the senator from new york mr. schumer, the senator from vermont mr. negley, the senator from illinois mr. durbin, the senator from michigan ms. tappan now, the senator from vermont mr. sanders, the senator from minnesota ms. klobuchar, the senator from kentucky mr. mcconnell, the senator from south dakota mr. kuhn, the senator from wyoming mr. brought to, the senator from iowa ms. ernst, the senator from missouri mr. blunt, the senator from florida mr. scotto. >> the members of the escort committee will exit the chamber through the lobby doors to the right and left of the podium. [inaudible] >> madam speaker, the dean of the diplomatic floor. [applause] [inaudible] [gavel] >> madame speaker, the chief justice of the supreme court. [applause] [inaudible] [applause] [inaudible] [gavel] >> madame speaker, representative of the president's cabinet. [applause] [inaudible] [inaudible] [laughter] [applause] [gavel] [applause] [inaudible]

christensen, -- arizona senator christensen,, mark kelly, senator cortez masto, senator brian schatz and senator tim kaine. we have six of the 50 democrat senators who have come out and suggested this is a bad idea. there is not support for this in the senate. there is not popular support for this. the group demand justice was the group that brought the me too allegations against then-judge kavanaugh and it helped four democrat senators into early retirement, the voters put these four senators into early retirement in 2018 over the me too fight with judge kavanaugh. we saw the group pushing the defund the police movement that cost democrats several wonderful seats in the senate all over the country and now, in 2022, demand justice wants to pack the courts. republicans should welcome this because it is not going to end well for democrats. pedro: (202) 748-8001, for republicans, (202) 748-8000 four democrats and if you want to text as your comments, (202) 748-8003. and this came from the alliance of justice, she wrote, justices were nominated by presidents who lost the popular vote. of

senate. if they only have 51 votes required to pass those kinds of legislation, we'd be in trouble. >> is that an argument against scrapping thfilibuster. >> it is. it is. it's the one that you have to recognize is there, that there are grave risks. but again, voters elected us to get things done. because of the all-out assault on voting rights and our democracy by republican governors and legislatures around the country, i think we have to protect voting rights as just protecting our democracy. and if it means we will be harmed in the future, we'll just have to fight that much harder in the future to keep a majority and if we lose it to win it back and to convince voters that our agenda is the right agenda. so that's the key. it's all about telling people what you believe, why you believe it, why it's important and earning their support through the ballot box. but you can't earn their support in the ballot box if there's no functioning ballot box. that's why in this moment in time issues lik

senator. there are plenty of republicans like me who are willing to work with president biden and even put some of our supporters out of their comfort zone for the good of this nation. in fact, when i was sworn in, i said i'd work to find common ground in areas where we may agree and i'd vigorously oppose policies where we do not. unfortunately to this point, i've only had the opportunity to do the latter. the willingness to negotiate has only been a oneway street on the part of republicans. i went to the white house to try and find common ground on another bipartisan covid package. but it's ultimately up to the president whether he leads on bipartisanship instincts or follows his advisers who are pushing him to keep governing from the left. quite frankly, it doesn't matter what the president says about bipartisanship and uniting the country. it's what he does. and tonight i hope we'll see it for the good of our great nation. thank you, madam president. a senator: madam president? the presidin

senator. we welcome more. the industry supported this. and again, donald trump often with just a nastiness, if it's obama's rule, i ought to repeal it, did. it hurts us big time. i want to be clear, the methane c.r.a. is a big deal. the measure will help us address the climate crisis in a major way. it's nowhere close to everything we want or need, but it's very important. last week, president biden set an ambitious goal for the united states to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade. this week, the senate will take up -- take the first of many important steps we need to achieve that ambitious goal. now, on our first 100 days, madam president. thursday, april 29, will be the 100th day since president biden took the oath of office on the east front of the capitol. president biden will mark the occasion with his inaugural address to a joint session of congress on wednesday. historically, the 100 days, the first 100 days have been a yardstick by which presidential admin

