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

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

i want to thank senator hirono and tammy duckworth, senator duckworth, as well. and, of course, we're very proud of grace meng and her leadership on this legislation. she also had another hate crimes bill earlier, well, in the last congress, so she's been on this with great ideas, leadership and values. and to andy kim from new jersey, thank you for your leadership as well. >> it's close. close. >> he means new york is close to new jersey. [laughing] again, thank you, senator schumer. here's the thing.s the senator talked about visits that he has made into the community and heard the concerno that people have put forth. i, myself, last week, was in chinatown in san francisco. i visited the north east medical services medical center, which is a recipient of our rescue package money, so it was very hopeful to hear how the community, aapi community, was taking the lead in a culturally, linguistically appropriate way to reach out to the community and successfully test, trace, vaccinate and the rest, again, leading the way. leading the way. it gave us so much hope. it

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

senator durbin: thank you. senator tillis. senator tillis: thank you, mr. chair. thanks to the witnesses for being here. speaker pro tempore jones, thank you for your leadership in the georgia legislature. i know a little bit about georgia. both my kids were born in. i lived in atlanta. i got a lot of family down in south georgia. over the past several weeks, i heard a number of reports. i also heard several comments today that seems to me that we're not properly characterizing many of the aspects of senate bill 202. what would you consider to be some of the more blatant mischaracterizations you hard today or heard reported in the press? ms. jones: thank you, senator tillis. i'll go through a few of the most recent ones. no i.d. is surrendered to vote absentee. the exact same voter i.d. requirements that are in law and have been in law to vote in person are now simply going to apply to absentee voting. senator tillis: mrs. jones, if i may, how does that work? if you go to a poll location, they ask for an i.d., you have a government-issued i.d. or i guess other acc

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

we will go to senator rubio and senator hutchinson then senator klobuchar and senator blumenthal and finally secretary pritzker. senator rubio, welcome to the committee. we know you come from a big ocean state and we will continue to count on working on a lot of policies for us. >> thank you for having me. i will be very brief. our nominee for nasa administrator is no stranger to this committee. we know his passion to the space program is unparalleled. it began when he was a member of the house and continued during his time in the senate. irrespective of who was in charge of the senate, bill nelson was always at the front of the pack in terms of dealing with the space program. i don't need to tell my colleagues that. you experienced it firsthand. there is no better advocate for arguing the importance of the program to america's industrial base, research and development, and what it means to inspire a nation. great nations do great things. we continue to want to lead. no one is better advocate for that than he is. one of the most important things. often when we sit in different commit

you can combine that with public-private partnerships like senator warner and senator bennett and i have advocated for the last handful of years and can get to another couple hundred billion dollars and when you're 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 a way that the impact on the individual rate really svent of an impact and so you get a lot of infrastructure improvement with really basically either riding down the interest or to -- or a loan guarantee. i'm sure there's way to get in the neighborhood of $600 billion to $800 billion over the eight years they're talking about. as opposed to having this huge $2 trillion-plus package that you would build in eight years and pay for in 15. that's just not going to happen. at the end of that eight years, people are going to want to know, why are we continuing to pay for that? what are we going to do next? but i do think that there's been a level of outreach from a number of my

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

there were two votes on the floor of the senate, one in 2021 , and senator cotton and senator cruz offered amendments that would prohibit the issue of stimulus checks to prisoners. that failed by a vote of 49-50. there was another one by senator cruz and senator cotton, that would prohibit any individual incarcerated in a federal or state prison from getting state stimulus -- from getting seamless checks. that also failed by 49-50. initially congress was silent as to whether prison inmates would receive those checks. the irs took the position that they were not eligible, and then there was a class-action lawsuit filed which said that congress had to -- that the irs had to comply, because there was no explicit prohibition. did i recite the history of your experience correctly? in other words, originally congress was silent, then the irs took the position that they were not entitled, then there was a class-action lawsuit that said congress was silent, and they had to be provided. is that correct? dir. carvajal: senator, i don't know about the specifics. i doi know there was a class acn lawsu

senator schumer and young are leading a senate -- a senate wide effort to pull together a bill that will reintroduce, i believe next monday, that will invest in american competitiveness. there is a lot of good ideas in there. there are a lot of good ideas that should be bipartisan and there. that could be a significant several hundred dollar -- several hundred billion dollar bill that would invest in manufacturing and skill. i am excited and i think it will send a strong signal globally as well as domestically. jake: you answered part of my question, which is $100 billion, it looks like it will be a pricey piece of legislation, and we will see how that fits into the mosaic of things you are trying to do. another question that i ask is on the topic of climate, the green economy, and all the things in that realm. let's follow the framework you are talking about. you get republicans in the mix some way or another. i wonder what you think is possible in the climate realm with republicans, as people like to say in the capitol, you are not working from the same set of facts, but i do get the i

