iran and recep tayyip erdogan in tehran, we can see wh

politicians, politicians of the world of course this is the middle east side of the president and wydenit would seem that, well, where is the middle east, where is ukraine, nevertheless , he talked about a huge plan for opec to increase oil production, if more oil is produced, the price will decrease, and this will allow internal american problems to deal with because, well, gasoline is just off the charts, but in the grand scheme of things it will take away a huge trump card in russia, this oil energy cossack, that is, everything that is currently being discussed by the powerful of this world is somehow close to us well, it will have some consequences , god forbid that they be good, god forbid in order to solve this, in any case, the white house had a closed press briefing today. i also participated, and they said that within a week of biden's return, his plane is now in the air. somewhere at midnight local time, he will return to washington. and within a week, they should report certain results that he is there. oh, well , as far as we understand now, they will be ready to increase oi

stations to reduce fuel prices themselves, this is exactly what the president of the united states thinks wyden my message to companies that manage filling stations and setting prices at gas stations. idle time is now the war of global risks. reduce the price you charge at the gas station to reflect the cost you pay for the product and do it now for some americans to see. they did not believe such a statement and hoped that the head of the white house was joking; others called on biden not to play political games with people and engage in self-education. after all, the margin of private gas stations does not exceed the petition to the head. there were those who doubted in the presence of the president of the united states of basic knowledge of economics. the representatives. the vertorian party insist biden perfectly understands the law and supply and demand. but just fooling the population. you know as well as anyone that the federal reserve actually sets prices through runaway inflation, when 40% of the world's dollars are printed in a year, inflation begins. and prices skyrocket, literally.

that is, if this program, which was announced today by wyden, is quickly implemented in full, then iy be considered as a sufficiently serious support for ukraine a on the way of its struggle for one's own independence and for one's own freedom is key operationally, i wanted to attach myself to the word operationally, mr. peter, there was a lot of talk about langleys, we heard and saw statements about the next aid packages in the end in your opinion. when will we actually see all this at the front, the results? i don't have any information that could shed light on all of this. i only want to emphasize that everything that ukraine has received so far and what was announced for the near future is beyond the scope of lend. -lizu, these are other relevant programs. the united states itself is transferring some of its stocks, mobilizing allies, because a whole number of countries. and all the indications are that the united states is providing ukraine with one or another type of weapons , that is, so far it is working outside the limits of production, well, it is various expert assessments

and senator ron wyden from oregon said it best, the united states cannot value saudi oil more than theod of fallon smart and i think that says it succinctly. >> carley: it turns out that the person who hit your daughter was a saudi teenager. the saudi consulate hired a private defense attorney to secure his release on bail. and then apparently driven to a little area where he removed his ankle monitor. if that reporting is accurate. do you know if the president knows about your daughter's case? have you had any interaction with the trump administration or the biden administration on this? >> i have not. i am not aware if they know the specifics of my case, but i know there have been three different bills brought to the senate floor about the classifying saudi information. i think if they are paying attention, they should know. >> todd: i think you raise an important point, you are not political when it comes to issues like this. the democratic senate that brought the bill to the floor, this cross is party line because it's not democrat or republican but an american issue. the lives of

emily: it definitely is interesting, especially when you have heard that president wyden was consideringemoving some of the tariffs on these goods. when he talked about what impact that might have on the economy and inflation. honestly, lisa, there were a lot of big topics between the u.s. and china that we not see -- that we did not see in the readouts. it raises questions about the extent of what was discussed, the tone of what was discussed. things could not have gone that bad if they are planning an in person meeting, there are lots of questions about what the relationship between the u.s. and china is going to look like. lisa: -- kailey: obviously we can talk policy between the u.s. and china and how if nancy pelosi visits taiwan that will be effective on a geopolitical scale. on a domestic skill if she does not make that visit, how does that play, especially among her colleagues in congress? emily: senate minority leader mitch mcconnell was encouraging her to go, saying if she canceled it would be handing a victory to beijing. have heard the same from republicans and democrats, rea

