you told senator grassley the fbi at this point is not in a position to confirm a cause of death. is there any information that the fbi can share with the american people about what we know of the circumstances surrounding his tragic death? >> although i'm certainly understand and appreciate the keen interest in it for all the reasons we've discussed, at the moment other than to say the capitol police have categorized it, i think appropriately as a line of duty death, there's nothing really i can share now. certainly i understand why it's very much top of mind of people, and i think it speaks well of members of congress that they're so interested in someone who's lost his life protecting all of you. so as soon as we're in a position when the investigation has gotten to a stage where we can share information, we want to be able to do that. >> now, let's talk more broadly about domestic terrorism because the riot on january 6th didn't occur -- come out of nowhere, and last year the department of justice created a task force to investigate and to understand the growth of political vi

senator grassley: ms. hassan, some have argued that it may result in years of unnecessary protracted litigation for houses of faith and other entities and it would -- are they correct? >> thank you, senator. yes. those are correct concerns. if i could go back to a point earlier where he said in response to the chairman's question, the distinction he drew was it's not your church and your beliefs, and your ability to live your faith out in the public square. they talk about religious liberty, but freedom of action. and we have a robust civil society for people of all faiths , whether it is jewish or christian or catholic that contributes to caring for the most vulnerable because their faith inspires them to do so and religious freedom puts a number on it and they say the religious contributions to the economy amount to $1.2 trillion. so when we get to looking at things like substance abuse and recovery, things like that, we can see the dynamic difference that houses of worship make, the difference this make

senator grassley: thank you. and welcome everyone as we consider candidates for leadership at justice, lisa monaco to be deputy attorney general and vanita gupta to be associate attorney general. i extend a warm welcome to the candidates and nominees, as well as their families and friends. lisa monaco was nominated to serve in the second-highest-ranking position in the department, a serious job, and i applaud president biden for nominating a serious person to the position. ms. monaco has worked to keep americans safe from violent criminals, terrorists and cyber threats. she is the type of mainstream pick i would expect from the democratic administration. vanita gupta has been nominated to serve the department of justice as the third-highest-ranking official. while the deputy attorney general generally runs criminal law enforcement, the associate attorney general is in charge of the civil side of the department. ms. gupta comes before this committee with an impressive career advocating on behalf of various liberal

chair and ranking member grassley. i'm thrilled to be here to offer boards on behalf of my constituent vanita gupta. she's a passionate advocate for justice, a concensus builder and because she's a history maker. i was a civil rights lawyer for 17 years before i got into statewide politics. my first job was a summer intern at the naacp legal defense fund and i'm thrilled to have someone who spent her career as an attorney number three at department of justice. i've faced things in my career civil rights people complaining about causes i championed and cases where i represented people, but virginia voters looked at the fact that lawyers often were elected to office who had been prosecutors. lawyers been elected to office who represented corporations or those with significant advantages. why couldn't somebody with a civil rights background also be entrusted to take an oath and follow the law and fight for justice? the chairman talked about her first case, vanita took on this challenge of exonerating 46 people who had bee

the senate, 52 senators voted for grassley crews and the democratic senate. nine democratic senators voted for grassley crews, the most bipartisan support of any of the comprehensive legislation. why did it pass into law? because democratic senators including many of the senators in this room including the senator from connecticut who say were hogan's have no answer, prevented to pass, demand 60 votes. if grassley crews is passed into law, sutherland springs likely would not have happened. why is that? the murderru there had a conviction in the air force the obama air force failed to report the background check system grassley crews mandated and brought of all convictions to make sure theam background check database has the felonies and. not only that, grassley crews mandated a felon tries to illegally buy a firearm at the department of justice prosecutes, the department of justice is alone indefensible practice, not prosecuting felons and fugitives who try to illegally buy guns. if grassley crews passed a gun crimes task force, would have charged prosecutors