[applause] >> i just texted senator grassley, senator scott. and i said that senator scott is bragging you up, up here in cedar rapids. do you have a message for him? >> win. >> he said win. i was hoping -- if i have time to check afterward i say you will announce to everyone that he is running. sen. scott: we see each other mostly on the senate floor. so every time i see him, i say, chuck, are you raising money? have you announced your race yet? so every time. joni says she has to be nicer about it. i don't. i got elected to have an agenda. win elections. and chuck can win. [applause] >> and i would be remiss talking about voter integrity couldn't agree with you more. we have three of our legislators here tonight. and i just want to make sure that our senator and our two representatives, scott, i'm proud to tell you that iowa i think was in first to pass one of the strongest voter integrity bills in the country. thank you. [applause] so -- sen. scott: something else republican senatorial committee is going to do is in these lawsuits we're goin

there were two votes on the floor of the senate, one in 2021 and senator cotton and senator cass zpee senator cruz offered amendments that would have prohibited the issuance of stimulus tchokes prisoners. that failed by a vote. there was another one by senator cruz and senator cotton, joined by senator cassidy, that would prohibit any individual who was incarcerated in a federal or state prison from getting stimulus checks. that also failed by a vote of 49-50. but just going back on the history of these stimulus checks under the cares act, initially congress was silent as to whether prison inmates would receive those checks. the i.r.s. took the position that they were not eligible. and then there was a class action lawsuit filed, which said that congress had to -- the i.r.s. had to comply, because there was no explicit prebusiness. did i recite the history of your experience correctly? in other words, originally congress was silent, then i.r.s. took the position they weren't entitled, then there was a class-action lawsuit that said since congress is silent, they had to be provided. is

no senator, no senator, no senator, no senator. senator johnson: postmaster general's criticize unfairly leading up to the election. concerning postal service, let me ask you, the retirement of the blue boxes? was there anything unusual that occurred leading up to the election? it was that schedule retirement? ronald: i had left by that time, removal of blue mailboxes is historically done, you do a density survey. so you determine what the volume is of a blue mailbox. if it falls below a certain level, then depending on community input, you can remove that blue mailbox. consistent with the regulations. >> is an ongoing process correct? ronald: it is an ongoing process. senator johnson did you hear of the removal for many boxes before you left? ronald: i was prohibited from having contact at the employees at the post office. senator johnson: one thing they're trying to address the high cost of overtime, somewhere around $45 billion per year, is that pretty accurate? ronald: yes, that is accurate. senator johnson: the way you dress t

burr and senator tillis. since they have two republican senators, and both voted no. all republican senators voted no. it makes it particularly stark in a state like wisconsin, where they have one senator from each party. their billboard has one senator over there with president biden. thanks to president biden and thanks to senator baldwin, help is here. on the other side, it says no thanks to senator johnson. over there on the right, all by himself in black and white, looking sad. the democrats taking a victory lap, taking credit for this wildly popular bill that in fact they passed all alone, with no help from the other side. it marks a new vibe for democrats. they want people to know who is getting stuff done, and also who isn't helping. trying to increase the cost for republicans who are voting no on everything. but here's the thing. the only reason this can happen, the only reason the democrats are in a position to brag and brag in this way, to brag that it's only them that is getting stuff done for the

you can combine that with public-private partnerships like senator warner and senator bennet and i have advocated for the last handful of years, and can get to another couple hundred billion dollars. and when you are talking about services that have customers like water systems, for instance, you can stretch out that interest-free loan or whatever the government can do to help make those services what they need to be in the way that the impact on the individual rate really isn't much of an impact. and so you get a lot of infrastructure improvement with really basically and either writing down the interest or loan guarantee. i'm sure there's a way to get in the neighborhood of six, $800 billion over dollars over the eight years they are talking about, as opposed to having this huge two plus trillion dollars package that you would build in eight years and pay for in 15. that's just not going to happen, you know. at the end of that eight years people are going to want to know why we continue to pay for that? what are we going to do next? what it do think there's been a level of outreach fr