on thursday, new jersey's cory booker and oregon's ron wyden introduced the cannabis administration andopportunity act. they were joined by senate majority leader chuck schumer. >> i am proud to be the first majority leader ever to say it is time to end federal prohibition on cannabis stop and if this bill provides the best framework for updating our cannabis laws and reversing decades of harm inflicted by the war on drugs. amy: the legislation would de-list cannabis as a prohibited drug, impose a federal tax on its sale, and would see the criminal records of many nonviolent offenders expunged. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the house select committee to investigate the january 6 attack held a primetime hearing on thursday night focused on donald trump's refusal to take action asis supporters attacked the capitol on january 6. lawmakers focused on the three hour period after trump urged his supporters to march to the capitol and "fight like hell." knowing many of them were armed. for the next 187

these trade barriers is going to reduce the cost of the final product and if i could also senator wydenlier said, what kind of regulations are outdated and are trade policies go back to the policy act, so if you think that maybe if they are not working and if we cannot get agreement and we are structurally built in the structure is built into the review process of that trade program, does not have the effectiveness of being able to act quickly on modifications to try the policies, the maybe we need to look at the overall picture that we create are trade policies thank you when i was going to follow up with a question about what we could do a more general sense now renewed u.s. soft lumber agreement to the benefit of affordable housing i think you kind of addressed that in your last answer and i would just say hopefully, the administration takes final action on these issues and these were practical bipartisan ways to help with affordable housing the u.s. housing community at large. we just speak my mind for minutes, this optic on a housing availability and affordability are huge issue fo

. >> senator wyden. >> thank, you mister chairman. this will be a question for you, doctor hall, let me set the table here. summer begins next week. more than half of my state is already suffering extreme or severe drought. 17 oregon counties have been declared to be in a state of emergency because of water shortages. this is the first time that the shoots county has been in a drought emergency three years in a row. now, drought conditions have been so bad in central oregon that for 18 straight months, the -- reservoir, the primary source of the irrigation water for jefferson county set record lows for months and contents. now, commissioner, we touton noticed how drought has hurt the climate base of where the lack of water is devastating. the farms and travel resources, causing residential wells to run dry. and then on top of this, first responders and experts on the ground expect that the drought conditions are going to fuel wildfire risks beyond even the historically bad conditions of the past couple of years. dr. hall, you talked e

i will work with anyone who wants to pass the bipartisan grassley-wyden bill. in addition to prescription drugs, i'm leading the charge to lower the cost of grocery bills. the big-four meatpackers who have over 85% of the market use uncompetitive tactics to hurt smaller producers, our independent family farmers. while independent farmers in iowa are forced to sell livestock at dirt cheap prices, the cost to the consumer is climbing at an historic high level now. this is happening at the same time the big-four packers are reaping record profits. just this past week, cisco, the largest food distributor in the united states, filed a lawsuit against these very same big-four packers alleging price-fixing. cisco claims that these packers intentionally reduce the number of slaughtered cattle to inflate beef prices that families must pay then at the supermarket. we must maintain a cash market for cattle producers and, thus, increase competition. towards this goal, i'm spearheading two bipartisan bills that sailed through the senate agriculture committee that would do j

senator ron wyden who chairs the committee which has jurisdiction over these climate and tax provisionscted said this may have been their last chance to truly reverse the impacts of climate change. he said, quote, i'm not going to sugarcoat my disappointment here, this is our last chance to prevent the most catastrophic and costlily effects of climate change, we can't come back in another decade and forestall hundreds of billions if not trillions in economic damage and undo the inevitable human toll. this is a blow to president biden's goals. they've been trying to pass this on a part line process, he was offered concessions, but senator joe manchin said he was concerned about spending money when inflation is so high right now. initially democrats wanted $3 trillion. manchin demanded it go back to $1.5 trillion, then he killed that package earlier this year, and now we're down to a potential package that only includes lowering prescription drug prices and expanding obamacare subsidies. this might be the democrats' only chance for an economic victory before the midterms. >> there were re