senator grassley: ms. hassan, some have argued that it may result it to an end in federal reserve -- result in years of unnecessary protracted litigation for houses of faith and other faith-based entities and it would compel an individual to federal partnerships with thousands of faith based programs that serve the most vulnerable people in the united states. are they correct? and if you want to say why that would be worthwhile as well. >> thank you, senator. yes. those are correct concerns. if i could go back to a point earlier where he said in response to the chairman's question, the distinction he drew was it's not your church and your beliefs, and your ability to live your faith out in the public square. as justice thomas wrote he talked about religious liberty, including, not just the right to believe but freedom of action. in this country we are blessed to have a robust civil society for people of all faiths, whether it is jewish or christian or catholic that contributes to caring for the most vulner

today chairman grassley and i are introducing grassley/cruz. and i would ask senate democrats not to participate again in the shameful filibuster this body engaged in 2013. let's target the bad guys, let's put them in jail, stop them from getting guns with, let's not scapegoat innocent law abiding citizens and let's not target their constitutional rights. >> senator dianne feinstein has asked to be recognized. i will honor that request. >> thanks, mr. chairman. i feel compelled, i think as i complete my remarks you'll see why, to say something. yesterday our country was forced to endure yet another mass shooting. ten people dead, including a police officer. all our hearts go out to the families who lost a loved one yesterday and to law enforcement who risked their lives in the line of duty. but that doesn't cure the problem. there are reports that the shooter used an ar-15-style rifle. sadly, i've watched as assault weapons have become the weapon of choice in mass shootings. we've seen them used in las vegas, in dayton, in orlando, in san berna

he tossed the ball up in the air mcconnell got it and he ran with it as far as elder statesman chuck grassley who if you told him to act as a g. di you know he's still not sure that he's going to run again i mean what is. somewhere between $89.10 so who knows what he's going to do still since pretty sharp but he's going to be in mid ninety's by the time his term would run around

he tossed the ball up in the air mcconnell got it and he ran with it as far as elder statesman chuck grassley who if you told him to act as a g. di you know he's still not sure that he's going to run again i mean what is. somewhere between $89.10 so who knows what he's going to do still since pretty

i yield thank you senator grassley. at this point i like to announce any member that would like to submit a written statement in relation to this nominationmay do so and those who wish to make oral statements in the committee i will stay as long as necessary for that purpose . the chairman notes the presence of a quorum and i believe this point we can call the role on both merrick garland and the two procedural issues related to committee rules and the subcommittees and then leave it open for questions. or pardon me, statements by members so on the nomination of merrick garland to the united states attorney general theclerk will call the role . [roll call vote] >> in order to fulfill our 40-plus year commitment to covering congress we take you live to the house floor. live coverage of the house next on c-span. message from the secretary of the senate on march 1, 2021, at 4:30 p.m. that the senate agreed to

by the way i think i agree with 31 democrats in congress who signed the letter you talk about chuck grassley is 109 but joe biden i'm good as an executive order no one will look over to. watch me state 3030 had to have a crash 31 democrats 30 got 31 democrats signed a letter they don't want him to have total control of the nuclear option how's that for their own party not trusting their democratic president because he's too old and too feeble let's talk about that instead of mocking chuck grassley is age let's talk about reality of the last again. save all afterward yeah reality or no appetite on the right. as opposed to unity 32 executive orders. where is unity john you can have a go ahead ok as far as unity goes there isn't any but what biden is doing even a slow speaking guy who i've never heard raises voice and he's been doing the same thing and he studies and i hope steve is not making fun of his of his physical disability i'm sure who's not it never know what he's going to say so i think that biden said ok here's an olive branch and if you don't like it we're going to put through the $

ranking member grassley, members of the committee. i am honored to be here today is the president's nominee to be the deputy attorney general. i thank senator markey is very kind introduction and for the shout out to my father. without the love and support of my family, i would not of been able to pursue a career in public service. i'm joined today by my brother wife jennifer. i'm very grateful for their presence and the support of their children nicholas and sophia as well as that of my twin brother chris and his wife lisa, my nieces jessica and julia and my brother peter and his wife nancy for unit they came before this committee, as a nominee ten years ago, almost to the day. my mother and father were sitting right behind me. ... ... een noted my father is riveted to the tv this morning. i'm deeply grateful to my parents who have taught me about hard work, about humility, and about what it means to live one's values. if confirmed, it will be an honor to work with the leadership team nominated by the president with merrick garland a