senator menendez and also senator padilla for those that are hispanic. look forward to working with them. not those that have been sought after when it comes to working with hispanic members of the congress and immigration reform it is a big responsibility passing the modernization act and senator menendez introduce the citizenship act which would be an important platform for comprehensive immigration reform. but it's about creating job opportunities and investment opportunities and access to education. to get from poverty to prosperity with homeownership and every one of those areas we have a responsibility now that we are at the table to ensure the latino and hispanic community will not be left out. host: senator chavez from new mexico held amazing hearings in 1946 talking to world war ii veterans know you are there more than 75 years later in this body systemic racism is still an issue in the united states what are your concerns around systemic racism with the american southwest and new mexico. >> senator chavez served into the time frame when this wa

thank you senator cotton senator coons. durbin twok two nominees who are before this committee today. both of the nominees are qualified and impressive candidate and those have demonstrated commitment to justice and fairness throughout their extraordinary legal careers. judge jackson, some critics have pointed to cases where you ruled against the trump administration and somehow suggest that is evidence you are biased. a review of your actual record shows you have ruled both for andd against administrations of both parties. even on some presses porkt legal matters with political overturns. could you speak about smef these examples and how it is a mischaracterizization of your judicial record to look at your record in the last four years. >> thank you, senator. i tend to leave it to others to characterize my record i'm doing work of analyzing the arguments in the facts and the law in every case. >> can i reframe that? >> that be helpful, thank you -- >> if we try to adjust judge record simply on score keeping of which admini

senator wicker: thank you, senator capito and also senators barrasso and too many mi, it's been great to work with all three of these senators on this good faith effort and this serious effort to get negotiations started with president biden and our democratic colleagues in the house and senate. i was fortunate enough to be in the monday meeting at the white house with the president and vice president, some 10 days ago, there were other republicans who have met in the oval office on monday of this week. now, today, after talking to many of our colleagues, and particularly the three people behind me, i'm pleased to come forth, 10 days after meeting with the president, with an off that really should address what most americans think of as infrastructure. so as senator capito said, what is infrastructure? it's highways, bridge, it's water, an wastewater, it's ports and rail, airport, and certainly we're all agreed that broadband is part of it. we take the part of the president's plan that most americans agree is real, hard infrastructure, we give it our touch and we think we have a very

[applause] >> i just texted senator grassley, senator scott. and i said that senator scott is bragging you up, up here in cedar rapids. i said, do you have a message for him? 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, senator 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] sen. scott: something else the national republican senatorial committee's going to do. in these lawsuits w

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

lopez: john ensign w the 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 salparadigm r the lavegas valley. lopez: the concept was instead exchanging land, just auction public land to the highest bidder. that way, you ing 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 t

[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

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

>> thank you, senator. and thank you for your attention on this issue. it's critically important and it's something that i, i know general berrier, i know across the intelligence community frankly leaders are focussed on this issue. on your particular question with respect to information, i'd be happy to look at this with you, to be honest. i completely understand getting the information is critical for you to be able to respond to these issues and ensure that you're able to make good decisions. maybe we can talk more about this also in closed session in these questions. and i think our concern obviously with the classification is because we believe that either it's protecting sources or methods and it's critical to national security and ef with to figure that out with you, but you should have access to classified information and we have to figure out if there's a way for you to address these issues. >> again, i would argue that with stories like this, stories that appeared over the last two years, really,

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

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

the senate. host: nelson from hollywood, florida on the republican line. caller: i want to stipulate that , once again, this is a move on the part of the democratic party to change the meaning of the constitution in order to gain more raw political power. that is all this really is. you cannot take a city and make part of it i state -- a state and allow another part of it to continue to be the district of columbia. that would be a volume relation -- a violation of the constitution. the framers of the constitution made it very clear that washington, d.c. could not become a state unless there is a new constitutional amendment accordingly. the democratic party, of which i used to be a member, is increasingly becoming un-american in the way it is conducting business. i am becoming afraid that the greatest threat to american liberty in this country is the democratic party. host: any response? guest: well, that is such a partisan contribution that it is hard for me to respond. he said he used to be a d

