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now as the senate is about to gavel in. today's senators are considering more executive nominations, including james o'neill to be deputy health and human services secretary and john eisenberg, attorney general for national security. and first votes are the a 11:30 eastern time as we take you live now to the senate floor. ... e president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. black, will open the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. author of life, who put into our hearts such deep desires that we cannot be at peace until we rest in you, mercifully guide our lawmakers on the path of your choosing.

lord, may your holy word be for them a lamp and a light in these cataclysmic times. keep our senators mindful of the importance of being people of integrity, striving to please you in all of their work. give them a strong vision of a godly nation and world with a promising future. may their humility match your willingness to help them . may their dependence on you liberate them from anxieties

about the future. and, lord, be with the members of the illustrious spring page class graduating class. we pray in your great name. amen. the president pro tempore: would you please join me in the pledge. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session and will resume

consideration of the following nomination to which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of health and human services, james o'neill of california to be deputy secretary. mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i come to the senate to congratulate the university of iowa's department of opthamology. it's the 100th anniversary of this famed department. for a century, this department has improved the lives of iowans and made a significant national impact. this department and its members have consistently ranked among the top ten of the "u.s. news & world report" and opthamology times. beyond its ranking, the

department has been a world leader in treating serious inherited eye diseases and other vision problems. in the 1990's, the department established the first center for macular degeneration in the united states, providing patient care and conducting research into more effective treatments. the department has a rich history of innovative research and clinical trials to advance eye care. today its research includes making groundbreaking discoveries into genes responsible for common and rare retinal diseases. researchers are also integrated artificial intelligence to diagnosis and treat eye diseases. thanks to this dedication, the

department has trained generations of doctors and specialists who now serve in hospitals and clinics across the country expanding its impact far beyond iowa city, iowa. i commend everyone who has contributed to this remarkable le legacy, the present faculty, staff, students and patients. and of course we need to always remember the pioneers in this area who have now passed on. may the next century be just as impactful as the first century for the university of iowa's department of ophthalmology. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

>> can you provide us with an update on that program and when you expect additional batteries >> , that's another thing that would look at a total of five batters. what were doing with that same thing continues information, how do we make the systems smaller compact we tie that in better, how to make them so they are

more mobile. >> as your testing these different capabilities, these new capabilities, do you have some of these businesses come you said they were longside soldiers and being able to see the real-time effects. as your testing these things in real time, and you understand the field of battle that you may be facing in very near future, are you also soliciting not just comets from but also continue to selected those common some soldiers as well? and how you been able to make changes in any of these capabilities you are currently testing? >> we both wanted to push the trigger on that one. we have done that. one the things come for example, soldier said listen it would be

better to have an autonomous system or an optionally manned vehicle that could move around i could do those things. hey, we need the command and control piece of this to be smaller and more mobile. so we are making those changes and we that companies that are factually gone out and this is about leveraging commercial industry to do this. made those vehicles and brought them out to our formations and were testing the. again giving to the soldiers most important thing with his. >> the chairman murkowski you out, mr. secretary. thanks very much. >> witnesses and supplement their answers. senator shaheen. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, joe george thank you both for being here. i want to follow up on senator reed question about the role of the national guard and dealing with illegal immigrants. i'm looking at a memo here from

executive secretary at the department of defense from the department of homeland security. one of the things they say in this memo is there asking the national guard to up to 3500 personnel to support field investigative units for high-priority fugitive cases joint task force operations, fugitive tracking come civilis and canvassing missions, data analysis from call-center support and night operations and rural interdiction. that doesn't sound hypothetical to me. that sounds like that is a direct request that his organ made to the department of defense. i assume you might have seen it from the prepa of homeland security to engage in those operations. it also says the army, the department defense will not be reimbursed for those operations that you know who's going to pay

for those and what i count from the department of defense those operations would come from? >> senator, i don't know what account sitting right now that we can follow up with your office. >> well, i would hope, first of all, i share senator reed is concerned about asking the national guard to engage in those kinds of operations. as a former governor i can tell you i didn't want our national guard going off to do something when we needed them at home in new hampshire. but it would also be very concerned about who's paying for those and the probe the phone rang security if they're going to engage in these operations that had to be footing the bill, as in the department of defense and the army or anybody else in the national guard to do that. let me register my great concern, mr. chairman, about that. >> i want to go on to another topic, and that is a lot of

discussion so far spent about the changing role of conflict and war. one of the places where we are seeing those operations very dramatically is in the information warfare systems arena. i concerned about the army's decision last year to reduce nearly 3000 special operation forces personnel. most of those were from military information support operations, and this comes at a time when you're looking at expanded operations on the part of russia come on a part of china come our adversary. >> i sit on the foreign relations committee. we had a hearing earlier the pointed out china spending over a billion dollars a year on disinformation operations around the world. it feels to me like we're unilaterally disarming in this arena at a time when we should

be engaging and think about how to do that. i wonder, general george, from an operational perspective does socom have the ability to replace those positions and how are you thinking about information warfare? >> first on information warfare, senator, likely to agree with you. that is something i do think rather than what we've been talking about looking specific permissions we are also looking we have a bunch of specialties we've had around for 20 or 30 years. like anybody does in the commercial sector you have to make, your to adapt and change to make sure you are doing that. the cuts were made and this was worked with u.s. army special operations command and so, for print media, leaflet drops come people doing those kind of things. i would argue the world has changed and what we should be doing is focusing on in the

meantime with code cyber capability and how going to do that to technology i think is important. does the thing we've learned is going to have to have this kind of capability throughout confirmation. it's less about headquarters. it's about having capabilities at echelon throughout all of our formations. we are all living, you're not going to get just certain people the capability because we'll all have to operate on this or complex battlefield and best were looking at. we just had a discussion about this. i'd love to talk about this more in detail on what we're looking at how were going to embed this across our formations. >> i very much enjoy seeing a plan for how that's going to be done because i think that's one of the most serious disadvantages we have right now. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. senator cotton. >> gentlemen, , welcome. i was at fort myer president, i consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without

objection. mr. thune: mr. president, for many months we've been laying the groundwork for legislation to make tax relief for hardworking americans permanent and invest in our security to build a stronger, safer, and more prosperous america. we're very nearly there. it's been an exciting week in the senate, with the environment and public works committee and armed services committee releasing their portions of the text. the text comes from the commerce committee and the banking committee very soon. i'm grateful for the hard work of so many members and the committee chairs. of this has been a deeply collaborative project from the get-go, and the product of extensive work, both within the senate and between the senate and the house. between the good work of the house and good work of the senate, we're going to have an outstanding final bill. the bill text released this week by the environmental and public works and armed services committees covers parts of the energy security and national defense sections of the final senate bill. as i said on the floor yesterday, energy is the

critical resource. without a reliable energy supply, our homes, schools, hospitals, businesses, factories, our entire country literally grind to a halt. that includes our national security and national defense capabilities as well. a secure, stable, abundant energy supply is essential for our national defense. it's essential for our economy. and it's essential to keeping energy affordable for hardworking americans. after four years of the biden administration acting to constrain american energy production, our bill would help unleash american energy. it will suspend the biden administration's natural gas tax, which threatened to reduce supply and drive up energy prices for americans. it will seek to end a key part of the biden administration electric vehicle mandate, which threatened to put a dangerous new burden on our already shaky electric grid.

and more. meanwhile, the defense section of the bill, released this week by chairman wicker, promotes peace through strength by reversing the trend of underinvestment in our military. with china beginning to outpace the united states in key defense capabilities and manufacturing, it is especially critical that we act now to prevent the united states from falling behind on the national security front, and the defense title, while no substitute for robust yearly funding, will be a substantial step forward toward rebuilding our military to ensure our servicemembers are equipped to deter or defeat any threat. our bill will provide $29 billion for shipbuilding, to build 13 new battle force ships, rapidly grow a fleet of unmanned vessels, and expand our maritime industrial base testimony will provide $25 billion for the president's golden dome to defend the homeland from

missiles, drones, and hypersonics, including accelerating capabilities for the space force and modernizing existing u.s. missile defense censors in sites like those -- sensors like those in alaska. our bill provides 23 billion to expand capacity, restock critical munitions and rebuild u.s. supply chains. will provide 16 billion to field low-cost and next generation weapons, like drones, counterdrone capabilities, cheap munitions, and a.i. capabilities. and a whole lot more, including expanding our air force fighter fleet and rebuilding our of pacific infrastructure. our nation will be safer and stronger because of the bill. i'm grateful to chairman wicker, chairman capito, and all the members, both on and off of these committees, who have

invested so much time to produce this energy and defense language. it is exciting to see so many months of work coming to fruition. i look forward to the release of bill text coming from the banking committee and the commerce committee in the very near future, and consideration of this bill on the floor in the coming weeks. mr. president, i yield the floor, and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

make it more expensive to work with existing facilities. thank you very much. senator hirono. >> thank you both for being here. i would like to join senator reed and senator shaheen for once again raising our concerns

about the deployment of 10,000 soldiers to the southern border, the use of 20,000 national guardsmen to engage in immigration enforcement. but we have raised these concerns as i said before about using soldiers to do things that are not in the mission of unity. at your nomination hearing, mr. secretary, can you commit to not supporting our request queues national guard people for core law enforcement functions such as arrests and detentions? >> i can commit to not using the national guard for any unlawful use and to reiterate, i have not heard of one single request that makes me believe in the current plan is something they are not able to do. >> so that's the operative word,

the condition word that we do not do anything it would be unlawful. if the president says this is what he wants, and if you would ever he does is lawful. so this is a legitimate concern that we have because the the president has his priorities and those priorities are to round up a lot of people. in many instances i was illegally raising kinds of questions for it is a legitimate question for you, mr. secretary, that you commit to not allowing the use of national guard for law enforcement purposes. so i put that question to you out there. mr. secretary, it is very appropriate that the indo-pacific aor is a focus of our national security. one of the negotiations of critical negotiations that are occurring right now has to do

with the training areas that the army uses in hawaii, including -- which is some 22,000 acres, critical portions of the least -- least from the state. these lease negotiations have got to be completed successfully, otherwise these training areas expire in 2029, right around the corner. these lands are crucial to maintaining military readiness in the indo-pacific. but also hold cultural significance for the native hawaiian community, very important community. would you commit to working closely in good faith with state officials, the community and the hawaii congressional delegation on this critical negotiation matter? >> absolutely, senator. on behalf of the army, we --

they always sell well they are democrat leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: well, mr. president, let me begin this morning with a sobering headline from "the new york times," the headline, millions would lose their obamacare coverage under trump's bill. that is exactly what democrats have been warning about for we weeks. what republicans call their big, beautiful bill is really repeal and replace by another name. it's really repeal and replace by another name. it is a big, beautiful betrayal, not a big, beautiful bill. and yesterday, we learned that the devastation, potentially, has only worsened. the nonpartisan cbo has now grown the number of impacted americans to 16 million -- 16

million will lose their medicaid and aca coverage. so, the more you look at this bill, things keep getting worse, because cbo now says not 13.7 million would lose coverage but 16 million. the number of impacted people grows the more you look at this bill. and things keep getting even worse. we learned yesterday the news that republicans may want to even go after medicare. medicare is on the chopping block. that's right. at yesterday's lunch, republicans raised the possibility of medicare cuts to pay for their billionaire tax cuts. the junior senator from north dakota reportedly said, quote, why don't we go after that? i think we should. for republicans to even suggest medicare be cut to bankroll billionaire tax breaks is frightened and revolting. and there's more. the junior senator from louisiana said, quote, i'm not

worried about people losing their health care, unquote. you know what happens when people lose their health care, when they can't afford it? people die. but what do republicans have to say about that? well, the junior senator from iowa said this -- well, we're all going to die. that quote tells you everything you need to know about this plan. callous, clueless, careless. that's right, this plan is callous, clueless, and careless. but that's the republican party for you these days. they don't get it. or more likely, they don't care. just so long as billionaires can pay less in taxes. republicans should forget calling this gargoyle of a bill their big, beautiful bill. they might as well call it the we're all going to die act, after what the senator from iowa

said. at least that name is more honest. the we're all going to die act. donald trump may claim this bill won't cut anyone from coverage, but he's lying. 16 million people will lose cov coverage. 11 million people will lose affordable food. cost also strike. hospitals will close. people will die. and why? for a tax break for billionaires. now, let me finish with this, on a separate note -- in order to make the ul ra ultra -- the ultra rich even richer, according to cbo the bill adds 2.1 trillion to the debt. even elon musk calls this thing an abomination, his word. as the old saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day. republicans pride themselves as the supposed party of fiscal respon

responsibility, but this bill they have belongs on the mount rushmore of fiscally irresponsible bills. so, i close with a warning to republicans in the senate -- if you proceed with this big, ugly bill, this big betrayal of the american people, it won't be donald trump's soothing words that will be enacted in your states, but rather deep and devastating cuts, millions of job losses. you'll rip health care from millions. you'll ex pode the debt -- explode the debt. and you'll shower billionaires with tax breaks. that's what you'll be doing, no matter what donald trump tells you on the telephone, i say to our republican senate colleagues. tread carefully. tread carefully. now, on the courts, we all know that donald trump sees himself as a king more than he does a president. he said it himself. well, the republicans' so-called

big, beautiful bill will effectively place a crown on donald trump's head. buried deep in the republicans' bill is a nasty provision that will restrict the power of judges to hold government officials in contempt for violating court orders. the goal of this provision is very obvious -- republicans want to codify donald trump's attacks on our judiciary into law. when senate republicans include this lawless provision in their bill, democrats will use every procedural hurdle in existence to kill it, including the byrd bath process, because this type of draconian provision is a better fit tore a dictate -- fit for a dictatorship than a democracy. republicans want to defang the power of the courts. they want to make it easier, in effect, for the trump administration to defy court rulings. if judges can't hold intransigent public officials in

contempt, the judges' rulings are basically meaningless. why bother having courts if you're just going to ignore them? this is a naked attack on the separation of powers, a very serious and damaging one if it ever would be enacted. if republicans think they can pull a fast one on our courts by slipping this devious provision into their bill, they're dead wrong. democrats will fight with every tool we have to stop this provision from ever, ever becoming law. finally, on mr. putin, yesterday donald trump posted on line that, quote, putin said he will have to strongly. he should have said, putin end this war now. stop killing ukrainian civilians. stop your illegal invasion.

but instead donald trump is busy announcing putin's military plans like a press secretary. why is he acting like a bystander he is? the president of the united states. donald trump should show some backbone. here's what the president needs to do -- his administration has the power to help ukraine defend itself with air defense systemed, specifically ammunition for its patriot systems that the u.s. or our european allies can provide. ukraine has said these air defense systems are the best tools for protecting civilian life from russian military strikes. we ought to do all we can to get them these very needed air defense systems asap. i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. mr. barrasso: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. where bier ask unanimous consent that the --

mr. barrasso: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: i come to the floor to continue republicans' fighting, as we can fighting tooth and nail, to protect the rights of american citizens. one of those rights is the right to keep and bear arms. the second amendment guarantees that every american -- every american -- has the right to own and use firearm, and everyday people across your state of oklahoma, my state of wyoming use that right responsibly. we also know that for the last four years joe biden, chuck schumer and the radical democrats have waged a war against the second amendment rights of american citizens. they tried to ban firearms, tried to tax ammunition to the point where it couldn't be afforded, directed the atf to harass law-abiding gun owners, tried to make it impossible for citizens to buy, own, transport, or use a firearm.

so now republicans are in control in the senate, the house of representatives, and the white house. and we are defending the second amendment from those who would try to take it away from us. senator cornyn of texas has introduced the constitutional concealed carry reciprocity act. this bold legislation allows qualified citizens to exercise their second amendment rights in any states that respect concealed carry. senator roger marshall of kansas has introduced something called the short act. this legislation stops rogue bureaucrats at alcohol and firearms. it shields citizens from unconstitutional schemes. bill hagerty has introduced the protecting privacy in purchasing act. this legislation is a direct strike against democrats'

attacks on gun purchases. so, look, i'm proud, mr. chairman, to be a cosponsor of all three of these pieces of important pro-freedom legislation. this fight is one of the most important that we're ever going to conduct. democrats across the country are determined to take away the rights of law-abiding citizens. they're purchasing their antigun agenda in the courts. they are scheming right here in the united states senate to come after our second amendment rights. mr. president, when democrats held the majority, we know what we saw. they had the audacity to try to ram through an unconstitutional so-called assault weapons ban, and they tried to do it by unanimous consent, coming here onto the floor and just try to sneak it through. well, i was proud to stand here

in this chamber, face them down, and emphatically say no to your unanimous consent. now democrats are in the minority. have they changed in terms of their beliefs and the second amendment? no, not at all. they continue to be obsessed with banning semiautomatic firearms simply because of the way the firearms look. that's what they're after. let me be clear. democrats' ban on so-called assault weapons -- that's their phrase -- is an assault on law-abiding gun owners, an assault against all of us. every page adds a new restriction, a new burden, and a new attack on citizens who follow the law. it dictates what you can buy, what you can't buy, bans more than 205 popular rifles, shotguns, and pistols, and it bans them by name. that's how extreme they've

gotten. they want to trample on the rights of law-abiding citizens. and it's a fascinating thing, mr. president, because they -- instead of trampling on the rights of law-abiding citizens, they're out there frying to protect -- trying to protect illegal immigrants rights, saying they have rights. they don't. that is the contrast of our party fighting for the rights of citizens, their party fighting for the rights of illegal immigrants. democrats are the party of defunding the police, the party of disarming the american people. their actions have made our streets more danger outercontinental shelf not safer -- more dangerous, not safer. we're for prosperity. they seem to be not. i thank you, mr. president.