neil: senator chuck grassley. very, very influential player in the united states senate whether you're talking are republican or democrat. few carry that financial heft of the good senator. >>> all right, talking to a top democrat in the house on what to make of the push to force that minimum wage hike in there and get it done in a stimulus plan that the senate parliamentarian says can't be in there. from the house making a switch to the senate. ♪ i don't know what to do, i'm always in the dark. ♪ we're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks. ♪ i really need you tonight. ♪ forever's going to start tonight, forever's going to start ♪♪ ♪ (music) ♪ you're turning 65, but you've still got game. at aetna, we find that inspiring. but to stay on top of your game takes a plan. that's why at aetna, we take a total, connected approach to your health and wellness. our medicare advantage plans are designed to surround you with the care you need every day to give you the confidence to age actively. we off

senator grassley, senator cruz had a bill to strengthen our national data base. we regulate gun ownership in america. if you are a convicted of certain crimes, if you have a tendency to violence, if you are mentally ill and you want to buy a gun, your name has to run through a data base. the problem is that the data base has huge holes in it. and many federal agencies and state agencies are very cavalier about sending in the names. grassley and cruz's bill, which i support, would have tightened up the data base and it would have cracked down on people who have guns who shouldn't have guns. do you know why the bill didn't pass? many of my democratic colleagues filibustered it. now, if you drill down far enough, what you're going to find -- i don't want to paint with too broad a brush, but many, not all, many of my democratic colleagues just don't believe in the second amendment. they just don't. >> brian: right. >> i mean, we have heard it in terms of police officers. i mean, basically the democratic position is that if a bad guy shoots a cop, it's the gun's probl

now i'd like to turn to ranking member grassley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, director wray, for being here as opposed to being virtual like we have some people testifying. we all agree that what happened at the capitol january 6th was a desecration of our shared values, it was an attack on the seat of democracy. those who engaged in violence disgraced our country and we know the statistics, at least seven people, including one u.s. capitol police officer, died as a result of that day. we also know that two officers committed suicide and we know that hundreds were injured. we expect that god watches over them and their families. those who broke the law must be prosecuted and congress needs answers, especially about one officer, brian sicknick, what happened to him. in pursuit of the facts related to january 6th, senator durbin and i have sent oversight letters to the fbi and other agencies. to date we haven't received any productions. it's ticket to hold a hearing today without records, so the fbi must fully respond to congress, however, i'm pleased

you told senator grassley that the fbi at this point is not in a position to confirm a cause of death. is there any information that the fbi can share with the american people about what we know of the circumstances surrounding his tragic death? >> although i certainly understand and appreciate the keen interest in if t for all of the reasons that we've discussed, at moment, other than so say the capitol police said it is a line of duty death, there is nothing i could share right now. i understand why it is top of mind for people and i think it speaks well of the members of congress that they're so interested in somebody would lost her life protecting all of you, so as soon as we're in a position when the investigation has got tone a stage >>> let's talk more broadly because the riot on january 6 didn't come out of nowhere. there was a memo to create a task force. it states, the most peaceful demonstrations following the first amendment, we have seen acts of violence designed to undermine protective order. they have violently attacked police, destroyed public and private property and

claiming she did not know about a widely publicized senate report by senators ron johnson and chuck grassley on hunter biden's shady overseas business dealings when jen psaki talked about this report in december. why is she claiming she doesn't know about it? >> i really don't know and it's odd, it's a report in december now claiming you don't know about it, i can only speculate, i can say jen, sometimes a strategy used when there is a report out that there's details like the one that chairman johnson and grassley put together to try to ignore talking about it, to try to minimize it, not discuss it because you discuss it, sure he may disagree here, disagree with a legal premise here but generally if you're discussing it on a report like that, you're taking damage so it's something i've seen quite frequently, a common public relations scheme. elizabeth: she's working for the taxpayer, she doesn't work for the president, she works for the taxpayer. that means you have to be honest and truthful in your answers as she was in december when she talked about this report. when a reporter reported, s

