mr. sullivan: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: mr. president, i'm going to talk a little bit about the bill that we've been debating here all week on the senate floor, the sergeant first class heath robinson honoring our pact act of 2022. now, it's a very important bill. it's named after after sergeant first class heath robinson, a national guard who died in 2020, as a result of service-connected toxic exposure. that bill that we're going to be voting on for final passage tomorrow, would give immediate access to health care for toxic exposure for veterans, give the v.a. -- and streamline the process for toxic exposed veterans seeking disability compensation for their illness that they gained while serving overseas defending our nation. mr. president, i have supported the intent of this bill for years, and i intend to vote in favor of this bill tomorrow when it comes up for final passage. there is nothing in my mind that is more important than taking care of our veterans, but i do want to raise some concerns about how we got to this po

mr. sullivan: mr. president, i just talked about our alaskan of the week. i'm going to mention notre -- i'm going to mention another alaskan who deserves really, really great praise because it is with a heavy heart that this week team sullivan will be losing a critical member of our staff in the wonderful staffer liz bannehke, whose moving on to help veterans. liz is from eagle river, alaska. she is a chugiac high school graduate, graduated from the university of portland with a degree in political science and german studies. she received two fulbrights to study in germany and then in austria. but her heart as always remained in alaska. she interned for the late, great congressman don young before joining my campaign in 2014, my first election. she did a great job then. she came to washington with my team, and she is a member of what we call in our office the o'g., been there from the beginning. liz's story is a story of success, and it has been an honor to watch her hard work and all she has done for me, my team, and, most importantly, alaskans. she began

. >> talked about congressional pardons, but mr. gilbert asked for one as well. >> did he ask you directly? >> yes he did. >> did she contact you? >> no, she didn't contact me about it. >> from mr. sullivan, -- >> i did not frequently connected with him. >> the members participated in a december 21st a strategy session with trump, and several have been sent request for information by the committee. for his part, jeffrey clark, who was home -- whose home was searched wednesday by federal agents pleaded the fifth more than 100 times when questioned by the committee, and added this when asked about his fake fraud claims letter. >> did you discuss this draft letter, with the president of the united states? >> executive privilege, restated for the abundance of caution. >> i am joined now by martha o'donnell, host on msnbc and my wonderful copilot here for this early reaction to what we heard today. i was struck by the relentlessness of jeffrey clark, coming back and back and trying to get a hold of the department of justice to use it for

mr. sullivan, my first question is for you. it's about hidden workers. as you stated in your testimony, the higher unemployment rate amongst the artistic community is not just in the bay area to financial stability for them, but invest opportunity from employees to find a great source of talent. strong agree with you, and looks like the private sector is trying to catch up to that reality. a harvard business 30 looked at the untapped talent in hidden workers, including people with physical disabilities and there are diversity. then they offered some recommendations for including them in the tampa development filters in applicant tracking system or marketing system. another is adopting a customer experience mindset in how they design recruitment and onboarding processes. how can congress partner with the private sector at a time when it feels there is an inflection because of how tight point the labor market is, because of this academic research highlighting the missed opportunities, it seems like there is an inflection point in the private sector. how ca

mr. sullivan: so the new rules come out. they're clearly meant to kill infrastructure, especially oil and gas, but kind of everything, the president's touting this infrastructure bill as one of his big achievements. it was bipartisan, a number of us, myself included, voted for it. but there's somebody out there trying to make sure the infrastructure doesn't get built. that's the mystery. that's the mystery. who would do that? well, heck, i'm trying to find the answer because i really care about this issue, permitting reform to get infrastructure built. my state's been ground zero about projects being delayed. so who is this? i'm starting to ask around the white house, secretary grand hoam was -- granholm was testifying in front of the committee two weeks ago. i asked her, who is doing this? was it you? she said i didn't know anything about this. a little bit surprising since it's energy. but that's what she said. i to -- i don't think she wouldo that. would it be marty walsh, a former laborer, i supported marty walsh strongl

norm a -- mr. sullivan: it's thursday. normally when i give this speech -- you notice we have a new pro-energy alaskan of the week speech here. normally everybody has gone home. the pages love it because it is the most interesting speech of the week. some of our supporters, they're viewing this as the end of the week. a lot more business to do for the next day or two or three -- who knows. important business. no doubt about it. but i still want to come down to the floor appeared talk about a really impress -- and talk about a really impressive man who has done incredible stuff for our state. his name is jeff strait. jeff has been a builder of the trans-alaska pipeline and then -- what we call taps -- and then has helped run it for 48 years, almost half a century. so we're going to talk about jeff here in a minute. he's done an incredible job. i always like to talk a little bit about what's going on in alaska, all the people who watch this speech. we know there are millions who tune in every thursday. come on up to alaska.

. >> senator sullivan. mr. secretary good to see you. senator blackburn statement you might want to look at the derogatory treat on —- tweets she made about women marines i'm sure you don't want someone serving veterans who has put out not so pleasant stuff about women serving in the marine corps. >> i'm not taking on marine. >> you better watch out if you do. but i don't want to make light of that. it was problematic. you need to take a hard look. seriously. i agree with senator blackburn 100 percent. senator tell us line of questioning those that have been working on toxic exposure in a bipartisan way i know we been working on this fairly hard and i sure hope the majority leader senator tester can make this a bipartisan bill i will be more blunt so here's my concern we all went to help the's veterans but i am worried the eligibility and we but this two.5 million veterans will have eligibility and it will be so dramatic theel system itself will risk collapsing for will delay so much those have the marine who blew his legs off in afgha

sullivan, please. >> thank you mr. chairman and general, thank you and your family. i appreciated our discussion yesterday. i believe you are exceptionally qualified for this position. i would like you to brag if you don't mind, can you let the committee and the american people know some of your background and experiences and education as it relates to russia? >> asking me to brag is the hardest question you could ask. [laughter] >> we want you to brag. i want you to. very impressive, russia focus, education. >> i graduated in princeton 19 and seven where do not look in russia, i graduated with a degree in biology. i entered the army and stationed in italy with the battalion. in that role we study russia because that was our main opponent during the end of the cold war. as i cannot accompany command, beginning -- i became a russian foreign dutch officer. -->> officer. >> you speak russian. >> i do. i have posters for the georgia virtual center in germany. i was on the russia two for the joint staff. >> so that is every day, getting up and focusing on russia, challeng

langon, it is brian sullivan i wish i was there in person >> you want me to call you okay go ahead. >> not yet but i'm getting there. ken. thank you. >> that merits it right there. >> it is fallen out every year i'm getting up there, too. and here is the thing. i want to go back to the political thing. you mentioned politics and i remember tip o'neal when i was a kid in washington, d.c how much of what we have now is this permanent political class, and i'm not going to single out any party, okay, becky and i were born the same year. by the way, that year is when effectively joe biden, mitch mcconnell, chuck schumer, nancy pelosi, were all getting elected. these are people serving in office as long as i've been alive and i commend them for their public service but we're creating political permanent political classes in both parties by the way, that if just feels like it will degrade the ultimately matt trust in the institution of government. do you have a take on that >> yeah. i agree with you i support u.s. term limits i think these guys ought to go home after a couple of terms and li