i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: >> we applaud but how do we make sure we don't become the victims and a similar situation against us? how do we make sure we are defending ourselves against potential enemies drone attacks? we talked about offensive operations but less about troop protection. so if you would talk about the army keeping pace in drone

encountered drone technology, and how do we make sure we protect our troops at home and abroad from these threats? >> thanks for the question. just to close out with senator kaine. i will reflect on your remarks. if any of the founders are listening we are devastated by that outcome. if anything where saying sounds like callous legalese. it's not intended to be. so thank you for showing that and i commit to reflecting and follow up. senator budd, air missile defense is, what was the out air defenders and we saw them in the middle east, we say with a very straight face that they are the new tip of the spear. the way warfare is changing what we saw with operation spiders web in russia and the sheer volume of damage i think our estimate is percept $20,000 n cost they took up to call it ten-ish billion in assets. we would face the same problem is one of the challenges of our

lifetime in the army to figure this out. we are testing all sorts of different solutions from the smallest being to shooting a .50 caliber round to the highest being with ground-based interceptors that are based in alaska and a lot more expensive. we things and the like directed energy which require different power grids and different ways of think about delivering and storing power. we are doing all sorts of experiments with our soldiers. we were just with a company yesterday who is part of operation spiders web in ukraine and hearing about how they participate in it. we said immediately like we've got to figure out how to get this technology into our soldiers hands this summer so we can start to learn. it was so effective there. i guess in summary what we're trying to do is test as many things as we possibly can and then work with this committee once we find the ones that are working to scale them as quickly as possible. >> thank you to that. general george, is reported the army intended to raise the fifth

multi-domain task force and it would be stationed at fort bragg, north carolina. with the plan to be fully operational by fiscal year 2028. the question is is that still on track? into broader sense how will the army transformation effect that force structure? >> i would tell you that those plans are still on track. these are capabilities we know we're going to need now. all of the things for multi-domain affects the we will have to do to include the counter ues you were talking about. so it's definitely a capability that will date and continue to grow. >> so continuing general george ocho applaud the army investment in this next generation c2 or command-and-control program which will take avenge af software solutions to give real-time data to commanders so they can make decisions that are faster than her adversaries. what's the status of nextgen ceq, and where has it succeeded

and where can it improve? >> i it are going to ask the secretary we are very encouraged by what were doing. i think we know we have to change how we passed data, move data based on how you can be seen anywhere on this planet. we just saw out when we were out at the national training center, the concept it works. so we are now looking to scale if there will have a division of it this summer. we just want to go faster. that's our press. we just did a war fighter over in europe and a note you know general dahl if you are just up on the net with his team. this is transform the network from theater all the way down to the tactical level and we have to put gum does much as we can to go faster. >> thank you. >> thank you. thank you, senator budd. senator king.

>> thank you, mr. chairman. very straightforward question. we've got this big parade coming up in little over a week. what's the budget? >> twenty-five-40 million. >> that's a pretty rough estimate for something that's going to happen in less than ten days. is that as close as you can give us today? >> we have a bucket set aside for any contingencies or damage that we cause. we are budgeted encasement to reimburse anyone. >> so a minimum of 25 million, and somewhere around 40 is the upward estimate? >> yes, sir. >> thank you. on october come in october of 2023 a tragic event occurred in maine were an army reservist killed 18 people in a matter of minutes. subsequent to that it was determined that he had substantial brain injury. most likely cause come he was a trainer in munitions by blast of oppression continued exposure. there was a lot of activity at

the time in the army and the pentagon generally on this issue of blast overpressure of mental health baselining. i just want to be sure, are you aware of that work? i want to be sure, it is a lost in the transition from what administration to the other. this is a very serious problem. it turns out this one case in maine was kind of a notorious one, but this is something that throughout the armed services particularly in the army. general, do you want to -- are resting after this issue? >> we are staying after that. probably three weeks ago we had the team up to talk about that. so operators can use whatever specialized units to do a lot of the very high end qaeda training. training. right now with an permitted the neurological testings of people going on -- >> so segment a baseline? >> that the baseline but also we

are changing, again it's how you train as well educated alluded to that. do you need a level of explosives when you're doing certain kind of training, how can reduce that? we're looking at equipment. how do you change for example, the counselor may be very helpful against bullets coming at you but it does other things when you have concussive events. so how do we change that? i problem once a quarter i will have discussions on this and art we're doing. we're continuing. >> i can echo, this does come up often and we we're trying tok at our training where obvious he we're choosing to expose soldiers to things and make sure that it is worth the risk. >> i appreciate that. all of the right work has been done at the fairly high level. i want to be sure it gets down to the ground in terms of day to day activity that is not just reports in the pentagon but that it's direct changes in the way

equipment and training and as thanks. because as i say this, turns out to be widespread problem and something when you do dress. i appreciate your updates. mr. secretary, my understand is the army transformation initiative has recommended reducing civilian workforce in the army by 23,000 people. my question is where did that number come from? >> i would jump into little bit on this. so i thought of, what we have done come again this is a like hey, we're going to reduce a specific number here you will also notice we're combining headquarters. we had examples we had two gille led headquarters within a stones throw of each other that candidate overlapping missions -- geo led. what will you and i felt will reduce our business systems. think i mentioned that up front. we have a lot of old business systems and programs that we

don't need and can be done with data. i have a smartboard in my office where i can get most of this data. that basically from top to bottom is what were looking at. i do think there are additional areas where we can find more efficiencies. our goal is to fill our formations. >> you've examined the structure and come to that number. you didn't start with a percentage or a number to work toward? >> correct. it was not driven, not arbitrary but it was not driven downward. it was without the were redundancies at a lot of the cuts we referenced in ati are to general george, the intent when soldiers enlist they don't want us pushing paperwork. that headquarters thought you has grown and bloated and it's her own fault or . trying to push them back out. >> it strikes me as a large cut and to think it has to be, 1% of the army budget for the 23,000 people. some of them had to be doing

useful work. i just would be interested in following up to see whether cuts are actually happening in the analysis that led to the thank you very much, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator. senator sullivan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. gentlemen, thank you for your testimony and your continued exceptional service to our great nation. mr. secretary, thank you for your alaska visit. you major commitment to make clear and you follow through on a very quickly and your tenure. i appreciate that. i was just back home for the last ten days and hosted the chairman of the joint chiefs, general kane, , and we had a god opportunity to meet with the 11th airborne soldiers who are really impressive. i want to get your impressions on your visit, , then i wanted o

ask on the army transformation initiative, general, thanks to come in my office last week, two weeks ago to give an update want to get a sense of how the 11th airborne division will be impacted by that, particularly on two issues. the merging of headquarters that may affect the fort wainwright. we still want that to be a war fighting headquarters. i know you do, too. it's been an admin headquarters for many years. i love the idea of the 11th airborne now being the competitor to the 82nd airborne. i know the 82nd airborne has stored history. so does the 11th airborne by the way, and world war ii. a lot of people don't know that but it's good to enter a competition just for the 82nd folks do watching, i do think it's so we catch you but surpassing you come particularly

on arctic ops it maybe you guys can, on that as well. but your impressions, army transformation initiative. and then also the issue of the 11th airborne aviation assets necessary to complete the transformation from a stryker brigade to an air assault unit up in fairbanks. what to make sure they're getting the proper helo assets. what is your vision on that? a lot of questions but mainly, mainly your impressions to both of you on your alaska trip. i think you guys are doing a great job up there. i think the morale is high. that's a unit that knows when it's all about now which i think for a long time maybe it hadn't. as you know the purpose is important. >> as someone who a station in new york with tip speed by the

way where there's no mount. >> i think i mentioned this in my hearing. you get there and there are no mount. contrasting that with alaska and the training of black rappers come it is remarkable what soldiers are out there doing provided during an exercise with some of them. it's hard and is different and it's kept the way you're tk about moving soldiers of these mountains and a lot of the world is filled with this arctic, mountainous regions. the other part that blew my mind was went to a testing facility where they were testing our equipment in these incredible freezers that would go negative 50, megabit 60° and show you what happens to fluid of what happened to all of these different items that we purchased that just the manufacture you don't have the ability or just don't take the time to do it. there are all these instances where we are buying $1 a biln dollars a something and find out it can't operate in negative 22 temperature which is cool but

it's not that cold. >> you get that a lot i bet at fort wainwright. >> a lot. the soldiers will take nearly every piece of equipment they get out on his on a veryn behalf of the united states army so we can learn. we've learned a lot and change how we procure things. we try to get it to the earlier in the process so they can tell us if it works in this conditions. >> on the helo assets and headquarters in terms of army transformation, i know general you mentioned i think that was an impact come size of the units up the 11th airborne. but can you unpack that a little right now? >> i would say one of the things we're trying to do with army transformation initiative, and again this gets to continuous information to make sure we are moving forward, i that the capability mentioned having a division at that needs to be a war fighting capability that we need to add certain legal aspects to that division. i can will be cut to do is not i

think of the places is why we're trying to lead the way with what we're doing, reducing your in another headquarters. this is exactly the capability we need to grow. because of 11th 11th airboi think i told you if you can operate when it's 40 and 50 below, those troopers prove they can go anywhere. they are just physically tough. folks i can do things. we want to invest in the arctic capability up alaska. >> that came up a lot in a discussion with general caine, the ability, the discipline, the leadership near to operate a 40 below zero. can operate at 40 below zero words hard to do anything, to your point, mr. secretary, you can operate anyway in the world. you can operate in the jungle, the desert but you can operate in 40 below zero unless you were trained, tough, discipline and the think that's what those troops are becoming so appreciate that. i'll have a few more questions for the record but thanks for your leadership to both of you. >> senator peters.

>> thank you, mr. chairman and gentlemen welcome to the committee and thank you for your service. as we discussed in the committee and three of us have had a chance to discuss an office and other places, certainly the army transformation initiative is going to refocus the army towards future conflicts and some real creative thinking going into debt and and i ae that. as the army begins this rapid modernization effort i'm hopeful we're going to continue to capitalize on my state, state of michigan is really unique commercial automotive expertise including billions of dollars of research and development and advanced manufacturing talent that is located there. and that the same time we also must ensure ati does not compromise redness, innovation and manufacturing. i'm specifically concerned about potential and packs on some critical hubs like the detroit arsenal as well as the ground

vehicle system center in michigan. these sites as i think both of you know are central to the army's modernization goals and the key for shipping, for testing and fielding the next generation capabilities. my first question is for you, secretary driscoll. do i have your commitment to work together to maintain both of the arsenal and gdc as role in supporting the future for the army both wheeled as well as track vehicle? >> i would love to work with you senator. the squad vehicle comes off chevy colorado site is dual use, the gm defense has been a credible partners. i saw them a couple weeks ago as where visiting and what even able to make for our soldiers. their ceo goes out to the field with our soldiers to figure out how can it be better. they will iterate those changes within a couple of weeks. i completely agree that what has

occurred in the vehicle manufacturing in michigan is incredibly valuable for soldier soldiers. >> thank you for bringing that the agoa. we talked about that as well but i'll ask you another question. my understanding is when you leverage the commercial expertise you mention the silverado used for this particular vehicle. you can go from concept to prototype to low rate production within six months. that doesn't happen very often in the procurement process. as my question for you, general george. can you speak at the army is going to continue to leverage michigan's automotive manufacturing r&d efforts and build on what secretary driscoll told? >> this gets back to two, or looking at for all across acquisitions. we do have the detroit arsenal is important to us but which will important is our access to adopt and modify technology that's coming from the

commercial sector. that's been really important to us. what gm and ford and those companies spent on r&d and what they're doing with autonomous systems, and certain ways what were looking at us had to be restructured to make sure we are taking advantage of that and not trying to build our own systems. we can't compete with what those two amazing copies can do up there. so what specifically do we need to do, and that's better focus. we talked to a lot of the companies that are up there and we will continue. that will continue to be important to us. quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president, i on tuesday, president trump sent congress proposed recisions. a recision bill is a cut to already enacted and funded programs. looking closely at those cuts that have been proposed by the administration, i would like to speak to them this morning on the floor. where has the president

suggested we cut a very minuscule percentage of the federal budget to fund deficit-busting tax cuts for the ultrawealthy from bipartisan programs, programs that both parties have supported for years, programs that help the poorest in the world survive, even lead a normal life suffering from hiv and aids. help countries become healthy democracy and trading partners literally for the united states. support peacekeeping efforts to prevent the spread of war and migration. programs that counter chinese influence and help stem the flow of illicit drugs. radio and tv stations that provide news for america. that's where the president turned to make the cuts that he wants the money for to pay for a tax cut for the wealthiest people in america. for as long as i've been in congress, there's always been a strong bipartisan support for foreign assistance programs.

now, you ask the average person in the street in illinois or oklahoma how much -- what percentage of the federal budget do you believe is spent on foreign aid. the guess is usually 10% to 20% president it's less than 1%. there was an understanding that modest efforts like those that cost just over 1% of the federal budget were the right thing to do by both political parties. you see, by helping stem pandemics and war and helping countries become healthy, free market democracy, we're actually helping our own country. we're stopping upheavals before they start and spill over borders alleviating the future need to send our troops into harm's way. and strengthening our own national security at home by mitigating instability around the world. we are creating allies in the process and trading partners for u.s. farmers and other american businesses that make for good jobs here at home.

we're also demonstrating the best of america when it comes to our values. compassion and ingenuity, something president george w. bush understood when he created pepfo when he saved millions of lives around the world from aids. that's why john mccain understood the incredible and strategic value of helping countries across the globe to become free, democratic and process -- prosperous. why cut such low-cost but impactful programs? i don't understand it. if there were international programs that were ineffective, and ied a might such work can be -- i admit such work can be difficult, but the right place is through regular appropriations process, not wholesale gutting of a complete program like usaid. in a word on equally short-sighted proposed cuts to public broadcasting, while plot claims eliminating -- while

president trump claims this will end npr and pbs' woke agenda, i can't defined that, but that was the reason given, he fails to understand no more than 70% of this funding goes to local public media stations. i think people in central illinois, where my home is, would be hard-pressed to even explain to you what a woke agenda is on national public radio. in rural communities, these publicly funded news stations are often the only place to get good, up-to-the-minute information and to have the kind of warnings necessary when extreme weather is on the way. they provide local news coverage, educational programming and emergency weather alerts. without public broadcasting, how will people in kansas and texas learn of the tornado alerts? how will children who lack access to preschool in idaho or

south dakota be able to receive education before kindergarten? these cuts make no sense, and i call on my republican colleagues in a bipartisan fashion to look at the impact they're going to have objectively across america. mr. president, on a different topic, i want to say a few words about the tragic war in gaza. there has been so much suffering, so much death, so much destruction. the hamas attacks on israel of october 7, 2023, and the taking of hostages with some 20 or 30 still left in captivity left a stunned and grieving israel with a difficult decision. from the start, i urged israel to learn from our mistakes in the united states that we made in anger after the terrible attacks of september 11. we shouldn't make these life-and-death decisions, we've learned, in the fury of emotion. i fear that lesson was not followed. the near total destruction of gaza and humanitarian suffering

will be seen as a terrible mistake. mistakes that cause generations of pain and hurt israel's ultimate relationship with its allies and its future. late last year, after more than a year of horror in this small strip of land, i thought we were finally seeing progress towards release of the remaining hostages, a long-term ceasefire and easing of the humanitarian crisis. there's been a growing public demonstration from gazans bravely protesting an end to the rule of hamas. that's good news. these protestors face serious threats and risk of arrest by hamas, but they still do it, knowing hamas has to go and does not have the people's interest at heart. instead of building on these, israeli prime minister netanyahu continues to put his own political survival ahead of ever everything. instead of a more surgical response to hamas or offering a long-term vision for gaza under reformed palestinian leadership,

netanyahu offers nothing. he blocked all aid to gaza for three months, with experts warning of mass starvation, and he restarted the fighting with no short or long-term strategy. the only strategy is to keep his coalition in israel intact. netanyahu knows his coalition won't stand for any kind of two-state solution, so he avoids this viable path, instead threatening untold innocent lives by blocking and undermining aid delivery and restarting a dubious military offensive. key allies in the new -- and the new pope, leo, make appeals to allow aid to flow into gaza before the famine and starvation take hold completely. a former israel prime minister, ehud olmert said, quote, the government of israel is waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and no chance of success. those are the words of former

israeli prime minister olmert. i implore allies to renew the ceasefire for release of hostages, allow sufficient aid to flow and advance serious postwar vision for two states. mr. president, i yield the

25 million. >> i'm not aware of what you're talking about. talking about the things needed that we have been working through. >> i have trouble testifying in federal government spending potentially $40 million when they have been fired because we have to eliminate waste, including veterans in the department of veterans affairs

and testify that kind of expenditure. doing in this country because ukraine. i've heard personal expressions the about what they fear and ability and rapidly trying to

iterate and work with companies pulling their technology ukraine. >> my time is about to expire and i guarantee there way ahead of us and a lot to learn. we are at risk because of this technology and that's the patent

and i would like to ask you. >> i think that is a very important call, closed 15 minutes after. >> i would love a chance to address that topic. >> even in respect not sure i will be able to accept that.

subject matter. >> i think that would good thing to do. probably a good reason. seeing what everybody saw with ukraine, russia, it had like the to be talk more but certainly is something on the radar.

air force they are only clumsy about protecting our assets. and unwillingness to adopt technologies that exist in the private sector. and eating the joint effort. can you talk me through what might be done? noting and renting there is work to go. this is a big concern can you through what leading that effort

means? >> this is a joint problem and we have to understand the only two employee drones but also autonomous. we need to be agile and funding will get locked into a program because these are willing rapidly according ukraine and it will happen depended will have to work locally and i think it's legislature and legislation is about nine or ten years old.

i think we should be really focus on her, how do we do this in a million dollars as of. and we are employing around the world because worked different in different environments and doing the same thing stateside they are testing and every environment. >> and a great impact on what's happening. >> in many ways the autonomous

efforts not only gathering important intelligence and critical resources, there is this scarecrow affect, to. the hotels are sophisticated in the places they want to go so drill down with the time we have and i know it's a longer discussion but as a relates a big focus on the actual grown and what the drone does, but there's a lot of things that happen before a drone were to be intercepted or shot down. there is awareness with sensors. how -- what steps are being taken right now to make us more nimble to acquire these? i do have concern efforts being made without a long way to go so what is happening right now?