i point out consistent with the high quality of the work chairman johnson did and chairman grassley did, all they said was, there was this payment that looks suspicious. they didn't draw any wild or unfounded conclusions. they stated what they could prove and left the rest to further fact-finding. so i think they made a very responsible claim as you pointed out grounded in documents, it is disappointing there was not more engagement with that claim by the press secretary. elizabeth: yeah. senator ron johnson is tweeting back at jen psaki with a link to the report, the senate report saying we hear you didn't hear about it. here is a link to it so you can read it. so this is sort of feigning ignorance at a really weird time in the news cycle when that story has been out there for months. that hunter biden got 3 1/2 million dollars wired to him bip former, mayor, wife of the former mayor of moscow. so again, when you stand up and you say, claim ignorance about something that has been out there, isn't that a red flag that something else might be going on? >> i think so. it is again a failur

plus changing the way america votes, chuck grassley to talk about hr1 bill. newest executive order on expanding voting access. we will talk about it. don't miss a moment of it. you're watching mornings with maria live on fox business. ♪ ♪ ♪ maria: welcome back, the stimulus will move forward. senate passed 1.9 trillion covid relief package. no republicans voted for this. the house is expected to vote tomorrow on the bill before it reaches president biden's desk. joining me right now the former chief of staff to vice president mike pence marc short. marc, your reaction to this bill. we've been talking a lot about the fact that it's 9% or 10% covid related. the rest are other things like money to the humanities, money for the states and localities, what's your take on this big deal? marc: good morning, thanks for having me. 10% of the bill or less absolute tied to covid. it's really a wish list of democrats to pass through congress under broad umbrella covid relief. but also we still have roughly a trillion dollars by best estimates of dollars unspent fro

senator chuck grassley. senator, always great, an honor to have you on. senator, you were among the senators touring the southern border last week. is this a coverup by the biden administration? what did you see? >> it is at least a coverup until today because i was informed that maybe they are trying to let journalists and tv cameras in. prior to it they didn't even want members of the senate to see it. when we were down there taking pictures with our iphones they were threatening us all the time. said we shouldn't be doing this, et cetera, et cetera. but, there is so much of a humanitarian crisis, public health crisis, national security threat, that we, we 18 senators that were down there last friday new that this information had to get out. now maybe that is why the biden administration is letting those journalists in there but it's a terrible mess that you see. a place that shouldn't have more than 1000, probably has four thousand. you see people sleeping shoulder to shoulder and on the floor. you see 10% of the people tested, at least the ones we tes

now i'd like to turn to ranking member grassley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, director wray, for being here as opposed to being virtual like we have some people testifying. we all agree that what happened at the capitol january 6th was a desecration of our shared values. it was an attack on the seat of democracy. those who engaged in violence disgraced our country and we know the statistics, at least seven people including one u.s. capitol police officer died as a result of that day. also know that two officers committed suicide and we know that hundreds were injured. and we expected god watches over them and their families. those who broke the law must be prosecuted and congress needs answers, especially about one officer, brian sicknick, what happened to him. in pursuit of the facts related to january 6th, senator durbin and i have sent oversight letters to the fbi and other agencies, to date we haven't received any productions. it is difficult to hold a hearing today without records. so the fbi must fully respond to congress. however, i'm plea

we did see last year as senator grassley noted in his open comments, the first murder by an anarchist violent extremist last year in quite some time, the individual in portland who killed a supporter of an opposing viewpoint, then the individual in question, the violent extremist, was himself killed in a shoot-out as the marshals were trying to apprehend him. >> thank you. ist you is ist. >> senator coons? >> thank you for your service and testimony today. let me join with my leagues in conveying our condolences on the line of duty deaths of special agents. it has been a long time since there's been a special agent line of duty death. but every loss of life by those who are serving us and protecting us is too many, and we join in grieve ing their loss and hope you'll convey that to their families. but our purpose here today is to focus principally on what happened in this complex, this building, the capitol on january 6th. charleston, charlottesville, pittsburgh, el paso, kenosha, and right here in the u.s. capitol. these are recent examples where far-right extremists and whit