was the senator from new mexico. new mexico is of course the most hispanic state in the country with a long tradition of electing latinos to office. why does itpa take so long for this state to finally get a hispanic senatoror in a generation? >> you remind me that it's been over 40 years since we had an hispanic united states senator representing the state of new mexico and we had incredible senators along the way. senator is a republican that rose in his responsibilities of leadership in the united states senate and jeff being a man, jeff udall and one of my colleagues are senior senator from mexico and look, i think that election you have to go out and earn the trust of voters and reach out to them and connect with them and i was so honored to be able to do that and i know that in so many small committees throughout mexico that i certainly appreciated the advice and guidance that i received, especially from the older generation of new mexicans that have been so active but gave me the guidance necessary to be able

>> no, senator. >> thank you. i want to speak about race discrimination and the constitution. does the constitution allow the government to treat americans differently because of their race? >> no, senator. >> thank you. i'm glad that we agree on that. judge jackson? >> no, senator. >> thank you. let's turn to religious liberty if we can. the first amendment protects the freedom of religion. this also means the government can't institute policies that treat religion organizations such as churches worse than they treat secular organizations, such as restaurants, clubs and casinos. is that right, ms. jackson akiwumi? >> senator, the first amendment protects religious liberty, religious freedom, exercise of religion and those -- all of those issues are being actively litigated right now including at the supreme court. >> but the government can't treat a religious organization worse than they would a secular business, like a restaurant or a casino, is that correct? >> senator, you're referring to the pri

one other secret of the senate is that -- just walked us through the senate rulebook, the senate precedents. but lots of things that happen on a daily basis in the senate happen simply because a senator says i ask unanimous consent to do so and so, no one objects and then the senate goes on about its day. if republicans wanted to, they really could slow down a lot of the routine operations of the senate. folks who are watching the debate over the american rescue plan back in february and march probably remember senator ron johnson of wisconsin objecting to a unanimous consent request to waive the reading of the entire amendment text on the floor. that's the sort of thing they could do if they really wanted to slow things down. importantly, i would expect that if republicans tried to do that and really grind the senate to a halt, democrats would probably find a way to at least try to respond. -- was talking before about some changes that were made to the precedent around the number of votes needed to end debate on nominations, first in 2013 and again in 2017. there's another precedent change

for the top 15 senators in the history of the senate. his new book a great read by the way, is titled carl levin getting to the heart of the matter my 36 years in the senate and i will try to show it to you here not all that successfully but try to find it it is a great read. he and his wife live in detroit. they have three daughters and six grandchildren. my conversation with senator levin tonight will last approximately half an hour after which he will take questions from the audience. you may enter questions in the q-and-a function and you may begin entering questions if you have them already, beginning now and throughout the program, please keep them short and to the point. i will convey as many questions to the senator as we have time for. this is being recorded on the center website i see that senator levin has joined us actually just right on time he managed to miss my introduction, but now it is with great honor for me it to introduce my friend and former boss jack reed. he is an american hero. senator carl levin welcome. >> it's

wyoming senator john barrasso among senators on the border trip last weekend. he joins me now. senator, thank you so much for being here and you're not only a lawmaker, you're also a medical doctor. so i'm very interested in hearing your take. these migrant reportedly testing positive for covid at a rate of 10%. assess the public health threat for us, senator. senator: well, thank you, maria, happy easter to you and your viewers. you're right, this is both humanitarian crisis and a national security crisis. i saw at the border, you may have seen today, the highest in history of unaccompanied minors currently in captivity. they have crammed in like sardines and this is what the biden administration is trying to hide from the american public which is why we took video and the biden administration tried to stop up. you put so many people in captivity in this sort of way and 10% are testing positive for coronavirus, joe biden is turning into this super spreader of coronavirus in our country. maria: this is unbelievable, senator. so i was told that some of you have -- had taken pict