>> what we are trying to do is talk pacifically to the company's being used in war right now and what they is ways to get it and we would not been ready for that but we know what they did. >> i appreciate that and one final thing in the air force in particular from a they've asked private companies to come in and do an assessment. >> thank you for your input, that's what we are going to do. >> thank you for my extra 40 seconds. >> responsibility to change that. let me just say this with regard

to drones, because this can be said in open session. our reconciliation bill contains on billing dollars another brilliant for hack drones. some of the members who have not attended to close session. senator duckworth. >> thank you. senator blumenthal's comments about $30 billion on a parade. you're doing it to stroke donald trump's ego. you want to celebrate his birthday spending $30 million, i recommend maybe spend that on

childcare for families, perhaps intuition, there are a lot of ways to celebrate your birthday without blowing it on a parade in the concerns of my colic about misusing and burning the readiness of our national guard troops and other military assets like deportation fights for law enforcement operations. they did not do the job of dhs. i'm concerned by your answer. i think you hopped out of an answer. it ignores your obligation and rights for our world fighters and focus on providing, not what is legal. i she ate much of your confirmation efforts and long advocated for the army's position tonight especially push to modernize and produce and

deliver to war fighters at scale and that's why this is troubling to me. it is central it under your current plan mission would be integrated. this would result in approximately 100 personal. beyond this, details are scarce, do you have an update on these changes including how many will be affected in the timeline? >> i want to echo how important rock island is. they plan for remarkable and helped our country. as a relates to joint munitions

command we are looking at the headquarters together we thought we could have efficiency without impacting output by combining and no change from what you reference. >> what is the timeline and how many will be affected? like i want to reinforce, they are almost co- located there's a lot we can do to combine that so what we still need expertise. the 3d printing capabilities and commercial industry coming in use it so we are looking at how we can have business

capabilities and we are happy to come over and grief you are not in detail. >> we will meet you at rock island. how many will be affected and what is the timeline? >> we are currently working on a plan. i have hypothesized that the combined provide that the moment they are available. >> i think what you're doing is scaling down. i hope the answer is we are going to work toward the minimum workload to maintain capacity. this bill would incentivize to partner and a short predictable workload throughout the year. i hope you will work with us to

get this legislation passed. thank you. without a clear replacement have been told the vehicle was identified let's be honest, the current is not support the needs of the medical population and it could serve in the meantime. this is not a cap we can afford to ignore. what is the plan to bridge this gap? oregon. mr. wyden: i ask that kyrta from our staff be granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: i rise to speak on a

nomination before the senate as republicans push ahead on an agenda that is going to cut americans' health care by more than a trillion dollars and cause 16 million americans to lose their health coverage. the legislation is filled with ideas straight out of the for-profit insurance industry's playbook. republicans are rolling out more red tape at a time when americans are already sick of jumping through hoops so that insurance companies can continue their profits. the legislation in my view, is also a disaster for america's senior citizens. a million low-income seniors are going to see their premiums go up by nearly $200 a month. the legislation is going to make nursing homes less safe for frail, older people. in a word, they are going to start taking the nurses out of

nursing homes. if mehmet oz has his way, nursing homes would replace staff with a.i. that is not going to help for a senior needing help getting to the bathroom in the middle of the night. it is going to hurt seniors and kids with disabilities by reducing services for hose to count on -- for those who count on medicaid to get care at home. americans have heard a lot about medicaid in the bill, but the legislation is such a deficit buster that it is going to trigger $500 million in medicare cuts. this is is going to hit rural hospitals like a wrecking ball. this comes on top of the trump administration stepping back from tough negotiations with the big pharmaceutical companies that would lower the cost of medicine. so here's the truth -- trump and the republicans are going to kick millions of folks

off their health insurance and hurt older americans so there'll be more tax breaks for corporations and the ultra wealthy. now, i asked mr. o'neil in the finance committee to basically give us a straight up-or-down on whether he's going to oppose cutting medicaid, and i did that as part of the confirmation process. all he would do is repeat the same tired talking points about how only certain groups of people deserve health care. the trump administration and republicans in congress are simply unwilling to defend the bill. they know it's morally bankrupt. they basically won't even talk about it in public. i guess that's why we're not having an open-to-all-finance-committee discussion, markup of the bill because the republicans would rather just depend to make up what the bill actually is all about.

mr. o'neill has went out of his way to defend robert kennedy's defense of no vaccine for measles. deputy secretary of human services, mr. o'neil would be robert kennedy's right-hand man. that person need to be willing to challenge the secretary's worst impulses which the american people have seen on full displacement i have seen no evidence that he is that person. each day americans turn on the tv, pick up a newspaper or turn on radio stations and podcasts, only to hear that donald trump and his allies are ripping away basic health care from millions of americans who are just trying to get pavement these families are worried sick about what will be next on the chopping block. i want to make it clear -- i don't think it makes sense to support a nominee who will do

whatever robert he kennedy says, including destroying medicaid and the rest of the american health care system. i urge my completion to vote no -- i urge my colleagues to vote no on the o'neill nomination. i yield back. mr. cotton: mr. president. the presiding officer: i recognize the senator arkansas. mr. cotton: i today i rise to urge my completion to confirm john icerberg ago the next assistant attorney general at department of justice. there is no question that mr. eisenberg has the experience that, the know-how and qualifications needed to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of this important position. and, in addition to his wide ranging, impressive resume, i should note that he also worked at the department of justice when the national security division was he is created in the first place. he was part of the very team that envisioned the division's role in using our law to help

protect our nation against national security threats. so i believe mr. eisenberg will bring an invaluable breadth of experience and depth of knowledge to this role that will advance america's national security. mr. eisenberg is a family man, a patriot, and an exemplary american. i commend president trump for nominating him to the position of assistant attorney general of the national security division. i thank mr. eisenberg for his willingness to answer the call to serve again, and i urge my colleagues to vote in favor of his confirmation. mr. president, i further ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call with respect to the eisenberg nomination. the presiding officer: without objection.

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the presiding officer: under the previous order, the question occurs on the o'neill nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin. mr. banks. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton.

to add a family talk about this all the time. the ability to scale everything we are talking about will require cyber. >> , especially as we have cyber 0.

>> thank you very much being here today. i want to echo what others have pointed out. somewhat awkward to have a budget hearing without an army's budget so when it is released to talk about priorities we can fight for them so thanks to inspirational leadership is a big difference between this year end last year army recruitment. the army has already met recruiting goals. the army is getting best recruitment numbers and over ten years in the army has a retention will for the year. what you think the differences between last year end this year? >> was made steady improvement.

we've been talkinghm about our leaders and given that technology and reducing the amount of forms people are figuring out hope to continue on that. we've had very goodwa from. we hadn't seen the students do 14 so we are very happy with where we are back. >> is there a good balance, studying the trends of these numbers? when did you see the shift? >> i can get you the data back from september, october. a slight rise but we been on a pretty good that he passed.

>> 's november an indicator? a significant increase in army recruitment? seen recruitment numbers come up. >> it seems obvious to me minor in chief military recruitment. i have seen those it would be great to impact them and further in the commander-in-chief inspiring the next generation to run our country. how we keep it going? what we do here these numbers heading in this direction. >> this is pretty consistent for us, are weakening 16 specialties

and making sure and post in their so i will look at our working at something we have to constantly evaluate support on the retention side what we are doing inside make sure we are retaining -- >> is why i retention matters united states army. >> i think you without to everyone in the joint force i enlisted in the army many years

ago invested in and often times will have other opportunities because of the mission. >> it is leading in a different population. and focus can we go backwards i

guess that's why going with me to prioritize and i will happily take my five minutes. thank you for being here all. and the status quo based on the fact that china is others we may

hopefully never have to fight. if they are ahead of us on a bunch of different things that we are not doing our job comparing and protecting the united states of i think we're all on the same page i just want to make sure it's not just about cutting stuff and we understand things like humvees that michigan does we also look at procedures righter now china go from concept to building a new system in one year. i say this with the outcome of their military can go concept to building in three years if we are lucky so to me the future is going to be one by the people most agile and flexible taking a new great idea moving it faster.

i would offer that you want to destroy the industrial base, who want to update it and michigan can be the place to do that to bring in a.i. and 3d printing and all these new tech that will make it faster and throw your coming and will throw ourselves off instead of fighting to hold onto everything we had in the past, we want to be the defense contact for the future and we will make sure you feel the same way because our good at what we do sorry to his work. can you talk about why only advanced manufacturing, can you elaborate on what the army is going to do to speed up that

concept? >> about the cut, but we rolled out the initiative, the first budget was to cut 48 billion in savings and empowered us to spend it to make the army stronger and we are optimistic initiative will be a renaissance for small and medium businesses and a poor customer. we do not allow small and medium businesses and show them how to improve and there is this peasant needed and need to take

years, but we are actively working. >> i would just say about stimulation, michigan will be the hub to test something out build and scale a model, let them put on the vr classes didn't test thing out before we build it, we will be the hub of that and we are eager to show that off, but one of my many criticisms of this administration as they are really happy to have the press conference about cutting this many people or this many programs but as someone who worked in the federal government, it's often the procedures within the department and agencies that take forever about their summary steps and things to do. i would welcome the pentagon to say we not just going to do the press conference on how many will people we got rid of them will programs without rid of and i would end with some of those things but it is actually

cleaning up our internal processes and i've never once democrat or republican, the trump administration first time in a proposal, please take off these regulations, these will move these things. they may be well intended but it's too much so please don't do that shiny object with political intention, please actually dig in and do the work so if you want transformation, you get it. >> on the recruiting side, there were over 600 forms i could be filled out. you have to repeat your name several times on each. he said you're not allowed to have more than ten. make it work and i think they are currently at 89 delighted to get that.

>> can i add one thing? >> we have asked for funding in the past. we have to buy ability portfolios for crohn's encounter groans. we will be submitting a as part of our budget. >> i would happily give flexible funding and would like your funding, i think we can all acknowledge but also more traditional things we've given you authority over the years. there is a cultural problem in the pentagon and not just more authority so i am open to it one 100% but do the internal work, to. >> you. >> thank you. can walk in the door ahead of you seems to be punished for

that. >> it worked out well because of what asked. >> so your willing? >> i am not thank you, mr. chairman it was perfect talking about advanced manufacturing because i have a similar and related question on the army transformation so first of all, secretary driscoll, general george, they promote good to see you both again thank you for your continued service. in reference to the army transformation initiative, is it correct, it is consistent with the secretary of defense is directeday on army transformati? >> in that directive state that we must everybody's among other

things, am i correct. >> i am of lessons learned in the conflict in ukraine underscores the requirement for sheesh how important our warfare buddies are. we've seen it on the battlefield, so it seems to me army would want to bolster evaluation buddies one aspect of catcher advanced innovative combat power to be able to test and evaluate it you don't know what you would get so we want to ensure deliver most advanced war fighting capabilities in any conflict. would you agree?

>> yes. >> so concerning to me that the u.s. army test as a reduction in force should disproportionately impact armies primary electronic warfare --

so i am happy again. we have so much in common. our history, will never forget. this is a very good basis so

again, thank you for hospitality and i really enjoyed it. thank you very much for saying that. >> why now and why not include? >> they are a country with you look closely, and things under control. the not stopping until we get them.

and it shouldn't have happened. >> you put out to social regarding your conversation with xi jinping, can you talk about whether or not craig tops and relations. >> it is pretty complex.

>> that is two great leaders of the world in a short period of time. we had a very good talk and straighten up. the agreement was howard and jamison but we are in good shape, having to do with rare earth and some other things do not i would say have a deal,

just make sure everybody understands the deal should. >> about accepted so i'll be going back and coming here the first lady of china you talk about the chinese -- >> they are coming, no problem. >> we want have for you and others this, there is no problem with that. where did they come from? we are honored by it.

>> are you willing to put more pressure on russia? >> on nord stream two. i ended nord stream two and nobody else did. that is the largest pipeline we have so much oil and gas and not be able to buy at all. we have so much and make up part of trade. we have probably double work, i'm sure that something we will discuss today.

>> what you expect from germany? >> i've been doing chancellor. he is quote, you would want me to say you are easy, right? will not a good relationship and the rest we just follow. a good great deal. i guess that would you are a very big part of that. do think. i'm okay with the tariffs or make a deal, the trade and i guess that's all we are discussing here.

>> i haven't discussed it very much and quite a bit more money. and i always think about that spending more money on defense. and we will be watching.

over the last many years and who's using it. and they are important. for life, or more and the person deserves a real signature. i think it is very disrespectful

to people. although penn are used for when thousands common all around the world. a little signature at the bottom when you have thousands of them. thousands of letters a week it's not possible. to me, that is where auto and starts and stops. i'm sure he didn't know. he was never for workers, never for transient is never for men and women's. all of these things that changed erratically, i think he had any idea -- frankly, i said it during the debate and i say it now, he didn't have much of an idea what was going on it. however used the auto penn was

the president and that is wrong and so that and disrespectful to our country. [inaudible] >> a lot of troops and that is good economic development and they spend a lot of money germany but the relationship is. [inaudible]

english x isn't as good as your german? [laughter] >> try to understand almost everything is good as i can. >> very good. >> your big beautiful bill, what is your reaction? have always liked elon said anything about me that. the bill is incredible, the biggest cut in the history of our risk 1.6 trillion and the biggest tax cut the people taxes

will go way down. we are doing things that are unbelievable if you look at small businesses or middle all of the things we are doing nobody's ever seen in my can elon is upset because the mandate for electric vehicles and they are having a hard time and they want us to pay subsidy. ...

>> he happen to be a democrat come like total democrat and i say look, we won. we've got certain privileges. one of the privileges we don't have to appoint a democrat. nasa's are important. with great people. picking somebody who will be checking him out scene but he wanted that person a certain person we said no. i can understand why he's upset. remember he was here for a long time. you saw a man he was very happy when he stood behind the oval desk, and even with the black eye. i said you wanted to make up? but he said no, i don't think so, which was interesting. and very nice. he wants to be who he is so you can make that statement, too, i guess.

look, elon and i had a great relationship. out of no anymore. i was surprised because you were here comes everybody in this room practically was here as we had an wonderful sendup turkeys and wonderful things about me. he couldn't have nicer, he's worn that hat trump was right about everything. other m write about the great big, beautiful bill. we call a great big, beautiful bill because that's what it is. and again biggest tax cut in history, biggest economic development, most anywhere we anything like it. business has spurred at him if you seen the numbers but the numbers came out even cbo which is run by democrats said that we are going to be doing, i would like to discuss it, the 2.8 billion, trillion that cbo. this is some, group of people that are democrats, they are very hostile to us. they just came out with phenomenal numbers what it does. you want to mention that?