senator grassley may not run. ron johnson in wisconsin may not run. no official announcements from them. and i believe grassley has filed paperwork. but it's going to be a big story. it tells us something about mitch mcconnell's chance of being majority leader going forward. >> let's talk about that for a second, hans. it is important in to underscore this group of people we have been showing on screen, they are not all just allies of mitch mcconnell, but they are people who think about the chamber how to make deals and legislate in a similar way to the way mcconnell thinks about it in a way much different from ted cruz, josh hawley and others. there is the quote from lindsey graham how everyone in the senate absolutely hated ted cruz when he was going down reading green eggs and ham. they thought he was making a show of himself. but the reality is the republican party has turned into that. there are more and more senators focused on their communications staff, what they are doing in those kinds of ways than working hard behind the scenes building rel

today chairman grassley and i are introducing a grassley cruise act and i would ask senate democrats not to participate again in the shameful filibuster that this body engaged in in 2013. let's target the bad guys, the felons, the fugitives, those with mental diseases, let's put them in jail and stop them from getting guns and not scapegoat innocent law-abiding citizens and not target their constitutional rights. host: texas republican ted cruz at that senate hearing. in the wake of that discussion we are turning the questions to you our viewers, asking you how we can prevent more mass shootings. phone line split, democrats, republicans, and independents. a special line for gun owners, (202) 748-8003. we start with david in detroit. good morning, on the line for democrats. caller: good morning, and good morning to all of our fellow washington journal listeners. i want to say, i don't know if there is anything that can ever completely prevent mass shootings or shootings for that matter. i don't think it's an issue of anyone trying to deprive anyone of their second amendment rights , t

i know senator grassley has been a leader agrees. we are leading a bill to inject more investment in these agencies. we know it's worth the money when they bring the cases to the government. we can do it in a way not on the back of taxpayers and for them it is a drop in the bucket when we bring the mergers before the agencies. the purpose of the antitrust law is to protect competition when we see a problem we take action and figure out what is working it isn't working and we fix it. that's why introduce the competition antitrust law enforcement and reform act and many others from the committee to join. the bill would increase the baseline for antitrust d agency budgets and with that exclusionary conduct and i'm teddy ss talking about markets that are highly concentrated to make other reformsos to protect competition. i will and with this starting a new year and so much interest on the republican side and democratic side the founding fathers recognized the monopoly power. the boston tea party with the british government granted monopo

grassley: this week my democratic colleagues are poised to push through the senate here untargeted and unfocused one in nine-tenths tax and spending package and it's all being done under the guise of covid relief. and some of it is very essential for covid relief. but a small part of it. this whole act is very unfortunate because it didn't have to be this way. in the past year, republicans and democrats were able to work together to pass more than $4 trillion in covid relief and it was all done with strong bipartisan support. from the start of this year, my republican colleagues and i have stood ready to engage in go good-faith bipartisan negotiations to provide further tax relief. however, despite all the talk of unity and bipartisanship by president biden, the new senate majority hasn't even attempted to reach across the aisle. bipartisanship worked five times over the last 12 months starting about one year ago right now. the majority demonstrating their unwillingness to compromise have resorted to using special budget procedures so that they may be pass a partisan bill strictly alon

in the takeback i will never forget is what senator grassley just talked about. to think that you get the brazen statement that they are there, when the border patrol is there at midnight, that they will keep coming. they will get the best of us. that is a sad situation. i'm hoping there is enough political will on the oversight of the aisle to do what they should've done in the first place. and that is not to try to fix something that was not broken, and go back to what was working. you can tell just today in daylight helicopters, state group -- state trooper votes, border patrol, and there is something that was just happening between when we went up river and back. that's on top it is -- that's how tough it is. >> i am dan sullivan from the great state of alaska. i am literally thousands of miles from home. this is important to my state for a whole host of reasons. the number one thing i've taken out of this trip and i want to thank ted cruz and john cornyn again, is the president of the u.s. and the vice president of the u.s. need to do what we just did. they

border and more likely the vice president will go on a diplomacy for central america, we have chuck grassley, he was out the border with the senate gop delegation last week and also with us texas attorney general kenth paxton, drakes doobie, claudia tunney with ford o'connell, kt mcfarland and texas mayor don mclaughlin junior border patrol to stop 1.4 illegal immigrants this year, 30000 already released into the u.s. interior since january arizona republican representative telling homeland security stop releasing illegals into my home state our towns are being overwhelmed. florida governor ron desantis ornow vowing to block biden administration vaccine task force in his state of florida, t critics slamming the task force on american due to privacy concerns and conservative say you should not seen a vaccine passport to travel in america when illegal aliens don't need a passport to get into america and you don't need voter id to vote that's what democrats are pushing more cuomo outrage cnn chris cuomo reportedly giving more vip special covered testing than previously realized from his brother