lopez: john ensign washe sponsor of snplma at the time, and senator reid and senator bryan were the senate champions for getting that legislation through. reid: we'll change the way we do things in the state of nevada regarding land. anderson: snplma, as it's lovingly referred to, was the seminal piece of legislation that created the land sale radigm r the lavegas valley. lopez: the concept was instead exchanging land, just auction public land to the highest bidder. that way, you bring market forces, and you just put it out in the open and you auction land. man: on this bid at 250,000. open this bid at 11 million. reid: have a public auction d none of this trading business. man: now 60... number 1 high bidder. baca: it creates a level playing field for everybody. man: he says he's out. 14,200,000. close the bid here at $14,200,000. reid: thmoney that came from the land would go back into family sensitive things in nevada. baca: everything from lake tahoe, building parks and trails, restoration projects, investing in visitors centers. man: parking areas, access that allow people to get into

the senate. she's a tireless advocate for travel and tourism industry, and i would like to welcome her to introduce to the subcommittee our witness from las vegas, senator cortez masto, i turn it to you to introduce mr. hill. >> chair rosen, thank you so much. ranking member scott, i appreciate the opportunity to join you today. it is great to be back in the commerce committee that i enjoyed serving on when i first came to the senate. the committee does great work promoting on tourism. as you know and as you stated tourism is vital to the economic health of our country. i so appreciate you bringing these experts to talk about the importance of the travel industry to nevada and to the nation as a whole. all of these participants are great partners and leaders in the travel industry, which has been so hard hit by the covid-19 pandemic and our tourism economy will need our full support as the nation recovers. that's why i have been working in a bipartisan way on the hospitality commerce job recovery

senate. if they only have 51 votes required to pass those kinds of legislation we would be in trouble. >> is an argument against scrapping the filibuster? >> it is. 's for when you have to recognize is there there are grave risks. but again, the voters elected us to get things done. because of all-out assault on voting rights and our democracy republican governors and legislators around the country, i think we have to protect voting rights. that's protecting our democracy and if it means we will be harmed in the future we will have to fight that much harder in the future to keep the majority and if we lose it to win that back and convince voters that our agenda is the right agenda, that's the key. is all about telling people what she believed, why you believe it, why it's important and earning their support to the ballot box pen but you can earn their support to the ballot box if there no functioning ballot box. that is why in this moment in time issues like the assault on our democracy are w

100 days, senate filibuster and what comes next. >> plus the senate majority leader shows us his secret weapon that brings unity to the democratic party. >>> and india is the horrifying epicenter of the pandemic. joining us to lay out how bad it is. >>> good evening. i'm mehdi hasan. you'll hear many ways by which to measure the first 100 days of the biden administration as the president gets ready to mark that arbitrary, though symbolic period this coming wednesday with a joint address to congress. one measure stands out to me. when joe biden took office one out of every 11 americans was hungry. today, that number is down to 1 out of 7. we talked about in the abstract what the biden administration has achieved so far. remember, we live in an age in which so many people have written off politics and politicians, in which 80 million americans didn't vote in the last election, possibly the most consequential election in living memory. truth is that, politics can bring about meaningful change in people's lives. today four more people out of every 11 struggling with food insecurity in this

senator cornyn from texas senator collins from maine. senator cassidy from louisiana is in rosen from nevada senator romney from utah and what this has allowed us to do is talk to people on the front line. being a former governor i know whatever happened in washington we had to implement or liveke with it or make adjustments or ask for a waiver to makef it fit. we can prevent that from happening if we start coordinating what we are doing. in the senate we have a working group ten republicans and ten democrats the g 20 group and we meet consistently and we have the problem solvers coming over and working with us. we are working in a bipartisan and bicameral way to have the executive branch of the governor's involved to complete the triangle helps us to have good input so we don't have redundancies or waste that's what we're trying to achieve with the pathway forward t i think today was a tremendous start for that. >> you covered at the whole goal is to work together not just democrats and republicans but senate as we did this past winter