>> yes, sir. what we've seen is we keep hearing from the cbo that there's going to be a deficit from the bill which we disagree with but using the cbo scoring, they came out and scored the tariff revenue we think it will be the minimum of 2.8 trillion over the ten year window which actually puts the bill in surplus if you include the tariff revenue which they won't do. >> to give you a tremendous surplus but were not allowed to use that for some reason they say scoring. no be knows what scoring means. maybe a couple of people but nobody. somebody sits in the brac-1 as a we will not allow that. they are not allowing other things that we have that are tremendously profitable for our country. but if you saw the other day cnbc they came out with numbers and the people and show very good people of watch them for a long time, they couldn't believe the numbers how good they are. the numbers were incredible. personal income and also very low inflation. we have very low inflation. we are down to 2% now.

maybe, maybe even lower than that. when a to get over it was a spirit remember we had the worst inflation probably in history of our country. they say 48 years eight years but let's say that's i think it's worse than that. so wean had the worst inflationn history of our country under the biden administration. now we are down to a beautiful number, 2%. you would act like to keep it there. better then there is 2%. 1% it's like perfect. that's perfectly you don't you don't want to have zero for certain reasons that nobody is are interested to listen to but we have almost perfect inflation. grocery prices are down. everything to remember eggs. eggs, we were going to buy another egg for the next 20 years there are so expensive, right remember? you guys all hit me about eggs. eggs have come down 400%. anybody has eggs now. they're having eggs for breakfast again. but if you look at gasoline very important i think always will

support because energy is a big, the biggest factor. that's what happened he screwed up our energy policy. and everything went up because energy went up. but not energy is way down and they have states, $1.98 a gallon for gasoline. so the costs have come way down and wonder the things i ran on was that there i ran on the board, the best border history of our country, 99.99%. it was last week three people came in two for medical reasons. will not than that because one of them had a heart attack. think i was was a nice thing to do and someone had something else. we never had i had very good numbers for four years but we we really topic i want to think christie and tom homan they've done a fantastic job. but nobody mentioned that anymore. remember a few months ago the board it was a total disaster people are coming in by the hundreds of thousands of people

a day, a week, a monster i mean we had a month come to me people came in and one month. the border was being overrun and a lot of bad people, criminals murderers drug dealers. we had some of the worst people in the world coming in from all over the world. it's totally closed. and you know what? people are coming into her country but they're coming in legally. so we've done a great job. elon knew that. elon endorser. me very strongly. he actually went up and campaign for me. i think i would've won. siouxsie would've said i would have won penciling easily anyway even if the governor ran through governor, not the governor from minnesota i mean he's a sick puppy that guy, that poor guy i feel sorry for. but they met a bad choice with him. but if you pick ship your or anybody else i spoke to them recently about his you know his house

the presiding officer: the yeas are 52, the nays are 43, and the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately be notified of the senate's action. 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 john andrew eisenberg of virginia to be assistant attorney general national security division signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the mandatory quorum call under rule 22 has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of john andrew eisenberg of virginia to be an assistant attorney general shall be braupt to a close. -- brought to a close. the yea mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin.

mr. banks. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. i've help elon a lot. i want to clarify did he raise any these any of these concerns privately before you raise them publicly? you put him in charge in cut is spinning. the people not taking us seriously. >> with you work hard and he did a great job. and i'll be honest i think in this is the place. i think he got out there and all of a sudden he wasn't in this beautiful oval office and he come set nice offices but there's something about this one. i was telling the chancellor this is where it is. people come in your. even from germany they come in and they walk in the oval office and is a special place. world war i it started and it into gear. world war ii and so many other things. everything big comes right from this beautiful space. it's now much more beautiful than it was six months ago. a lot of good things are happening in this room. i will tell you it's not he's

not the first. people leave my administration and they love us. and then at some point they miss it so badly and some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile. i don't know what it is. sort of trump derangement syndrome i guess they call it but we have it with others, too. they leave, wake up in the morning and the drama is gone. the whole world is different and they become hostile. i don't know what it is. someday you'll write a book about angel let us know. >> speaking of ending wars in this room, you are very critical vladimir putin a couple of days ago. what kind of play is he playing? >> look, he got hit. he's been doing hitting so i understand it. he got hit hard. i don't think he's playing games. i think i always said he wanted the whole thing. i i thought he wanted the entire

everything having to do with ukraine. that something that would've never happened if i were president. the election was rigged. i didn't get to be president but i got to be president now. i think it's a much more important presidency other than a a couple of things like that, the war would have never would've never happened. the war with ukraine with putin would've never happened ever come that even a chance. and and it didn't happen for four years. i used to talk to them about ukraine a lot of it was the apple of his eye but he would've never done what he did. and i think mistakes were made by him but if the mistakes were made by other people. the the president should nevew that war. biden should never allow to that war to happen. if you had the right cut in your that were would've never happened. israel would've never happened with hamas. that would've never happened. the attack unusual would've never happened because iran was broke. they have no money, no money to give to hamas or hezbollah or

anybody else. and all of that would've never happened. inflation would not happen. it was mostly by energy. divide administration messed up my great energy policy that we were down into the 190 a gallon. would've never happened. it was caused by energy and if it's been a on a green new scam another things they spent on. but all those things would've never happened. but maybe most important the war, chancellor, with russia would never have happened with ukraine. it was something that would you know i dealt with putin a lot. there was no chance, zero. you know a lot of people say how do you know? or for use didn't happen. those never a chance of it happening. he understood the consequences. now, when you see all of those people come think you met with report today that millions of people, millions of peopleey hae

had much more than people thought. i been saying that for a long time. the amount of death in that war is far greater than the news has been reporting. or frankly that i the site has been reporting. i very sad thing. and i can tell you speaking for all of the chancel because you speak about it, he feels the same way. he wants to see the editor would you like to say something? >> absolute. i'm here, mr. president to talk to you later on on how we could contribute to that goal. we all are looking for measures and for instruments to bring this terrible war to an end. and may i remind you that we're having june 6 tomorrow, this is d-day when the americans ended the war in europe. and i think this is in your hands in specific and hours spent that was not a pleasant avery. >> was no. not a pleasant speed is not a great?

>> mr. president this was the liberation of my country from nazi dictatorship. >> it's true. >> we know what we argue that this is the reason why i'm saying that american is again in a very strong. position to do something on this warso and endg this war. so let's talk about what we can do jointly and we are ready to do what you can pick you know we give support to ukraine and that we are looking for more pressure on russia, the european union did and we should talk about that. >> we will talk about it. it's good timing. the numbers for our country through the roof, economic numbers because of the election and because of terrorists and other things come a lot of things. but we've had some of the best numbers we've ever had -- terrorist. have reported yesterday the day before and even today. countries doing really well. i think that one of the things you would be most interested in is that six months ago we're having a hard time getting anybody to join our military. i mean they just couldn't do it.

the numbers were record low. we couldn't get people to join the military. was it be giggles before he got there. the past of menstruation. six months a year ago the numbers were record or you can get them to join. that included the police. and couldn't get him to join. now we just hit the highest number in the history of our country we think but very close but the highest in history of our country recruitment joining the army, navy, air force, marines coast guard, police force all over -- >> what was speeded respect. spirit. you will going to the same thing. with great spirit is back in our country. it's very, you know it was only siouxsie six months ago right that you got reports come you're the one to release them that you can get anybody to join the military and now we are stocker every service now is packed and

we have waiting lists of people trying to get it. as goodrv as we've ever had in history of our country. that's an audit. that's a great honor. >> you asked, you've had enough. >> mr. president, what would you consider to put more sanctions on russia? this a big log on for weeks and months and you twittered about it once but nothing happened. >> when i see when you see the moment we will not make it home when the same will not stop. at that moment, yeah, it's in my brain, the deadline. when i see the moment where it's that good stuff out of sherry going to do the same thing, we will be very, very, very tough to get it could be on both countries to be honest. it takes two to tango. but we're going to be very tough, whether it's russia anybody else we are very, very tough. that's a bloodbath that's going on over there. and when they see the moment where i say well, they're just to keep fighting, uteri gave the

analogy yesterday when i spoke to president putin, i had a two hour and 15 minute call with him, sometimes, and this is me speaking may be in a negative sense but sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy, crazy, they hate each other and their fighting in a park. i do try and pull them apart. they don't want to be pulled. sometimes your better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart. and they give that analogy to putin yesterday. i said president, maybe you're going to have to keep fighting and suffering a lot because both sides are suffering before you pull them apart before they're able to be pulled apart. but it's a pretty known analogy, two kids fight, fight, fight it sometimes you let them fight for a little while. you see the hockey come you see it in sports, the referees let them go for a couple of seconds can let them go for a little while before you pull them apart. and maybe, maybe and i said it,

maybe that's a a negative bece we are saying go. but a lot of bad blood, there's some bad blood between the two. i have to deal with it at the chancellor has to do with it. it's incredible the level of its great hatred between those two, between those two men. but between the warring parties. great hatred. >> there is no immediate peace? >> i would love to have immediate if i could. if i could but we don't we don't have immediate pickets like i would love to have that. i'd like you to start. right that we would leave the room if we knew the work could end we would say forget about you guys, forget about trade, right? we would say let's go settle in. there are some additional fighting that's going to go on, you know? he was come he attacked and they attacked pretty harshly. they went deep into russia, and

he actually told me. i mean i made it very clear he said we have no choice but to attack based on that. it's probably not going to be pretty. i don't like it. i said don't do it. he shouldn't do it, you should stop it. but again there's a lot of hatred. i very proud of the fact that with india and pakistan i was able to stop that. those are nuclear powers. that would've really that was getting close to be out of hand, i do spoke to some very talented people on both sides come very good people on both sides. and i said we are dealing with fewer trade. pakistan-india right now. i said we're not going to do with you in trade is going to shooting each other and with the got nuclear weapons and maybe even affect us. because you that nuclear dust blows across oceans are quickly. it affects us to gusset if you're going to that we will not do any trade deals. i got that were stopped.

i hope we do go back when we find out they started but i don't think they will. there were both good. they were well represented. i want to congratulate both countries because as you know the leader of india who is a great guy, who was here a few weeks ago, had some great talk, doing a trade deal and pakistan likewise, they have very a very strong leadership. some people won't like what i said but you know it is what it is. and they stopped that war. now am i going to get credit? i'm not going to get credit for anything. they don't give me credit for anything but nobody else could have done it. i stop it. i was very proud of that. i i wish we could do the same thing with ukraine and russia. at some point it will happen i believe that. and if it doesn't happen or if i see somebody is out of line if russians out of line, we will be you will be amazed how tough.

remember this, they like to say that i'm friends with, , i'm not friends with anybody. i am friends with you. i'm not friends with any, i want the right thing to happen for our country come for everybody, for humanity. but i'm the one that stopped the pie plate. it's called nord stream ii. ellie came along the would he ever heard not one person should ever heard of nord stream ii. you probably did because it with -- he's the only one. but i stopped it. i stopped it. you have said that openly. it was a mistake because and i used to go with angela come with a medicament we are spending all this money to defend you against russia, and then you are giving russia billions of dollars a month per what kind of deal is that? it was was but you said about anybody else. i appreciate it. but i'm the one that stopped it. that was the biggest economic develop a job if you want call it that in the history, figured come in history of russia. i was a massive the biggest pipeline in a world. going to go all over europe not

only to germany. germany but branching off all over europe. nobody ever heard of not one person of you heard of it. and and i stopped, it was dea. then they say i'm friends with putin. i get along with him. he respect to become a respected in. would it never happened but i stop nord stream ii be when biden came in, almost the first week he approved of. he let it be built. and then they say i wasn't tough on russia. putin said to me you know you're not tough on russia produce top the biggest most important job we've ever done, you stop to. and biden came in and to let it be built. i'll tell you what, i'll never forget the day, i told to stop the what the link they gave up on it. they were not able to get and biden came in and you let them build i couldn't believe it. okay one or two questions more, please. any questions for the chancellor? go ahead for the chancellor. i like his answers much better.

[inaudible question] will you continue to support ukraine? >> i'm with ukraine. we decided big deal on rare earth with ukraine. we want, i want come you know what? i'm for stopping killing, really. that's what i'm for. again and what the would've never started, should've never started i want to to see the killing stuff. we spent $350 $350 billione than europe and europe spent a lot also and distantly over 100 billion budget i got close to $500 billion went into that whole thing. at us that even the money. i know with you, a lot of money but it's the death that is because. we went to the middle east. i went last week to the middle east. we took in $5.1 trillion, that's many, many times, that's 30, 40 times, 50 times more than what we're talking about. it's come think of that, i $.1 trillion of investment with one trip that lasted four days.

it's not the money. it's a little bit money but not the money, the big thing, the big thing is the death. the death of anybody the destination. you lost a whole culture. you know you know ukraine as most beautiful towers, the most beautiful in the world. they're all now now laying on their side blown to smithereens. he will never happen again. they've taken away the culture of of a country. they take away the heritage of the country. it's a terrible thing. but most important again is the death. 5000 plus people a week come soldiers are being killed. he doesn't want that and i don't want that. one more. >> do you support the granville and putting high tariffs on chester? they will be guided by me. i? i have looked at. it's a bill on sanctions, et

cetera. when they come on the very quick study at the right time i'll do what you want to do but it could very well be okay. have to see but there waiting for me to decide on what to do. i'll know may be very soon. it's a harsh bill, yeah, very harsh. >> one more? [inaudible] >> do you agree with the analogy the president made on the war between russia and ukraine as a fight between two kids? is at howmr you view it as well? what did you actually want? >> well, i think we both agree on this war and a terrible this war is going on. and we are both looking for ways to stop it very soon. and i told the president before we came in that he is the key person in the world, can really

do that. now by putting pressure on russia and we will have this debate later on again or we can proceed jointly between the europeans and americans. and i think we're all come we're having the duty to do something on that now come to stop it after three and half years which is really terrible. the kits, the kids who were kidnapped from ukraine to russia. this is all terrible appropriate type of instrument measured what we can do them a personal view clear on that. we are on the side of ukraine and we're trying to get them stronger and stronger just to make putin stop this war. >> we get satellite pictures of the warfield, and you don't even like to look at them, right? >> is terrible. >> toddies, arms, hands, legs all over the place -- bodies --

you'd never seen anything like this, so ridiculous. >> only by russian weapons against ukraine. this has never happened with ukraine weapons against russia,, never. ukraine is only targeting military targets, not civilians, not private, not energy infrastructure. so this is the difference and that's the reason we're trying to put more on russia to stop this war. >> in this case on talk about the battlefield, the soldiers on soldier but you could also say that with the cities. so it's a terrible, terrible -- one to somebody said that i think at the biggest scandal may be in the last 100 years in this country somewhere here in that what i hear that word i think has be discussed because fake news will try and hide and we can do that. but go ahead. >> have uncovered any evidence that it was signed without present bites dog or by other

people in the administration acting illegal? >> while i do think i'd would know whether or not he signed it. [inaudible question] >> know but i uncovered the ninth i was in a debate with the human mind, edited think you know what the hell he was doing. so that's one of those things, one of those problems. we can't we can never allow that to happen to our country. the danger our country was in at a know some of the people that worked with him most radical left horrible people. and i could give name of some of the people that use out of them because i'm here and i ask questions about people that we are also. a lot of people that were here when that happened and they are here right now. they will answer your question very accurately. but i know some the people that use the auto pen and those are not the people that have the same ideology as joe biden. these were radical left lunatics that use that. they didn't get elected come he didn't get elected either actually. thank you very much everybody.

[inaudible conversations] the clerk: mr. lee, aye. the clerk: ms. lummis, aye.

>> i suspect you have been well. i understand it's come up from some my colleagues and that's good. this is a question for you, mr. secretary. this is a quote from the president, not so long ago. there is no real, there is a

reason for u.s. to be building brand-new nuclear weapons. we are all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually hopefully much more productive. do you agree or disagree with the president? >> well, , what i would say is that at nuclear deterrence was worth one highs priorities that nuclear enterprise national security is a highs priority and signaled for those programs, continue to obvious support the program and would do everything we can to get back on track. i think the concern has been an disability assistance delivery system for nuclear weapons that nuclear weapons until. >> we don't build those. this was delivery systems and just the fact when you do modernize given the age of critical. as well some additional capability we need to operate in the future environment that we

can talk but in more detail in a separate environment. so were spending a lot of time making sure we're doing this program right. it went through mccurdy so we have to make sure we execute, execute execute so we are efficient in line with the presence directed to support the home and and deter china? >> if i were to look at the testimony that will soon be available, as in others it would seem so you disagree with the president because it is a new nuclear delivery system. >> so i would have to go back and look at specifics that the quote you pulled. i have never entered a plea i disagreed with the president anything. i think we're supporting his priorities which is support the homeland of this on the programs that we were used to support the homeland along with a number of the other programs that the department provides to the nation. >> $200 billion new weapon

system. the rocket itself and others and for certain it is over 150 billion now. there is a new nuclear bomb new command-and-control systems and other bits and pieces along the way that a push this to 200 billion. quoting the president were spending a lot of money that we could be spending another things are actually hopefully much more productive. direct quote from the president. and i'll get that delivered to you. bottom line of this is that we have a third leg of the triad, the minuteman iii. which under the current plan for the sentinel would require that the minuteman iii continue to the operative for at least another decade, at which time the first sentinel would be available to begin replacement

process. we don't have to stop the sentinel program but we can sort of delay and then spend that money on things that have discussed by my colleagues here which were much more relevant to today's fighting. there is a very word that is used in support of the sentinel and the minuteman iii and that is it is the most responsive leg. leg. and i would opine that the reason it's the most responsive is that it is they use it or lose it leg, and which the rockets would have to be deployed or be taken out by an incoming nuclear attack. however, there are other very responsive ones. the bd21 for example, had something less than $1 billion a copy. let's assume it is 150 billion. how many be 21s many bd21 could

you have? that are clearly responsive? >> i'm not go to countries the math my head. i would say speaking so what about one of 50. >> the sender program is designed to be very survival system. >> the time of the gentleman has expired. churn of recognizing the judgment from texts. thank you to the witnesses. i want to talk about recruiting. we had posture on the army and literally when the secretary of the army mentioned that it hit of their goals, i cheered and of the midst of the committee did because we were in a crisis mode. year-over-year it's one thing to measure recruiting goals in a given go but if you're doing for five in a row and crisis. talk to us about where we are with recruiting and air force, why you think it turned around. i'd encourage you is let's find out the reason is because their

suppositions and maybe expectations as well but i'd like to figure out why people are now joining so we can replicate it. >> i'm going to be very brief because i could go on for an hour with you. maybe i will come and see afterwards. first of all i that we characterize a crisis versus a challenge. air force only had one year we did make it. we found one you we didn't need a recruiting goals. since then we have. we think it's a combination of several things but the covid hagel he couldn't get our folks into the schools of us are getting the americas et cetera veteran united states air force. we had certain updated policies we also had the sort of mixed in of the new medical system by which you evaluated people's ability to join and sat as consul bottlenecks in the time between when you got the contact or contact a contract. that marked up that for a little while. all those things together but fundamentally several things. it's also unifying focus on the

search, focusing on the warrior ethos. all of these things come together. as we do that we want come to your point, to your point we want to ensure the things we're doing different we want to track in a longitudinal study format to see year-over-year of those recruits are staying, the one performing? we're doing that, we're confident with good shoe leather, good i.t. support for a recruiting tool continue to more contacts out there. >> what's the number when you talk era, guard, reserve an active on a year over year basis? >> on the active side we look for about 31,000 was the goal and on the card site it's closer to one of which i got a ride, on the card site i think it's 6000 and reserve is 4000. >> thank you. are we making, real quick, for those that qualify every of the

record but if maybe some yet get physically fit not up to mark are we having come to anything special for them? >> we're still holding to the same standard. >> but if in this i think one of the other branches is putting them through another month of prep. >> we haven't had to do that. >> thank you. as far as, general, with cyber, tomorrow would be more important than it is today and for the more. how are we attracting folks to serve in cyber because it is with specificity? maybe not with just military maybe on the civilian side and how are we training them and how are we retaining them? and then what do we do in congress to give you the tools to get a very critical people in the future today and in the future? >> we've had a lot of luck with recruiting. there's a lot of interest come

in learning cyber techniques and tippy toes and were taking finch of that certainly. we rely on the air force training pipeline to train our enlisted country with regards to cyber. we're almost uniquely wholly committed to cyber mission defense, meaning were not protecting our unclassified networks. were folks in just the weapon system and those mission networks with a smaller cyber force dedicated to just that mission network protection. but the point you raise about can we keep them in and keep the retained we're doing everything we can to make sure they stay on the leading edge of cyber defense technology, worked with industry, deploying some of her guardian cyber people into energy to learn techniques and come back and deliver to us. what kind do as much as we can to keep education at a high level. >> if we have to provide any monies for specific scholarships, just let us know what we can do in that regard.