. >> that was senator dic durbin referring on to what grassley said, and wray shut it down. you know who agrees with wray, the trump supporters who have been charged for their role on the attack on the 6th. they are proud to own that they did it in the name of trump. they dismiss the idea that it was about any other group. get this, it used to be that these people on the right were fine with doing anything to anyone even connected to the planning of a terror event. let alone a perpetrator. remember? waterboard, got to do it. torture, need the answers. it's about the bigger good. you have to protect the h homeland, got to protect ourselves. now, senators mike lee and josh hawley, the guy that said that i walked past. you fist pumped a bunch of people who some of them then become part of an insurrection. that's what you did. okay. now, these senators on the right are most concerned about whether the fbi is infringing on the rights of the insurrectionists. >> we have to make sure that the civil liberties of the american people are protected. are you geo locating people through

i know chuck grassley is back and others will be coming. and we thank those that are participating remotely. we are here today to consider the nomination to become the next deputy director of the office of management and budget. as we all know, the omb is responsible for preparing the president's budget, reviewing federal relations and providing the proper oversight of federal agencies. it's a very important task. for the past 14 years, ms. young has served as a top staffer on the house appropriations committee and has done an excellent job and working with democrats and republicans on legislation that must be passed each and every year that impacts the lives of tens of millions. .. we are looking to living through a terrible economic downturn. the real unemployment rate in america today is over 11%. over 23 americans are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work. more than half of the workers in our country today unbelievably the richest country in the worst, paycheck to paycheck your kids get, you're facing a terrible fi

i heard senator cruz talking about the cruz grassley bill and senator grassley tried to put forward with once you're on a list, not being able to purchase a weapon like this. i think it was an ar 536. forgive me if that's not right. an automatic rifle. so why would someone on the fbi's radar and who has committed prior assaults be able to do that? >> martha, that will be a part of the investigation. if the man had convictions for a felony and he was able to go out here and buy this weapon, if the man had some semblance of mental illness and he was still able to buy this weapon, that in and of itself is very troubling. that is now, martha a part of this gigantic investigation. that whole scene there, that grocery store where these ten souls lost their lives, that is now part of a crime scene that is continuing to have to be processed. >> i think back, we've covered way too many of these tragic stories. during the past year, we haven't seen the kind of numbers of these events as we did. we had one last week in georgia. so tell me what you think about the impact of the pandemic and the retu

i know senator grassley has been such a leader on this agrees we are together leading a bill to inject some more investment in these agencies because we know they actually deliver money when they bring these cases to the government. we know it's worth the money, and we also know that we can do it in a way that is not on the back of taxpayers by simple changing the fees assessed on large companies. for them if the drop in the bucket when to bring these mergers before the agencies. the purpose of the antitrust laws is to protect competition. in america when we see a problem we take action, we figure what is working, what isn't working, and we fix it. that's what why i introduce competition antitrust law enforcement and reform act with many people on this committee including senator leahy, and withal in booker off the committee have since joined. the bill would increase the baseline for antitrust agency budget update the clayton act to stop harmful consolidation come out not affect competitive exclusionary conduct a dominant firms, and if you're talking about markets that already highly c

joining us now, iowa senator chuck grassley who is a member of the finance committee. welcome to the show, senator. they say the devil is in the details. that's a big one. i'm not sure if it's a slip of the tongue. what are your thoughts on that? >> my thoughts start back with where we had the economy before the pandemic. the best economy in 50 years going back to 1969. the biggest decrease inequality between minorities and other people and also just within our economy. also, think how great the economy was. the highest -- lowest unemployment, highest employment in 50 years, wages of lower income people going up a lot faster than wages of high income people. we had a good economy. if it ain't broke, don't fix it. that's my answer to your question. >> even more specifically then, it was -- the reason it wasn't broke, you can trace it back to the implementation of tax cuts that when took place, as soon as they went into place, blue collar wages exploded. more than 3%. every single month year over year. the gap between black and white unemployment, the narrowest it ever w