we had senator cornyn from texas, senator collins from maine, senator cassidy from louisiana, senator rosen from nevada, senator romney from utah and senator young from indiana. the thing that this allowed us to do is talk to people on the front lines. ing a former governor, i know whatever happened in washington, we have two implement it, lived with it or try to make adjustments. we can prevent that from happening if we start coordinating what we are doing. in the senate, we have a working group. we have 10 republicans and 10 democrats. we call it the g20 group and we meet consistently and we have the problem solvers with josh and brian coming over and working with us. we are working in a bipartisan, bicameral way. to have the executive branch of the governors involved truly complete set triangle and helps us have good input so we don't have redundancies or waste. that is what we are trying to achieve and set a pass forward. i think today was the tremendous start for that. >> i think our whole goal here is to work together, not just democrats and republicans, but working with the sen

the senators come in, aides drive them in or senators drive them in when they come in to vote. there are two sets of barriers. you come in off constitution avenue. they know who you are or recognize the capitol police or some instances now the national guard. they lower the first barricade. a second barricade closer to the building. they have the poles after 9/11 that it would be hard off the roadway to get that close to the capitol. before the threat is, it appeared that the security work. they have the double redundancy with the two set of barricades. we don't know the nature of the threat. this is the serious thing at the capitol since january 6. the access was not open. a few weeks ago you went doesn't a street and they check your i.d. and check your trunk. go through a set of barricades and they park your car. constitution was closed off. you could get in by foot but you couldn't drive. the debate should constitution avenue, major american roadway. 's important in the united states between the capitol and the russell office building. i should note after the oklahoma city b

to hear from west virginia senator joe manchin. live coverage on c-span. >> thank you for joining us with senator joe manchin from west virginia, who chairs

two senators versus four senators. and the republicans who were in charge wanted to have four senators to assure their majority in the senate as opposed to the democrats in the south. ironic how things change. so if you are voting on politics, i get it. but on principle nevada was added and taken from utah, by the way, because the republicans who were then in charge back in the day wanted to have two additional senators. and they got them. with less than 10,000 people living in the area that was taken from utah, wyoming, and colorado. and formed nevada. so let's not get mired in these principled votes because this is about two senators. we get it. it is not about principle. because there are over 700,000 people, 712 to be exact, maybe more when we get the crepe suss reports, -- census reports, who are unequal citizens in america. i want to thank the incomparable eleanor holmes norton for her hard work and tireless advocacy for so many years as the leader of this cause. on behalf of equal rights for the citizens she rep

clarke: thank you senator lady. -- senator lady. i do not believe you can effectively carry out this role without the ability and capacity to work with live horsemen. i believe there is common ground to be found and worked on with law-enforcement. i have done that work. one of my proudest achievements was a partnership that we forged with the international association of the chief of police where we brought together hate crime victims and survivors. law-enforcement rank and file and leaders and worked to map out effective strategies and the handling of hate crime incidences in their community. that kind of partnership, coming together to tackle these problems, is not something that we see every day. you have my commitment senator, that what i have done throughout my career, whether relying on law-enforcement to investigate and prosecute hate crimes and human trafficking cases, whether working with my enforcement to find common ground, these are the principles and values that i will bring to the role if confirmed to lead the civil ri

senate. as the nation waited to hear from the chauvin jury, i spoke with vice president kamala harris how and when president biden seeks her advice. >> 9 minutes and 29 seconds, we all watched that video. many watched it multiple times. people are in pain over what we all saw in that video. in fact, it was in large part because of that case that together with my then colleagues cory booker, in particular, and then on the house side karen bass, that we wrote the george floyd justice in policing act. i really do hope that the united states senate -- the house passed it. the united states senate will have the courage to take it on. there is no question that we've got to put an end to these moments where the public questions whether there's going to be accountability. questions whether there's going to be the kind of fairness that we should all expect and deserve in all of our lives and in particular as it relates to people of color with a particular emphasis on black and brown men in the crimina