it is so critical moving forward. with my last 20 seconds i want to say mr. secretary, welcome. you are the right man in the right time in the right place at the right topic great to have you here. >> thank you. >> you have 11 more seconds. >> thank you very much. i yield back. >> the chair now recognizes the german from massachusetts. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank our witnesses. i want to deal first with the provo research and development readiness issues and then noticed, coordination with the air force and the commercial side of things. one of the areas that would be advantageous is to have more of a collaboration with universities, colleges and other schools. i know the air force does that with howard but in my district i'm looking at collaboration sometimes with m.i.t., lincoln laboratories but they also look

at a program we have we deal with the navy at the university of massachusetts and my distrit where they have a program for marine marine undersea technology research and they develop their own curriculum in conjunction with the navy. and they are working on the research are successfully but also those people are pipelined to more recruitment and more service personnel. elsewhere in my district is cuter to college working on avionics, the cape cod community college has a program on avionics training. they have avionics maintenance technician licenses they come out of it, avionics electronic technology, , technicians licene is on it. there's a waiting list to participate in this. could you tell me what avenues you have, either with grants or other outreach to the universities in the schools that

are there? bridgwater state university in my district has a pilot training program. is there ways we can link, because i see benefit all the way around to really expanding interest in these kind of relationships. i guess, mr. secretary, general allvin would probably be better. >> so i agree getting access, we develop the most complex systems in innovating faster than adversaries is critical for us to maintain on the faculty edge. access to the technical skills within the u.s. not just this industry but at universities is important. one of the things come just yesterday i had a conversation about how we might make it easier to get access to that, some of those skills but sometimes it takes a while to set up agreements with

universities. these are way we can standardize -- >> the grant. >> maybe we can make it easier for us to get access and more flexible for us to get access to that talent. it's important and that something i will continue. >> it's not just research with the pipelined recruitment. >> sure. once you get access, trained for credit. they are. >> one of the best ways to maintain and get people to stay in the service is keep them interested. one of the ways to get them in the service is to get them interested through university programs. >> thank you. i have a little a minute left and i just want to touch on one issue. we've done a lot of discussions but morale from the bottom up. i have concerns from morale from the top down on our branches. how important is it to have that strong morale at the top of the chain of command?

>> i think is criticale. across the board to ensure, and, of course, by the time you hang around as long as we have, you've got that commitment and you know what the purpose is. it's very important to keep the morale. >> i'm worried because and understand there's discretion and they can, but in the short time of this administration, 40 generals summer along the line, 4-star ranking and above them have been removed, and that's the of the administration bought i'm worried. we when i look at someone thati said great admiration for my being on this committee, general hawk, i mean few people in our military have the expertise that he had. i mean he's got the cyber expertise unmatched i think among many at the tactical intel that goes with it.

he's an extraordinary source and he was removed with a cause even though he served four president. he was removed without cause and rumors were on the reports were only reason was a conspiracy theorist for 9/11 9/11 lau. i am worried if this continues for morale from the top down and i yield back. >> chair now recognizes the german from georgia, mr. scott. >> thank you, mr. chairman. secretary meink, robins air force base, , robins air logists complex is critical logistics depp oh, maintenance part of the united states air force. i do love for you to come down and visit robins and i can be you there as well as moody rivers look for to accepting the f-35. can you confirm use air force is still committed to three depp oh strategy? >> yes, congressman deutch i can confirm that. looking forward to come for visit and robins is critical.

>> yes, sir. >> is air force, other branches continue to divest old, old equipment, non-survival equipment, i want to speak specific to i us are. were of a lot of theater born airborne isr. how are you going to handle the demand for isr services that the combatant commanders need? how are you going to task that with the drawdowns? >> that's always you ask in the combatant commander. those looking for more eyesore. when you think about it intelligence is an outcome. surveillance and reconnaissance is a mission. there would want that situational awareness to help the make decisions that's what it is. historically it is come to platforms so this will visit i need a theater isr. they need some of the decision support mechanisms. as we move from some of that has

been manned, it's so with that of the unmanned, some airborne, some now will go to space. some has been involved with open source intelligence fusion so we need to be creative about understand what is the capability rather than the platform you need? as did you design a platforms unit one doing or another dental have to manage the scarce resources as we evolve to those things that we've used them as because we had more permissive environments to the sink so will be survival in the most contested environment. >> i agree. i would also tell you we have the western hemisphere. we have large areas of africa that we do have systems that are capable of her abrading in those areas overdrawn down the systems. in the police with other systems. i i just i do worry we draw down faster than we put up. when it comes to carrying out the mission come we're collecting a tremendous amount

of data in these platforms. that has to be processed and turned into information to carry out the mission on the ground. so there are a lot of steps and we have to get one of them right because any missing link cause a problem for the troops that are carrying out the mission on the ground. one last question, the training ranges. visit brought up during the confirmation hearing of general cane. he highlighted how the training ranges are inadequate to prepare both air and space forces for our modern adversaries. how do you to better incorporate low-cost electronic warfare targets and decoys to better replicate near. adversaries? >> on the other side obviously the nevada testing range and up

in alaska and pacific our primary ones want to ensure we are facing the high-end threat. you made the right point which these threat emitters are the ones that can replicate better than a have been able to do in the past to get better training on those ranges. those low and mid cost are the key. as we do that we also need to look into the procurement of those emitters just like everything else. think about open systems, modular architecture that allows us to take new technologies as the new characterization of the threat changes that we need to be able to adapt so the emitters we have are not obsolete tomorrow. those of the answers. you had the antic and getting more of those emitters putting the one arranges and exercise of them will be the key going forward and that's our path. >> general saltzman briefly. >> i would just add to that come we're investing heavily in digital ranges to make sure the

operators have threat replication. we also look at life tests as well as trying to make sure we get live data to better build the model models to go inl ranges. >> thank you. >> the chair now recognizes the children from california mr. carbajal. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you to all the witnesses for being here today and your service. general saltzman, as you know the increase launch in my district has caused noise disturbance and the cadence of launches its is increased. the number of constituent complaints have grown. space is critical to our national security and i'm one of the biggest supporters in congress. but we need to get buy-in from the surrounding basis. the leadership has been extremely helpful i i must san working with me and my team to

find solutions like changing lawns, windows and trajectories when possible to minimize sonic boom impact area residents. so i wanted to thank you for that. general saltzman, do you think additional studies on sonic booms from launch would help us better understand how to minimize their impact on nearby communities? >> well, thank you for your support it's good to see you. absolutely having the data e can assess based on new environment conditions with the launch tempo, the fog alone changes the acoustics as you know. collecting the data which were actually doing and then building modeling and see motion software to ingest that data and help us determine exactly how it might be able best to mitigate the circumstance is what we are pursuing. were doing that hand in glove with community outreach because want to make sure we understand precisely what the issues are and where those issues are being

seen as part of the data collection and be as transparent as we can with a local committee is that there are so important to a. >> i appreciate you putting sound monitors throughout the central coast to make sure that we get it as best and outright as possible in mitigating the noise, so thank you again. so far only spacex is certified to launch out of both eastern and western ranges. ual has had to give up to back of his previously one launches out of vandenberg because it lacks certification on the west coast. bluees origin can't even compete for launches from vandenberg because they don't yet have a west nomination. the clerk: department of justice, john andrew eisenberg, of virginia, to be an assistant

the benefit of it is we only pay for what we need when we need it and we allow the commercial industry to innovate as grave as possible. i need the money to bolster the marketplace so there's a continued demand signal for the commercial imagery. >> thank you. my last question may not get to an answer but general saltzman can you speak to the space force commitment to the tac rs initiative? particularly how we plan to continue support responsive

space maneuvering for our warfare and space surveillance? >> yes, sir .co is a key element of overtime our countre committed to get it better and more robust as we go forward. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> the chair now recognizes the gentleman from indiana. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you witnesses for being here today. general saltzman during an interview earlier this you just did the golden dome need a layered approach fix space for playing a central this new initiative. how significant is the contribution of the space force have from a space-based interceptor and space-based radar perspective? >> we are central to that effort because this would be a sensor network that has been space enabled that will have to move the data quickly which will have space component to it as well and then as mentioned in executive order that space-based interceptors is technology that we are pursuing but it will be a system assistance. more than just space forced to try to stitch together.

>> which leads to my next question or have been conversation on have space force will contribute and integrate with other service branches? >> absolutely. it's absolute essential that we do. >> can you also comment on the air force contributions to the golden dome? >> again, as that plays out we do believe there's the air layer. there's a cisco to make a what had to do. we need to understand how they can support it integrate with the sensing and the capabilities coming from space to be able to either work with come through management, integrate that or be able to do the defensive interception of hypersonic and cruise missiles, through the air domain layer. they come through multi-domain, we all look at this multi-domain. my part is to ensure with his kid that was to integrate overall in the golden dome. >> kind of late so summer net question comes general allvin.

during the senate armed services committee hearing a few weeks here you stated antimissile that are senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to introduce a resolution designating the month of june as life month, to honor the dignity of every human life and to thank those who protect the most vulnerable. it is also a time to renew our national commitment to defending the unborn. three years ago, the supreme court made an historic advance in the cause of life. in dobbs v. jackson women's health organization, the court overturned roe v. wade, a flawed decision that, for nearly 50 years, enshrined one of the most disturbing notions in our constitutional history, that the constitution somehow protects

the right to end the life of an unborn child. the fact is roe had nothing to do with the constitution. it was invented whole cloth. it was the product of judicial activism. nine justices legislating from the bench. and that dangerous path took decades to correct. thankfully, in 2022, roe was o overturned. dobbs did not impose any new policies from the bench. instead, the task of protecting life falls where it always should have been, not in the hands of unelected judges, but in the hands of the american pe people. we the people now bear the duty, not just a legal duty but a moral duty, to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. i'm reminded of how important

this fight is every january when thousands gather in washington, d.c. for the march for life. people from across the nation come together and walk miles and miles and meet with endless offices and organizations on capitol hill to march for the unborn and the protection of life. they remind us that this is a movement of conviction, of compassion, and of courage. walk into any pregnancy resource center in the country and you'll see these values in action. volunteers, counseling scared young mothers, shelves stocked with diapers and baby clothes and supplies, medical care offered without a dime of government funding. you'll find pastors and priests comforting families, foster parents opening their homes, and

women who've walked through the pain of abortion using their voices to offer hope and he healing. life is not an accident, and it's not a coincidence. it is a joy and a blessing from god. life is the foundation of every other right we hold dear. without it there could be no liberty, no prosperity, no pursuit of happiness. that's why defending the right to life is a serious responsibility. designating june as life month is our way of saying that a justice society is measured by how it treats the most vulnerable among us. let june be the month when we recommit to the american ideal that every single life has

dignity, every little boy, every little girl. there is no person who is beneath the law's protection. that we're a nation not of death, but of life, a nation that chooses life. and that is a cause to celebrate. mr. president, i yield the floor.

do you agree redundancy in the

manufacturing capability? >> thank you and proving himself very well. being able do that. >> we have contractors. it's important to maintain that level of redundancy. >> giving the environment what is the rationale behind the

tactical reductions until the next generation aircraft? >> if you question is why are we having more, it's a matter of resources and we want to make sure with the feeling capability infrastructure, it is the level with family ship and initial operational capability last year aircraft on f-15 capabilities and survivability, can you talk

about the fighter fleet? >> starting to prove its but in a larger scale exercise performing in the indo pacific provides more weapons on survivability. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> our national security military leaders must consider making the decisions because the

location at the space for space cost? to the command in any way. >> with respect to the but we are supporting readiness. >> yes, we have not.

in constructing new headquarter led by secretary air force. in the report came out last week benefits to the command. and regarding the command final.

the space command will focus defending the nation. >> we are in the process of reviewing. i would defer questions on the final decision. >> thank you. >> any comments? >> i quickly, congress required the department of air force to consider the report on miller coordinating base activity such

as spacecraft reentry recovery and other federal agencies. the report was january 21 of this year. the air force delayed delivery to may 31 and last week he was delayed again march 31. meanwhile, operators are seeking out and utilizing landing sites such as australia. it is frustrating will not have this report until this year's ndaa. i would like to ask for your commitment of his report will be delivered no later than august 31, and will contain a description of why it led up to this july.

>> i will commit to getting that as soon as possible. >> thank you and congratulations on your confirmation. i look back. >> the gentle lady from hawaii. >> thank you, mr. check. in 2004 air force completed a full environmental impact statement following decades of nuclear testing chemical weapons storage and that took years extensive pickle formations. now they reactivate the right are seeing are less rigor. from what we are hearing it's being rushed, christie and concerns, especially given the wildlife refuge. when from hawaii, i fully

recognize the importance but that said, if it's necessary just to close, why, given the long-term risk and concern around this? >> we continue to value safety. i'm not that familiar, but i will make sure i will get back to you look into. >> at least why it's not being done and i would also suggest given basics role -- california recognized. mr. schiff: this navy has developed many traditions over

its many centuries of existence. not all aircraft carriers are named after u.s. presidents -- the uss truman, the eisenhower, the ford. nuclear submarines are names at states -- the virginia class and the ohio clarks for example. the navy is now partway through building its newest class of oilers. these ships resupply oil to the ships and the fleet operating onboard those ships. these are the john lewis class. i am immensely proud to have been a colleague of congressman john lewis in the house of representatives where i served alongside him until his passing in 2020. i considered him a friend. he was just a wonderful, genuine, heroic, brave, courageous, upbeat individual. i never saw john lewis have a

bad day, never saw him less than optimistic, anything other than optimistic about the future of our country. and i have another source of pride. the state of california, home to general dynamics national steel and shipbuilding company, nasc efforts is where the oilers are being built. the ships in this class are, in addition to the john lewis, named after california governor and supreme court justice earl warren, attorney general robert f. kennedy, and navy lieutenant harvey milk, the san francisco gay rights pioneer. four more ships are under construction -- the usnc lucy stone, sojourner truth, thurgood marshall, and ruth bader ginsburg. the harriet tub ber and delores querta are under contract. the next two ships will be named after goldberg and thomas parne.

the navy has seen fit to honor these people by naming ships in their honor. we learned this week, however, that the secretary of the defense, secretary of defense, does not share the view that these leaders are worthy of the honor of recognition that the navy has bestowed upon them. according to a statement from a spokesman, it is better to name defense installations and assets that are more aligned with, quote, the warrior ethos, whatever they mean by that. the secretary of defense, who testified at his confirmation hearing that today constitutes the most dangerous moment we have been in since the end of the cold war and possibly since world war ii, that secretary of defense is spending his time ordering department officials to remove the name of harvey milk from the second oiler in the john lewis class of ships. other ships may be similarly renamed.