. >> that was senator dick durbin referring on to what grassley said, and wray shut it down. you know who agrees with wray, the trump supporters who have been charged for their role on the attack on the 6th. they are proud to own that they did it in the name of trump. they dismiss the idea that it was about any other group. get this, it used to be that these people on the right were fine with doing anything to anyone even connected to the planning of a terror event. let alone a perpetrator. remember? waterboard, got to do it. torture, need the answers. it's about the bigger good. you have to protect the homeland, got to protect ourselves. now, senators mike lee and josh hawley, the guy that said that i walked past. you fist pumped a bunch of people who some of them then become part of an insurrection. that's what you did. okay. now, these senators on the right are most concerned about whether the fbi is infringing on the rights of the insurrectionists. >> we have to make sure that the civil liberties of the american people are protected. are you geo locating people through th

now, i'd like to turn to ranking member grassley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, director wray, for being here as opposed to being virtual like we have some people testifying. we all agree that what happened at the capitol january 6th was a discretion of our shared values. it was an attack on the seat of democracy. those who engaged in violence, disgraced our country. and we know the statistics. at least seven people, including one u.s. capitol police officer died as a result of that day. also know two officers committed suicide and we know that hundreds were injured. we expect god watches over them and their families. those who broke the law, must be prosecuted and congress needs answers, especially about one officer, brian sicknick. what happened to him. in pursuit of the facts related to january 6th, senator durbin and i have sent oversight letters to the fbi and other agencies. to date, we haven't received any productions. it's difficult to hold a hearing today without records. so, the fbi must fully respond to congress. however, i'm pleased to

it's senators grassley and lindsey graham demanding info. thank you, go ahead. >> yeah. but, again, it's the taking of the justice department and the fbi, and they're being turned boo political weapons in favor of -- into political weapons in favor of covering up for certain people and persecuting other people all based on politics. you know, 20 years the people in washington you could trust were the intelligence community, the military and the department of justice. they played fair by everybody. they're no longer playing fair, and that does not bode well for the future of the republic. elizabeth: why was the secret service reportedly getting involved here? >> well, you've got to assume that they pretty quickly found out it was a hunter biden gun, right? remember, joe biden wasn't vice president at that point. joe biden was out of office. so i'd like, that'd be the first question, i'd want the call the head of secret service and say why were you guys even involved? why did you get involved in this? was there some issue that involved the security of the former vice presi

grassley: thank you. civil war legislation called the false claims act has been on the books since that period of time. in 1986, i believe it was, i got some amendments to it that have made it a much more valuable piece of legislation than it was before that time. it's called the false claims act, and it's brought, i think, something like $64 billion back into the federal treasury of fraudulent taking money since then. the problem today, even though it's been a successful law, is that the courts tend to from time to time neuter its capabilities by interpreting it in a way so it's not quite as effective. from time to time, we have passed legislation to overcome some of those court decisions, so i'm here today to talk about another opportunity this senate has to make the false claims act the effective piece of legislation it was. so i want to alert my colleagues about the most recent limitations the courts have imposed on the false claims act. the false claims act was signed into law by president abraham li

i yield thank you senator grassley. at this point i like to announce any member that would like to submit a written statement in relation to this nominationmay do so and those who wish to make oral statements in the committee i will stay as long as necessary for that purpose . the chairman notes the presence of a quorum and i believe this point we can call the role on both merrick garland and the two procedural issues related to committee rules and the subcommittees and then leave it open for questions. or pardon me, statements by members so on the nomination of merrick garland to the united states attorney general theclerk will call the role . [roll call vote] >> rollcall is and the nomination be favorably reported. understand we have an agreement to voice vote in the subcommittee memberships and jurisdictions. by committee roles all those in favor say aye, opposed, number on the subcommittee memberships and jurisdictions all those in favor say aye. close, number i turned to senator wyden. >> thank you mister chairman.