. >> joining me now is senator ron wyden, a democrat from oregon. senator, great to see you.to respond to the former president's comments saying that we need to get to the bottom of 9/11, he was a president at one time, there was a 9/11 commission. 15 of the 19 hijackers were from -- the list goes on and on. but just your thoughts on what you just heard. >> well, i'm pretty stunned that the president seems to be completely unaware of the 9/11 commission report. this was an exhaustive analysis, independent. people always ask it's not a picture book, it's an independent report. and that's a fact. >> well, portland was the second stop for the liv tour, the eight events for this year. you released a declassified intelligence bulletin in 2020 showing that the saudi government almost certainly helped its u.s.-based citizens whenever they're involved in any sort of legal issues to help evade justice. tell us about the case of 15-year-old fallon smart who died in a hit-and-run car crash. >> it is so tragic. and oregonians are still infuriated about it. oregon law enforcement believes

wyden previous state -- mr. biden previous statement which was before the u.s.idterm election would focus on the potential and promising emerging from the medicinal game acts. -- prime example, we have generated an unprecedented lever -- level of corroboration between our countries and israel. it is likely, therefore, the major focus of the u.s. residential -- presidential will be focused on developing a regional partnership. this includes not only security protocols, but other areas like energy, food, water security. hopefully, the visit will define the u.s. strategy -- which is essential to creating more efficient and credible tools. to save washington and as allies -- there is, in this visit, a great opportunity for -- the forum and it is the summit that can read more middle east countries together. an area that goes beyond the immediate economic security needs. and create a most sustainable -- for the regions. first, forum to create with israel in march of last year together the prime minister's -- morocco as well as the u.s. security of state. it was a wate

reacting in anger, shocked and stunned by the news, also climate change activists importantly and senator wyden, chair of the finance committee who helped write this bill, he says, quote, i'm not going to sugar coat my disappointment here. this is our last chance to prevent the most catastrophic and costly effects of climate change. we can't come back in another decade and forestall hundreds of billions if not trillions in economic damage and undo the inevitable human toll. now, democrats of course today are left scrambling trying to pick up the pieces, getting back to negotiations in the days and weeks ahead, but of course they had wanted this to pass before midterms, a difficult midterm election ahead for them. they had already scaled back this bill significantly to win manchin's support and it seems that as of this morning they're going to have to do that even more. >> all right. sunlen serfaty live for us on capitol hill, thank you. >>> here with us now errol louis, scott jennings. errol, joe manchin once again blocking the biden agenda. >> yeah, and there's a much larger problem of course

wyden refuting a recession in part by saying the inflation reduction act will cut inflation which had0 year high in june, and biden is also touting unemployment is at 3.6% and more than 1 million jobs were created in the second quarter. this week though, the white house is accused of trying to redefine recession. and official white house blog post, does a little much then waiting in part what is a recession? while some maintain that two consecutive quarters of failing real gdp constitute a recession, that doesn't need to be the official definition of the way economists evaluate the cycle. both are based on a holistic look at the data including the labor market, consumer business spending, industrial production and income >> treasury secretary also denies a recession and instead says were in a period of transition from rapid growth last year to stable growth now. shannon. >> shannon: the president also today, we talked about this at the top of the show, yet as long as all the desert with chinese president xi thursday amid rising tensions. china warning the u.s. not to play with fire ov

wyden: the name of senator cortez masto's bill sums up what this is all about. the senator has proposed, she's a former attorney general, a very skilled lawyer, she has proposed legislation, the freedom to travel for health care act. and i just want us to take a second to think about the name of my colleague from nevada's legislation. and i would submit to the senate that you know something has gone horribly wrong in america when the senate is forced to consider a proposal entitled the freedom to travel for health care act. colleagues, just look at those words -- the freedom to travel for health care. my colleague has introduced a bill that is as basic as it get. and the fact is six republicans on the supreme court have ripped that freedom out by the roots. now state governments are moving toward criminalizing travel for health care. they are open moving towards -- they are even moving towards criminalizing helping, helping people travel for health care. that is unthinkable in my view, except millions and millions of americans are, in fact, thinking about it and