now, harvey milk joined the navy as a diver after graduating from college and saw action in the korean war while serving son a rescue submarine from 1952 until 1954. he was forced to resign with an other-than-honorable discharge for being gay. he was elected to the san francisco board of supervisors as the first openly gay official in the country and on november 27, 1978, milk was tragically shot by a fellow supervisor, dan white. as many senators know, our former colleague dianne feinstein, in whose state i am now deeply honored to serve, was the first to find milk body after he had been shot. diane was a cosponsor of the uss harvey milk with her name welded

into the hull. one wonders if the secretary of defense will try to remove that as well. i suspect it is no coincidence that the pentagon released the news of the renaming of the usns harvey milk at the beginning of pride month and while washington, d.c., hosts world pride. you can draw a straight line between the department of defense and this administration removing jackie robinson from its official site and its terminating the first woman lead the military services and a well-respected african american from its staff all without cause. i don't understand thousand promotes the warrior ethos. to rename fort bragg using the fig leaf that it is now named for a different person of that name than the confederate general for whom it is really connected, engaging

in word games seems more weak than warrior. the the united states senate should not stand by silently while u.s. civil rights icons from john lewis to cesar chavez to dolores huerta are erased from the navy as others were erased from websites. today i offer a simple resolution with my california colleague alex padilla. it says that the senate believes it is important and worthwhile to honor civil rights leaders by naming ships after them and expresses the senate's view that the department of defense should not seek to remove these names. mr. president, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule 22, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to consideration of s. res. 264 submitted earlier today, that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be

agreed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. budd: reserving the right to object. the naming of naval ships is a tradition that goes back to the frigates by congress. it is not a top-down ape fair. it demands input and consideration of the journey men and women who constructed her right down to the lowest-ranking sailor. they are known as plank honors. that title brings with it an honor that p they were the first to sail aboard a ship that will serve our country for generations. that is an honor that transcends political partisanship and differences of opinion and it belongs to the sailors. it's no secret that the last

administration took a top-down approach to the naming of our newest class of usns oilers. in doing so they broke with important naval customs and traditions and they robbed the u.s. and its plank owners of a chance to name these vessels after what mattered most to them. it's true that civilian leaders in congress and the white house have always had a say in ship naming as well. george washington selected the names of our first six frigates, but he did so from a list provided by the plank owners, the ship's crew, and captains. navy tradition like the name of a ship lives in the hearts and minds of every sailor. these traditions are vital to go preserving the moral and fighting spirit of our forces. resetting the stage is not a political issue. it's bringing things back in line with naval custom and tradition. it will allow the secretary of the navy to consider the input of new ship plank owners so that he can name this class of ships

after the things that matter most to america's sailors. for these reasons, i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mr. schiff: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from california is recognized. mr. schiff: thank you. i appreciate the comments of my colleague. past presidents and secretaries of the navy named these ships, named them after civil rights leaders john lewis, thurgood marshall. joshua goldberg was drafted into the russian army in world war i, emgrapted to the united states and became the first jewish rabbi to volunteer for name of service in world war ii. thompson parham who lived from 1920 to 2007 was ordained in 1944 and served in shore assignments during world war ii and returned to active duty as chaplain during the korean war serving in japan and becoming

the first african american sailor promoted to captain. these are inspiring people. it tells young people that the united states welcomes all of them. naming ships may fall to the executive branch but i think congress with its constitutional duty to raise armies and navies has an important role to play. even so, this resolution all it does is express approval of existing names. it does not force the navy to keep them, but it says that the individuals that have been named are worthy of that honor and distinction, and i would urge my colleagues to support the resolution. and i yield back. s

even as part of this showing ways is just air force. >> that is what makes it. [laughter] >> the asymmetric and one ways of as you put together a network we have to make sure the cyber perspective where shortfalls all you don't have to have the network. it is a key attribute. >> what i'm concerned about i

don't think we have insurance against these types of. we have our bases attacked her teaching assets, we are going to have to respond relationally. i feel like we are in danger, especially they are killing this critical approach. given the nature of this threat, i just we go as far as creating a subcommittee. we know the regulatory issues and multiple committees in the house and overlapping

jurisdictions. >> may do anything to protect. >> i say it's too early in the mission. >> the chair recognizes the gentleman from chicken. >> nice to hear you the phrase for your egos and the training in the fight and housing. after good news about this. the air force i believe is way behind.

there's been a lot of promises made over the years, and despite years of testing and monitoring still hundreds of thousands of times so given the persistent severe -- i can't even say it -- we are behind. the air force is behind. there open promises made in promises not kept over too long of a time. the delay address has not occurred and they are not

expected to occur potentially 2029. it is a combination but we've been dealing with this for let's put it this way, too long a time so not going to ask how the air force has justified, i'm asking to dig into it make this right because we know this is not going to go away. i sound like i'm giving a lecture now but i want to just inform you. now let's turn to something a little more positive. air national guard base i

literally did a personal drive to her at the base a couple of days ago because i still have my retired military id even know i was there. given the proximity, but capabilities, it was interesting, but the challenge, we don't want to accidentally create a cap with the maintenance and technical capabilities that we don't

readiness i'm really not asking for answers, i'm just asking for the prioritized consideration of lending when they leave so we don't accidentally create. it's going to fight it space the air force does the challenges understanding how your vision is developing and how we appropriately find without some

of the new bring us, and you're going to pretty much have a bipartisan efforts of i'm glad you're here, let's honor our commitmentkl -- recognized. mr. lankford: i spent last week during memorial day week in the middle east. angus king and i traveled to baghdad, i are -- irbil and an angus left and i left for jerusalem. we had the opportunity to ask leaders in every single one of those countries about the future. it is to america's best interest

to have a stable middle east and a functioning relationship in all of those countries. just a quick walk-through of a couple of things i think are important there. in baghdad, they're actively working to be able to reach out to american companies. there is a real interest there and a growth in baghdad's economy, in iraq's economy. they're trying to be able to stabilize, though they are still very close to iran and to tehran. as chilling as it is when i went in to meet with the prime minister, you can't go to the prime minister's office without going through the large traffic circle outside his office where he has a giant depiction of the marytr soleimani in front of his office. that is the iranian head of the irgc that actively worked to kill as many americans as possible. it was a reminder there are still challenges in this region, while they are still welcoming to american businesses. in irbil, the kurdish regional

government, they truly love america, and it's a true western feel when you get to irbil. they're open for commerce, open for capitalism. they're still a part of iraq but they're very interested in turning their attention towards the western world and towards engaging in a great deal of american business. one of the most prideful moments of the conversation where the american businesses coming through and engaging in the kurdish regional government and in that area, and to be able to see, i counted 15 cranes across irbil with the construction that's happening there. it's remarkable to be able to see the investment that's coming into that area. it is important to maintain a relationship within that region and they are grateful to be partnered with the united states. they're saying to their kurdish friends that they should turn their attention to damascus in

forming a unified syrian government. in the broad diversity that is syria, with kurds, with turks, with christians that are all in syria and multiple different areas and the broad swath of the desert area in the south, to still see a stronghold for ice that remains in syria, it's a reminder of the challenges this new syrian government has. it was interesting that every single one of the leaders said they were grateful to president trump for canceling the sanctions on syria. they said they don't know which way this would go, but sanctions would not have helped them to be successful. they were grateful for giving syria a shot to form its own country and nation. when we land inned beirut --

landed in bebeirut, we landed oa sunday. -- beirut, we landed on a sunday, it was a sobering reminder to wake up in beirut in the embassy compound and walk over to the memorial that is on the embassy compound for the many, many lives that have been lost over the years in beirut, including the 241 marines that died in the marine barracks in 1983. to be there on that ground on memorial day was sobering to say the least. but i have to tell you, i've been to lebanon multiple times, i met with the lebanese leaders and armed forces many times, i never left lebanon more optimistic than when i took off. the new leadership there, the

new prime minister there, focused on fixing the banking system, repairing the airport, getting their economic infrastructure in place. they said over and over again, we're not looking for assistance coming to us, we're looking for investors to be able to be here. we want to be open for business and to have people from all over the world to come here and to be able to do business, we are going to do our systems right and get rid of corruption. they also said something that was -- they want to have a monopoly on american weapons. there's been two militaries, hezbollah military and the lebanese armed forces. and where the hezbollah military is, lebanon does not go now. the lebanese armed forces are in an area where the lebanese army

is defending lebanon, not a terrorist organization trying to defend lebanon, the lebanese armed forces are stepping up to do that. they're taking up the lead and setting up the posts. the government there is focused on getting the weapons out of the palestinian refugees out of there they're serious about taking on drug interdictions, they're serious about trying to balance things out. i have to give kudos to morgan ortegas, and her name came up over and over again as they saw her as a straight shooter and good negotiator between syria and lebanon to establish a lasting border relationship.

they are there to help to monitor the ceasefire between israel and lebanon and they have become a trusted partner to both sides of that border. we, as the united states, do make a difference when we engage in different parts of the world. lebanon and israel would not be experiencing the peace they're experiencing right now if it was not for american engagement. no other country in the world walks in and has the reputation that the united states of america does so it allows us to step in and provide stability by just our presence and our engagement to be able to be there. it is not large number of americans there, but it is to america's benefit to see peace between israel and lebanon. in israel there are 700,000 americans in israel right now. right now. and if we want to be able to

stand with those americans that are right now in israel, we don't want to see hezbollah rockets coming at our citizens from the north. we also have hundreds of thousands of lebanese americans and their families living in lebanon. we should continue to be able to have our relationships and our engagement there to be able to provide a stable, lasting peace, and there is a shot for that like there has knots been for decades between lebanon and israel. when we left off from lebanon, we met the king in ahman jordan. he's passionate about having a peaceful relationship with the entire region many he wants to see stable relationships in a stable region and he's doing the work it takes, hard work in that region on things like water. it's not a simple thing for

every where in the word like most places in the united states, but when you're in jordan, that is a tough challenge. to be able to bring nations together and provide that kind of engagement with the country of jordan and our friendship with the king there matters. we next went to jerusalem. jerusalem is facing real risks. this body knows it well. and we've had plenty of conversations about it for a very long time. the united states stands with our ally israeli. -- israel. it was interesting to see israeli press that has a whisper that the united states is walking away from israel. that is far from the truth. the united states continues to stand with our ally and friend israel, but israel is facing a multifront war. and what they're dealing with day after day after day, we as americans, would never put up with.

we are now about 612 days past october 7 of last year. there's still hostages being held in gaza today. today there are still hostages. there's still challenges being faced every day. the day that i arrived in israel happened to be the first day that a new strategy for getting humanitarian aid into gaza starred that day -- started that day. it was a brand-new plan of how do we not have huge bags of powder and being delivered and hamas scoops it up, and hamas tries to portion it out as they would, and instead have a week's worth of food for a family who has no chance to get to a grocery store or a chance for on option for food. they expressed a new way to do that which was an israeli

partnership. that first chaotic day, tens of thousands of boxes of food were delivered to them. the next day was a little better, the next day a little better, as they tried to figure out how to maintain security, order, and to be able to make sure as many people as possible are getting as much food as possible and get it out to the people who need the help. each day that humanitarian aid is getting better and better as they are learning how to do it more effectively now. we care about all human life. we're americans many we have people we disagree with strongly, but we still care about the dignity of life. we're watching that aid go into that country and i'm proud that we as the united states, as private citizens in the united states are part of delivering that aid that is desperately needed there. but i will tell you my

conversation in israel with key leadership there, including with the prime minister always circles around the threat of iran, always. because the rockets that are coming in from gaza were paid for by iran. the rockets and missiles, unmanned drones that were coming in from southern lebanon were paid for by iran. the missiles and rockets that are coming in why yemen against israel are paid for by iran. as they face all the challenges all over, and i could go on and on and on, as they face all of the challenges around them, we cannot forget that the iranian people live under an oppressive regime which is the destabilizing force in the region. one thing that is clear is that we have to strengthen our sanctions against the iranian

regime so they do not have more money to do more acts of terrorism and they can never have a nuclear weapon. that means no enrichment, that means no centrifuges, and that means no opportunity to create a nuclear weapon. iran has used their centrifuge technology to be able to enrich uranium up to 60%. there is zero purpose for highly enriched uranium other than a weapon. they cannot in one moment say they're not trying to weaponize and in the next moment brag about how much they enriched uranium. those two don't go together. we as americans have to be vigilant. if you look at the flag of the houthis in yemen, the flag of the houthis in yemen has the phrase, death to the jews, death to the americans. that's not a banner, that's

their national flag. they're serious about it. and i think we shouldn't just say, no, they're kidding. they're not. so we cannot allow the iranians to -- to continue to arm the rest of the area and bring the fight to us and pretend that will never happen. we learned that lesson in 2001. people far away will do what they can in their deep hatred to do what they want with us. we need to make sure that iran never gets a nuclear weapon. there's lots of things we can talk about as we talk about multiple regions around the world, but as we focus on so many areas around the world, we cannot lose focus on the middle east. the opportunities and the promise that is there but also the threats that still remain. so let's stay vigilant.

with that, i yield the floor. mr. lankford: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: i ask that we waive the mandatory quorum call with respect to the shumate nomination the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: i ask that the vote begins immediately. the presiding officer: without objection. the question occurs on the nomination. is this a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin. mr. banks. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd.

the clerk: ms. cantwell. mrs. capito.

mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. vote: >> okay. your honor. i know i saw like. okay. we are all here. thank you all coming.

we all know donald trump himself as a king more than the president. the so-called big beautiful bill placed a crown on donald trump had. a really nasty provision that would strip federal judges one of the most critical powers to enforce their own. republicans want to codify into law donald trump's tax on our judicial system and got our federal words and bulldoze the rule of law. it's a dangerous, reckless, it's

un-american. it is just a policy, this is an assault on the rule of law and independence of the judiciary and the checks and balances that have defined this country since its inception salt today am announcing democrats will fight with every tool we have to stop this provision from becoming law. evil, un-american provision that flies in the face of the constitution completely. this provision, as i said is one of the most direct result in separation of power in recent memory. enhance the government officials, including donald trump, license to ignore any ruling from a federal judge they don't like and strips the court

any power to hold people accountable if they violate court orders including the supreme court. shame on the house of representatives. shame. this is so bad so as we know, one of the most essential things the judiciary has his enforce its own borders given the judiciary and this proposal would effectively rental it meaningless with no power to hold anyone accountable. let's call it for what it is. to get out of jail free card with donald trump.

this is also a death sentence for independence in america. it is a moot straight from the playbook of a dictator so ask yourself, why now? donald trump is losing in court over and over again and analysis : the last month the trump administration lost 97% approval in federal district court in this came from judges across the political spectrum. trump or push appointees including judges donald trump appointed rule against him, it drives him crazy that the judge's are actually following the law instead of his desire to

be a dictator so rather than respect these is any president before would have done, trump and his allies will rewrite the rules to make his self untouchable so congressional republicans on this great tragic day of democracy trying to bend their knees and the constitution and failed donald trump out. one house republican admitted that he didn't know this provision was in the bill when he wrote it. what about all the other republicans who voted for it? republicans in congress have been happy to roll over and hand the keys to the house and senate donald trump unelected billionaires like elon musk, allowing them to run this

country into the ground. they are allowing the whole fabric of what america is about in a way we've never seen before. republicans in house eager to rubberstamp a bill that they didn't even read all of or worse, some red it and didn't care because protecting trump matters more that to them in protecting democracy and rule of law and the constitution because whether trump or musk or any other corrupt official republicans are trying to create a world in which powerful people face no consequences no matter what they do. that's not democracy. no one, not donald trump, not elon musk or any crooked

politician or billionaire is above the law. republicans think they can pull a fast one on the american people and slipping this into the bill, they've got another thing coming. we democrats are here to sound the alarm and fight for every tool in our toolbox to stop this from becoming law. senator durbin. >> worried about my colleagues in the senate judiciary committee. something interesting has happened in the committee in recent times. i've been on the committee long enough, literally hundreds if not thousands and i kind of on

the line of questioning that changed in questions being asked are more fundamental in the constitution, basic questions like do you believe the executive orders? i wouldn't have thought to ask that but i had to ask that this year. given a court order donald trump for his administration would follow it as a rule of law. questions to ask are all over the park. the uncertainty of these nominees are pushed to the limit. donald trump doesn't like to lose. we know that. he's been losing one court case after another.

when is this, lunatics, calling us people hate america. he turned on letter leo you can't keep up with this president. a 1000 page bill the budget to make sure donald trump can't lose. if you want to enforce a court order has to be security and if you didn't put the money up front it comes to enforcement.

avoid responsibility. in the constitution. and then further decision and that this is included, it will make it extremely difficult to enforce the law. trump doesn't want to lose. in the procedures of the court and of course for orders.