senator loeffler yet, cost of connecticut disputed the minnesota senators claim that the war was lost. though he did agree, with the end that no improvements could be expected out of affairs as long as mr. -- remained in the cabinet. he spoke in a similar vein, fan wade went for a severely criticize lincoln, far placing other armies under the command of officers who do not believe in the policy of government and most importantly with -- senator jacob of vermont announced that the difficult it was to be found and the fact of the president had no cabinet in the true sense of the word. coleman explain. it was notorious that the president did not consult his cabinet councils, as a body of important manners. the vermont senator reported that he had missed him, that he understood the president to express the opinion that it was best to have no policy and that each member of the cabinet portent to the duties of the department. this was poor management and a recipe for failure he believed. he thought that measures should be taken to bring about eight different state of thinks in me administra

[applause] we will start with some words of wisdom from senator scott, then bring up senator ernst and governor reynolds and have a conversation. let's hear from senator scott first. let's give him an iowa welcome. [applause] sen. scott: anyone and everyone should be intimidated the follow brother kaufman. if he was not here in my home county -- [laughter] thank god you thought that was funny. you could move to south carolina and become an amazing southern preacher. i can see you have already taken up the offering. i listened to him and want to go back home and find a powerful southern preacher, because when i was here last time, i wanted to run around the stage and say, god said. listen to kaufmann, then i realized i am an elected official can't do that, but then , the bible says you have to believe -- i literally wanted to do that. because you get so fired up, so motivated. the whole country should know your name. [applause] i have been a south carolinian for 55 years. some of you thought it was 65. i still don't have a county called scott, so thank you for inviting me to scott count

senator fessenden then told the republican senators that a crisis had arrived requiring the senate's active position in affairs. he, however, warned that the caucus should proceed cautiously and with unanimity or actions would alarm the country and weaken the hand of executive without affecting any ultimate good. that is bad to act in a radical way in the caucus. in all events, the maine senator had no doubt that measures should be taken to make the cabinet a unity and remove from it anyone who did not coincide heartily with our views and relation of the war. and he obviously had in mind secretary of state seward. several senators wanted the caucus to approve a resolution to the effect but without mentioning the name of any cabinet member for dismissal. senator james doolittle of wisconsin, a conservative republican, insisted that instead of a resolution, the caucus should appoint a committee to speak to lincoln regarding their concerns. senator preston king of new york a friend of seward's agreed with doolittle. fessenden, however, doubted the caucus could reach an agreement on a de

the senator from wyoming the senator from iowa. the senator from missouri, mr. blunt. the senator from florida, mr. scott. >> the members of the escort committee will exit the chamber through the lobby door right and left of the podium. >> the gentleman now from the brookings institution we'll go back as the proceedings continue it's great to have you so many foreign policy challenges at the moment we're all told china is at the top of the list. what can the president accomplish in that lane tonight? >> i'm sort of hoping he doesn't really go into my area of foreign policy i like speeches that have more focus. what he should do in regard to national security is explain the stakes for our own domestic economy. infrastructure, science and education. leave the actual foreign policy discussion for a different cay except to say we're in competition with china we hope it won't be a confrontation or lead to war one of the key lpts will be the strength of the society, economy. long term education and science base and if therefore we'll be interested in long term national secur

senator hagan luber of colorado is waiting. senator, can you hear us? yes, thank you. >> please proceed. >> thank you, chair man durbin and ranking member for letting me share a few words about regina rodriguez, president biden's nominee i want to add a little bit of what was said so eloquently. she dedicated her career to the people of colorado and fighting for historically disadvantaged communities. it's not surprising she got the enthusiastic support of the committee, colorado bar association, these consist of attorneys dedicated to providing legal a services to the poor usg knowledge of the law a to improe the society and legal system. former united states attorneys appointed by presidents from both political parties felt that the experience, knowledge and work ethic make her an ideal candidate with hundreds if not thousands of cases and the trials and multiple jurisdictions given the experience of the plaintiffs and defendants rodriguez understands the importance of applying the law evenhandedly based always on the facts. as a first foundation put