thank you, senator. thank you are your question. we -- there was a time in which under pressure from apple we had to implement apple's in app payment service. and as a consequence of that we had to start paying the 30% apple tax. the consequence of that in a business like ours where so much of our revenue has to go to paying for the licensing of artists and music labels and others we had no choice but to increase our price to be able to afford the 30% tax apple was imposing on us. so we had to raise our consumer prices from a monthly subscription of $99 to 1299. apple was in the process of acquiring beats music, rebranding as apple music and a couple months after we had to increase prices apple launched apple music at 999 which meant they were undercutting us on price because we had to pay the 30% tax to apple. faced with this reality in which apple was now putting us in this uncompetitive situation from a consumer price perspective we had no choice but to take the iep functionality now. what followed af

the first step act was a bill that i worked on with senator grassley and senator lee and senator booker who is here today that basically said we are changing our attitude toward drugs. simple possession of a small amount of drugs will not require a mandatory minimum sentence because we'd seen the terrible outcome otherwise. we put that bill together on a bipartisan basis, and president donald trump signed the bill into law, not only signed is but came before us in a state of union address and was proud of the fact that he had changed and reformed drug laws. so when i hear the arguments made on the floor that perhaps some nominee coming before us may have changed her or his opinion on drugs, i say america has by and large. think about what's happened with this opioid crisis now that it's no longer just -- i say just, underlined -- an inner city crime but a crime that affects families that live in wealthy suburbs, we now are looking at addiction so differently. so let's go to this issue of vanita gupta and her positions on drugs. in questions for the record, senator cornyn, the senior sen

[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 to follow brother kaufman. if he was not here in my home county -- scott 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, i 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

he made senator irvin the chair and senator baker of tennessee the co-chair. and that is one of the marvelous things about watergate the two of them worked together in the beginning. they said to one another we're going to make this thing work. we will not disagree about things in public and they didn't. no hearing since watergate has ever succeeded like watergate did because you didn't have two compatible people that reached to cross and tried to make one another work. that's that's a primary difference today. and when it was in in the years of watergate, they worked together. and you don't find that now i can hardly name you anything of major importance where the parties work together. can we talk about how it came about you subpoenaing the president? when did you when was it first decided that okay. we're going to send the subpoena to president nixon and how are you chosen to deliver it to him? well, the the senator met in his office in private with with committee members and said we're going to ask the president. if he will voluntarily turn over the tapes

judge jackson: no senator. jackson-akiwumi: no senator. sen. hirono: have you ever face discipline or entered into a settlement related to this? judge jackson: no senator. jackson-akiwumi: no senator. sen. hirono: you have both served as public defenders and you answered questions about that. for miss jackson-akiwumi you gave an interview in which you described the burden you carry as a black woman attorney like when a prosecutor accused you of being overly aggressive because you forcefully made a point. you describe the benefits, sometimes my clients families are very grateful to see me, a young black woman in a position of power, i can inspire a child without no. you are nominated to fill a seat on the seventh circuit making it the first black person -- person of color on that bench. what is the significance of that to you? ms. jackson-akiwumi: i want you to know i would be the second person nominated, judge and wilson retired in 2017. i indicated earlier that there is the same role modeling functions that i played when i was an advocate. tha

>> 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

he is one of the more thoughtful senators in the united states. welcome, senator lee. one other personal note here, he got his taste for things constitutional from his father, former solicitor general rex lee, the chief lawyer for the united states government under the early years of president reagan. i had the honor to be solicitor general lee's assistant. i am -- was very close to senator lee's father and still regard him as one of the great american lawyers of all time. welcome to his son and my friend, michael lee. sen. lee: it is a pleasure to be with you. you are one of my favorite judges to argue in front of on the u.s. court of appeals for the 10th circuit. you are someone whose opinions i value greatly and always look to and admire. i'm a big fan of your book, "the president would not be king." it's a book i am loving and something every american needs to read. michael: that makes me feel very proud. that leads to our conversation today. there are many different things we could be talking about. we decided we will be talking about the presidency at this partic

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 the filibuster. >> 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 mocracy 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 thugh 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 like

senator cantwell. senator cantwell: thank you, chair rosen. thank you to you and the ranking member, i appreciate both of your's interest in this subject of tourism. you are right, i couldn't be more excited about a committee that's called tourism, trade and export promotion because it is pretty much the state of washington and very much appreciate the two of you bringing an intense focus to the tourism aspect amongst the other responsibilities here. i wanted to ask our witness, i think think, ms. barnes, you. senator scott and i introduced legislation on what i just call another layer of infrastructure. you guys have all articulated in your questions, and many of our colleagues, about the important economic consequence of tourism. if it is such an important aspect of the economy, why aren't we doing more to build layers of protection into the system that gives us more data and information. i traveled to china many years ago, and at the airport went through a screening as it related -- i didn't really know i was going through a screening but i