>> unaccustomed. i was a federal judge for years i was a judge in a very different time. ruled against the government or in favor of the government and depended on the context. i were wrong i would be appealed. if our even more wrong, i would be appealed to the supreme court.

why is trump proposing this bill now? in the nationwide injunction. the numbers of cases in maryland and judge merchan murphy on the cusp of contempt. without due process and the misrepresentations and they are on the cusp of contempt and that's why we are here.

and that is so it comes at a time where in 1924, it is essential and say this is wrong, thank you very much. the power of contempt very carefully.

and access to this important institution require a bond retroactively so about the body of civil rights and institutional cases brought that would now be in jeopardy if this will. we have the possibility too post a bond, there are substantial bandages they are cases where are as i have described.

you cannot use appropriated funds to enforce your orders. and the compliance. ... the clerk: mr. durbin, no.

i watched my colleagues they go up to the moment of contempt with great care, trying to get the government to do what the law requires come with the rules that have been appealed and have been supported. and so now we are at a moment with the contempt power is critical. small wonder that it is being attacked. i think if this bill is not defeated this branch will have been transformed and that would be a tragedy. >> thank you, judge. ahead of our ranking member of our subcommittee and great leader, sheldon whitehouse. >> thank you, chuck. it's a great honor to follow the judge to this podium. my message is that this provision in the reconciliation bill has to be understood in the context of a campaign, and

orchestrated and corn dated campaign of threats and intimidation -- coordinated -- this is just one thread of that campaign. if you look at what congressional republicans are up to, it's not just this bill. it's wanted posters outside their offices with judges names and faces. its articles of impeachment filed against judges for decisions they disagree with. it's a hearing called district judges versus trump, designed to whip up anti-judiciary animus. it's a bill calling federal judges judicial insurrectionists. and it's echoed over at the white house by trump's commentary. trump's attacks include calling judges u.s. u.s. a hating. calling them monsters.

calling them communists. calling them radical left lunatics who could come quoting him again, , very well lead to e distraction of our country. and then for good measure his white house throws in an official statement calling judges leftists, crazy, unconstitutional people. the third wing of this attack on the judges comes through maga, through elon musk and through laura loomer and the x platform which posts information about judges can post information about their families. they seem to take the like to post judges daughters in order create attacks on those individual judges. musk has called them corrupt. he's called them radical. he's called them evil. but the moment one of the tricks of this campaign of threats and intimidation is to send to judges, and to the families come

unsolicited pizza deliveries, often in the name of the murdered son of a federal judge. saying to them we know where you live. this is about intimidating you, and we are capable of violence. ask has curated over years -- x -- a a horde of what i call fg monkeys. disordered people who when provoked and triggered by musk, by loomer, by x will do the job of delivering bio and violent threats against the target. and that has caused the judges to have to take this far more seriously. justice roberts had to make an uncharacteristic public statement saying if you think we're wrong, appeal, don't

threaten impeachment. he did that because he is getting pressure from district judges who were feeling left out on -- who were feeling left out hung out to dry. the judges had to create a judicial security and independence task force to deal with this campaign of threats. the question we are about to face is whether the maga attorney general, pam bondi, in the face of this campaign of threats and intimidation will allow the marshal service to do its work of investigating those crimes. not only investigating those crimes but investigating those who are orchestrating and court needing that campaign of threats. if, in fact, as all the evidence suggest that campaign leads back to makkah, then bondi has every incentive to squelch these investigations. so keep a sharp eye out for her.

we are up to 162 threats now. the study campaign, if that's not predication for these investigations, i do not know what is. >> thank you. and now we have mike from the aclu. >> thank you, senator. i'm for the american civil liberties union. for over 100 years our organization has stood against presence of both parties to defend the constitutional rights of everyone in this country. that's because the freedom that all of us count on depends on a government being bound by the law. but now majority of the house as we've heard have snuck a provision in in the bill that quite literally pull together in the middle of the night that includes as senator schumer said a get out of jail free card in some cases to allow the government to ignore court orders that are intend to sm from violating the laws and our constitutional right. one of their first actions that

president trump took on january 20 after being sworn in was to sign an executive order purporting to edit out of the 14th amendment birthright citizenship. within hours we were in court ensuring that our newest citizens would not have the constitutional rights stripped from them as they very first experience in this life. but to get out of jail free card in this bill would mean that unless plaintiff have enough money to post a bond, trump and his cronies could lately ignore that injunction and deport newborn babies out of this country come babies who are u.s. citizens under the words of our constitution. and they would face no consequences. so maybe the billionaires don't get it, but our constitutional rights do not come with a price tag. trump and his allies may well be

frustrated we keep beating them in court as do so many others, but they should think really carefully about this. because conservatives were off records could be in of administrations and overzealous federal government in other circumstances. to limit covid vaccine mandate and other things. the aclu has sued the trump administration dozens of times already this year both already sued biden administration, obama admin section, we have sued every single administration because government need to be bound by the law regardless of what party the president is in. this is not a democrat issue, not a republican issue. this is a democracy issue as senator schumer said. we cannot stand and will not stand for government that can oppose its priorities on the people instead of the other way around. senate need to kill of this provision and sure the four words carved over the editors on that building across the street, supreme court, maintain a meaning, equal justice under

law. thank you. thank you. now it is equipment judiciary committee senator hirono. >> thank you very much. glad to be with everyone to point out yet another atrocity that the republicans have sneaked into this house and plus page bill. and the fact is we have a president who does not believe that through of law applies to him. he is governing by executive order. most of them i would say are illegal, leaving two over 200 lawsuits filed his bill against the thing that stands between have put their notches can roll

over and give the present whatever he wants. so of course there are dozens and dozens of findings and orders that stymie this president, , stop them from continued his illegality and, of course, the president doesn't like it. what do his minions do in the house? they insert the present that will make it that much harder for these conjunctions and other court orders to be in force. what is the point of holding this administration of this regime accountable if you can't enforce those orders which is exactly what this provision is meant to do. we can't let him get away with it. we can't let the republicans get away with it. they are continuing to desire to get patted on the head by this president. they will insert a provision that is absolutely nothing to do with the budget. so we need to get this provision out of the bill.

people, people should understand, this is the kind of think this president wants to have done on his behalf. he will attack anybody who can stand up to them whether there are law firms, whether they are corporations, whether they are colleges and universities come his modus operandi is to attack and try to stymie anybody that stands up to him. and that is what this provision is in this bill, to stop the courts from preventing him from continuing in his illegality. glad to be a with all of you. >> thank you, senator hirono. questions on the subject? yes. >> -- there were some unique bipartisanship this week with senator warren and president trump. they want to scrap the debt limit. you cut discussion to the pastor would help republicans do that? >> i i not going to engage in hypotheticals. yes? >> thanks for doing this.

what use between you guys have at your disposal. could you elaborate more? >> let me be clear. if the seven the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 43. the nomination is confirmed. the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. 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 brett schumm ate, of virginia -- bret shumate, of virginia, to be an assistant attorney general signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: under the mandatory quorum call, the quorum call has been waived. the question is, brett shumate

of virginia to be assistant attorney general shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks.

seeks to change change tr structure while maintaining the army flat budget. the army provided this committee with the first real set of details on the ati about a week ago. this hearing marks the beginning of the army's discussion with congress on the idea. we are ready to work with you, gentlemen. fact we must work together rapidly to fix fundamental problems with the army. since 2000 the list of failed army modernizationbl initiatives such as the comanche helicopter, the crusader howitzer and the future combat systems has continued to grow. between 2002-2012 the army spent $50 billion on programs that

eventually it canceled. the record in the past five years has been better but it still contains significant missteps. the army spent $2 billion on a scout helicopter would never fly. other of the cancellations s to follow including the strategic long-range tanf program, extended range cannon artillery programs and the booker armor infantry support vehicle as well as the humvee. fundamentally the army needs to decide how to adapt to the changing character of warfare and meet her emissions particularly against china and russia. mr. secretary, any ideas you propose in your initiative and your budget will meet the mark. i think you'll find widespread support for increasing investments in long-range fires and air and missile defense as you proposed. i would note however the lack of logistics investment in your

plan given the army central role in logistics in the pacific picc so perhaps we'll talk about that. mr. secretary, i think you will find congress very willing partner when presented with convincing analysis that justifies investment changes. particulars changes should help american soldiers deter war and if necessary when in a convincing fashion. when we do disagree we will likely be an ethics on the database. the industrial base is brutal come we cannot afford to let sites close or we will lose the defense expertise of many skilled workers. we did investment strategies the recognized recognize this. our investment should provide stability and ensure the united states can maintain maximum competition, the army cannot follow the divest to invest strategy that the navy and air force have wanted to pursue.

the united states faces too many threats today to leave gaps in capabilities. it will require tightly woven investment strategies among the army, congress and industry to get this right. so we look forward to chessmen. without a turn to my friend the ranking member of this committee. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. secretary driscoll, general george, welcome to today's hearing. thank you both for your service to the. nation in the army. and please convey the committee's appreciation for the men and women serving under your command. let me first take a moment to recognize historic milestones of the united states army. this month marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the continental army in '17 75. since then millions have stepped forward to serve in the army and protect their fellow citizens oath on our own soil and abroad. for me personally the opportunity to serve in the army

and delete american soldiers. s the privilege of my life. i'm proud to wreck it is this important moment in our nation's history. today the threats the army faces would be inconceivable to its founding leaders. as we speak, china is working to challenge america's interest and leadership in the world. vladimir putin continues his vicious assault on ukraine as a stepping stone in his imperial vision, and iran seeks to exploit violence in the middle east to expel the united states from the region. the united states army, the most powerful ground force in the world, is fundamental to the tearing and if needed confronting these threats. secretary driscoll, general george, last what you announced an ambitious plan called the army transportation -- transmission initiative. this would among of the change reduce headquarters, consolidate commands, redirect funny, restructure infantry brigades, reduce richer bit of ground vehicles and aviation systems.

i'm always open to considering new ways to improve efficiency and invest in the right technology for the future. that has to be a constant imperative. i have questions about this initiative including an analysis and rollout for the decision and the compensation plan. i would ask that you discuss this plan in detail and explained objectives to the committee. i would also note this is difficult to fully disclose the army's posture when we did receive a budget requests from the administration. this is quickly becoming the longest delay budget submission in memory and to urge the whe house to deliver it quickly. to my understanding in its fiscal year 2026 budget the department of defense will request yet another flat budget for the army. i'm concerned that we risk the army's combat strength if we do not provide it with the resources it needs to continue full modernization. secretary driscoll, general

george, mentors and hearing how the service is adjusting its operating concepts and force posture within his budget constraints. i'm very skeptical of the administration support more than 10,000 soldiers to the southern border, including the limits of the mountain division headquarters and a fourth infantry division stryker brigade as well as expansion of army installations to create so-called national defense areas along the border. i'm deeply concerned that secretary hegseth is considering a request from the department of homeland security to activate more than 20,000 national guard troops to carry out immigration enforcement operations deep within the country. and that nearly $1 billion is reported being diverted from barracks improvement activities to fund border operations to include border wall construction. let me be clear. border security is a priority and i voted for bills to harden our borders, tougher laws and

reform but immigration enforcement is a mission that must be b carried out by the department of homeland security. not the department of defense. in my personal gauges with command at all levels many pics of these border missions are deepening problems. they are having with their training time, resources and readiness. i'm aware that at least one brigades combat training center petition has been canceled to support this mission and others are at risk. secretary driscoll, i'd like to know how you plan to ensure our soldiers time, training and capabilities are not needlessly wasted as the army works hard to meet its existing demands. ultimate, ultimately, the army's of success depends on its soldiers and civilians. over the past two years the army has been significant progress in recruiting activities and has enjoyed success with programs like the future soldier preparatory course. however, i am concerned the administration efforts to limit

who serves and in what roles they may serve could have a chilling effect on recruiting and retention. there is room in the army for all qualified volunteers. this includes at the united states military academy where recent efforts to stifle education and narrow the student body represents an assault on merit and inclusion. indeed, contrary to many administration claims i would argue the current american soldiers and west point cadets the finest was ever served. i'm interested in your thoughts on this issue. finally, i recently visited a number of army post including in germany, korea, guam and throughout the continental united states. i've been impressed by the work our soldiers and army civilians are doing to not only train and equip war fighters but also to incorporate lessons and knowledge to more foreign partners including the tens of thousands of ukrainians who have conducted training. as ukraine's recent and indeed revolutionary drill operation

deep within russia demonstrates the future of combat and uas warfare in particular is evolving at a breathtaking speed. the ukrainian drone operations should serve as a clarion call for every commander at every level about how they plan to protect the forces and installations at home and abroad at all times. i would like to know what lessons and practice the army'ss learning from the conflict in europe and what resources are needed to implement them. again i think the witnesses for their participation today. i look forward to the testimony. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, senator reed. we will proceed now with opening statements. secretary driscoll you may go first. >> chairman wicker, ranking member reed, distinguish maps of this committee, it is a privilege to address you today. i want to express my sincere gratitude for your unwavering support of our soldiers and your families. i'd like to start off this

hearing with some good news. earlier this week the united states army met its fiscal year 2025 recruiting goals for months early, bring in more than 61,000 new recruits. these men or women are stepping up during the time of global uncertainty and complex threats. those threats are real. when i went to my confirmation hearings in this very room i pledged to be the soldier secretary of the army. that commitment has guided our approach every step of the way. the army transformation initiative has been conceived with the soldier in mind, and your partnership is critical as general george and ie begin if omitting this transformation which is now more urgent than ever. this week we with this a stark illustration of modern warfare in ukraine and russia. reports indicate a coordinated strike against russia's strategic bomber force using a swarm of over 100 inexpensive drones at a cost of a tens of thousands of dollars, ukraine

inflected billions in damage,, potentially setting back russia's bomber capabilities for years. the world saw in real-time how readily available technology can disrupt established power dynamics. drones are but one example of aa broader shift and army needs to keep pace. in my first three months as secretary, general george and i have immersed herself in understand why the army has been slow to innovate. our soldiers are not the problem. i've met with them in the ease, europe, along the southern border and at installations across the united states. their strength, dedication and unwavering commitment to this nation are inspiring. we asked a great deal of them and to consistently deliver. nor is the ingenuity of american industry at fault. our tech sector continues to thrive driven by innovation entrepreneurship and willingness to embrace risk. so where does the problem lie? as secretary i found the army has become calcified having suffered from gears of inefficiency, so moving processes and wasteful spending

program lobbyist and bureaucrats have overtaken the the armyo prioritize soldiers in war fighting we must all work together to ensure the army is ready to fight and win. the army transformation initiative will make us into an army that is lean, agile, relentlessly focused on empowering its soldiers. an army that embraces innovation collaborative effect of which the private sector and prioritizes war fighting readiness above all else. to achieve this vision we must streamline our acquisitions process, reclaim our right to repair and cultivate a culture that rewards innovation and calculated risk-taking and we must empower those closest to the fight to make the decisions. the army translation initiative is a first step to achieve this vision but this transformation hinges on your support. we are asking this committee to empower us to make these changes while providing your constitutionally mandated oversight. we are asking for the flexibility to make decisions

that keep pace with the rapid investments in technology and the evolving nature of warfare. we are asking for this committee to work with us to maximize the value of every dollar appropriated to best support our soldiers. i ask this because it is my duty both as the secretary of the army and as an american citizen to ensure that every dollar that the army received contributes to defending this great nation of ours. i know we are all committed to our soldiers come to their success and to providing them with the overwhelming advantage that they deserve. thank you and welcome your questions. >> make you very much, secretary. general george, you are reckless. >> thank you, chairman wicker, ranking member reed, distinguished members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to talk with you today and take your questions. i want to start off by saying i'm extremely proud of our army. i'm proud of our troops that are out in the indo-pacific, on the southern border, in the middle east, in europe, and everything are army has been over the past year to respond to wildfires,

floods and a bridge collapse. we have formations all around the world conducting missions and exercises and innovating with our partners and allies. when not deploy our units are conducting tough realistic training at their home stations and our camp at training centers. our army is a a professional m the remains focused on its war fighting mission. young americans want to be part of it. this is evidenced by our strong recruiting numbers this year and i would also add very strong retention numbers. just a couple of days ago as the secretary mnuchin we met our recruiting mission for the year and we still have our most productive months ahead of us. and while i'm proud of our army i know we have work to do. we know the world is changing. immersive technology is rapidly evolving especially ai and autonomous systems. this is impacting the character at work. we understand we must transform to stay ahead of her adversaries and we need to get better by

2026 2026 and 2027, not by 2030. over the last year using existing fy '24 funding some of our units transformed and contact, which means they experimented with the changing how we train, fight, man and equip one who were deployed or in training environments. this was a great proof of concept or to confirm our formations are capable of rapidly improving their lethality. one transformation and contact brigade in europe was 300% more effective in lethal targeting in training. transformation and contact taught us some valuable lessons about what army should be fine and how we should be buying it. we're just getting started. we're going to make these changes at all levels we can continue to dominate the modern battlefield. for instance, canceling programs that are obsolete are not what or where fighters need. developing at adapting war winning capabilities and find modular open architecture

designed that can be literally updated. kiting and consolidating headquarters. francis were going to reduce geo-structure, cut 1000 positions for her own her own staff in d.c. and add in modern business systems that will make us more effective. and finally we will powerdown authorities and funny so commanders that are fighting formations have what they need to make their teens and their communities successful. what i've learned from being in this seat is that our job as leaders is to do what we can with the budget that we have. i can talk about the need for agile funding for uas, counter uas, and ewp we need flexibility in those areas and many more. technology is changing too rapidly. we got to be able to buy capabilities rather than specific programs so we can always get a war fighters the best available tech and equipment for the fight. this is when we could use your help.

we are quickly approaching our army's 250th birthday. this will defend has been our motto for 20 to 50 years and years and am looking for to celebrating our long legacy of duty. more important, our soldiers are ready today to defend our country and will do our part to ensure they have with the need to be successful in that enduring mission. chairman and ranking member of the ford come with a 40 taking your questions on how important the oid is to us, how specifically were going to transform and what lessons we are learning from the conflicts today. thank you for your support. >> thank you and thank you for making the anniversary birthday. which is quite significant for this nation, and very personally significant to a number of members of this committee, so thank you very much. we're rolling out and did roll out some very specific information about the reconciliation bill and just the

last day or two. this bill has been developed hand in glove consultation with the administration and whether calls in the house of representatives it is one ofe least controversial sections of the reconciliation bill. however, much of the funding in the defense reconciliation bill come because the rules has to be unspecific and technically be at the discretion department of defense, though we were right recommendations once i get a quick guess no, particularly based on the fact this has been written in consultation and with changes made to accommodate the administration. do you commit, mr. secretary, first to follow, suspending recommendations in the defense reconciliation bill unequivocally?

>> yes. >> general george? >> yes, that's the answer by all of our witnesses. the organic industrial base, ammunition plants, depots, arsenals remain vital to sustaining combat operations. we have read, mr. secretary, in your ati memo about potential closure of pine bluff arsenal, bluegrass army dental come red river army dental. in light of the fact that we're going to be so focused on reinitialization, i would caution that we be very careful about that. are you planning to propose closing these three facilities, mr. secretary?