seward had been senator, the leader of the republicans in the senate. seward had been a senator for a long, time and a leader of the pro public and senate. he had been the trump runner for -- was really behind the mistrust? personalities, scheming, imperious nature? which they really have against him? >> well, in the beginning he was not liked as much in new england. among the republicans. he was the political manipulator. he was viewed by the south as a radical. too radical to win the presidency with the republicans in 1860. that's the reason lincoln was the choice of the republicans. he could win the lower north as you probably know. but then when the secession crisis hit after that, seward backtracked. he became nervous about what was happening. he could see there was going to be a war here. and he had enemies all along in the republican party. there were others as well. so then when he hesitated to become secretary of state that did not -- either. finally after he became secretary of state to the war began. he set himself up that did not -- let's sa

grassley, senator lee, senator whitehouse, senator cornyn, a number of democrats, cory booker included. we put together a bipartisan bill signed into law by the president of the united states. vanita gupta was part of that effort. she knew how to put republicans and democrats at the table and come up with a reasonable compromise. isn't that exactly what we need at this moment in history? the judiciary committee has received so many letters from republicans supporting ms. gupta's nomination, i only have time to scratch the surface. former republican congressman tom coleman who i served with in the house put it very well. you see, he represented missouri's sixth congressional district for 16 years. he understood the challenge of ferguson, and he understands the record of vanita gupta. here's what he wrote. ms. gupta is a person who seeks the common good without concern for partisan gamesmanship. he added i urge you, my former colleagues, to recognize the truth with respect to vanita gupta. she is an ideal public servant. she possesses wisdom and ability to work across partisan lines. ms.

>> yes, senator. we produced a nato military strategy that stressed comprehensive defense and shared response in all the geographical regions in all domains in seeking assistance from a whole of government, whole of nation. and in europe what we discovered is we over the course of the last three years hadplassed appropriate interest in the vicinity of the baltics and we needed to make sure we were giving the same due interest in the vicinity of the black sea because we had to shore up in all geographical areas so that has been our approach, it's been successful and we'll continue to comprehensively defend with shared response. >> thank you, sir. thank you, mr. chairman. >> let me recognize senator blumenthal. >> thank you for your service and thank you for being here today. first on the topic of vaccines i want to follow-up on some of the questions that have been asked most recently. do you know how many men and women under your command, general, have been vaccinated? >> i do, senator. we have a tier

i appreciate you highlighting then i will follow up with senator cotton and senator one - - senator schumer. >> thank you. i appreciate that. the hallmark of the new competition with china that national security is no longer limited but to the foreign relations committee now in banking, health education, every department is on the frontlines of the china competition. i quoted director ray about tpp so the director stated he is now reach the point where the fbi is opening a new chain a real - - china related base every ten hours and nearly 5000 are currently are underway across the country and almost half are related to china. so for example the recently confirmed attorney general come are you comfortable the fbi campaign and department of justice china initiative will continue and to be staffed? >> i am really glad director ray is staying on. i am a fan of his. and on this topic i have said he is pretty stoic. he doesn't show a lot of emotion. but on this topic in my experience with the judiciary committee. but also recently i became part of an organization that you are familiar with the se

senate. you are willing to go back to the senate later on, and yet this senate i gather has changed significantly. during those 40 years or so. what was it like when you went there in the beginning and what is a sense of how it's changed walter: i think it has changed and i underline the word think because i know it has changed. but i know others might disagree with. i think when i came to the senate, i think 68, four years later, while it was partisan and we had our debates. there was a kind of underlying sense of civility. we were all members of this club , and we got to know each other and we would crack jokes. wherever we could, we would try to find ways of doing things together. they used to say the only way a majority to get done what he needs to do is with the minorities help. and we sort of went at it that way. i think now, although i hope it has changed, i think now the belligerence of partisanship, the idea that don't just defeat the person in an, defeat the person. it is a differen