but there's, you have schumer, booker and wyden in the senate who don't want to pass writing legislationut congress marijuana reform. so i guess my question to you is is there anything that you would like to see changed to states that would make it more appealing to you? or are you also in that same camp of you do want to see federal decriminalization. >> i think states have passed six times with carveouts. but the reality is that we are literally trying to make access to money available for industry that is still predominantly white and male and run while there are la lot of black and brown people still in jail. so number one we need to decriminalize and we don't need that to be wrappedaround in oak hill , like a pill in something like the regulatory structure. that's it. and it would save money and keep your job at the same time. i struggle with some of the challenge and we've got to figure out. i get the political game which is what we just talked about. all the strategy happening, we've got to know it and i talk about it a lot and we are in the middle of it. we're not going to preten

i want to thank chairs wyden, sanders, and murray and the tireless work of their finance, budget andealth committee staffs for working around the clock on this important effort. if you want to fight inflation, you should support passing this much-needed proposal on lower prescription drug cost it is. here's why -- for the first time ever, we'll empower medicare to negotiate the price of many expensive and vital prescription drugs, directly lowering what patients and taxpayers pay for these drugs. we will cap americans' out-of-pocket drug expenses to $12,000 a year -- to $2,000 a year. market will offer free vaccines and additional for for low-income eldery and crucially that millions don't see health care premiums skyrocket in the coming months. let me say it again, because it's key, i say it to my colleagues across the aisle, our republican colleagues, if you want to help americans better afford their health care and medications, you should support passing this bill. the united states citizens pay more on average for prescription drugs than any other people on earth, all for the exa

it means passing the bipartisan act with senators leahy, collins, wyden, and myself, among with others, so we can recover funds from the american rescue plan when states put the funds towards building and maintaining affordable housing. we need apprenticeship and training to attract more diverse workersle we need more innovation with -- workers. we need innovation and high-tech materials. this is not a pipe dream. rhode island has shown the world how to get innovative in the housing state with one neighborhood building row homes. these are innovative construction projects, small homes with many energy-saving aspects and they are the future and we have to invest in that future. and as i said, we have to build to focus on a green future that includes the effects of climate change. that means we need to pass the green retro fits act, which i introduced with senator collins. this would boost energy efficiency in thousands of homes nationwide by bolstering private-public partnerships to create a new program to distribute energy efficiency grants and loans. we need to increase our assistance

wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, in a few minutes i'm going to put forward a request for the senate to confirm the nomination of rebecca jones gasner. i briefly want to talk about why her confirmation is so important and what makes her the right person for the job. the administration on children, youth, and families may not grab national headlines every day, but its work is essential to the well-being of millions of young people and families across the land. that is particularly true for vulnerable children, including those in the child welfare system. one of its big jobs over the last few years has been the implementation of the family first prevention services act. the landmark reform of the child welfare system was written by the finance committee on a bipartisan basis. and for colleagues who remember the late orrin hatch who cared so much about children, in particularly welfare reform, this and the extension of the children's hea

wyden: mr. president, this is an exciting time for my home state of oregon. the eyes of the sports world are turning to the city of eugene where thousands of elite athletes have arrived for the world athletics championships that start friday. for those who may not have been paying attention, eugene, oregon is known in track and field circles as track town, u.s.a. . eugene has fewer than 200,000 residents, but it punches far above its weight as one of the athletics capitals of the world, particularly the newly rebuilt heyward field on campus at the university of oregon. my view is you're not going to find a better track and field venue anywhere else. and that is not only because it's where the oregon ducks routinely fly past the competition. it's the home of track and field in the united states dating back decades to when bill heyward first had his vision for the sport in eugene. it's a vision that picked up speed when oregon's own steve prefontaine provided thrills for me when i was a law school student at the university of oregon as well as millions of runni