>> we are creating a plan to look at what we can do with them with shifting work from them as one of the options. i think general george and i stand hand-in-hand with your technology that are organic and touch base is not sufficient for the threats today or in the future. i think spending is constrained as a should be. we owe that to the american taxpayer. we are working on plans that could use those facilities for other purposes. but it's a funny does not, and has to come from the rest of the budget i think our current belief is those dollars at a record budgeted level would be best suited someone else. >> i hope we will continue to have a meaningful dialogue there. as the body that's constitutionally charged with the power of the purse, and it may be that our need for the industrialization will type in quite well -- tie in quite well

will continue to utilize these. you mentioned drones and we should have learned a lot in the last five or six days about small inexpensive drones. i don't know if most people realize our drone manufacturers create drones the cost ten times as much as china's drones. dod spending less than when it meant on on small drones. it seems to me this makes it difficult for our industrial base to achieve economies of scale and buying the equipment to produce at a more reasonable price. you agree with me on that? you agree that we very much need to address this issue, mr. secretary? and then i'll ask general george to comment also. >> i think, chairman, if it was

only come if we were only ten next more expensive i would say that that would be that offend actual reality which i think we are sometimes 50 times to 100 times more expensive. we are so expensive that it makes the cost curve absolutely impossible for us. so i wholeheartedly agree that we as a nation have got to set a moonshot to figure out both how do we defend against these low-cost drones and then how do we create enough to seal against russia. it's as good maybe creating four to 6 million this year. and china even more. elastomer thought this might be doing 50 million across their entire country. we are currently not ready for it and we need to work with you to get, to speed up the contests we are doing. >> general george, i assume that you and the secretary are of one mind on this issue. >> we certainly are, chairman. there's two aspects of this to your previous comment on the industrial base.

that's something again you look at like dji is producing 15 million drones. one of the challenges for us like brushless motors, controlled things like that at a think this is what we need to move to in our own industrial base and be able to do that. could help commercial industry here stateside as well. so that's one aspect. the other thing -- >> millions of people are listening to you on television. tell them what dji is. >> it's a china, it's a prc company that makes drones. 15 million drones. again we need the parts and we could reduce that here. the second thing that i would add, chairman, is that i think this is why it's important that we have, that we buy in portfolios. you know, the brigade typically portfolios, the program of record is everwood and by the same drone as one that we've canceled 25-year-old drones. we. we know those are updating and

so i think in you a yes, counter uas and ew we need to have the flexibility we can come over here, we certainly want the oversight and explain what systems we are fine but this is an area that is rapidly transforming and adapting and we need to be able to maintain pach that and at the flexibility to do it. >> thank you, sir. >> senator reed. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. let me begin with a tragic incident that happened on january 29 of this year. 67 67 people were lost when te u.s. army black hawk helicopter collided with a psa airline flight 5342. obvious he was a tragic moment. in the intervening weeks and months as investigations are ongoing, family members have expressed to me significant concerns by the lack of transparency and correct medication with the army, specifically army senior

leaders. secretary driscoll come doesn't army commit to establish a direct medication with these families? i think it's fair and necessary. >> senator, the incident on that day is a tragedy. our hearts go out to the victims and their families. the army is doing everything we can to learn from the incident to ensure it never occurs again. there is an investigation and lawsuit ongoing. the best advice we received from counsel today is to let those play out. and so that's our current position. >> i understand that but i think just reaching out in a very clearly non-substantive t in a compassionate way, that the army understands their grief and we're doing all we can without obviously specifying would be appropriate. i do understand that the national transportation safety board and the army is conducting investigations, but general

george, can you briefly describe the changes you've already made to improve the safety and that? >> yes, sir. we have been cooperating fully with the national transportation safety board and had our own folks in here. the biggest thing is the flight routes have completely changed, and that was the decision that was made that the route that was, believe it is route four that is passed there, i disclosed off. immediately, we had, we made adjustments and i will, people that are coming in right now there's very, very few flights to come in and out of the pentagon. i would tell you that we do and you're aware of the mission we still have a mission to do. our formations need to continue to make sure that they're doing that. but also the changes that we've done with making sure that ads-b and that there's constant communication. so again were working very closely with the faa both

locally and nationally to make sure we learn from this, and learning needs changing and that's what we're doing. >> i appreciate that. i think on a human level some contact with with the famid be more than appropriate. mr. secretary, the "new york times" recently reported that the department of defense that homeland security as over 20,000 national guard forces to conduct interior immigration enforcement. have you been asked to prepare for this requirement? >> we have. >> immigration enforcement in the interior of the united states is unprecedented for the national guard, and the scale of assistance that they're asking for is equally unprecedented. diverting 20,000 guardsmen to this rule, first of all, they're not trained for it. it will necessarily hold those persons away from their jobs,

their families. but more important a it's going to divert them from their more traditional role, disaster relief, supporting local emergencies. we know this likely to be a very strenuous hurricane season, which i'm told begins on june 1. from which states with the army be pulling these troops? >> i'll jump in. i don't, we are working through this right now and obviously we will get asked to provide soldiers were ready to do that. we are i will tell you, sir, prepare to respond to emergencies that we've done that routinely. i mentioned that in my opening statement of what we're wo do. across all the combos and then with whatever missions that we are aligned to do, clerical or whatever it would be a line to

whatever the soldiers are trained. >> into submission that in your experience and national guardsmen are mr. secretary, going and searching for illegal immigrants in major cities and across the country? >> again, senator, i think the missions would be a line with what our soldiers are trained to do within the authorities that we would have. under title x. >> do we have a cost estimate yet of how much it would cost to deploy 20,000 national guard? >> senator, i don't leave we do but will follow up with office the moment we know what states and the estimate cost. >> finally, we recognize that both legally and traditionally soldiers are not police officers or ice agents. much of what they do lies outside of this law enforcement environment. are you concerned about the

scene of u.s. army and people won't make distinction between national guard and use army driving in military vehicles and pulling people out of houses and putting them in the backs of trucks and driving them away? i don't think that's the image the army has strove for 250 years to create. >> senator, i don't, it's hard to enter the hypothetical because we've not heard of the details in the planning. it's hard to answer today. >> so if you are directed to begin to seize people, put them in trucks and driveway, you would object because that is inconsistent with the army of the united states? >> again, senator, it's hard to answer the hypothetical. we have come no one has asked that question. >> thank you and thank you, mr. chairman for the extra time.

>> thank you, senator reed. senator fischer. >> thank you, mr. chairman. secretary, , general, welcome. the army was already undergoing significant changes prior to the people 30th letter from the secretary of defense. understand we've had some success in increasing experimentation and getting soldier feedback early in the acquisition process. this results in more intuitive capabilities easier for soldiers to use. how does the army transformation initiative built on the transformation in contact efforts so that technology can be delivered into the hands of the soldiers faster? >> senator, it is all built on transmit a contact at all built in as soon as possible. soldiers and told his company to

look at what the most successful small, medium, large business in america do, take a look at the venture capital, but to have this concept which is this idea if you have an idea, get a prototype as quick as possible and get to the end-user. what we try to do with the army is done really well i think for health is to get things we are testing into the hands of her soldiers as fast as possible. general george, and i were with an autonomous software company that designed essentially the software for autonomous vehicles about a month, two months ago and was somewhat they had to quit as if it ever put in an army vehicle. they said no. we got them a vehicle five days later. ten days later the sinister figure for automating our home the period we got in the hands of soldiers or within or four weeks. we are learning from that. that too is is how we will weekly innovate and change army to face today's threat. >> will you tie into command-and-control that as well? are you working with any

specific private industry to be able to do that? >> senator, we are working with a bunch of companies that are doing that. again, for all of this i think what we're learning is we have to pass data very rapidly. i think a network to us is foundational to everything we do. if you're going to since you have to decide and whatever you going to do to act, the network is central to that. i wanted to just add on on the lessons. besides the equipment for us the biggest change is having developers that are right there with our soldiers to see what works. we are seeing what the battery life and a a cold and five ves the humidity that's out there right now in the pacific. we are seeing those. we are changing how we organize. we know you can be seen anywhere on this planet. how we're going to reorganize our formations, we were learning that. at how can we better trained our soldiers to operate in ew environments? had with better trained fpv

operators? all of that. and again we have to constantly that's within a continuous transformation mode. >> thank you. we saw a long-range hypersonic weapons test in june and december of last year, and i was encouraged by the success of those tests. do you still anticipate, mr. secretary, and general, feeling that capability in the fiscal year '25? >> -- fielding -- we do. when are the things were excited about is we're testing a new version of it. it is one-tenth one-te think has even better attributes. they would be early to know whether it will work but were optimistic. >> in your written testimony to highlight the army is mid range capability system, it's been deployed in the philippines since april i think of last year. can you provide us with an update on that program and when

you expect additional matters to be fielded? >> again, senator, that's another thing were looking at aa total of five batteries were also doing with that at the same thing with continuous transformation, how do we make those systems smaller, advertising in better? i would make them so they're more mobile. >> as your testing these different capabilities, these new capabilities, do you have some of these businesses are she said they were alongside soldiers and being able to see the real-time effects. as your testing these things in real time, and you understand the field of battle, that you may be facing in the very near future, are you also soliciting notches, some industry but also to continue to solicit those comments from soldiers as well? and have you been able to make

changes in any of these capabilities that you currently testing? >> yeah, we both wanted to push the trigger on that one. >> i know. >> we have done that. one of the things, for example, the soldier said he listened to be better to have an autonomous system or an optionally manned vehicle that could move around i could do those things. hey, we need the command-and-control piece of his to be small and more mobile. we are making those changes. we had companies that have gone out, this is about leveraging commercial industry to do this that made those vehicles and then brought them out to our formations and we're testing in. again getting to our soldiers is most important thing we can do. >> great, a key. the chairman is going to galba you out, mr. secretary. thank you very much. >> witnesses can supplement their answers. senator shaheen. >> thank you, mr. chairman.

mr. secretary, general george, thank you both for being here. i want to follow up on senator reed question about the role of the national guard in dealing with illegal immigrants. i'm looking at a memo here from the executive secretary at the department of defense from the department of homeland security. one of the things they say in this memo is that they're asking the national guard to up to 3500 personnel to support field investigative units for high-priority fugitive cases, joint task force operations for abscond or fugitive tracking conservatives in canvassing missions, night and data analysis and call center support and night operations in rural interdiction. that doesn't sound hypothetical to me, mr. secretary. that sounds like that is a direct request that a sword been

made to the department of defense and i soon he might have seen it from the department of homeland security to engage in those operations. also says that the army is that going to be, or the department of defense is not going to be reimbursed for those operations. you know who's going to pay for those and what account from the department of defense that those operations would come from? >> senator, i don't know what account said he might have we can follow up with your office. >> well, i would hope that first of all, i share senator reed concern as the national guard to engage in those kinds of operations. as a former governor i can tell you that i did want our national guard going all to do something when we needed them at home in new hampshire. but i would also be very concerned about who's paying for those, and the deprived of homeland security if they're going to engage in these operations than they ought be footing the bill, not asking the

department of defense in the army or anybody else in the national guard to do that. let me register my greatest concern, mr. chairman, about that. i want to go on to another topic at this point, and that is a lot of the discussion so far has been about the changing role of conflict and war. one of the places where i think we are seeing those operations very dramatically is in the information warfare systems arena. i'm concerned about the army's decision last year to reduce nearly 3000 special operation forces personnel. most of those were from military information support operations miso. this comes at a time and were looking at expanded operations on the part of russia, on a part of china, our adversaries.

i sit on the foreign relations committee. we had a hearing earlier this you put at china's been over a billion dollars a year on this information operations around the world. it feels like we are unilaterally disarming in this arena at a time when we should be engaging in thinking about how to do that. i wonder, from an operational perspective does so, have the ability to replace those positions at how are you thinking about information warfare? >> first, on information warfare, senator mike enzi degree and that is something and i think rather than what we've been talking about looking specific formations we're also looking we have a bunch of specialties that we've had around 20 or 30 years. like i think anybody does in the commercial sector you have to make, adapt and change and e sure you doing that. the cuts were made and this was,

you know, worked with u.s. army special operations command and socom for print media, leaflet drops, people do those kinds of things. i would argue the world has changed and what we should be doing we should be focusing on and in the meantime we have our own cyber capability at how were going to do that through technology. i think it's important and i think the other thing we've learned is going to have to have this kind of capability throughout our formation. it's less about headquarters. it's about having capabilities at echelon throughout all of our formations. we are all living. you not when you get just that certain people i capability does were all connect operate on this very complex battlefield and that's what were looking at. we just had a discussion about this. i'd love to come over and talk to you about this more in detail on what we're looking at and how were going to embed this across are forced. >> i very much enjoyed seeing a plan or how that would be done

because i think that's one of the most serious disadvantages we have right now. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very, very much. senator cotton. >> gentlemen welcome. i was at fort myer yesterday as to hold card market has several persons as honorary members of the regiment for the critical work in the kaesong platoon backup limited operations and also for the work at the carter state funeral for the kaesong platoon. so well referenced domination over to thank you both for your work on getting the kaesong platoon back in operation and on the path towards full operation very soon. secretary driscoll of what to turn to the nation's crisis that our nation faces. president trump recently said when you take a long, hard look at this has become an industrial base because it's been whistling down to nothing with all the money was spent a pencil. on its amcit run out of ammunition or unable to quick to produce weapons we need. you also acknowledge crisis at your confirmation and 50 said

one of the greatest problems facing our time is getting our munitions back at what you need to be. i assume on the job he simply addressing the nation's nations crisis is vital and if we're to deter and if necessary fight in when a war against china. >> absolutely and i would even update and say it is after 100 days of sync it is worse than i thought at my confirmation expert so to why and most members of the committee. that's one reason why i was pleased to see the army transformation initiative focuses on arsenals, ammunition plants and depots. your organic and natural base. secretary hegseth's memo about the nation directs the army to modernize the organic and database to generate the ammunition stockpiles necessary to sustain national defense during wartime by implementing 21st century production capability. in your earlier remarks, i think it's safe to say we share the sectors believe that the organic industrial base is a crucial element of our broader defense industrial base.

you agree? >> unequivocally. >> thank you. we're not the only ones either. there's other members like senator mullin and senator ernst and senator rosen revlon push the army to strengthen its organic industrial base. that includes updating and expanding operations at facilities like pine bluff arsenal in my state, michalis army ammunition plant oklahoma, how foreign army in nevada. all of these are underused and we have thought for some time the army should be expanding them to meet urgent national security needs. while i agree with you that the commercial industry will play an important role in solving the crisis, we all know that industry alone can't do it all. first, i'm doubtful that private businesses are going to take up work like smoke grenades or other dish capabilities required by the military. i'm skeptical it's profitable for business to stand up new production of white phosphorous emanation which is only produced

in pine bluff and the customer base is limited to the u.s. military and the cost of reductions are so high. just some rough academical thai place like that suggest would cost around half a half n dollars to replicate that capacity. second, we've also learned definitively over the last three years of the ukrainian war that our commercial industrial base, while vital, simply doesn't have the capacity to produce all the conditions that our nation is under allies need, much less what we would need in a major conflict. expanding munitions production especially for necessary materials like nitrocellulose and artifacts that are currently chokepoint in ammunition supply chain will require us to leverage inherent advantages of the facilities that you own, that the army owns. those organic and social-based facilities. ..

can you suggest we work together and motherless? and the fundamental policy right back and build it on the other side.

and expand munitions for ourselves that we live in an and we are wholeheartedly and on this. >> it will come for this production from our organic industrial base. >> the constraints referred to and what you mentioned to work

with the existing facility. >> thank you both for being here. i would like to join senators meet and raising concerns about the deployment of 10000 vultures in the use -- invoke cloture is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of justice, brett shoe smat of -- shumate of virginia to be attorney general.

the presiding officer: i recognize the majority leader. mr. thune: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, today is the last session day for our spring pages. and i want to thank them for their service to the senate and to our country over the last few months. the senate could not do all that we do without their hard work. the work they do at all hours of the day , late and night and while keeping them up with school work. for this year's pains, thank you for all you contributed to the senate this session and best of luck in all your future endeavors. now, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to submit the

names of the spring 2025 page class into the congressional record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. thune: mr. president, i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 49. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. those no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, environmental protection agency, david fotouhi of virginia to be deputy administrator. mr. thune: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. 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 david fotouhi of virginia to be deputy administrator of the environmental protection agency signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. thune: mr. president, i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 112. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of agriculture, stephen vaden of ten ten to -- tennessee to be deputy secretary. mr. thune: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we 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 stephen vaden of tennessee to be deputy secretary of agriculture signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. thune: mr. president, i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 117. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of housing and urban development, andrew hughes of texas to be deputy secretary. mr. thune: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. 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 andrew hughes of texas to be deputy secretary of housing and urban development signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate resume legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 266 which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 266 designating may 2025 as als awareness month. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the

senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 3:00 p.m. on monday, june 9, following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders and the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. further, at 5:30 p.m. on monday, the senate proceed to executive session and execute the order of june 4 with respect to the shumate nomination. finally, notwithstanding rule 22, the cloture motions filed on june 5 ripen following disposition of the shumate nomination. if any nominations are confirmed during wednesday's session of the senate -- i should say during monday's session of the senate, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. thune: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous or order. the presiding officer: the

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