senator blackburn, then senator markey, then senator scott. senator blackburn. >> thank you, madam chair. and senator hutchinson, so good to see you. thank you for joining us today. senator nelson, i so enjoyed my conversation with you and discussing a little bit about a mutual friend that we have and also discussing your enthusiasm for nasa. but i think more importantly, your understanding of the processes and the goals for nasa. so briefly, and for the record, what i would like for you to do is talk for just a little bit about china, about china's push into space exploration, how they utilize that civil/military fusion in order to try to beat us at the space race and beat us as we look at our military, because china is out for global dominance. so if you'll just touch on that. >> yes, ma'am. well, we have known and is articulated presently by the president, there is a threat china poses in basically getting a lot of our secrets and getting a lot of our technology and invading a lot of our privacy. now, when you take that global concern that

blackburn and senator marquis and senator scott. senator blackburn. >> thank you, madam chairman. senator hutchison, thank you for joining us today. senator nelson, i so enjoyed my conversation with you in discussing more about a mutual friend that we have and also discussing your enthusiasm that i think more importantly, your understanding of the processes and the goal for nasa. so, briefly and for the record, what i would like for you to do is talk for just a little bit about china, about china's push into space exploration and how to utilize that civil and military fusion in order to try to beat us out of the space race china is out for global dominance, so if you would just touch on that. >> as articulated by the president, there is a threat china poses in basically getting a lot of our secrets and getting a lot of our technology and invading a lot of our privacy. now, when you take that and bring it to the space program. then you have to be concerned about the same thing. china has said they want to have a landing of humans on

senate. i think senator wyden and ai served together for a number appears in the house and those were years when we were measuring the federal deficit in terms of tens of billions of dollars a year. tens of billions of dollars i get there today we measure the federal deficit in terms of like trillions of dollars per year, trillions of dollars a year. when you tell us and you have, and the president had said this as well in his budget offering, that for every dollar in additional resource we provide irs mcgeady an extra six or seven dollars. we need every dollar we can bring it to treasury. the thing with this track of venus in addition to providing for reducing this enormous deficit, there is a problem with providing good service. we make the tax code more complicated every year and we say to you and the folks who work for you deal with this, provided good service. how by providing additional resources will this help is on that side? >> service is a a component oe tax gap as well because the

>> senator moran? if not, senator hoven? senator heightsmith who is here in reality, not virtually. >> thank you for convening the hearing today and to all of you, i certainly applaud your willingness to serve this country. i do have -- my question is to the administrator. i certainly appreciate you appearing before this committee and congratulations on your recent confirmation to head epa. very important agency in my state. while i have a number of concerns regarding the american jobs plan, i am pleased that the package proposed measures to advance racial equity and environmental justice. today i would like to discuss one of the most egregious environmental injustices that i have ever observed in my lifetime. and i certainly hope epa under your leadership will be part of our solution. i'm referring to the back water project, a u.s. army corps of engineer project authorized by congress in 1941. yes, i said 19414 -- 1941, it features flood gates and pumping stations which were designed to provide flood protection to a 926,000

community that protects the senate. those two together would be sufficient, and we would let you know if it were not. sen. leahy: i'm going to submit my other questions for the record, but just so you all know, i believe in a capitol as open as we can safely. i hear from people not only from all over our country, but all over the world, when they look at the history, the paintings, talk to people, and members of congress, staff being able to talk to them as they go throug. i've also been in countries where they don't have that freedom. it is a market difference. i want us to have the freedom. i want the security, but i want the freedom. we rely on you folks to do that. chairman reed: thank you for your thoughtful and elegant remarks. let me return again to ask questions regarding the ramifications of january 6. it exposed the lack of coordination not only internally, but internally -- externally, too, particularly with police departments and other law enforcement agencies. chief, have you adjusted your coordination and