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: thank you, madam president. today i express my concern over the rise of violent crime, in particular the hate crimes against asian americans and pacific islanders. every single one of us ought to be and are horrified to see our fellow americans attacked because of their race or ethnicity. we're united in our opposition to this hateful violence. we're united in seeing it investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. i introduced a resolution to this effect and i will welcome all my senate colleagues to join me. i'm very happy to see that attorney general garland has turned his attention to this problem. on march 30, he directed the department of justice to engage in a 30-day review in response to hate crimes. i hope the senate will benefit from the results of that review. however, our responses to the problems of hate crimes must be guided by the facts and a pursuit of sound policy. i'm not sure we've done the leg work to arrive at a legislative solution that

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

we take you live now to the senate floor. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, security and exchange commission, gary gensler of maryland to be a member. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 34, gary gensler of maryland to be a member of the securities and exchange commission signed by 18 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent,

senator warnock will begin, followed by senator murkowski and four other senators. thank you, madam president. senator warnock. mr. warnock: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. warnock: i want to thank my colleague, senator brown, for bringing us together in this way, reading from a letter from a birmingham jail, dr. king, april 16, 1963. dr. king writes -- my dear fellow clergymen, while confined here in the birmingham city jail, i came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." seldom do i pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. if i sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have litte time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and i would have no time for constructive work. but since i feel that you are men of genuine goodwill and tht your criticisms are sincerely set forth, i want to try to answer your statement in what i hope will be patient and reasonable terms. i think i should indicate why i am here in birmingham

the senator from alabama and i traveled together along with senator cruz and senator cornyn just a few weeks ago. we had, i think, a total of 19 senators that went to see the crisis firsthand. and in fact it's not just one crisis, as the senator from alabama and i have both spoken about. it is a double crisis. it's a national security crisis as well as a humanitarian crisis. we went on a midnight patrol, and what did we see at midnight? well, we saw and we heard -- not just did we see the lights on on the other side of the rio grande, we heard the cat calls from traffickers who were taunting our u.s. border patrol agents, saying in spanish, you cannot stop us now. that is what we're hearing from the criminals and the traffickers across the rio grande. we saw signs on the ground directing migrants to the facilities where they will then turn themselves in. and we spoke to the border patrol agents. they told us that their jobs got an awful lot harder on january 20, which is the day that joe biden became president of the united states. president biden flipped over the sign and sent the cle

i yield back. >> thank you, senator. senator young? senator young? we don't have senator young? then we have senator brown. senator casey? >> chairman? >> here's senator casey. >> mr. chairman, thanks very much. i want to thank you for this opportunity -- let me turn my volume up here, and thank the witnesses. i just have maybe two questions for one witness, and then maybe i will submit others for the record. i wanted to start with a question for donny blatt. i appreciate his work for the steel workers in my home state of pennsylvania, and they care deeply about manufacturing jobs we hope to create and we have suffered through so much loss. i am just looking at some of the numbers. by one estimate in pennsylvania between january of '05 to january of this year we have lost over 147,000 manufacturing jobs and that's on top of the several hundred thousand jobs we lost in the two or three decades before that. i wanted to ask about -- first of all, in your testimony you discussed the power of federal procurement in the ways it could be used to support american manufacturing, and i am

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

the order now is senator thune next, followed by senator whitehouse and senator hassan. sen. thune: ms. palm, i raise this with secretary becerra, but the topic of 340 p is enormously important to hospitals across south dakota and across the region. we have three systems that serve the state, but also overlap into minnesota and iowa, wyoming, nebraska, places like that. that program has been dysfunctional, i would say, for some time now. we have heard concerns recently from entities in my state about actions taken by manufacturers, not the immersing contract pharmacies, all of a sudden deciding to dispense with that, and now pbm's that are imposing conditions on hospitals to get reimbursed, to get payment. that affects the ability to provide a robust community benefit. it is an issue that has been hanging around a long time. it is a program progress -- congress has expressed in law. a lot of the entities assigned to make it work are trying intentionally to undermine the program. i am curious, if confirmed, how the department would respond to ensure covered entities are not ha